This book had a lot of potential to be amazing, the characters all had really interesting characteristics and things about them that made them feel unique, but it somehow fell a little short.
I think the part that was lacking was the main plot, it was very vert slow, and not overly engaging. The parts of the story that kept it going were the side plots and smaller activities that the characters were all engaging in, rather than the fact that Bee (the fmc) went back home to try and write her own novel.

There are a lot of tropes in this book which i loved, but it also felt a little overwhelming at times. The main character Bee is a ghost writer, Sebastian is an ex-stripper, there's an age gap, brothers best friend, forced proximity (they buy a house together on a whim).

It was a cute read, just not one that i'm going to be thinking about for a while now that i've read it, but i did have fun quite a bit of the time i was reading, especially when they were finally getting over their feelings and seeing where their relationship could go.
It was also really cute to see Sebastian cheering on Bee and telling her that she could do anything she wanted to if she just tried. Was adorable that he became her confidence coach and was there for her while she was struggling with her relationship with her brother and best friend (who is the worst character in this book).
Similarly it was nice to see Bee be there for Sebastian when he was dealing with past trauma in regards to his relationship with his dad, and even nicer when she was there for him after he had seen his dad for the first time in decades.

overall i would recommend if you're looking for something fluffy and cute, kind of lighthearted, and slowburn.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for an arc of this book to review.

3 stars. happy release day !!🥳

“I never knew where I belonged until now. but it’s here, with you.”


🧡no third act break up
🧡brother’s best friend
🧡forced proximity
🧡LGBTQIAP+ rep
🧡mutual pinning
🧡found family
🧡first person
🧡roomates
🧡dual pov
🧡age gap

Bee, the female main character, was an ambitious author plagued by self-doubts. her overly ambitious phone call to an editor on a drunken evening made her collide with the blank page syndrome, which may or may not have been connected to her impostor syndrome that sent her running back to her hometown. the growth of her character was fascinating to observe because of how she had to juggle with all her day-to-day struggles. for exemple, she stood up for herself and realized that her longest and dearest friendship was more consuming, in a pejorative manner, than anything. Bee’s personality’s development bloomed gradually with the way she gained confidence with the help of the male protagonist, Sebastian.
Sebastian’s character was a breath of french air with the rep' he offered to the narrative, combined with the health way he navigated his masculinity and sexuality. i loved his bond with Bee’s brother and how for once the brotherly homo-sapien act wasn’t a clichéd, jam-packed with testosterone phrasing "stay away from my sister!!!! hohohaga.🧌". but instead, Bee’s brother was more concerned more about Sebastian. and how Bee might broke his heart because he never had a stable household growing up and in addition he had only casual hookups until he decided to be celibate. therefore he didn’t have a model depiction of a healthy matrimonial relationship.
the romance, however, felt a bit rushed for my liking and its synchronization with the characters’ developments didn’t work very well. but all in all, it was a fast pace and enjoyable read. would perfectly fit as plate-cleanser!

many thanks to netgalley and the author for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review!

It was not my cup of tea. I didn’t enjoy the story or the writing.. sadly.
The story was lacking and I didn’t feel any connection between the main characters.

I liked the concept, and I will always love a “secretly both in love with each other” trope. However, the writing style wasn’t for me. I like characters that have more depth and flaws, and the male live interest felt too perfect.

A journey of healing and finding one’s self.

This book was fantastic. Dani brought out their characters in a real and true fashion which made them relatable in their every flaw and action.

It was so easy to see myself in Bee’s perspective: her fear of failing, her anxiety of others expectations, he people-pleasing at the sake of herself. Watching her heal and grow into who she became made her a character I will always hold dear.

Sebastian: What. A. Man.
I loved seeing his perspective, of hearing his inner monologue of worship for Bee. How in her head she saw herself failing and he only saw her conviction to become better. He reminds me so much of my fiancé and how in every aspect of our relationship he has pushed me to believe in myself while also being my biggest champion. Everyone needs a Sebastian.

Dani. You absolute queen of a human. Thank you for this story. Thank you for making your characters so relatable, their struggles so real, and for making the ✨extracurricular activities✨ so hot. Well done my dear.

