This is a millennial enemies to lovers romance for millennials, by a millennial.

Angela has an awesome boyfriend, an awesome job, and an even awesomer flat. That all changes when the pandemic hits. Suddenly, she looses her job and flat. Like every other millennial, she has to move back home. Until Colin Cooper, her attractive and annoying neighbor that she hates, offers for her to live in the spare room in his flat. Many tropes ensue, sometimes the narrator is a little self aware that they’re living in a romance novel, but that’s only because they eventually have to write a love story for Colin’s new narrative segment on his radio show.

I have to say that the author does a great job of setting up the main antagonist. In the very first interaction, I felt like I was assaulted by the story. I am not kidding. I wish I could put up the entire paragraph, but I don’t want to get in trouble with the publisher. Here’s a brief rundown: the main character, Angela, has not seen her boyfriend, Ben, in a while, when they finally meet, he runs up to her and rips her damp homemade sock mask off to literally suck her face. The author specifically uses the word ripped, and I honestly think that my fight or flight instincts were triggered.

From there, I’d like to move into the enemies to lovers. In the beginning, I thought, Surely not, they hate each other way too much. It feels like a deep visceral kind of hate too. Colin seemingly gets the ‘kid in middle school the hisses at everyone’ vibe from Angela because he doesn’t realize how annoying he is to have as an upstairs neighbor. And Angela simply has a hard time getting past his annoyingness, even though she eventually does, because he’s hot asf.

The story itself had a really rocky start, but I thought it was very cute and I felt deeply for all the characters.

This book follows Angela, who moves in with her upstairs neighbor, Colin, after she loses her job during the pandemic. Colin is a radio DJ and wrangles Angela into helping him create a bit for his show around their fake roommate dating relationship (which of course leads to more).

The good: This features a few of my favorite tropes: faking dating and forced proximity. Angela and Colin were funny characters and they had some fun banter throughout the book. I also loved the idea of them writing the serial together for his show.

The not so good: I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between Angela and Colin and it felt to me that they only got together because they were in lockdown together. I just wish there'd been more tension between them so we could understand WHY they were together.

Overall this was a sweet romance and I'd recommend it to people who want a sweet romance and to laugh at a few "the toilet paper's all gone" early pandemic jokes.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was fine. It definitely had an interesting and timely premise, but I had a hard time connecting to the book. I couldn’t feel any chemistry between the characters or depth to the story.

*ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Love and Lockdown was the lovely little rom- com that I needed!

The story is essentially an enemies to lovers/ forced proximity trope, but with the main theme involving COVID and the lockdowns, it made this story wonderfully relevant and hilariously relatable.

The writing was stunning and very cute-sy. There were several moments that made me laugh out loud, and some killer sarcastic quotes that I’ll definitely be adding to my repertoire!

I’m not often a romance or contemporary reader, but if there’s a book in either of those classification that you NEED to read this year, it HAS to be this one!

This book is recommended for the older YA/ New Adult age group due to suggested adult themes. There is not adult scenes in this book.

Love and Lockdown will be available for purchase as of the 4th of March 2021

Thank you to Alyce Caswell for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for my honest review.

A great read!

Colin hosts a radio show and needs some material to talk about. When he spots neighbour Angela in trouble he offers her a place to stay, knowing he will use this in his show. Soon they are becoming friends, and maybe more, but is it the forced proximity of lockdown or something real?

I liked how it is told from both of their points of view, and the friends and neighbours around them.

To start off, this book was really a sign of the times and it felt super relatable the whole time given the, you know, ongoing pandemic. I love British anything, so that element was an added bonus and I’m definitely a fan of the whole roommates to romance trope. That being said, I didn’t love the book as much as I’d hoped. While I enjoyed that this was more focused on developing a real connection rather than one of lust, at times I found it hard to believe the romance between the main characters, Colin and Angela. It kind of felt rushed at some points. But at the same time, I think this was an accurate interpretation of a budding relationship in the 21st century. It wasn’t overly romanticized or unrealistically happy and easy. It was just kind of a mundane situation where two people are rooming together during a global pandemic and falling in love because there’s really no one else around. So while it wasn’t the kind of romance I’m used to reading, I think it was refreshing to see something so light and normal that also touched on the sheer craziness of what the world is actually going through.

*Thanks NetGalley for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review! (less)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3752797320?book_show_action=false

Forget the story being set during the pandemic, this book is such a refreshing story!
If you are to read any book on romance and the lockdown, let it be this one! Angela and Colin have what starts out as “not my type" vibe that slowly morphs into, “you're not so bad, I misjudged you" and coupled with radio and music, this made their banter very engaging and exciting. I loved it!

Ok this book was amazing!
So adorable and it wasn't just about the physical romance, it included a more meaningful connection.
Also I've been waiting for a pandemic book for agess.
The only problem is I think Angela is wayyy too obsessive sometimes and it kinda kills the mood because she is so sarcastic and badass and confident but then it contrasts weirdly with her obsession with lockdown rules and her anxiety.
Otherwise, such a good romance!