I recently had the pleasure of diving into the world of “Mr. Right Next Door,” the latest heartwarming romance from bestselling author Rachel Dove. In this tale of love, self-discovery, and the pursuit of happiness, Dove weaves a charming narrative that explores the age-old question: Can we find love right next door?

The story centers around Rory Gallant, a man whose mother’s dying wish was for him to be a good man, unlike his caddish father, Doug. Now an adult, Rory embodies the essence of goodness, yet love continues to elude him. His decision to embrace the dating rules of a cad, with the guidance of his own father, sets the stage for a delightful and transformative journey.

One of the standout elements of “Mr. Right Next Door” is its cast of relatable characters. Rory’s best friend and neighbor, Sarah, provides a refreshing perspective on love. She steadfastly believes that Rory doesn’t need to change who he is to find love, and their endearing friendship becomes a central theme of the story. Sarah’s determination to show Rory that love might be closer than he thinks adds depth to the narrative and keeps readers engaged throughout.

Rachel Dove’s writing is as enchanting as ever, with vivid descriptions that bring the charming setting to life. From the cozy neighborhoods to the blossoming romance, Dove’s prose has a way of immersing readers in the story’s emotional landscape.

Overall, “Mr. Right Next Door” is a delightful and feel-good read for anyone who enjoys a romance that tugs at the heartstrings. Rachel Dove’s storytelling prowess shines, and the message that love can be found right under your nose is one that resonates long after the final page. If you’re in the mood for a charming tale of self-discovery and romance, consider pre-ordering this novel—you won’t be disappointed!

Not a bad book overall. However, there was no chemistry between the two lead characters and and the rest of the characters brought basically nothing to the story. On the plus side its a short enough read and easy to skim through

An easy and predictable read but quite enjoyable. I liked the idea behind the story and most of the characters were okay - although at times the daughter spoke as if she was 10 years older than she was meant to be!!

This book has the pleasant predictability of a well loved Hallmark movie. It was an enjoyable read.

This was not a fast paced, steamy, page turner. Mr. Right Next Door was a safe slow, leisurely read. Cute.

I enjoyed reading this book, I found the pace of it perfect. I struggled to get into it at first, however I soon got into it an enjoyed cute romance. I did find it hard to relate to the characters and feel like I was there.

Simple, classic romcom story. The story was a fast read. The point of view changed a lot in the story making it slightly confusing at times but also keep it engaging. The banter was great.

Rating: 3 ⭐️

Summary:
On her deathbed, Rory’s mother implored him to be virtuous and avoid his father rakish ways. As an adult, Rory embodies goodness, yet love eludes him. Could he need a touch of his father's charm? Following his dads footsteps, he transforms. His friend and neighbor, Sarah, disagrees insisting that he's perfect as he is. She's determined to reveal love's proximity, perhaps right next door.

My thoughts:
I was really excited for this book, from the blurb I knew it was going to be a cute romcom. Although, I really enjoyed parts of this book and my main issue was that I found it unnecessarily confusing. In this book we kind of follow two couple but there is a main one and it is written in multiple points of view without specification of which characters pov it is.

This book was cute. I thought the pacing was perfect!! The only reason I am rating this book 3 stars is that I didn't connect with the characters much. This was a cute frilly little romance that I would read again.

Thank you Netgalley and Rachel Dove for the opportunity to read this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

How cute was this?? I honestly got hooked up straight away when Rachel talked about modern dating and romance literature as Mr Darcy paddleboarding Elizabeth Bennet. I knew I was going to enjoy this book right there.

The story is pretty much realistic, with Sarah stuck with a deadbeat, narcissist ex boyfriend, with whom she has a daughter. Her story is extremely relatable, juggling with work to provide for he daughter - see above, deadbeat ex and father - and trying to further her education to improve her economical stability.

Rory is a typical good guy, wearing glasses, a cardigan and loafers. The story starts when Rory decides to catch the eye of a girl he likes, the usual vapid girl, interested in the way she looks and at how she's considered by everyone. Of course, being the Clark Kent to everybody's needing a Superman, he felt he needed a make over to win Sasha over, and Sarah helped him along the way.

It was a quick and easy read, since I really needed to read how Annabel managed to get her mom to finally admit she had feelings for Rory and viceversa, but especially I needed Greg to suffer. I also have to admit it was nice to read about the 'real' Sasha, towards the end of the book.

Every one needs a Rory in their life!

Thank you Rachel Dove, NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I typically love British rom coms. I loved Dove's Someone Like You but hated Ten Dates. I was interested in Mr. Right Next Door as a tie breaker; I now know I'm not a fan.

Didn't like or connect with any of the characters. Writing is mostly twaddle. Could not find a real purpose for this story. Not for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Boldwood for sharing this digital ARC with me in exchange for my honest review.

A sweet story about some unlucky in love friends that don’t realize what is right in front of them. Between the sweet and the laugh out loud moments, I really liked the characters and relationships. I would love to see what is up next for Sarah, Rory, Gill, and Dinah.

Rory and Sarah have always been best friends and have been their for each other's ups and downs. Uncle Ror Ror is always there for Sarah and her daughter Annabel, and no doubt always will be. But he's lonely and decides that being the good guy like his mother asked him to be on her death bed isn't working for him. Nice guys finish last, indeed. He decides to change from Clark Kent to Superman, as it were. He ditches his glasses for contacts, changes his clothes, gets a new car, and dons an aloof attitude in attempts to win the heart of the sexy Sasha at the club. Sarah goes along with it to make her best friend happy, but wishes he would see how perfect he is without all of the craziness. Good guy Rory is perfect the way he is.

