From New York Times Bestselling Author, Penelope Ward, comes a new standalone novel.
Sharing a summer house with a hot-as-hell roommate should be a dream come true, right?
Not when it’s Justin…the only person I’d ever loved…who now hates me.
When my grandmother died and left me half of the house on Aquidneck Island, there was a catch: the other half would go to the boy she helped raise.
The … go to the boy she helped raise.
The same boy who turned into the teenager whose heart I broke years ago.
The same teenager who’s now a man with a hard body and a hardass personality to match.
I hadn’t seen him in years, and now we’re living together because neither one of us is willing to give up the house.
The worst part? He didn’t come alone.
I’d soon realize there’s a thin line between love and hate. I could see through that smug smile. Beneath it all…the boy is still there. So is our connection.
The problem is…now that I can’t have Justin, I’ve never wanted him more.
Author’s note – RoomHate is a full-length standalone novel. Due to strong language and sexual content, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.
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This story is BEAUTIFUL.
I really Loved it…and Thankyou Penelope Ward I swooned and cried like a baby at some points.
Justin OMG I Adore that man sexy as hell and so incredibly sweet he said and did all the right things…Amelia is one lucky lady having captured his heart since they were young, right up until they meet once again when they both inherit a house they have to share.
Amelia left Justin many years ago and Justin resented her leaving and for the past 10 years he has hated her,so meeting her again and sharing a house with her was going to be hell for him and uncomfortable for her….Their attraction to one another is slowly simmering away and ready to explode.
From then on a really gorgeous romance begins to unfold as they get to know one another again and forgive eachother,discovering that they both never stopped loving eachother.
But there is a twist and a surprise that they both never expected and it made this story even more beautiful.
This is definately a must read and possibly one of my favourites from Penelope Ward.
I could not put it down and I was completely enthralled with the story.
I highly recommend it
5 heartwarming stars
5 stars is not enough!
RoomHate by Penelope Ward is an amazing friends-to-enemies-to lovers romance with all the feels. I absolutely loved the relationship between Amelia and Justin. From childhood best friends, they are separated for almost a decade before they are thrown back together as co-homeowners after Amelia’s Nana’s death. After reuniting, Amelia and Justin develop a love-hate relationship with a few major twists along the way.
I truly appreciated that this story was drawn out over time and did not just have an instant reconnection between these characters. You could really see and feel the emotions of these characters as they found their way back to the friendship that they had both been missing.
This author is a great storyteller and has written a heartwarming story that made me laugh and cry, made me both angry and sad, and left me with a smile as I turned the last page. 5-stars for this beautifully told second-chance romance.
If I could give this book 10 stars I would. It made me laugh, it made me cry. I got lost in the story for hours at a time!
This was an interesting story. Two people who have a history are thrown back together years later, but there’s a third person involved. Justin shows up at the house that Amelia’s grandmother left to both of them with a girlfriend. There’s tons of tension between Justin and Amelia due to their history. They had feelings for each other and Amelia left. Now she’s smacked in the face with her feelings for him, but he apparently feels nothing but disdain for her–or is it all an act?
A hot story that I really enjoyed. I listened to the audio version. The narration by Zoe McKat was very good and easy to listen to. Great voices for the characters.
Second chance, enemy to friend to lover. A great combination!
The tension, angst and heat were strong between Amelia and Justin.
A decade separated them and they are brought together due to inheriting a house from Amelia’s Grandmother.
They both are living their own lives but can they get past years of pent up hurt, anger, and resentment?
Their story was long, drawn out but so very worth the wait.
I was biting my nails in anticipation. The chemistry between these two were at time unbearable it was so strong. All in a good way.
My emotions were all over the place, WOW that was a wild ride. I don’t think there was an emotion missed in this one.
Amelia and Justin are something else entirely. I absolutely loved their story!
review found on my blog
https://www.emilythebooknerd.com/2020/05/roomhate.html#more
I loved this book! Its one of those books you wish you could go back in time and read it for the first time again! This is actually my second book by this author and this one was juat as good as the first one I read. You have to read this book and when August Ends of course both by Penelope Ward! I have a new favorite author!
I read this book during my vacation, when I wanted to discover new to me author. It’s quite easy as I haven’t been reading romance for that long. I have seen Penelope Ward’s books recommended quite often and decided to start with Roomhate. What a pleasant surprise. This story wasn’t at all what I expected by the title. I naively thought it would be an enemies-to-lover story. Of course there was animosity between Justin and Amelia, but it was so much more than that. The two protagonists were actually friends since childhood, but that’s all we know at the beginning.
The story is written in the first-person but only from Amelia’s point of view, leaving us very intrigued by Justin.
It’s obviously difficult to be a romance writer as they have to deliver us a happily-ever-after. Therefore, we always know how it will end and they have to be extremely resourceful and keep us interested. The author succeeded here and kept me hanging on her words. I couldn’t drop the book and devoured it until the end.
