3.25 Stars. When I saw the early reviews for this story, I was worried. I’m happy to say I liked this more than I expected to. To be clear this book does have some issues. But for me it also had parts I enjoyed, so overall it’s getting a rating of slightly better than okay.

This story is about two women, who have become set in their ways, which includes not wanting to be in a relationship. But fate has other plans as they wind up in a landlord/renter relationship. Can they just be friends or will everything change when feeling become involved?

One of the first big issues is character development. While Ari if more fleshed out, Hudson really needed work. Her character lacks in depth and it stops you from really connecting with her. Ari’s character makes sense with her background why she is the way she is, Hudson does not. Hudson is so destroyed from a breakup that happened years ago, it’s like she is actually suffering from a form of PTSD. And once you hear all the details of the breakup, it makes no sense why she was so affected.

The other issue is inner dialog turmoil. This is the kind of romance that not a lot happens in it. It does not have exciting moments, or a real bad guy/gal to stir things up. No cheating or love triangle or anything like that. This is more of a traditional romance. So I understand Roman wanted to add some sort of angst and did it with the push/pull inner turmoil for her characters. I get it, I’m fine with that, but the problem is the amount. Yes, no, yes, no, over and over again. Not only was it multiple times but it is the same repetitive inner dialogue over and over. I wanted to take a red pencil to my Kindle and X-out all this repetitive dialogue, than send it back to Roman.

Okay, finally on to some good points. I enjoyed the romantic aspects of this book. Taking out the angst… the actual building of the romance worked for me. I thought these characters had a ton of chemistry together. I didn’t like Hudson half the time, but I wanted her with Ari because I believed them together. And bonus points, the sex scenes were well done. Especially the first sex scene I thought was pretty hot.

Roman is a new author and it shows. But I’m hopeful she will get a lot better. To me she made rookie mistakes in this book, which a debut writer often does. But the fact she can write chemistry, believable attraction and good intimate scenes, shows she has some romance talent. I really hope she works on her craft and keeps growing as I can see some real potential. I will read her next book, and keep my fingers crossed.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Bold Strokes Books and Net Galley.

First this book was very confusing. I kept having to go back pages to re-read passages because some times I just had no idea what was going on. It was very repetitive and some portions of the book just didn’t need to be there. There was the entire first half where I felt like I had no clue where they were going. Overall the writer just needs helps tightening up the story. It wasn’t a bad premise, it was just very poorly written.

I thought Hudson was the most whiniest person I have ever read in a book. I also think the entire romance was built on shaky ground. I mean they saw each other twice and then they are sleeping together it was insane and way too quick. Ari was a fine live interest, but also boring. The inclusion of the two moms was great, but they never quite explained why she hadn’t seen her brother in so long. Hey also never really told us why she and Pam broke up and the little reasons we got seemed like there is no way that she was so torn up over someone in that way. It seemed blown way out of proportion. So yeah not my favorite book. Not sure if I’ll ever read another book by this author.

An ok debut for fans of a push pull romance. Although a quite slow plot building with a not enough credible character development, the story was fine for a couple of hours of light reading. Will read more books by Renee Roman.

I didn't really like the book. Too much repetition, too much blablah.

Renee Roman has wonderful characters in Hudson and Ari. The author has the ability to craft a story, but the book never goes much into the characters, except for the surface. I enjoyed the book, but fair warning it's a slow start. I'm also not sure why an upbeat person like Ari would fall for Hudson, who is seriously depressed about her ex.

However as the book gets to the middle, you do see a shift where the characters connect in a more authentic way.

It's a sweet story and I am enjoy the characters together, the dialogue is well crafted, however there could of been some sections of the book that could be shorter.

Overall it's a sweet book with enjoyable characters, just take a little patience to get to the second half of the book.