A swoony, laugh-filled romcom about Hunter, who's secretly loved her best friend’s brother for years. When Dylan moves into her spare room, her quiet crush becomes impossible to ignore. Between late-night cookie baking, awkward towel sightings, and a shared sofa bed, Hunter must decide if she’s ready to risk it all—or walk away before it’s too late.

A slow-burn romance that was a little bit too slow, in my opinion. Hunter and Dylan are acquaintances who become roommates; and while Hunter has been in love with Dylan for over a decade, Dylan only knows Hunter as his sister's best friend. Slowly, they start to realize that they are perfect for each other, but there is one big problem-Dylan is dating the always perfect Olivia and is foiled at every attempt to break up with her. This book is a good read if you enjoy traditional romance tropes (friends to lovers, one bed, roommates, etc).

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

[NetGalley Read #31]
4.25 ⭐️

"They're two peas in a pod, and I'm the lonely turnip wondering how I got thrown into this stir-fry."

Great!

The second book I've read and loved by Camilla Isley ('If the Ring Fits' being the first one). What's not to like. The characters, the banter, the infinite descriptions of bodies, blonde and black hair, rippling muscles and long thighs.

It's funny, charming, tender, and has all the trademarks of a good romance novel (at least to me). Now, all I need to read is the first book to enjoy Tristan and Nina's story.

Recommended. 👍

Notes:
- Incorporating a new Star Wars spinoff show and one of the main characters wondering (or rather hoping) whether its a weekly release or all epiosdes release at once is something I liked. I don't know why. I just did. Like, that's not a major issue or anything, really, but it's just something so modern and such a non-problem that we have nowadays that incorporating that in a story is equivalent to writing some small detail in a historical novel that tells us the time period it's set in.
- Clara is a welcome character even though she's in, like, two chapters. Taking us out of the small group of friends that dominate the trilogy.

What if your forever crush becomes your new roommate?

Hunter has been quietly in love with her best friend’s brother, Dylan, forever, not that he’s noticed. She’s not even in the friend zone, more like in the lobby, but when Dylan moves into her spare room, things get… let’s say… complicated, at least (AT LEAST! 😅)

Sharing a home with your longtime crush sounds dreamy, until he shows up with emotional baggage and a habit of baking cookies shirtless. Hunter’s determined to keep her cool (and her heart intact), but between awkward date rescues and one very cozy sofa bed, her feelings are getting harder to ignore.

Now she has to decide: tell him the truth or pretend she’s totally fine with just being roommates who sometimes swoon.

“The Roommate Experiment” is a charming, laugh-out-loud rom-com, with both equal parts heart and heat. Marked by, very relatable, akwardness, slow-burn tension, and good chemistry, this book will surely capture you if you’re looking for a lightweight book that will make you smile and flip pages before you even notice.

Her friends have moved out, another's moving in,
He's her secret crush, can his heart she win?
She's been in love with her friend's brother for years
Is this a good idea - or will it end in tears?

As the two share the flat, life is complicated,
By attractions that could, perhaps, be fated?
But someone else is stopping them, it seems,
Thwarting opportunities to follow their dreams.

Get ready for fun with friends and his family,
Dire dates, fresh starts and wait to see...
Temptation, desire and baking, too,
Along with romance and but with who?

A read filled with angst and laughter, too,
That I have no hesitation highly recommending to you.
For my copy of this book I say a huge thank you
As I share with you this, my honest review.

A best friends brother romance. they have known each other for years, and she had a secret crush, but when she needs a new roommate and he moves in things change between them. A fun read, and I liked how it was told from both points of view.

This book really came at the perfect time for me - I was in the mood for a fairly low angst, fun contemporary romance and this delivered.

Hunter’s best friend and roommate is moving in with her boyfriend, the best friend and roommate of her brother, Dylan. This leaves Hunter with a spare room and since Dylan isn’t looking to live with his sister and best friend whilst they’re all loved up, he moves in with Hunter. Perfect solution, right? Except that Hunter has been in love with Dylan for years, he’s completely oblivious to this fact….and has just started dating someone new.

