3.5 stars
This was cute and fun! I loved Rahul as the male lead! He was so sweet and met Jasmine where she was. I really appreciate that Jasmine’s character development felt very real and genuine. This book is very spicy and there are a lot of sexy scenes. Overall I did enjoy this but this won’t be a stand out read to me. There was a lot I liked but as someone who reads a lot of romance this just didn’t have enough for me to justify a higher rating. I do feel like you can tell this is an older book and based on other reviews I’ve seen it seems like Hibberts writing has just gotten stronger with more recent releases.

I really enjoyed the audio! I thought both narrators were great!

Fantastic, really enjoyed the audio. I loved this story, cant wit for every one to fall in love with this one too.

If you’re a fan of Talia Hibbert’s writing, then you’ll love The Roommate Risk. I recommend checking it out!

Here’s what I loved:
💕 It was much spicier than some of her other releases, which was a pleasant surprise.
💕 Rahul Khan…we must protect him at all costs! The sweetest MC he loved Jasmine for so long but never pressured her and always met her just where she was.
💕 Jasmine showed a lot of growth. Her character development felt real. I appreciate that Talia writes FMCs who are beautifully bent (not broken!) and are willing to do the work in therapy to find out why.
💕 Did I mention the spice?

The audio was well done. I actually was able to listen at 1.5x and didn’t find it hindered the listening experience in any way. I think the female narrator’s voice was a bit more mature sounding than I pictured Jasmine to be but that could just be personal preference.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media and Talia Hibbert for an early review copy. These are my honest thoughts.

I’ve owned an ebook copy of this for ages and never got around to reading it so I was excited to see the audiobook pop up on here! I love Talia’s writing and characters so I was pretty confident I would enjoy this when I did read it. I liked the book! It was good and I liked the story and the characters. It was surprisingly angsty too. The narration was well done as well. I prefer audiobooks for reading and I’d recommend this one for sure.

I was chosen as an advanced ARC reader for this book and was super excited to have been approved. It starts off really cute and funny but half way through I think I stopped being carried along. I wasn’t impressed with the progression of the storyline and it was very hard to keep up. It’s a good story overall but was just hard to stay interested in my opinion

I was super excited for this new Talia Hibbert release since I loved the Brown sisters trilogy so much. But, I'm an idiot and didn't read the description fully. This is a re-release of a book Hibbert wrote in 2018. Still, new to me, so it's all good!

Compared to her Brown sisters trilogy, this one felt more genre fiction. SOOOOO many sexy times and very graphic sexy times (including squirting). Borderline erotica, in my opinion, this was much more sex and much less story, especially compared to Hibbert's newer books.

I did enjoy the characters and hoped they got together - although I think the hemming and hawing and will they-won't they was drawn out a little too long especially toward the end. I mean, honestly, Rahul seems a bit perfect and kind and despite being a bit of a workaholic there was really no reason for Jasmine to not want to be with him. It was a bit weird and forced.

The male narrator was yummy - I loved his deep voice and accent. The female narrator sounded a little more mature for Jasmine's age. I did get used to it, and she has a lovely voice, just didn't seem to fit the character to me.

Overall, a fun, very sexy read.

Talia writes such ooey gooey, cosy romances and this was no exception. It was sweet and emotional and their connection felt deep and significant. Also, top marks for the spice because Talia’s spice is always top tier and so freaking HOT. And top marks for Rahul because he absolutely carried this book.

I really struggled to connect with Jasmine. I am all for complex, flawed characters but in my opinion Jasmine just didn’t have enough redeeming qualities nor did she grovel enough for my liking. I found it really hard to look past her selfishness and the way she walked right over Rahul constantly. It probably didn’t help that the FMC narration for this book was not great and I found myself wanting to skip to Rahul’s narration.

Four stars for Rahul, the spice and the cosy domestic vibes.

I would recommend it if you want cosy friends to lovers romance with a whole lot of gorgeous steaminess and fantastic grief and loss representation.

Talia Hibbert is a queen and can do no wrong.
Her books are hilarious, heartfelt, and so bingeable.
I love her character and the way they are so flawed and three dimensional, but you just cannot help but love them.
I do think you can see this is an older book, her writing has definitely got stronger, but this is still a lovely, warm, interesting romance book.

