You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle: ARC Review

You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle

Synopsis:

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.

Publication Date: April 7th, 2020

My Rating:    

 

My Favourite Quote: *subject to change* (HOW WILL I EVER CHOOSE? *wails*)

I tried to keep him at a safe distance where he could only see all the decent parts of me and it made us both miserable. I inadvertently let him in to see the ugly parts and instead of running away like I’d counted on him to do, he wrapped his arms around all the ugliness and didn’t let go.

Links: Goodreads, Amazon (This is an affiliate link, so if you choose to purchase the book via this link, I could earn a small commission. This is absolutely free for you and also, no pressure!)

 

My Review

Received an Advanced Reader’s Copy from the publisher, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! 

In all truth and honesty, my face is puffy, my eyes are red and swollen and I’ve had the best crying bout of this century. This was such an easy and at the same time such a difficult read–simply because I needed to keep stopping to take a breath and come to terms with what I was feeling (and trumpet into the largest towel I had).

Here’s the truth: this book is all about imperfections. It’s about a heroine who has become bitter, rendered herself powerless, almost-half-crazy-from-paranoia, petty and all round repressed every single thing that she is feeling and kept herself as far from finding solutions as possible. She’s perhaps sabotaging herself instead of doing for herself what she wants her fiancé to do for her: stand up for her. Her fiancé–aka, the hero–has become a shell of himself, pushing himself to the brink and driving himself mad as their relationship withers away and wears at their souls with each day that passes them by.

The book revolves around the utter mess of emotions between two people who’ve forgotten how to connect with each other. There is a massacre as the unraveling of their relationship takes place and you hate them both a little–but you forget it most of the time because of the humour (which by the way, is fantastic in a mildly psychotic way). But somehow, I never forgot that these weren’t childish pull-your-pigtails-in-the-playground kind of games, it was a I’ve-forgotten-how-to-love-you-and-I-don’t-know-if-I-can-anymore kind of distance that seared at their two year relationship and possible future.

Of course, after that comes the reconnection. Where all the frayed strands of their bond begin to wind themselves back together again and they remind both the reader and themselves that any relationship comes from being a team. You stand by the other person through it all; you can fall back on them and they don’t think you weak for it and they wait while you take that moment before you can stand again. You don’t blame them and you see the burden they carry and just because you love them, you nudge your shoulder beside them and gently take some of the weight off them.

This wasn’t a lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers story for me. This was a second-chance love story and like every relationship out there that you’ve seen working, it isn’t up to chance, it’s up to choice. Every day you choose them, to be with them, to be one another’s.

Highly recommend. Five stars. Yes, you’ll get angry and frustrated and want to just slap the answers in their faces. But BUT, you possibly just could learn what it means to be and stay in love. Yes, it’s all the colours and the giggles and that fluttering feeling in your stomach. But it’s also thinking about how to do what makes them happy and seeing where they need help and telling them in quiet but profound ways that you love them and are there for them.

Happy reading. Be safe. Stay home and take care of yourself. ❤