Review: "Betting on the Boy Next Door" by Melanie Jacobson

Betting on the Boy Next Door by Melanie Jacobson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sami, Ava, Madi, and Ruby have been best friends since their freshman year of college and now share a condo in Austin. Ruby, the only one of the group with a steady boyfriend, worries that her friends are avoiding romance by focusing too much time and attention on their careers, so she decides to stage an intervention. Starting with Sami, she bets her besties that she can find their dream guys for them within a year.

Figuring that she has nothing to lose since she's more interested in launching her secret rock 'n roll career than marriage, retirement home nurse Sami agrees to Ruby's bet. She's not counting on Ruby's persistence or their handsome new neighbor, attorney Josh Brower. As soon as she meets Josh, Ruby's convinced that he and Sami are meant to be, but a rocky first date has Sami pushing Josh straight into the friend zone. Even so, when he needs a fake girlfriend to convince the clingy daughter of an important client that he's off the market, she agrees to help him out. They're forced to continue the ruse when Josh's parents get the wrong idea, and setting them straight would cause problems for him at the family law firm. The more time they spend together, the more Josh wishes the relationship were real, but Sami rejects his overtures at every turn. Will he ever find a way to convince her to give him a chance?

I completely adored this laugh-out-loud funny, sweet story. Josh and Sami's chemistry was phenomenal, as was their witty banter. I understood Sami's concerns about getting involved with Josh after what she went through with her college ex-boyfriend, though it wasn't exactly fair of her to assume that Josh would act the same way. As for Josh, his past was not at all what I expected, but I admired how hard he'd worked to change his ways and make better decisions. (He may actually have gone a bit too far in the other direction given that he had basically no work-life balance before he met Sami!) Once they got together, my favorite part about Josh and Sami's relationship was that they tried so hard to show up for each other, both literally and figuratively. To me, that showed the depth of their commitment and proved why they belonged together. They were willing to put the other person's needs and desires ahead of their own, even when it was difficult.

I highly recommend "Betting on the Boy Next Door" for all sweet contemporary romance and romantic comedy fans. I look forward to the upcoming books in the series, featuring Sami's roommates.

*Review copy provided by the author. All opinions expressed are my own.

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