I was very blessed in receiving this book as an ARC and I would like to thank NETGALLEY, the Publisher, and the Author for sending me a copy in exchange for a review.

The cover of this novel was beautiful and really drew me in, the book itself… wasn’t great 😞
There are a lot of tropes that are very popular at play, two of which are some of my favorite:
✨ close proximity
✨ brother’s best friend

Unfortunately I felt like the way they were executed made both main characters mildy cringey. There was a lot of spice 🌶️ in this book but the way it played out felt almost awkward? The second hand embarrassment was very prominent.

Overall, I believe books to be subjective and what isn’t my jam may be your Roman Empire, so please don’t let my opinion keep you from forming your own.

i really wanted to love this book!! and while it was cute, i felt like the pace was weird. it felt really rushed in the beginning and then drawn out in other places. it took me a long time to read because the story just felt slow. the tension was good, and the spicy scenes were great and very descriptive! i would be interested in reading aiden’s book if they decide to write it.

This book was perfect and I enjoyed each minute of it. Sebastian and Bee truly were perfect and made for each other. Their moments were so beautiful and I loved to see them care and adore so much each other

I really enjoyed this one! Bee had some great growth throughout the book. Sebastian wad supportive, hot, and all the good stuff I want in a book boyfriend.

Forced proximity with brother's best friend? Yes please!

Dani writes some great spice and I will always request the ARC when I see hers pop up.

Mortgage of Convenience is Dani's best book yet!

I really enjoyed Bee and Seb and their dynamic...and their pining. This book contains some of my favorite tropes, including forced proximity. I related to much more of this book than I was expecting to. Friendship breakups are very, very hard whether you're being broken up with or you're the one cutting ties. Dani handled this aspect of her book so well...it tugged at my heartstrings quite a bit.

I don't know if this book is supposed to be part of a series or not...but I can see one or two couples brewing in the book, and I'd love to see their stories for sure.


Thank you to Dani and NetGalley for the early copy of the book in exchange for a review.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the digital arc!

I didn’t love this one and found it a bit disappointing because I didn’t buy into Bee’s plight. It felt like a lot of drama for a normal life situation.

Sebastian felt more realistically written.

Overall not my fav.

How far did I get? Technically, I finished it, but I started skimming about halfway through. I wanted to give the author the benefit of doubt, in case the issues were just with the ARC edition - they were not. I flipped through the finished version, and it was the same way.

Why did I stop? The writing was not living up to the potential of the premise. Other readers have described the writing as choppy, and that is 100% true. It jumps from one scene to the next with zero transition, so I spent a lot of time trying to get my bearings. By the time I'd figured out what was happening, it would shift to the next scene. So I spent a lot of time confused, and then the characters' decisions didn't always make sense. Like... our heroine buys half a house, even though she only plans to be in town temporarily? She knows her brother's best friend can't afford it on his own (neither can she), so I'm still not exactly sure what her game plan was there. The home-buying process is not particularly quick or easy, yet they still hadn't communicated their plans before the paperwork was signed. And what she wanted in exchange was kinda ridiculous. Some of the other compelling elements were wildly underdeveloped. So there were a million things that had me scratching my head.

Was I enjoying it initially? I was! I've heard great things about this author's work, the cover is absolutely gorgeous, and the premise is right up my alley. So I went into this with a whole lot of enthusiasm, and I initially really enjoyed that it jumped right into things. The hero is also such a sweetheart, and there was so much to love about the dynamic between them. There are also some fantastic, intimate moments and these little glimpses of greatness. Those kept me hooked for awhile, until the writing issues started overtaking the plot.

Would I finish this? I skimmed to the end, so I know how it all ends up. The romance still felt underdeveloped, with very strange pacing. I would definitely try the author again, but I'd wait until there were some solid reviews out first.

Who would I recommend this to? It gave me Tarah DeWitt/Hannah Bonam-Young vibes, which is a major plus and the biggest reason I'd revisit the author's work in the future. So if you're a fan of that kind of vibe, then McLean might be a good fit for you.

As I was reading this book, I came to realise that I do not read nearly enough roommate to lover romances. It’s just not a trope I pick up enough yet when I do, I always really enjoy them. This book is no exception.

Bee and Sebastian are the best kind of the couple - the ones that have been secretly attracted to each other forever but work on becoming friends before they become lovers. These two were gorgeous - they couldn’t do enough for each other which I loved reading about. So many thoughtful moments and they truly worship the ground each other walks on. The chemistry is well written and achieves that perfect balance of being slow burn without dragging on too long - it was just enough to get you really rooting for them.

