Firstly I was attracted to this cover, doors on front covers always intrigue me.
The info from Netgalley saying it's set in the North intrigued me even more...
Oh what a shame, I couldn't connect with the characters and really struggled to continue.

This was a very pleasant quick read. Since I am usually a sucker for romance novels and for the opposites narrative I thought I would quite enjoy this book.
And although I didn't fall madly in love with it, I did enjoy it. It was lighthearted enough, and with the guaranteed happy ending, that it ended up being a very quick read about two people with different social class backgrounds, Karen who lives from paycheck to paycheck and George who clearly has no worries about money. Overall, it was good and lazy sunday enjoyable read.

This was a rough read. I wanted to really like it and the concept is neat. But the execution and incredible amount of extraneous details became very dull.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Where to even start with this book? There was very little plot, you could see the ending coming from a million miles away, and the major relationship hurdle near the end was all down to a lack of communication, which is the most annoying romance trope ever and it wasn't even executed all that well here. Also the weirdest details get so much time on the page. I lost count of all the times we get to read about which route the characters take from and to Leeds. Why? It just adds to the boredom. And there is a lot of boredom in this book. Not even the not-so-surprise baby-daddies at the end could provide enough excitement to keep me awake.

So maybe the characters can save it? Nope. On the one hand we have Karen, a poor single mum with two kids and a job that's probably underpaying her. She's a Good Woman, because she's poor and she has a Yorkshire accent. That's just how it works. She seems like a woman who has her head on straight. Sure, she falls stupidly in love with a guy she meets on the street in front of her house, but that's okay. She's sensible about the whole thing and wouldn't let her entire life get consumed by a stranger. Except she does. Whole chapters are spent dreaming about George, thinking about George, masturbating in George's empty house, talking about George, with barely a mention of anything else that's going on in her life.

On the other hand, we have George. George is rich enough that he can buy the house next to Karen's on a whim, in cash, just because he quite fancies the woman after meeting her twice. George has his own business, but is so overcome by love that he completely neglects his duties and then has the nerve to be upset when his partners in the business try to oust him. George doesn't think he's better than anyone else though. Except for when he does. He spends the entire novel undermining Karen, explaining to her all the things she apparently doesn't understand, but he does understand them because he's a very clever man and she's just a woman who's barely scraping by so what would she understand about a silly little thing like austerity and getting rid of tax credits? It's not like she's got actual lived experience and she might end up poorer because of decisions made by politicians who George could totally hang out with if he was a more sociable kind of guy, right?

To make the whole mess of a book even worse, the author then decided that it would be a good idea to mention Brexit. Except not really, because this book is set before the referendum. But they discuss the referendum, so Brexit gets a mention in the form of George's elderly father who doesn't like the European Union because of all those money-grabbing bastards in Brussels. This scene is merely used to position George as a Good Tory, because he does appreciate the importance of the EU. Isn't George just such a good guy? Such a nice guy?

I didn’t overly care for this book. I ended up deciding on 2 stars, as I’m a sucker for a happy ending and enjoyed the wrap up at the end. I found this book wildly repetitive, overly and unnecessarily descriptive and frankly a little boring. I found the characters childish and immature with their decision making and assumptions. The overuse of the word “deadpan” also annoyed me.

Karen is a single mother, living from paycheck to paycheck. George is a bachelor and wealthy businessman. They couldn't be more different. However, when George buys the house next door to Karen so he has somewhere local to stay for Leeds United home games, sparks start to fly.

This lighthearted romance novel started off strong and I really enjoyed the first half. With the narrative moving from Karen's point of view to George's with every other chapter, I felt I got to know both characters well and enjoyed knowing how the were both feeling. However I didn't really warm to them. Karen would occasionally ramble and her dialogue just didn't feel natural. George's dialogue was more natural considering his personality but I just didn't feel there was any need for extended paragraphs on politics and economics. I didn't feel any chemistry between the two characters and couldn't understand why they would be drawn to each other.

Also, a lot of the story was totally unbelievable. For example, Karen's daughter would paint Karen's dreams without being told about them - she just knew what her mother had dreamed of! And, (spoiler alert) the ending was just too cliche with everything all tied up nicely.

If you like lighthearted, easy going romance novels then this will be perfect for you. But, if you like your romance novels with a bit more bite and drama then it might be a let down.

What a lovely story! This was a very pleasant read, and I really liked that it was set in the North of England. I enjoyed reading it over a weekend, and I recommend it.

Wasnt for me. Although I loved the sound of it. It just didnt grip me. I'm sure others will enjoy though