Loved coming back to Rome, Kentucky 🥰 this series has my heart, and I can't wait for Maddie's story too!

📖 Beg, Borrow or Steal by Sarah Adams
📚 book 3 • When in Rome series

⭐️: 5/5
🌶️: open door, mild spice

💭 overall thoughts:
First off - this would make sure a cute romcom movie! I could very much picture it all in my mind 🎬

The rivalry (since college) between Emily & Jack gives us SO MUCH BANTER 😍
They banter in person, by email, through text… all of it!

I love an fmc like Emily, that’s a little harder to love. She’s got her walls up, and feels like she has to have it all together.

Emily takes care of everyone but herself, and Jackson has ALWAYS seen this in her - and eventually finds a way to be the one that takes care of HER.

They both break down the other’s walls, showing vulnerability & truths they’ve never shown anyone else.
I love that they were different, yet also 2 sides of the same coin. It felt like this just made them so perfectly matched 🥹

read if you love:
🏫 rivals since college
👨‍🏫 second grade teachers & writers
🏡 neighbors in a small town
🫣 hidden identity
🏍️ tattooed, glasses-wearing, motorcycle riding mmc who totally falls first
💛 a guarded fmc with baggage, who has a heart of gold & will do anything for the ones she loves
💬 texting & email banter
🐢 slow burn
💞 dual 1st person pov

Thank you to Headline Eternal & NetGalley for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Emily & Jack ❤️

📝They met at college, both studying teaching, then found themselves at the same school teaching second grade.

🖋️Brutally honest with each other, the rivals have missed each other since Jack moved to Nebraska to follow his fiancé.

✍️Except now he’s broken up with the fiancé, is moving back and buying the house next door to Emily.

📚Emily’s the third sibling to get a HEA in this charming small town series, where the kids grew up with their grandmother after their parents died. The death of their parents has affected each of them differently, Emily, as the oldest daughter took on the role of mother, and is now struggling with an empty nest as Noah, Annie and Madison move on. Jack’s got his own demons but it’s the most special thing when these two put aside their hatred for each other and start to work together.

Read an eARC copy courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher
My rating 4.5/5 - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫
Pub Date 7 Jan 2025

DNF at 30%

I couldn't read this, it was awful. I'm not sure if it was writing or the plot but I just couldn't finish it.

I haven't read any books from this series so I don't know about Rome, Kentucky, but I hated this town since the first page. The FMC says how everyone in town (EVERYONE) had been stalking her sister and bullying her sister's boyfriend because they thought she was too good for him and that's described as... normal? As if there's nothing wrong with it? I haven't read the book so I don't know the details, but they made a PETITION? For her to stop dating him? Jesus Christ if someone would have bullied me and the man I loved that way because they thought he wasn't "good enough for me" I would have left with him and never come back. This is not normal. I don't know why the author treats it like it's somehow cute and quirky when that behavior is toxic.

ANYWAY, onto the story - FMC was just pathetic. I hate when the authors try to make us believe that FMC hated MMC when her heart skips a beat at the sound of his name, her breath hitches as they grow closer, she cares about whether or not he broke up with someone... Just stop it. Show us hate for once. Show us that she doesn't care about him or what he thinks or does (but no, she constantly has to bring up how he didn't say goodbye to her), show us that she doesn't pay him any attention because she focuses on something else, show us her having walls around him because he already hurt her once and she doesn't trust him. Show us how he tries to be a dick to her to get a reaction but realizes that's a bad call because she doesn't rise to his bait. Show us how he changes his approach and tries to be nice but she doesn't trust him. Show us how she begrudgingly (AND SLOWLY, NOT IN A SINGLE CHAPTER) starts listening to what he's saying and how his little acts of service show her that he means it. Show us how she goes from not giving him the time of day and rolling his eyes (because she thinks he's an idiot not worth her time, not because she's trying to hide she's attracted to him), to slowly getting to know him better and slowly starting to see him in a different light and developing feelings.

I'm sick and tired of authors promising us enemies to lovers, only to have them be already attracted to each other and pining for each other and the whole animosity being there for all 3 or 4 chapters. I want them hating each other with no love or lust underneath it at least until the 30% of the book or something. is this too much to ask?
I'm

Jack and Emily made me not want to put this book down. I needed to know what would happen next. I need to go and read more of Adams books now!