This book has all the best tropes - roommates to lovers, friends to lovers and brother’s best friend. But it’s written in a way that is not so focused on the trope that you don’t believe the story. I genuinely believed the chemistry and love between these two. It was simply gorgeous to read about.

This was just a fabulous romance to read, I really loved it

It's been like a week since I've read this beauty and I still don't feel capable to form the words to explain how much I loved this book. I posted a review on my bookstagram but felt like I needed to share more details but... Oh my goodness, the words fail me.

This book was beautiful. From the very first page I knew I was going to love it, and I was right. More than the plot being perfect, it's the fact that I related to these characters on a personal level that made me love it even more.

Bee and Sebastian are perfect in their own imperfections and they're definitely perfect for each other. They complement each other so well! They're soulmates, truly. Watching them grow together while their love for each other also grew was beautiful and heart warming. I was constantly screaming, crying, giggling, blushing and kicking my feet in the air.
Then fighting for each other but most importantly making sure the other managed to achieved their own dreams above anything was everything! That's true love!

I don't want to spoil anything but if you want to read about a ghost writer trying to gain confidence to write her own actual book and an ex stripper who just wants to buy a house and settle down with a brother's best friend trope into the mix and a sprinkle of age gap, then this is it for you. You found it. This is your perfect match. Swipe right (or simply run to the Kindle, whatever floats your boat!)

Actual Rating 3.5

This was my first Dani Mclean story and I had a fun time! I enjoyed both of our main characters Bee and Sebastian. They felt like complex and complete people in their own ways. Bee is in her 20s and worried about making a major life/career change after being content with her life for so long. Sebastian is in the process of trying to settle down and plan out a future now that he's in his 30s.

I was really intrigued by the summary and looking forward to this. It sounded like it would have some great staples to rom-coms I love - some brother's best friend, a bit of an age gap, and some sexy tattoos! Unfortunately, I think some things got a bit lost in translation. I still really enjoyed the plot but I don't think the pacing was all there. I was struggling a bit to realize where we are in the timeline and I didn't realize that the whole story takes place over six months until the final chapter.

As this is my first Mclean story, I'm not sure how her other works are but I just felt like things weren't super cohesive. I'd read an incredibly beautiful section and then be hit with a paragraph that felt out of place or messy. I do own digital copies of Mclean's Movie Magic Novellas so I'll certainly be reading more from them in the future and I do look forward to whatever comes next even though this one didn't quite do it for me.

I LOVED THIS BOOK.
- Brothers best friend ✅
- Forced proximity ✅
- Slow burn ✅
The characters are so well developed and the banter is so sweet.
Thank you to Net Galley & Set the Mood Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest content review.

I received an ARC of Mortgage of Convenience from NetGalley. I really enjoyed this book. I wished there was a bit more spice but the character development really helped me get past that.
Also it having no third act breakup really made me love it even more. I do think however it ended rather quickly. I wasn’t expecting it to end, it just did.
Over all a 3.5 star that I enjoyed and was happy to read

Thank you to the publisher, author and Net Galley for an advanced copy.

I am not a huge romance reader, but the summary sounded really cute, so I decided to give it a try. I was left a little disappointed. I did not like the FMC very much, and found it difficult to care about the characters. I did like how some of the more serious topics were handled.

For first time romance readers, or those looking to step outside their normal genre(s), I would not recommend this book. But I think romance readers might like it a bit more.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me early access to read this book.

Unfortunately this book is going to be a dnf. I like to connect with books and their characters however in this book I cannot connect with the storyline and the characters.

One comment the MMC said put me off the book and I just couldn’t click with it after that was said. I am also confused on what actually is going on.

I may return to finish the book off however at this current moment in time, I cannot finish it.

I loved Bee and Sebastian so so much. Their love is soft, tender, raw, vulnerable, tentative, but oh so heartwarming and uplifting. The way that Sebastian is obsessed from the beginning (before anything happens!) is truly the best. Bee may have had a crush on him first, but Seb truly falls harder, and he doesn’t let up until the very last page. I’m truly obsessed with everything that man is, an it’s quite rude that he can only be my fictional book boyfriend.