(thank you NetGalley, Set The Mood Publishing, and Dani McLean for giving me the opportunity to read, review, and give my unedited opinion)

𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 🐝

𝚍𝚎𝚎𝚝𝚜 ♡:

author: dani mclean
publication date: 2/27/24
pages: 388
rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
spice: 🌶️🌶️

𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚜 ♡:

*ghost writer/ex-stripper
*brothers best friend
*forced proximity
*age gap
*he falls first
*no third act breakup

𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍 ♡:

I’m a sucker for cute covers and this one sold me! although I only gave it 3 stars, I still really enjoyed this book! It was sweet, heartfelt and everything I needed to read at the moment. I loved the roommate romance dynamic between sebastian & bee and I thought that the author did that very well. It felt very natural and you could tell that the main characters had a lot of chemistry!

bee moves home after suffering from writers block and moves in with sebastian after she needs his help feeling more confident. this book focuses a lot of self discovery topics with some references to mental health & toxic relationships, but both the characters did a great job supporting each other with their past trauma.

I did enjoy some of the side characters like aiden (bee’s brother) & cassie, although I wasn’t too fond of morgan. she was such a bad friend to bee :(

𝚖𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 ♡:

- they shared each others secrets
- sebastian is a plant daddy
- he calls her angel
- when bee gets a tattoo of “their” house
- sebastian buys her a lamp at target so she can read her books at night
- 5 year bonus epilogue at the end

𝚏𝚊𝚟𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚚𝚞𝚘𝚝𝚎 ♡:

⤷ “𝑴𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒈𝒖𝒚𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒏’𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖—𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆’𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒖𝒍.”

𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜 ♡:

overall — I would recommend if you are looking something cute & light with roommates, good spice and great banter!

I would like to thank dani mclean & netgalley for allowing me to receive an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

3.5 ⭐️

"I never knew where I belonged until now. but it’s here, with you."

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the early review copy.

When Bee sends a drunk email to her boss pitching her debut novel, she wakes up with a hangover, a deadline, and the crushing weight of her fear of rejection. Bee returns home to finish her novel, but ends up with a new roommate but not in the way she expected. Can Sebastian, her brother's best friend turned roommate, help her gain the confidence to write and submit the idea she's had for years?

This was my first book by Dani McLean and it was a really nice romance, I loved the combination of brother's best friend and forced proximity. There was a few different plot lines going on at the same time which I felt a little bit overwhelmed by but they did all tie up very nicely in the end. I still think buying the house was a crazy idea but the idea of the story was very fun. I liked both of their characters and it was lovely to see the development of Bee's confidence.

Immediately requested - forced proximity, brother's best friend are some of my favorites. It was overall ok, this is the first of Dani's books that I read and I do want to try others but this was just ok. I did love Sebastian, so very much. But there was just something about Bee and the conflict with both her writing and her friend that felt off. I do appreciate the sensitivity that Dani took in approaching some heavy hitting topics.

It was cute but the chemistry was lacking. It made it hard for me to get into the story. I’m not a huge huge second chance person but I do enjoy them when they’re done right. But I just feel like this one wasn’t. Also I’ve never read a close proximity where I wanted them to spend more time alone. The smut was meh. I don’t understand why bee acted like Sebastian was some type of way when he just was not. And lastly I had a hard time connecting with the characters. But this is just my personal take.

Thank you NetGalley, Set the Mood, and Dani McLean for the ARC to review.

Great fun read!
Tropes
* forced proximity
* second chance
*fake relationship

If you enjoy any of the tropes above then I would highly recommend this book

3,75 stars!!! i started it on february 20th and finished on the 27th :)

This was such a cute story with a deep and meaningful plotline, well written characters that struggle silently with their internal monsters and help eachother cope and grow as individuals as well as partners.

I have to be honest, this book wasn’t a favorite of mine but that isn’t because the book is bad or anything, the complete opposite, i’m currently on a book slump so i struggled to finish it and dreaded having to read it. The good thing is I actually enjoyed some parts but some days it just was too much for me so i let it rest and came back to it.

I have to say the friendships in this book have to be one of my favorites, Aiden and Sebastian are such amazing friends and they support eachother no matter what. Also, the way characters become friends is so natural and not forced at all, which i found so endearing.

The aspect of toxic friends touched a part of me and made me rethink stuff i said and was told in the past and honestly kind of made me ask myself SO MANY QUESTIONS!!! Also this happened with the way insecurity, self hate and confidence in yourself was portrayed in the book. I got lost so many times and highlighted many lines because it hit me so deep i actually felt watched lmao!...

Even tho i didn’t enjoy the book as much as i wanted to bc of the slump, writing this review made me realize how well written it is, how much it moves you to be better and to treat others nicely, also how we love ourselves so READ IT! It won’t dissapoint.

The spice was AMAZING, how seb took care of Bee and also how confident yet gentle with her gave me chills. The way they both explored their desires, kinks and fantasies left me speechless like damnnnn

Thank you Dani for trusting me and please keep writing such beautiful books, your writing isn't just good but leaves a mark in people!

