You Deserve Each Other

Author: Sarah Hogle
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons (April 7, 2020)
Paperback, 368 pages
Romance, adult romance, contemporary romance
Goodreads

Summary
Naomi Westfield has the perfect fiancé: Nicholas Rose holds doors open for her, remembers her restaurant orders, and comes from the kind of upstanding society family any bride would love to be a part of. They never fight. They’re preparing for their lavish wedding that’s three months away. And she is miserably and utterly sick of him.

Naomi wants out, but there’s a catch: whoever ends the engagement will have to foot the nonrefundable wedding bill. When Naomi discovers that Nicholas, too, has been feigning contentment, the two of them go head-to-head in a battle of pranks, sabotage, and all-out emotional warfare.

But with the countdown looming to the wedding that may or may not come to pass, Naomi finds her resolve slipping. Because now that they have nothing to lose, they’re finally being themselves–and having fun with the last person they expect: each other.

When your nemesis also happens to be your fiancé, happily ever after becomes a lot more complicated in this wickedly funny, lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy debut.

Review
This book killed me. I almost DNF’d it in the first couple of chapters because both romantic leads are kind of unlikable… But they’re unlikable because they’re both miserable, and Nicholas VERY QUICKLY won my whole heart and Naomi followed. It does definitely require some suspension of disbelief because the situation is so bonkers.

This is an enemies to lovers romance and also a second chance as Nicholas and Naomi each relearn who the other truly is. Their relationship DEFINITELY gets worse before it gets better, but some of the insecurity and raw openness just… gutted me. As someone who has also struggled with a fear of abandonment and this driving need to pretend to be perfect so someone will love me only to then be resentful because the person they love isn’t really ME, I identified with Naomi in a way that was… really uncomfortable, actually. I do wish we’d gotten to read from Nicholas’s POV, though I feel like his feelings do come through very clearly to the reader later in the book.

This was an amazing book and I immediately went to go add more by Sarah Hogle to my TBR only to find that THIS IS HER DEBUT NOVEL?!?! Holy Hannah, I think we can expect some great things from Sarah Hogle – I know I’ll definitely be reading more!

An ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for review. All opinions are unbiased and my own.