I loved how both Bee and Sebastian supported each other. Especially his Seb helped Bee regain her confidence with her book and actually getting it back to her editor to publish it. They may be in slightly different points of their lives, but they both seem to want to the same things, and it’s comforting that they were able to find it with each other, after so many years of just being friends/acquaintances (Seb is Bee’s brother’s best friend). I really loved how Bee was able to finally see her own worth, and could tell that her best friend was actually truly not good for her-that relationship had run it’s course and I loved how she was able to put up her own boundaries to protect herself and allow her to move forward.

Seb is finally ready to settle down and have the house and wife and family he has always wanted, but thought he cousins have for the longest of times due to his past. While he does confront his past- he does so in a way that I admire so much- just because his dad has changed for the better, doesn’t mean that Seb has to forgive him and ruin the happiness he has made for himself just because his dad is better.

I truly loves everything about this book (also, when Bee and Seb finally cut the tension between them? 🔥🔥🔥👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻) and I also loved how Bee’s brother was totally fine with their relationship (he just didn’t want to know the details haha!). I loved how Bee was able to strengthen her relationship with her brother as well.

Yeah this book was no for me no matter how much i tried to read it

Maybe for other people it would hit the jackpot with second chance romance

I wanted to love this book so badly. I love a forced proximity, second chance romance but I feel like for both of those tropes to work well there needs to be angst, and there was just none of that here. When the first smut scene hit at 40%, I honestly struggled to keep pushing through. The smut was not great, and because it hit so early on it made the rest of the book feel so long. As this was an e-arc it didn’t have page numbers so I was shocked when I looked this up and found out it was only 390 pages because it genuinely felt like at least 500 while I was reading it.

I also cringed whenever the FMC was describing the MMC because she’d always act like he was some huge tough alpha dude (his last name is Wolfe, dontcha know!) but he just…wasn’t that. And that’s okay! He was a sweet, caring guy. I don’t understand the obsession with making every romantic love interest some big possessive alpha male. It’s one of my biggest icks in contemporary romance!

I think I would have given this book a higher rating if it were 100 pages shorter, long romances (anything over 350 pages generally) are not for me. If you are a fan of them though, don’t let my low rating put you off! You may love it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Set the Mood Publishing for providing the ARC.

This book is a very big character read, and I love character reads. There was some plot, but it was so enmeshed in the characters' stories that it didn't feel like much. However, that doesn't detract from how great this book is.

Bee was a very intriguing character for me. Infantilized by her family and her brother, she fled home in a dire need to prove that she was capable of handling things on her own. What developed was an obsessive need to prove herself and an inability to handle any kind of rejection well, so much that she became reclusive and unable to put herself out there because it was deemed unsafe. She has her friend, Morgan, who by all accounts is not a healthy influence, but Bee has spent her life bending over backwards to maintain the relationship because she wasn't sure what else to do. And there is the pesky thing about her ongoing crush on her older brother's best friend, Sebastian.

Sebastian is outgoing and lives life freely with one finger in the air, as he so aptly puts. He is eight years older than Bee, but has also harbored some of his own secret feelings towards his best friend's sister. After she helps him secure a mortgage on the house he's been trying to buy, he makes it his mission to help her see just how truly extraordinary she is, and if he falls in love along the way, so be it.

Like I said, this is very much a character read. It is told from dual perspective so you get to be inside both Bee's and Sebastian's heads for the duration of the book. You get to learn all about their fears and hangups, and just how good these two are for each other when it comes to support, acceptance, and love. I would say that it drags in some places - there were a lot of times where Sebastian was talking about how Bee could never know his feelings for her because it would mess everything up, often as a way to end the chapter. But overall, I loved the journey these two went on together. Watching Bee open up to Sebastian and watching Sebastian tackle issues that he had been holding onto for years was heartwarming. I would love to see more from this author.

I thought the cover was pretty and the plot summery seemed promising but unfortunately, I was left pretty disappointed.

There was no chemistry between the FMC and the MMC, leading to some ick moments during the frequent smut scenes. While dual POV, it felt as if I was hearing from the same character.

Overall, this book didn’t work for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in return for my honest review.

I received this arc in exchange for an honest review. 🤍

honestly this just wasn’t for me. i just had no interest in it. i really wanted to enjoy it but unfortunately it fell so flat. i was so close to DNFing but i decided to push through.

the main characters buy a house together because he can’t afford it himself and she’s got money that she can use to help him. one thing leads to another and their chemistry becomes undeniable.

if you love best friends brother then give this book a go :)