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.
I originally wanted to read You Deserve Each Other because of all the reviews I’d seen comparing it to The Hating Game (which we all know is one of my all-time favorites). And going off of that, I will almost certainly enjoy any enemies-to-lovers book, so I put a hold on this at the library. And I waited. And waited. And waited. And then my fiance, being absolutely amazing, bought it for me.
Unlike most enemies-to-lovers books, this one starts with the couple already engaged. Although they were madly in love at some point, Naomi and Nicholas’s relationship has devolved into arguments and pettiness. They don’t communicate at all, preferring to make assumptions and walk away from conversations. I wasn’t sure how I would react to this, but it ended up feeling really realistic and it was done with enough humor in the narration that it was still fun to read.
I can’t even tell you how many times I laughed while reading this book. I love some good banter, and this book has so much of it. Naomi’s internal monologue especially was so sarcastic and so entertaining that I read like 150 pages of this book without even realizing that time had gone by. But it’s also sad. It was a little bit heartbreaking to read about this couple that used to love each other so much turning down this path of intense dislike. That piece of the book made me really emotional and I had to go hug my fiance and tell him I love him many times.
I liked the first half of this book, but the second half is what really made it for me. Because in the second half, Nicholas and Naomi start making an effort. Taking all of that sarcastic and petty energy and turning it against other people instead of against each other just warmed my heart. I love a good love story, and it was so nice to watch Nicholas and Naomi fall back in love with each other.
The only thing that made me lower my rating of this book was that, in my head, I was screaming, “JUST BREAK OFF THE ENGAGEMENT IF YOU’RE SO UNHAPPY!” I know this is explained away by all of the nonrefundable deposits, but it was always in the back of my mind. I would have also liked to know a bit more about what Nicholas was thinking since he’s kind of an elusive character, especially at the beginning of the book. Everything we know about him comes from Naomi, and she’s so annoyed with him and makes so many assumptions that it’s hard to know where he stood on everything that was happening.
All in all, though, this book was a lot of fun. If you like romantic comedies and enemies-to-lovers, you’ll probably like this.
Have you read You Deserve Each Other? Is it on your TBR?
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