Book Review: ‘How To Love Your Neighbor’ By Sophie Sullivan

Tropes. I know that a lot of people have a lot of opinions about them, but I personally love them and this book, How To Love Your Neighbor, has my favorite one – enemies to lovers.

How To Love Your Neighbor hit shelves in January, and yes, I suck. It took me awhile to get to it – even though it sat on the top of my TBR pile, brain fog and the pandemic made me forget I was reading it. But when I sat down and read this book, I couldn’t stop.

And then I read it again.

Enemies to lovers? Yes please. HGTV type element? Yes! Hot man to drool over? Yes! Beautiful strong independent woman putting him in his place? You’ve got it.

Grace is this person who has always put everyone first. She’s a people pleaser, who has lived a life that really isn’t fair. She’s working a lot of jobs to make ends meet. She’s been living with and taking care of someone, all the time avoiding moving into the house that she’s inherited.

Noah is a hot rich guy, who moved away from New York to make a name for himself and not wanting to live off his fathers name. But Noah still has an arrogance about him. He’s used to getting what he wants.

The two have an adorable meet cute – beach, dogs, swooning. It’s great. Everything moves along quickly on the beach, both of them leaving an impression. We know this isn’t going to be easy, because it’s a book and it needs a story.

But what I love is that you don’t really don’t ever loose interest in the story. The pacing is good, even when it’s slow. Some chapters are needed in order to propel the story forward.

While choices are made on both sides that wouldn’t work in real life, for a book, this is the perfect hate to love story. Both Grace and Noah are making choices for themselves, teaching each other how to grow and be better people along the way. The world around them can see that these two belong together, but they can’t seem to find their way around themselves.

But Grace and Noah are both strong, complex characters who only want to prove that they can accomplish their dreams on their own. But as they grow, they realize that dreams are not always meant to be finite, that they can change and evolve, especially when you find someone that you want those dreams to evolve with.

The constant push/pull of Grace and Noah’s attraction keeps you turning the pages. The banter between the two, the pull of them wanting to be together and the way that they compete with each other is part of the charm of the book and part of what kept me invested.

That being said, it was a staining of a deck that changed everything for me and made me fall in love with the characters. The growth that the characters experience and how seamless that it is – the natural progression from one moment, one feeling, one experience to the next.

Sophie Sullivan has written characters that you are invested in and want to know they next phase of their story. How To Love Your Neighbor is a book that every romance reader must read and we’re hoping that a sequel may come.

BOOK SYNOPSIS

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.