I posted my review on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/C33spNixBWS/?img_index=1
and Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6286061821

This story is juuuuuust okay. And I mean that with everything in me as a reader and a writer.
The more I read, the more I knew what was going to happen with the characters. By the end of the first chapter I had predicted everything that happens in the book. While I do enjoy reading predictable stories, this one just wasn't it. It truly was a one-hitter.
The author used the same language throughout the switch between the characters, which left no real personality to either Bee or Sebastian.
The same similes and metaphors are used throughout the story and nothing about it really holds up or gets me to love it. Unlike other reviews, I do enjoy the tension between the two main characters, but only for the first three chapters and then I completely forgot they were supposed to be pining after each other. And nowhere in this story did I get that they were once together, and got back together? I felt like I missed an entire book based on that.
This book has one of my favorite tropes being brother's best friend, and I felt I enjoyed the dialogue between the male main character and the brother, or the female main character and the brother. Either way, the dialogue between the love interests isn't as organic and fun as I expected. These two characters just seem like two horny teenagers who wanted to jump each other's bones instead of the story's main plot. And that's probably one of the only things I enjoyed about this book, this story should've just been smut and no plot. I'm not sure why there needed to be so many plot devices bringing these two together, when they obviously could've just banged for the entire book without having drama or conversations that meant nothing to the characters. Bee has so many insecurities that I've read in so many different romcoms that I was just hoping she'd get over them on her own, instead they were forced and repetitive to the point I wanted to throw my Kindle. The forced proximity really gave this book promise for me despite it not doing anything but deliver smut and smut that didn't dive deep enough to hook me to want to read more. I love smut and I loved some of the scenes but the rest was just repetitive.
I think this story could be edited better because there were some sentences that didn't flow well and overall just needs to be reworked a bit. The plot has the potential but there needs to be more build-up, more tension, more angst, and more raw emotions. The grammar was decent but I felt like the author never bothered to use a thesaurus which could've been really useful for just about everything written in this book.
I give it 3 stars, just because it had potential.

Rating: 3.5
Spice: 2

Tropes:
Brothers- best friend
Ghostwriter x Ex- stripper
Age Gap
He falls first
no 3rd Act break up

When I first got this book as an ARC i was so excited, the first half of the book was amazing. However as the other half i felt was dragged out.

It seems as though alot of the issues just kept popping up. I do believe that there were some important points covered in this book in regards to representation and friendships but it just took too long to get to the point.

Since this was my first book by this author I am willing to give another book a chance.

Bee moves back to be near her brother, and on a whim agrees to buy a house with his best friend and her long time crush, Sebastian. What she doesn’t know is he has feelings for her too, and living together proves to be very difficult for both of them.

This is a fun romance especially if you like SPICE. We get several spicy scenes, definitely on the spicier side for this type of contemporary romance. We also have an openly bi MC and several queer characters, forming a really central part of the story.

Bee goes on a real journey of self discovery which is very empowering if a little repetitive and made me feel like Sebastian is forced to be her therapist one too many times. But to be honest I think this more speaks to my personal experience as I have a real cheerleader of a fiance and it made me think twice about how hard it must be to see me fight with my insecurities everyday, and he probably also had to play my therapist a little too often.

I don’t know if I’ve read too many romances in a row recently but this one just felt a little repetitive for me, and I had to push myself to pick it back up a few times even though it was a quick read when I did. Sebastian is LOVELY don’t get me wrong, but the will they/won’t they just didn’t hold any drama for me because it was clear they would. I was glad for the lack of third act break up, but also I feel it could have been much shorter and we’d have the same outcome/story. The endless need for sex just to me after a while as it was the whole focus of the book. Whilst they did love each other’s personalities it was also endlessly about looks and sex appeal.

I also felt at times like parts had been edited out so I was missing things or not following properly, with little parts of back story if reference missing to really bring me into the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Bee's struggle with self-doubt and fear of rejection is portrayed with authenticity, making her journey of self-discovery all the more rewarding to witness. The dynamic between Bee and Sebastian Wolfe adds layers of depth to the story, as they navigate their evolving relationship amidst Bee's quest to meet her deadline. Sebastian's unexpected role as Bee's mentor and confidant is both charming and heartening, showcasing McLean's talent for crafting nuanced characters with undeniable chemistry. As Bee confronts her fears and embraces her true potential, 'Mortgage of Convenience' serves as a reminder that sometimes the greatest adventures begin when we step out of our comfort zones

Thanks to NetGalley, the Publisher and the Author for the ARC, in exchange for a honest opinion.

