Rent to Be

By: Sonia Hartl

Many thanks to Alcove Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this amazing book!

In Rent to Be we meet Isla Jane. She has her MBA and works as a data entry analyst. A job that she hates. She was barely making ends meet but then had car trouble. Behind on the rent, her roommates kick her out. With her brother traveling for work, she decides to stay at his condo. What she doesn’t expect is to find her brother’s best friend, and long time family friend, Cade to be staying at the condo. Not wanting to let anyone know what’s going on, she says she’s downsizing and sleeps at work. Her family has also been on her case about being a joke, a failure, and a screwup. Cade, a successful sales manager, asks her to pretend to be his girlfriend so that his co-workers would stop setting him up at work functions. While he comforts her during her difficult time, they grow closer. Too close for comfort and he doesn’t want to hurt her or her brother.

This is your tried and true romance. It’s friends to lovers with a third act breakup. But there really is so much more to this book that I had to give it 5 stars. I’ll start with the romance aspect of the book. It’s written perfectly. You feel the history between Isla and Cade. You feel the connect and the pull between the two. They definitely have some chemistry. And for me, I think I felt it so much because there was one or two scenes that were so funny and cute towards the beginning of book. I also related to Isla. I spent all this time and money getting a degree that I barely use. My student loans are outrageous and I thought I was setting myself up for financial comfort. In reality, that didn’t happen. The thing that really sold this book for me was Hartl addressing family dynamics and toxicity. It was a theme throughout the book and really addressed towards the end. OH! And there’s definitely some level 2-3 spice in here. Overall, I think this book was perfect.

This will be available on August 25. Here is the buy link: https://amzn.to/3qtfYJi

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