Poor Hunter - being in unrequited love sucks, but at least most people don’t have to witness their ultimate crush cuddling with his gorgeous new girlfriend in their own home. Hunter understandably struggles to deal with her romantic dreams being dashed and avoids Dylan as much as she can. But when the two of them are alone, they have such a fun and easy chemistry and I was urging Dylan to wake up to who has been right in front of him all along.

Hunter throws herself into her work as an engineering consultant as an avoidance tactic and it was great watching her kill it. She has issues with a slimy supervisor and I loved how she took control of the situation and just nailed it. She’s smart and feisty, and I loved seeing her self-confidence grow.

Dylan was great, but man was he oblivious. He stays with his girlfriend, Olivia, for most of the book because he’s a genuinely good guy who’s just trying to break things off in the right way and gets foiled in these attempts for various reasons. But it was a bit frustrating watching him fail repeatedly whilst yearning for Hunter. The way it all fell apart in the end did make me laugh though.

I loved the connection between Hunter and Dylan. Even when he was still with Olivia, they had a really sweet friendship and I loved watching them lower their defences and be vulnerable with each other.

It’s a pretty low angst book overall and it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the dynamic of their friendship group as well and it’s made me particularly want to read Adrian and Rowena’s book!

The Roommate Experiment is the third book in Camilla Isley’s Funny Feelings series. It can be read as a stand-alone story. Hunter has been in love with her best friend’s older brother, Dylan, for a decade. She hopes to make him see her as more than his sister’s friend once he becomes her roommate. Unfortunately, on the day he moves in, she learns that he recently started dating someone. She throws herself into the dating apps to try to get over her feelings for him, and when that doesn’t work, she takes on a huge project at work. As she gets to know him in the moments they spend together, she’s only falling harder for him, and unbeknownst to her, he’s catching feelings for her right back.

Before I begin, am I the only one who kept screwing up the characters by forgetting which character was female and male? Admittedly, I am terrible with names, so it was probably just me.

I liked both characters as people. They are smart and driven. They care about their friends and are trying to be respectful roommates. Dylan, especially, shows how kind and considerate he is with his struggle to avoid hurting his girlfriend’s feelings once he realizes it’s not going to work out between them. More on this later. There were plenty of laughs throughout the story, and I appreciated it more than I can say that Isley made Dylan the klutz in some of the scenes. I can’t be the only reader who is over klutzy females. I liked how Dylan’s dyslexia was included and how we got to see all the tricks he used to cope and overcome his disability. I also liked reading about Hunter’s job and how she managed the coworker who was undermining her.

This is definitively a slow burn romance, heavy on the slow and light on the romance. For most of the book, Dylan is with Olivia, so nothing physical happens between him and Hunter, just urges and feelings. While this is great for their integrity, it’s bad for the reader who is waiting, waiting, waiting. To put it plainly, Dylan’s inability to break things off with Olivia dragged on too long, and I began to see him as an avoider at best, a coward at worst. Too little time was left to develop the romance between the MCs, so the relationship felt rushed. I also didn’t love how Hunter often compared herself to Olivia and found herself wanting, especially since the reader can see Olivia is anything but perfect.

Overall, this book was great for a reader who loves a slow-burn romance.

Thank you to NetGalley, Boldwood Books and Camilla Isley for an advanced reader copy (eARC) in exchange for an honest review.

The Roommate Experiment is Camilla Isley’s final story in her Funny Feelings romantic comedy series. It is a hilarious friends-to-lovers, forced-proximity romance which takes place in New York City. It must be read immediately after This Is Not a Holiday Romance and If the Ring Fits, although the timeline overlaps some with If the Ring Fits. This story contains a love triangle and a yearning love with some angst, so it's not all romantic comedy.

