Review: You Deserve Each Other – Sarah Hogle

Rating 5 Stars

What’s the book about?
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.

My Review
What an unexpected delight! You Deserve Each Other is the debut novel of Sarah Hogle and is the perfect combination of second chance, “enemies” to lovers, small town, contemporary romantic comedy! So many amazing tropes all wrapped up in one incredible story. I hadn’t heard much about this story during its release but over the last couple of weeks I kept seeing it pictured on bookstagram and knew I needed to check it out. So, so glad I did because as you can tell, I loved it!

You Deserve Each Other is based on Nicholas and Naomi (told in Naomi’s POV), an engaged couple who haven’t been feeling the love towards each other lately and have been drifting apart, the closer they get to their impending nuptials. Now is the battle of ‘whoever calls the wedding off first, gets stuck with the bill’!

If you’re a fan of The Hating Game, you will enjoy this one too! Naomi has the same quirky, hilarious mindset as Lucy from The Hating Game and I found myself laughing out loud many times. Naomi is a hard worker and a dreamer but definitely has some self esteem issues that hinder her growth in the beginning.

Nicholas, on the other hand, was an interesting character. I really liked him and am definitely adding him to my book boyfriend list! He’s determined, focused, can be super charming (that meet cute had me swooning!) and he’s a bit of a geek. He does so much for his incredibly aggravating family and wants nothing more than a partner in his life. I can’t even properly express into words how much I loved Nicholas and the effort he put into saving their marriage. He knew their lives needed to be shaken up somewhat and he did everything he could to get back on track. He is truly a gem of a man and I would gladly go live in a cabin and play video games with him!

As for the story itself, it was great. As previously mentioned, I laughed so many times throughout this book but what I neglected to mention before is I also shed a few tears in the first half. This book is definitely light-hearted but contains some serious, underlying elements that make you stop and think. Hogle is a fantastic writer allowing the reader to encompass so many emotions within the book. She tackled second chances and saving a relationship in such a fun way and I loved every minute. The characters were not without their flaws but Hogle still made them very relatable.

The only thing I would add (and this is my own, personal preference) is I would love to see Mrs Rose’s reaction to the ending! Oh boy, I was waiting for the craziness! But that being said, I absolutely adored the ending as it is. Though if Hogle wants to write a bonus scene with the reaction, I would jump on that so fast – haha!