ARC Review: How to Love Your Neighbor by Sophie Sullivan

How to Love Your Neighbor
Author: Sophie Sullivan
Publication: St. Martin's Griffin (January 18, 2022)

Description: A frothy, effervescent romantic comedy from the author of Ten Rules for Faking It, Sophie Sullivan's How to Love Your Neighbor delivers another read that will have you delighted from start to finish.

Interior Design School?  Check.

Cute house to fix up? Check.

Sexy, grumpy neighbor who is going to get in the way of your plans?  Check. Unfortunately.

Grace Travis has it all figured out. In between finishing school and working a million odd jobs, she’ll get her degree and her dream job. Most importantly, she’ll have a place to belong, something her harsh mother could never make. When an opportunity to fix up―and live in―a little house on the beach comes along, Grace is all in. Until her biggest roadblock moves in next door.

Noah Jansen knows how to make a deal. As a real estate developer, he knows when he's found something special. Something he could even call home. Provided he can expand by taking over the house next door--the house with the combative and beautiful woman living in it.

With the rules for being neighborly going out the window, Grace and Noah are in an all-out feud. But sometimes, your nemesis can show you that home is always where the heart is.

My Thoughts: This was an entertaining romance. Grace Travis has a difficult relationship with her mother. The more distance the better in her opinion. She is busy attending design school and is near graduation. She has also inherited a small beach house from the grandparents her mother kept her from knowing and is determined to fix it up and make it her home. 

Noah Jansen is her next-door neighbor. He's rich and a newcomer to California after leaving a difficult situation in New York. He would really like to buy Grace's house so that he has more space to build a swimming pool and a guest house. 

The two clash mightily. But then a magazine which wants to feature Noah's house remodel decides to hire new designer Grace to do the project. Sort of reality TV thing. As the two butt heads they learn that they are not as different from each other as they had believed. And they fall in love which comes as a surprise to both of them.

The characters were engaging and wary. The design information was interesting. They really had no outside conflict - no third party to get in the way of their romance. Their conflicts were all internal and were pretty similar. I liked that one of the messages was that you can't let others decided your worth.

Fans of contemporary romance will enjoy this engaging story.

Favorite Quote:

She wanted a man who held on. Someone she could hold onto when the storms blew.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.