I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this book, I definitely think it’s my favorite Sarah Adams I’ve read so far!!!

Emily and Jack were so incredibly developed and their struggles were something I feel like a lot of people can easily relate to, Emily’s story and feelings hit especially close to home for me and I loved seeing her journey

their relationship was absolutely brilliant as well, the chemistry, the banter, the way the were always brutally honest with each other, it all had me kicking my feet and giggling 🤭 both of them being authors in different genres was so fun to read as well, and of course the family aspect of this series just warmed my heart

i am so so excited for Maddie’s book, I feel like that one will be absolutely incredible with the little crumbs left in this one

Book 3 of the When in Rome series and I enjoyed this one the same as enjoyed the others! Sarah Adams’s books are funny, clever and always a little swoony! This time it was our oldest Walker sister Emilys turn at finding romance! When Emily finds out her biggest rival has moved back to town she seeks to make him as uncomfortable and unwanted as possible, however fate has other ideas for her and Jack the local good guy! This is a little bit spicier than anything I’ve read by Sarah previously but it does fit in with the theme of the book and is still nothing too much!
This book also has some grief themes, mild depression and general unhappiness, however Sarah writes them beautifully and nothing is too dark or hard to read.
Hoping that there is going to be a book 4 and we get Maddies story! I need her and James together asap please!
🌟🌟🌟🌟

Release Date - 7th January 2025

My God, I never thought I’d see the day where I’d be giving a Sarah Adams book a 5 star rating. Purely because I’ve just not been a fan of her other work.

This was addicting that I read the entire thing in one sitting. I’d like to thank the publisher first off for granting my early access to this ARC because I’m so glad to have read it! I haven’t even read Practice Makes Perfect yet so that’s next on my list soon to see Annie and Will’s story!


Quick points:
- Sarah’s writing is definitely so easy to digest and flow through
- The characters were so witty and hilarious I actually lolled out loud which literally hardly ever happens.
- Jack was literally so swoon-worthy I adored him!
- Emily was so strong and her relationship with Noah, Amelia, Annie and Madison was one of my favourites! I like how head strong she was for them all being the older sibling after they lost their parents.
- I could not put this down!
- Um, wow?


Spoiler Warning:
This man read her book TWICE IN ONE NIGHT HELLO???

This man WENT INTO A BAR which he has a fear of due to trauma as a child with his dad???? BECAUSE EMILY WANTED HIM THERE, hello????

I’m crying this was sos sweet and perfect bye

“I want to hug each other when we’re sad and help each other find the bright side of things when all we can see is the dark.”

I finally got a 5-star read after months and months trying to get one! I am physical unwell on how much I adore this book and the characters. I’m literally so happy that I started the year of with this book. Sarah Adams has a way with writing books that leave me on a chokehold. This book was literally everything I needed. It dived deep into personal growth and the importance of learning to accept yourself, which I found myself relating to it a bit too much. It was so beautifully written.

This was my most anticipated read of this year and it give me more than I thought it would. The book has so much banter, so much cuteness and raw emotional struggles.



⤿ Emily
I’m the oldest daughter so I really could relate to everything that Emily was going through. The way she cares about her siblings happiness more than her own honestly just broke my heart for her. The way she is terrified to open her heart up to love other people just made me feel so heartbroken.


⤿ Jack
The love of my life. He’s so perfect like I’ll happily take him off Emily. Every single time I got a scene about Jacks father my heart broke into a million pieces. Every single time he tried to be there for him mum, so that she has someone to help her to leave him and she still hasn’t accepted the help honestly broke me. Jack cares so deeply about his mother and just want her to be happy even if it means having to deal with his narcissistic father. I love the way he didn’t stop that from letting him become an amazing and caring person.




Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

best way to start off 2025 !

I absolutely fell i love with this story.

Emily is such a strong and selfless character and my heart broke for her when she felt like everyone moving on and she was left feeling stuck. How she had moments of self doubt..if she is good enough to write a romance novel..is she worth loving? I think this might be my absolute favourite from this series.

Jack!! love love love him. Knowing his family background and him seeing Emily and her siblings, her relationship with the town... you heart bleeds for him and he missed out on so much.