A deliciously steamy friends to lovers British roommance that sees two best friends forced to confront long standing feelings when one offers the other a place to stay while her apartment is getting fixed. Full of emotional depth and great chemistry, with flashbacks to the past, this was great on audio and possibly a new fav for me by Talia Hibbert. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio re-release copy in exchange for my honest review!

I've loved everything I've read that Talia Hibbert has written, and The Roommate Risk is not any different. Hibbert takes us on the adventure of love and forbidden romance - friends who both fall in love with each other and don't want to admit or act upon it, so as to avoid ruining the friendship they have built. Jasmine doesn't do relationships and doesn't sleep with her friends. Rahul doesn't sleep with anyone (except that one time...). He just pines away for Jasmine while she lives her life, trying to ignore how she is feeling by chasing that next hot fling.

You can't help but love Jasmine and Rahul, and want to follow along to see them have an HEA in the end - but who knows if that is what happens...

I highly recommend this beautiful story!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC of the rerelease of this lovely read!

Jasmine knows that when here room floods the one person who she can count on to let her stay with him is her best friend Rahul. The two have known each other since university and other than one brief encounter soon after meeting, their relationship has been platonic… other than the fact that Rahul is in love with Jasmine and they are both still deeply attracted to one another. While living with each other it becomes too hard to ignore their mutual attraction and they agree to a friends with benefits arrangement but once that line is crossed their true deeper feelings for on another come to the surface.

I have owned this ebook for a long time, but hadn’t quite gotten to it until I was given the audio, but once I started it, there was no putting it down. I loved how absolutely obsessed Rahul was with Jasmine from the beginning and how much she adored him in her own way from the start. The attraction between the two was palpable and the steam scenes did not hold anything back. I enjoyed the side characters but they were not as fully fleshed out as our two leads. I liked that Jasmine was imperfect and Rahul loved her for her imperfections. The book has a lot more representation than a typical romance novel which I really appreciated (Jasmine is black and curvy, Rahul is Muslim, Jasmine’s bestie is a lesbian, etc.)

Thank you to Dreamscape Media for the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I love Talia Hibbert, but this was definitely not my favorite. I think my biggest complaint is that the book just felt so long! I got tired of the plot quickly, but there wasn’t really anything offensive or any major problems, just not the book for me.

opposites
friends to lovers
pining
Steamy
Multicultural

Audio review

The book is full of fun, emotion and plenty is steam. All well presented by the great job the narrators did with each character.

What happens when the best friend you secretly love, suddenly has to room with you? Jasmine and Rahul are about to find out!

Rahul is one of the good ones. A sweetheart and great friend. He was been in love with Jasmine for 7 years. After getting friend zoned he resigned himself to loving her as a best friend. When she has to live with him, his control start to erode. We find out Rahul has some low key alpha vibes.

Jasmine is not into relationships. Rahul is her friend and always helps her out without question. She is an emotional mess. I loved her but she definitely needed the growth she got.

This is not the first book in this series but definitely can be read as a standalone.

I am a Talia Hibbert romance fan through and through and this book was no exception. I am also a huge fan of reading her romances via audiobook and I think that Rooke Kingston and Keval Shah did a great job! This is definitely a heavier romance and there were times that the characters frustrated me a lot, but I think that they felt very real. And the tension between Jasmine and Rahul was so good. I also love how their relationship is built on their friendship and how it builds this tension and intimacy between them in both past and present. There’s definitely some rough patches, but there’s also a good exploration of mental health and fluctuating relationships. Also, the characters just feel unique and interesting both in and out of a romance context. If you’re a Talia Hibbert fan, a romance fan, or this just sounds interesting in general, I would definitely recommend checking it out!

💬: "It was exhausting to realise that everyone in the world knew he was an absolute fool for Jasmine Allen. He straightened his spine and ran a hand through his hair, suddenly realising that he must look a state—must look as out of control as he felt. And that wouldn’t do."

Hibbert, Talia. The Roommate Risk (p. 279). Nixon House. Kindle Edition.