29-year-old Hunter Brolin was introduced in This Is Not a Holiday Romance as Nina’s roommate and best friend since college. She has secretly been in love with Nina’s older brother, Dylan, for 11 years. Now that her roommates, Nina and Rowena, have moved in with their respective boyfriends, Hunter needs a roommate so that she can stay in her beloved apartment. Since Nina essentially displaced Dylan from his apartment, it’s logical for him to become Hunter’s new roommate, assuming the two empty bedrooms and 2/3 of the rent. Hunter is hoping that Dylan will notice her as someone more than Nina’s friend after all these years.

33-year-old Dylan Thompson is Nina’s older brother and Tristan’s best friend and roommate of 15 years. He’s having to adjust to the major relationship change with his best friend, being displaced as his number one by his younger sister. Since being diagnosed with dyslexia in elementary school, Dylan has tried to stay in the background and not call attention to himself. His dyslexia is a closely guarded secret, known only to his family, Tristan, his ex-girlfriend, and his assistant. He is lonely and hoping that his new relationship with Olivia will fill the void inside him.
Hunter is extremely disappointed when she learns that Dylan has been dating a new lady, Olivia, for about 10 days. To distract herself, she signs up for a dating app and schedules six blind dates in one week. Each blind date is a disaster and ends badly. She meets Olivia, who seems perfect and is definitely territorial about Dylan. Meanwhile Hunter’s boss at her engineering consulting firm is sabotaging her, so she volunteers to take on a huge project in order to prove her value to the firm and keep her so busy that she won’t think about Dylan.

Hunter has a few roommate mishaps with Dylan, some involving them being in a state of undress. The more time that Hunter spends around Dylan, the more she gets to know the real man behind the fantasy she built up in her mind, and she just falls for him even harder. Meanwhile Dylan is slowly realizing that he is attracted to Hunter, but he feels trapped by Olivia the steamroller. She’s beautiful, polished, and very politely demanding. Things come to a head when the group spends the July 4 week-end at the Thompson parents’ home in Connecticut, and Hunter and Dylan are forced to share a sofa bed in the basement. Dylan is forced to decide whose feelings he will hurt by his rejection.

This author consistently writes smart and funny romantic comedies featuring STEMinist heroines who find worthy mates. Hunter is an interesting character because she is a highly skilled engineer who is a Team Lead at her firm, yet she still has an adolescent crush on Dylan. After learning about Olivia, she realizes that she has been wasting her life waiting on Dylan to notice her. The workplace scenes and descriptions of Hunter’s job tasks are very realistic and will hopefully inspire young women to pursue careers in STEM fields. Meanwhile Dylan was a college basketball player at a top school, struggles with dyslexia, is a hard worker at his investment firm, and is a wonderful baker. He’s not a stereotypical “dumb jock” but is instead a “nice guy” who tries to do the right thing.

While I have enjoyed every single story that this author has written, The Roommate Experiment is special because of the deeper POIV from both main characters. The author always writes sparkling banter between the main characters, which engages the reader in the story. However the authenticity of Hunter and Dylan’s emotions and character development is what makes this story so compelling. While it has many humorous scenes, there is more emotional depth and angst to this story than the author’s previous works. The friendships, work relationships, and Nina and Dylan’s sibling affection add a richness to this series.

It was nice to see the continuation of Nina and Rowena’s stories in The Roommate Experiment. I hate for this series to end because I loved all of the characters so much!! Maybe the author will write a novella for Olivia that involves a dog-lover. I will caution that The Roommate Experiment contains several F-bombs sprinkled throughout, and there’s more sexual thoughts than action.

I received an advance review copy (ARC) from NetGalley and Boldwood Books for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for the free review copy of The Roommate Experiment! All opinions in my review are completely my own.

The Roommate Experiment is the 3rd book in the Funny Feelings series. I've read all of the books, but I feel like this one could easily be read as a standalone. I think it was my favorite book in the series!

