You Deserve Each Other

By: Sarah Hogle

Narrated by: Taylor Meskimen

Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

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.

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.

©2020 Sarah Hogle (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

"[A] hilarious debut romance...[that] rewards readers with laugh-out-loud moments and a satisfyingly sweet and redeeming ending." (Booklist)

"This book is the perfect dose of sweet, hilarious JOY. It's masterful comedy + tenderness, unique voice + rich characters. Nicholas! Swoon! We are in love." (New York Times best-selling author Christina Lauren)

"I could not get enough of this fresh, insightful, and totally hilarious book! Sarah Hogle is a master of comedic dialogue and sexual tension; she had me rooting for Naomi and Nicholas from the very first page." (Kristin Rockaway, author of How to Hack a Heartbreak)

3 Stars

With mixed ratings among reader friends, I went into this one with neutral expectations hoping that it would increase my chances for a positive experience. While the writing was good, the first 60% of the story line was mostly frustrating and uncomfortable.

The first 60% of the story:

I love a fun enemies to love rom-com, but this was a couple who had fallen in love and then experienced a break in communication, as well as their fondness for each other. While engaged and living together, rather than communicating, they started to find ways to purposefully infuriate and sabotage one another in sometimes malicious ways and only occasionally, mildly humorous. Since Naomi was predominantly the instigator, it made her extremely unlikable. At the same time, Nicholas was just as implicit for not responding maturely. I found the basis for this plot line confusing and unbelievable. If a couple were't married and were working as hard as Nicholas and Naomi were to malign and sabotage one another, why stay together? Honestly, I found no reason for them to work through it, except as a plot device for reconciliation and the typical HEA. If they had been a married couple or if I had actually gotten to read about the beginning foundations of their relationship, I might have been more invested in seeing them recover. As it were, after a short prologue, I was thrust into the middle of their hateful breakdown and never had a true sense of any kind of worthwhile connection.

The Last 40%

This is where the story made a significant and noticeable shift and after the exhausting enmity in the previous part, the last 40% had a lot to make up for. It mostly succeeded. Even with some of his character weaknesses, Nicholas had most of my empathy throughout the entire book. It was this last 40% that Naomi managed to gain more of my favor as she accepted her responsibility and softened towards Nicholas and his obvious attempts to heal their relationship. As communication and honesty increased in these chapters, my agitation with the story line began to decrease.

I still think the premise wasn't well thought out, but there were positive highlights as the story progressed and the writing was solid. There were also a few memorable funny moments throughout the book which had me anticipating and hoping for better-balanced romantic comedies from Hogle in the future.

Too much bickering

I got this book thinking it was going to be a romantic comedy, but there was nothing funny about it. She's engaged to a man she bickers about ALL THE TIME. It's pretty annoying. Didn't care for it.

Hilarious story with flawless narration

Brilliantly funny with a unique and intriguing premise, made even better with the beautiful voice of Taylor Meskimen. This book tells the truth: love is complicated and sometimes downright hard, but worth it.

Laugh Out Loud Funny, Entertaining, & Charming!

I really liked this book and do not want to give a lot of details because I'll give the plot away.

Amazing

Well written, well told, just simply a fantastic love story. Not traditional, funny and heck of a listen!

annoy. obnoxious. feel so bad for the guy.

we're stuck the entire time in this woman's neurotic head. not a good place to be for anyone including her to be.

Hard to get through

Both main characters are so incredibly annoying and stupid. They act like children who should never be marrying anyone.

Gag me!

The person reading did great. The story was terrible. The writing is so cheesy and dumb.

super slow burn

If you are looking for sex keep scrolling. if you are looking for a quirky, funnny, love story pick this up. I really enjoyed this love to hate to love story and will be waiting not so patiently for anything Sarah Hogle writes next.
New to me narrator as well. Will keep an eye out for both!

Loved it so much

I’ve had a hard month and this book brought me some joy and laughter. Adorable story!!