📖Genres: romance, contemporary, contemporary romance,

📚Page Count: 333

🎧Audiobook Length: 09h 36min

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 4.5/5
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TW - (view spoiler)

The Roommate Risk by Talia Hibbert is a contemporary romance and the second book in The Midnight Heat Collection, by the same author. The Roommate Risk is about two best friends, Jasmine and Rahul. Jasmine lives with a roommate but she soon finds out that her room and everything in it has been damaged if not destroyed because there was a major water leak in her bedroom. With nowhere to go, Jasmine contacts her best friend Rahul because she knows that his apartment has an open room and she hopes that she can rent it for a while. Little does Jasmine know that Rahul has been in love with her for the last 7 years of their lives together as best friends. Will Jasmine moving in complicate everything in the best or worst way?

I really enjoyed this story, it was romantic, sweet, and angsty. I love the chemistry between Rahul and Jasmine, I think they're cute together. They both have their own stuff that they're dealing with and the author does an okay job of depicting that with Rahul and an even better job depicting it with Jasmine. There was this really cute scene where Rahul takes Jasmine on a date and I couldn't stop smiling during that scene, it was just adorable and a little spicy. I think the only issue that I had with the story was a trope that takes place in the last part of the book, and it was basically (SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT!) [a third act break up but to continue to spoil things I will say that there IS an happily every after at the end so it all ends up working out. I understand why there was a break up near the end, because Jasmine had a lot of stuff she needed to sort through. I think it was a good choice to write in that she got a therapist and started working through her emotional and insecurity issues as well as her drinking problem.]

The spicy scenes were really enjoyable. I might have really liked them because I dated someone in college with the same name and look as the main male character and memories were doin' their thing, but wow these spicy scenes were great. I'm giving the spicy scenes four chilies 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️out of five chilies

I really enjoyed this novel, it made me smile and I definitely swooned over the main male character. I'm giving this 5 out of 5 stars.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 4.5/5 Stars

Thank you [NetGalley.com], the author, and publisher for the arc (advanced reader's copy) of the audiobook.

Wow! The steam!? The angst!?! What a wild ride of an audiobook!
I absolutely adored, not only the story, but also this audiobook experience! The fact that there were two different voice actors for different POVs made it easier to keep up with what was actually happening! BUT ALSO The Roommate Risk was so much fun to listen to based on the story! The fact that Talia Hibbert is kind of known for writing steamy love stories with multicultural main characters PLUS curvy female main characters is what pulled me into this book and not let me go! I was obsessed with wanting to know how our main characters, Rahul and Jasmine, would get their happily ever after and was not disappointed!
This is definitely an amazing story for people who like forced proximity + friends to lovers + dual timeline + multicultural main characters + MORE! This was such a well rounded audiobook, it made me feel alll of the feelings and I cannot wait to listen to The Fake Fiancé Fiasco!
Thank you SO much to Dreamland Media for a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for an unbiased review!💖

A good friends to lovers that made me love Rahul because I understood him. The way he loves her and is willing to just be her person while loving her in silence. Ugh!!! I appreciated Jasmine’s character and how different she was from most fmc’s although she frustrated me sometimes. Great spice!

I was very excited to have the opportunity to listen to this one since I've been meaning to read a book by Talia Hibbert for a while. What I didn't expect when I started listening was that it was in 3rd POV and that the characters were British. As someone who English isn't their first language, I found it a little difficult to get into this book. The accents had me slowing down my pace until I was able to get to a pace where I was able to understand. The 3rd POV certainly didn't help matters. I usually don't pick up 3rd POV books because I find it difficult for me to get into them. I usually do my research if I don't know the author but I was so excited to read a book by this author that I didn't look it up first.

The 3rd POV didn't help when it came to the spicy scenes. I don't mind a book with 3rd POV if there is no spice, but when it comes to spice I find it weird so for that reason it took me even more time to get done with this one. I also didn't find the story to be THAT complicated for the book to be this long. I found it straight to the point boy loves girl, girl wants boy to be his friend, he's stuck on the friendzone for years until something happens that brings them together. Which is another reason why I don't like the friends to lovers trope.

I'll still read other books by the author because I do have The Brown Sisters series on my TBR which came highly recommended.

Oh my I enjoyed this book. TH is quickly becoming a go to for me and when you dive in, you’ll understand why.
The narrator did a superb job in bringing the characters to life. I highly recommend if you love to laugh, like I do! A 3.5 star for me. ☺️

This book is a one night stand, to friends to lovers. The mmc spends the whole time pining for her too of course 👌.
The narrators were great but the male narrator was particularly great.
Very heavy on spice.