Read time: 4 minutes
📱📖 Read on Kindle
📃 220 pages | ⏱ Duration: 4 hours
🏷️ Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
📅 To be published on April 14, 2026
📚 ARC provided by NetGalley
Genre: Queer Romance
Book Blurb:
Jenna Murphy runs BookLove, a romance-only bookstore, with her pets beside her and an unshakeable belief that everyone deserves their happily ever after. Sawyer Hall is a sharp-tongued book blogger freshly scorched by a breakup, and her hot take, that romance novels are just wish fulfillment for the sad and lonely, lands her squarely in Jenna’s bad books. Fate, being the chaos agent she is, then moves Sawyer right into the other half of Jenna’s duplex. Enemies-to-lovers unfolds with wit, warmth, and the slow, delicious realization that the person most likely to change your mind about love might just be the girl next door.
Let’s talk about the book:
I’ll be honest, I walked into this book skeptical. I requested an ARC without clocking that it was a romance novel, got approved, and decided I was going to read it with maximum skepticism. I was Sawyer. Fully, completely, embarrassingly Sawyer. And then, Jenna happened, and now I’m sitting here writing a five-star review of a sapphic romance novel like it’s just a normal Tuesday, so.
Heavily pregnant Charlotte and Sawyer’s mom (whose name escapes me, but whose energy I adored) bring real texture to the story without hogging the spotlight. There’s a refreshing restraint in how little page time gets wasted on characters who are unnecessary drama (Amanda, you know what you did. Moving on.) The banter between Jenna and Sawyer is sharp, genuine, and flirty enough to make even the most cynical reader blush, but not too sticky to make you give up on romance.
What really hit me, though, were Jenna’s impassioned defenses of romance genre. Her logic, that romance keeps the fiction world alive, is both funny and true. Through her, the book reads as both a love story, and a love letter to love stories. Jenna doesn’t apologize for what she loves, and Beers clearly doesn’t either. The writing has this lovely, confident energy, like someone who knows exactly the story they are telling and why it matters. As someone who picked this book up with a grudge, and put it down converted, I think the argument lands harder than any narrative ever could.
Would I recommend it?
I came in skeptic and left a believer, which is honestly the most on-brand way to review a book that’s literally about changing someone’s mind about romance. This is a feel-good queer romance that earns its warmth, has just enough tension to keep things interesting, and features one of the most quietly compelling defenses of the romance genre I’ve read in fiction. Even if you think romance isn’t your thing, The Girl Next Door might just prove you wrong.
If You Loved This Book, Try:
- Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree — Another book-world setting with cozy energy and characters who make you want to stay forever.
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy - Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur – for that perfect blend of humor and heart.
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy - Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur — A grumpy-sunshine queer romance with slow-burn tension that hits the same sweet-but-spicy balance.
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy - Before We Grow Old by Clare Swatman – for the emotional depth hidden within light romantic storytelling.
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy - Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall — If Sawyer’s sardonic voice was your favourite thing, Hall’s narrator energy will feel like coming home.
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy
What Do You Think, Booklover?
Have you ever gone into a book expecting to dislike it, only to have it completely win you over? Let’s talk about your favorite books that proved you wrong in the comments!
Book Links:
Want to purchase this or any of your favorite books while supporting a local bookstore? Consider purchasing using the sites below. These sites work with independent local bookstore owners to fulfill your book orders. #SupportLocal
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org
Read tracker: Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy
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