Hunter has been in love with her friend's brother, Dylan, for years, but she's just an acquaintance to him. Now they're going to be roommates, but things are even more complicated because Dylan has a new girlfriend. The book alternates between both of their points of view, so we see the story unfold from both perspectives. I thought both of the main characters were likable and relatable, with each of them having struggles they had to face. The romance was definitely a very slow burn, especially since MMC had a girlfriend and that took a while to resolve. I still enjoyed the journey though, with lots of awkward situations that gave the book a lighthearted and fun feel. A couple parts annoyed me a bit, but overall I enjoyed the story. Plus it was fun to see more of the characters from the previous books!

The way I've been anxiously awaiting Dylan and Hunter's story!!!

It was fun to revisit the friend group, getting an additional and simultaneous view of the second book since the timeliness coincide.

Hunter's longing through the book is sooo real. As is Dylan's woe is me about breaking up is situationship (theo. Need is say more?!) But with him being taken until about 75% of the way through, this story felt verrrrry rushed. There was about 10% of each of them uping the seduction antee (which quite entertaining to say the least) before they caved and that was that. For the amount of time they'd known each other I expected a bit more depth and would have liked to have seen them spending time actually as a couple instead of the book fast forwarding 5 years to a brief epilogue.

All in all though, a quick and fun one sitting read!

Thank you Netgalley and Boldwood Books for the ARC in exchange for my review!

Anyone who knows me knows I love an interconnected standalone series and this book is no exception! There’s just something special about revisiting characters and seeing where they all fit. Camilla Isley writes such relatable characters and the banter is fun! I am always pulled in right from the beginning. Make sure to visit this entire series! Can’t wait for more!

I really enjoyed reading the roommate experiment! The book had me laughing out loud several moments.
You really get to know Dylan and Hunter in the book. I felt very connected with the book because of that.

What I appreciated most was the balance between humor and more serious moments. Just when I thought it was going to stay light and playful, the story surprised me with depth and vulnerability and that made for me more meaningful.

I would definitely read more of this series by Camilla Isley.

Thanks to NetGalley I could read this!

Now this really was loads of fun.

A quick read as it was hard to put down I raced through it!
It is part time of a series but can definitely be read as a standalone.

A slow burn romance story, sweet and a perfect summer read.

Thank you @boldwoodeverafter @netgalley for a copy of this ebook.

#arcreader #theroommateexperiment #wittyromance #slowburnromance #boldwoodbooks #lisareadsalot #bookstagram

Happy publication day! I did love the presvious installments Camila has written. The side characters were a little annoying. :
The romance was not relatable and a little forced. But a lt of people do break up or fight a lot and then get back together.
The pacing and the writing was very easy to read and Camilla friendly.
The plot was a lot of fighting and push and pull a lot. Some parts were still super cute.

Perfect if you love:
Who hurt you? Let me save you from this horrible date
Brother's best friend trope
Slowburn STEM
Roommates/ Forced Proximity
"F*ck it" Moments
Consent is sexy

Thank you so much to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this arc!

3 stars

I did enjoy this book, but it wasn't my favourite. The story and the characters were great and lovable. It followed the FMC Hunter and the MMC Dylan, who moved in with each other after Dylan's sister moved out. However, this arrangement proved difficult for Hunter due to having a raging crush on Dylan. The main tropes are close proximity, sister's best friend and childhood crush to lovers. All up my ally to be honest to make a recipe for a good book.

The characters were lovable, and the book followed the friendships from the other books, so the other characters still stood out. I especially liked Dylan, and the book showed great representation of dyslexia and how it can affect all aspects of his life.

However, this book wasn't really for me. The writing style made it hard to read, and it took me a while longer to finish the book. I also found it cringeworthy in many places and had to put the book down. Even though it was a slow burn, it still gave instant love vibes, like in the beginning, before anything even happened, Dylan was showing feelings towards Hunter. I think it may have been more believable to the reader to have these feelings build up more throughout the book, or they start when he is getting first aid. Also, the slow burn, which isn't my cup of tea (but I don't mind it on occasions), was built up enough or teased enough in the book, personally. It also meant it felt like the relationship in the last 10% of the book.

