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.
Release Date: Apr 7, 2020
Heat Level: Hot
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Berkley
Price: $11.99
I have to admit this book is such a treat in my world at this time. When uncertainty is all around me, it is a joy to have such escapism in my life. You Deserve Each Other is the perfect enemy-to-lovers romantic comedy that I have read so far. I would love to listen to this on audio one day in the near future.
The story starts off with Naomi Westfield giving us the recount of her first date with Nicholas Rose. The butterflies she feels and the desire to really have him like us, sets up the story just nicely until we fast forward two years later.
Naomi is engaged to Nicholas and she is counting the ways to end her perfect engagement to the perfect man. She can barely tolerate him. He is too perfect, straight-laced, rigid and mostly he is a mama’s boy. Oh, I will get to the mother in law soon enough.
Naomi starts to act out little plans to have Nicholas call off the wedding but he doesn’t take the bait. Instead, what she realizes is that her fiancé is not as happy as he lets on. In fact, for every little point she wins in the battle, he is there throwing darts at her too. Slowly, the masks behind which they both live in disappear and Nicholas and Naomi finally see each other.
First, I love me a good enemies to lovers story. It seems to be one of my favorite tropes to read. This one is so interesting because the main characters are a couple who is set to be married so why are they now having all out battles with one another each day? Just make for so much more fun in my opinion.
I will admit though that at first Naomi and Nicholas went hard. I couldn’t even understand how they got to being an engaged couple. There is no like for one another. Seriously! Slowly, the author’s ability to strip them down to their most vulnerable moments is the most defining point in their growth as characters. It is then that I was able to not only connect with them as a couple but see what they were holding onto.
They both had their hands full with Nicholas’s mother, Deborah. I truly believe that helped play a part in why they took so long to figure it out. She controlled and manipulated everyone in the book. Nicholas finally stood up for himself with the help of his woman. Naomi slowly started to figure out her life partner didn’t have to be her enemy anymore. They were a team.
Once the fighting started to dissipate, the romance took on a slow burn as the couple navigated their renewed emotions towards one another.
Overall, I highly recommend this debut romance. The author ticked all my boxes and gave a little treat to look forward to in my own uncertainty.
~ Samantha
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