This sounded absolutely adorable. Usually, it's the girl next door angle that authors go after, but in this case, it was the guy next door. The characters were all very sweet, save for Sarah's dirt bag ex/Annabel's father. However, the character and story development were both extremely slow. The main couple doesn't get together until the last few pages. I'm used to slow burn, but this was the slowest burn I've ever read. On top of that, we don't get to enjoy the 'happily ever after' after they finally get together. With that being said, there was basically no chemistry between them outside of their friendship. We saw the smallest glimpses of them caring for each other more than friends, but there was no spark. I honestly felt more of that spark coming from Rory's friend Gill and his love interest Dinah than from Rory and Gill.

Outside of the characters, there were many British-isms that I simply did not understand and had to Google. I was able to understand a few using context clues, but most of them were confusing. I wouldn't recommend this book to non-Brutish readers because of it.

There were many errors that the editor didn't catch (though I tend to have a very keen eye for these things.) I was tempted to deduct an entire star for Gill telling Kate Hudson in his head that his love interest was, and I quote, "the Princess Leia to my Hans Solo." HANS SOLO. For a character that is supposed to be very nerdy, he should know that the character is named Han Solo.

Lastly, I'd like to note that it was very difficult for me to find interest in this story. While cute, it was not riveting, and I frequently found myself falling asleep while reading.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the novel in exchange for a review. All thoughts are my own.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 3 Stars

It was alright, I guess. I just hate it when books prolong the conflict. I just want some lovey-dovey moments; is that too much to ask? Well, we almost didn't get any in this one, so if you want a slow burn, then this is the book for you.

Anyways, I adored Annabelle; she was cute. Also, the Clark Kent references were pretty wholesome as well.

This book reminded me a little bit of romcoms you watch when you don't have anything else to do, where there are a lot of couples trying to find love. It's pretty short too, so if you're into romcoms with a slow burn that aren't too complex and heavy, then this is the book for you.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

I love a good "friends to lovers"...it took seeing the other with someone else to realize they were more storyline...but this book just fell flat for me.

The constant shifting of POVs without a heading or explanation made the book feel choppy and I never felt like I had the opportunity to truly connect with the characters or enjoy their evolving relationships.

I wish that Gill and Dinah had a completely separate book of their own because their chapters really took away from Sarah and Rory. The addition of Greg and Sasha (especially Sasha) just felt like it was adding unnecessary drama to either make Sarah's life more complicated or paint Rory in an even better light.

I think if you are looking for a lighter read with a lot of characters, you will enjoy this, it just wasn't for me.

It started really good with a flashback of Rory's life and then I got interested. I didn't know the plot of this book because I don't really like when sometimes the blurb gives you spoilers but tlI was getting kind of bored because nothing was happening and if a book is this short, there should be things happening. So I search the blurb and then when I read it I didn't find it that interesting.

I hate when characters change so the love interest likes them. So maybe it was my fault for not reading the description of the book because it isn't usually something I read but I wanted to give it a chance.

I got kind of confused because the povs weren't stated so every time I started reading a new chapter it was really confusing and kind of tired me to think who may be the chapter about.

Also I felt like nothing was happening and even it was a short book it felt like it was just too long.

Thank you NetGalley and the author for this book.

This is the first book I’ve read from this author and I’m definitely going to read more. I really enjoyed the book, funny but warm and has flawed but likeable characters. Great easy but enjoyable read

1.5 / 5.0 (rounded up to 2 stars because I think there might be some cultural misinterpretations here)

Ok, this opens with childhood trauma. Full stop, the male main’s mother dies and she leaves him with a whopper of an assignment, to be better than his father… become a good guy. That sets the stage for the rest of the PTSD driven, stereotype-laden, dry dialogue spewing drivel that is this book.

It is not well written but it is written well enough to get the point across, except there is no point. The characters are all very cliché and no one has much personality. There is no plot. It isn’t even a cozy rolling plot story, that stumbles into a point, it is just an exploration in someone’s (the author, I imagine) idea of people getting their comeuppance but it is super unsatisfying.

I read the first 10% diligently, the next 30% quickly, and the next 15% desperately searching for a reason to finish this book. Something…. ANYTHING!!

Overall, maybe it’s a British rom-com vs an American rom-com set of expectations, but this was not enjoyable, not entertaining, and extremely “click-bait”-ish. I couldn’t finish it and DNF at 55%… so low rating and no recommendations.

Until Next Time,
MC

I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for a gifted ARC of this book- my review is voluntary and my honest opinion.

This is a sweet friends to lovers romance about two people who are trying to figure out what they really want in life and realizing that they already have it in each other.

I guess I understand what Rory was trying to do when he decided to model himself in a more stereotypically “masculine” way. He thought it would help him get the girl (even though she was the wrong girl). But I kind of hate that Sarah (the right girl) ever went along with it, even if she was just trying to be supportive. In all honestly it took a little too long for them to figure it out for me. Or I wish that there had at least been more tension between them in the process. It was clear early on that they were meant to be together, and yet in the end it all felt a little anticlimactic. Gill and Dinah got a bigger moment than Rory and Sarah.

It was an easy and enjoyable read. Good, but I was left wishing for a little more.

I like reading this author so I was excited when I got the ARC. It was a friends to lovers trope, slow burn - a great romcom. As others have mentioned, a few too many POV's and the Gill/Dinah subplot was unnecessary. But all in all a great book. Read it when it comes out.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

This was charming and sweet and lovely for a beach read. The multiple perspectives did get a bit confusing and some of the plot lines felt a bit arbitrary, but overall a light and fun book.