Seeing their relationship grow and getting evidence in their emails from 10 years prior just made me all giddy! Their college rivalry into adulthood as teachers... brilliant. You don't really see many romances around school teachers.

T R O P E S
💕rivals to lovers
💕secret mutual pining
💕close proximity (neighbours)
💕small town antics
💕beautifully written sibling relationship
💕headstrong fmc

Prayer circle for Madison x James story!🙏🙏 There was so much flirtation in this! I need more background !

I really enjoyed this book because Sarah Adams is one of my favourite romance writers and the enemies to lovers trope is one of my favourite tropes so this story was right in my wheelhouse. It was great to get to go back to Rome, Kentucky with the Walker siblings for Emily‘s story and she had great chemistry with Jack in the story. I enjoyed the moments of comedy that were interwoven into the story, which had me laughing out loud, such as the pancakes with Tabasco sauce. These moments brought some necessary relief to the heavier strands of the plot, like Jack‘s family dynamics and Emily‘s difficulty letting people in due to her fear of loss, because of her unhealed grief.

Jack‘s father revealing him as AJ Ranger so publicly and taking credit for Jack‘s accomplishments was horrifying but very in character with Jack‘s father‘s narcissistic tendencies. However, I felt that the book ended too abruptly by not showing Jack‘s public response to his father‘s actions and only showing his showdown with his father at the dinner. It would have been good to see Jack be publicly vindicated and victorious over his father too after such a good setup for this.

Similarly, I felt like the book ended too abruptly with the announcement of the book deal for Emily but without including the actual publication of the book as a scene or any indication of a future development of the relationship between Jack and Emily.

Maybe we will see more of Jack and Emily‘s relationship and how this develops in the next book as a side plot much as we did with Will and Annie in this book, where it was lovely to see Annie regain her independence and confidence and propose to Will so they could become engaged!

I gave this book 5 stars and I did love it but if half stars were possible I would probably have gone for four and a half because of the feeling I had that the ending was a bit too abrupt for my taste.

4.5 ⭐️

The rivals to lovers banter in this is truly hilarious. It was the perfect book to start off my 2025.

I went into this a little worried as I hadn't read the previous two, but the author managed to drop the major plot points there early on so you know what you need to. This book has convinced me that I will need to check the others out.

I really liked both Emily and Jack. They fit well together. The author did a great job on the sexual tension between the two. One scene in particular involving Emily's book was my favourite.

But for me, the best part of the book was Emily's relationship with her family and her learning that she doesn't always have to be strong. Both Emily's grief and issues with people leaving her and jacks situation with his father were handled well.

There were certain points where it felt like we skipped from one scene straight into another without the first closing properly, but overall, this is definitely my favourite of the three books by Sarah Adams I've read.

I received an advance review copy of this book, and this review represents my honest opinion. Thank you to netgalley, the author, and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

Think Hepburn and Stacey, or any worthy bickering, star-crossed lovers and that's pretty much Emily and Jack.  College rivals, work rivals, and now neighbours.

Emily is the fix-it girl in her family.  She may not be the eldest but she is definitely the mother hen. Super organised, plain speaking (at least in her head 98% of the time!) and then there is Jack, nifty dressing, people charmer, all around nice guy - to everyone but Emily!

I teared up in laughter more than once with this pair.  Everyone, and I do mean everyone in Rome, can see that these two should be together.  They are like the same person in different fonts! But I think they both needed to grow a little, get a little perspective before they could put aside their verbal sparring and just "see" each other for the first time.

I loved the way that seeking and needing help are not seen as flaws, it is held up as a sign of being an adult and being self aware.  Emily's need to be everything to everyone and always be needed so that people won't leave her.  Jack's need to please everyone, to hide his career from his narcissistic father, to escape his verbal and physical assaults, the need to try and save his mother.  These are flawed characters and they are beautifully chipped, no glossy façade of perfection - just a functioning mess if we're honest lol. The banter and the emails between Emily and Jack from the beginning of their relationship to the present day are a hoot and I could hear the voices in my head and hear the thumping of the keyboard as they wrote back and forth, sometimes in anger, sometimes working together in spite of their rivalry. Their shared love of books and how they keep them sane really tied them together and just made them a great pairing.

This isn't a super spicy romance, there are only one or two smexy scenes but there is nothing over the top if that's not your thing.