Overall, i did enjoy the book and liked the characters.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for this arc :))

Thanks to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for the E-ARC. This book concludes the series of Funny Feelings and the story between Hunter (FMC) and Dylan (MMC) did not disappoint. Get prepared because this is a sloooooowwwww burn but you will not even notice because you will be laughing along the way that once your there its like sliding into home base ;). I cant wait for more book from this author as she has quickly become one of my go to authors for great reading.

This book is entertaining and a true slow burn. It kept me engaged and made me want to finish it in one go—and I did!

Dylan is Hunter’s best friend’s brother, who moves in after Nina and Rowena move out, and Nina moves in with Tristan—Dylan’s best friend.
Hunter has had a crush on Dylan for 11 years, and she thinks this is finally her chance to make a move. But on the very first day, during dinner, Dylan tells Hunter about his new girlfriend, Olivia.
This news shatters all the hope she had been building.
Hunter becomes distant, treating Dylan like just a roommate to hide her feelings. Dylan, on the other hand, is oblivious to Hunter’s feelings but notices the sudden change—the cheerful Hunter becomes cold.
He chalks it up to some random issue he might’ve caused earlier.
They continue as roommates, with Hunter avoiding Dylan on weekdays and Dylan spending time at Olivia’s place to avoid making Hunter uncomfortable.
But Olivia’s surprise visit to Dylan sends Hunter into a spiral of tears and even more distance.
She talks to a friend at work who suggests she go on dates—which she tries.
Living together stirs up unexpected feelings in Dylan. He begins to realize he might feel something for Hunter—and starts feeling guilty toward Olivia.
Many twists and turns come along the way.
This book is entertaining and a true slow burn. It kept me engaged and made me want to finish it in one go—and I did!
Get your copy to experience the engaging writing of Camilla Isley and enjoy this lovely read.

The Roommate Experiment is the third and final installment in the 'Funny Feelings' trilogy.
It also runs concurrently with 'If The Ring Fits' but it's worth noting that all three books in the series can be read as stand-alones.

This book is funny, witty and a perfect summer read. It's unusual I think to be 100% behind both main characters, but in this case Hunter and Dylan are definitely meant to be!
There are some genuine laugh out loud moments in the book and my favourite thing in a book - an epilogue!

Thank you to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for the review copy.

The Roommate Experiment by Camilla Isley

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to Rachel's Random Resources and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Blurb

Hunter has secretly been in love with her best friend’s brother Dylan for years, despite barely registering as a blip on his radar. She’s not even in the friend zone—more like friend zone adjacent. But her luck is about to Dylan is taking over her spare room, and she's being promoted to roommate. Could this be the moment Dylan finally notices her?

Not so fast. When Dylan moves in, he carries more than just boxes—he brings complications. Suddenly, the dream of living under the same roof turns into a daily struggle. Dylan is off-limits, for reasons Hunter couldn’t have anticipated, and the closer they get, the harder it becomes to ignore her feelings.

But Hunter’s determined to keep her heart in check—no matter how difficult the task. She just has to avoid ogling him in a towel. Definitely don’t imagine what’s under the towel. And try not to swoon when he bakes cookies.

But after he saves her from a terrible date and they’re forced to share a sofa bed at his parents’ house, her emotions reach a breaking point. She’ll have to either move on or move out. Will she tell him the truth—or lose him forever?

My Opinion

The Roommate Experiment is the third book in the Funny Feelings series and whilst it can be read as a standalone, I would recommend reading the books in order so you get to know the secondary characters. Camilla Isley is a must-read author for me and with delightful books like this it is easy to see why. A charming and enjoyable book that I managed to finish in one day.

Rating 4/5