2 ⭐️ (I don't know if this is, in some way, influenced by the cover - which I really like!)

I'll be honest: I couldn't understand this since the beginning. Why would someone buy a house with another person (even if it's their crush!), just because?! Even though the main character (tried to) explain it, it just didn't click for me.
Despite that, our couple is super cute. And it was adorable seeing how much he liked her, but that was it. I think this was really repetitive and it didn't really give me much...

My rating is all the stars. The whole damn galaxy. ⭐️
Bee is a ghost writer who returns home after deciding to start her own debut novel where she reunites with her brothers best friend, Sebastian
Sebastian is in the process of getting his life to where he wants it to be, the cute house with of his own included but he needs some help. Bee suggests they help each other and move in this new house together and the most amazing relationship transpires.
I finished this book a week or so ago and still think about it everyday. This book hit on so many topics that you don’t usually see in romance and I loved every minute of it. There were parts towards the end that were so therapeutic for me that I couldnt stop crying.
In short, if Dani writes it, Im reading it

I really liked the premise of this book! I loved the mutual pining between the main characters, and I wanted to get into this book so badly - I kept trying. Something was just very disconnected? Perhaps it was the writing. I could tell the author put a lot of her heart into this book, but it felt immature (mmc is like, 35 years old?) and a little preachy? There's an entire chapter dedicated to how GREAT of person the mmc is for his support of the lgbtqia+ community. I loved the representation, but I felt like no matter where I stand in the spectrum of supporting or participating in that community, it was alienating? Like I'm not doing enough and I don't have enough friends that are diverse? IDK. There were so many important topics and I just felt like I, as the reader, wasn't on the "inside" of some of the important points of the story, maybe because the author didn't venture deep enough into the topics? The representation is SO IMPORTANT and I never want to say I lost interest after that point, but I did.

It took way too long to get to the chemistry and relationship of the main characters (I actually never saw it, because I gave up before then, but apparently I didn't really miss anything so I'm not that sad to have skipped). Ended up DNF.

Thanks to the publisher, author, and netgalley for the ARC. These are obviously my honest thoughts.

I love me some puns, so bee prepared. 😉

Mortgage of Conbeenience, er, I mean Convenience, is a stand-alone, full-length novel from Dani McLean. If you've read anything by them before, you'll know they write low angst, fun, sweet and steamy books, so you're in for an un-bee-lieveably good time.

Bee returns home after bee-ing away for 5 years for safe harbor. She's a ghostwriter who has pitched her own novel and is scared about it because when she tries to put herself out there, she freezes up. She doesn’t want to be alone if she fails. She's figuring out where she fits in the world. She has to bee-lieve in herself because she really doesn't have a plan bee.

Sebastian is trying to get the stability he didn't have growing up, so he bee-lieves purchasing a house is the first step. I love Sebastian! He is a sexy, swoony plant dad who has the need to take care of others. Why is it when an MMC makes furniture for the FMC it does it for me? He's also extremely supportive and encouraging. He's just the bees' knees!

They've been pining for each other for a long time, so the forced proximity just increases that want. Their com-buzz-tible chemistry led to some un-bee-lievably steamy scenes (check content warnings). Hello, strip club shenanigans! It's also a very sweet romance. You can tell they were meant to bee.

The majority of the book's conflict was with the MCs individually dealing with things outside of their relationship, so you're not going to get a third act breakup.

There was a sub-plot, involving a friendship that is dissolving and isn’t healthy for Bee, and it hit close to home. It’s not something you expect, as an adult, with long time friendships and it was just cathartic to see on page as something specifically relatable. Dani put in a lot of emotion into this one for sure.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. Bee-lieve me when I say if you want something sweet as honey and spicy, I think you’ll find it’s worth the buzz. 😉

Thank you to Dani and NetGalley. I voluntarily read an early copy of this book.

4.5 Stars

🏡🏡🏡🏡/5

@danimcleanwrites sure knows how to write spice and chemistry between two characters!

I do feel like not much happened in this book, as in the plot was sort of nonexistent. However, I feel like it was more about personal growth and inside struggles, than about anything else. Bee and Sebastian both overcame their fears and insecurities in this story, all the while growing that relationship between them that started years ago. Their chemistry and all the open/honest conversations between them were my favorite parts about this book.

Other things I loved:
🐝Brother’s best friend
🐝Bisexual Representation
🐝Close Proximity
🐝All the domestic vibes
🐝Raw and honest conversations
🐝Age gap romance
🐝He falls first
🐝No 3rd act breakup
🐝Affirmations
🐝Stripper/Ghostwriter