The secondary characters are mostly couples from previous books and various townsfolk, all of whom seem to survive on gossip! One of my fave scenes is at the end of the book and it's not even about Emily and Jack, and I love that the author can still tell their story whilst giving some love to previous characters.

“I’ll be so careful with you, Emily,” he says, but I don’t have the heart to ask him if he means on the motorcycle or not.

Absolutely loved this book. It was so easy to read and if I didn’t have work in the morning I would have finished it in one sitting!

Rivals/enemies to lovers is one of my favourite tropes. I always find it awkward in a contemporary setting but Sarah Adam’s really nailed it.

I love the dynamic between Jack (MMC) and Emily (FMC) and I loved seeing how their relationship progressed but also how they grew as people.


Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

I would rate this book 4 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ and will definitely be continuing the series.

As a very big fan of Sarah Adams I was so excited to read this one! I found it a bit slow at times, but overall I really liked it. The chemistry between Emily and Jack was incredible and I loved the moment it switched from rivalry to romance.

Yet again Sarah Adams has smashed it out of the park with this gorgeous read. How can you not fall in love with Jack. I was hooked immediately and found I couldn't put it down. So greatful to have been given the opportunity to read this. Rome, Kentucky feels like home.

5⭐️✨

Rome Kentucky, you have my heart.

I’m so obsessed with Jack & Emily and their jabs. This book had me laughing out loud one line then having my heart clenching the next. Enemies to lovers and forced proximity will always be some of my favourite tropes, so this book really hit every mark for me.

Keeping this as spoiler free as possible I’ll just say I really really loved reading this book and a huge thank you to net galley & headline for sending me this ARC!

This series is honestly one of the best I’ve ever read. It’s so wholesome and I just find myself falling in love with every character even more than before (which I didn’t know was possible). I quite literally need to move to Rome ASAP. I absolutely loved that this story was about teachers (being one myself) and I loved that Emily and Jack are rivals to lovers. I absolutely adore this trope! I love that we found when the rival between them started and how it grew over the years! As soon as Jack moved to Rome and bumped into Emily for the first time since coming back you could just feel like chemistry between them and I loved that so much. They are both authors too and I love that Jack is so so supportive of Emily’s dreams and helps her when she sends her book to someone she shouldn’t have and I love that because she did that it made them even closer. I absolutely love their story and when they come together it just makes my heart all mushy. I can’t fault it at all!

“You are not alone Emily, I would walk through my worst memories to get to you”

Get a man who is willing to break into your boss’s house with you, because you accidentally sent your steamy romance book to him when you were drunk!! I loved going back to the little town that is Rome. The rivals to lovers was everything. The way they competed for absolutely everything was SO entertaining. The forced proximity with them being neighbours made it even better.

Older daughters will be able to relate to Emily, she constantly puts others first especially her siblings, she pretends she’s fine even when she isn’t. It broke my heart. But my heart melted when she let Jack in and allowed him to see her true self. He showed up for her every single time.

Hilarious, snarky, heartbreaking, swoon worthy moments, with so much depth and raw emotion. Loved every single second and as always I adored the Walker siblings, Amelia, and James. I love their little family and that they would literally do anything for each other, including eating tobasco pancakes (why was this scene so funny but also heartwarming). I loved everything about this. I am so excited for Maddie and James’s book, it will definitely be bittersweet because it will be our last trip to Rome!

thank you so much netgalley for the oppportunity to read one of my most exciting releases as an arc <3
and sarah adams strikes once again! this was so so cute... it feels like watching a romcom
and i love seeing the characters from the previous books and their happy endings as well!!!
cant wait to continue reading more from this author and cant wait for the next book in this series already

Somehow I missed the first two books but that didn't hamper my enjoyment of this (although it could be why I'm less committed to the characters than those who did.). It's a trope-y enemies to lovers small town romance featuring two second grade teachers-Emily and Jack-who are both writers in secret. He's the son of a uberfamous thriller writer who publishes under pseudonym and she's just finished her first steamy romance. The romance she accidentally sends to the principal of their school-and that's how they build a bridge past the walls they've put up against one another. This has all the feels for those who like the tropes complete with a good cast of supporting characters at the hair salon and elsewhere in town as well as in Emily's family. The third act crisis didn't work for me but I know I'm an outlier. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's a zippy read that might be just the thing to relax with.