What a great love story! In the beginning, you already know what’s going to happen. But the story to get there, was great! Like stubborn fools, they both fought their feelings for each other. I was rooting for them from the beginning and glad it turned out the way that it did.
There is no music without you stars
Amelia and Justin are left Amelia’s Grandmothers house from her will. These two once childhood best friends who haven’t seen or heard from each other in years are suddenly forced to not only share the same house but face the past.
Justin carries resentment hurt and anger with Amelia’s sudden departure all those years ago.
Amelia has to finally explain her actions.
A childhood to adulthood love and a love reunion read.
It’s heartwarming, frustrating, sweet with great characters, great plot topped with a hea.
Loved it, recommended read.
For honest review. This is a 10 stars of beautiful writing it will grip your heart. When Amelia a middle school teacher inherits the summer house on aquidneck island with Justin a musician and sells software this is the boy she grew up with, but with that it was complicated. Awesome job.
Read 2/14/17
RoomHate is a standalone by Penelope Ward. It’s a second chance forever love story between Justin Banks and Amelia Payne. They were children when they met and quickly developed into best friends. They were inseparable for five years. Angry misunderstandings separated them to never speak again until they were reunited nine years later as a result of a death of a mutual friend.
The book started off strong, intriguing me from the first chapter. It was well written and well developed throughout. Ward weaved the past in with the present to create the full story. It was filled with loads of emotion and drama.
At first there is nothing to like about Justin except his sexy looks. He’s a total ass in every way. However, the past Justin was awesome. He was teenage sexy, intelligent and uber protective of Amelia.
I thought it ironic that when they were young, Justin was always taking care of Amelia but the roles reversed as they first met up again. As they continued their friendship and barriers were brought down, Justin’s protectiveness surfaced again and the roles righted.
Ward included unexpected twists and it certainly wasn’t the direction I was expecting. When people say an HEA is hard fought, they weren’t kidding with this one. There were a couple times Ward could have gone off into the predictable phase, but chose a non traditional and potentially unpopular route.
This was not a book about sex, although they did eventually get to the sex and Justin was a wonderfully dirty talker; but it was more about the journey from past to present to future and revolving around abandonment, forgiveness, acceptance and trust.
Roommate was told in Amelia’s point of view with Justin’s as the epilogue. Although I love stories from both, this worked well and kept some elements a surprise.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed RoomHate. It was entertaining and a quick read.
Great book!
There were some things that bothered me in this story, but I still loved it! I read it from start to finish with barely any brakes and that is unusual in a book, for me at least. The author is very good at keeping the reader on her toes and pulling the reader into the story. I loved the romance, the drama and the uniqueness of the book. A real page turner!
When I bought this book I thought it was going to be like most other stories out there; a couple with bad history who run into each other and can’t deny the chemistry between them. They confess their love that they always had and get married and have a baby. Funny thing, that is exactly this story. Yet it’s so different from anything I’ve read before. The fact that neither of them is sure that their relationship is going to work out and both hesitate until the end. Or the fact that Justin hangs on to his girlfriend even though he admittedly loves Amelia, because he has a happy life with Jade. And the baby that in most other stories would be to love interests baby, is in this one someone else’s. It’s very different story development than I’m used to and that’s what makes it so special and unique. I love it!
One thing that brought my rating down a bit is the personality of Justin: I don’t like him much. The author tries to make her readers feel for him and take his side, but honestly, to me he comes across as selfish, a hypocrite and a douche. He keeps giving flak to Amelia for “dumping” him and later for being jealous. He does the exact same thing to her though. When she ran away and came back a year later he basically “dumped” her and every guy that shows interest in her he gives her crap about, calling her a whore and everything. Then the fact that he was so crappy towards her in the beginning, which according to me was uncalled for, and that knowing how difficult it is for her to hear him fuck his girlfriend. Yet he keeps doing it. And don’t even get me started with him leaving her sad, sick and pregnant just so he can return to New York with his girlfriend, while Amelia took care of him when he was sick even though he treated her like crap. What bothers me most is that no one, least of all Amelia, thinks his behavior is uncalled for. Everyone acts like she deserves his treatment and that he has a right to treat her that way. No apology except from Amelia to him for some reason. Kind of paints her as a submissive pushover.
Despite all that, I really enjoyed the story and in the end I sort of was okay with Justin when he finally took some responsibility in Amelia’s life. Just kind of wish he would take some responsibility and have apologized to her as well, but a girl can’t have it all!
Definitely a cute story of love coming back with a twist.
I’m generally a dark tabboo stories fan but I can never NOT read Penelope. The book starts as a typical love/ hate story and I’m thinking, oh god! Another clichéd story.
But the book surprised me. There’s a twist pretty early on and it’s Bea-u-tiful ! And for that it deserved the extra star.
The story progresses very well, it’s very well thought out plot with some very tender moments.
I enjoyed reading it
Overall this was a good one. Although there was something about the narrator’s voice or the way she read, or maybe just the way it was written that made me want to speed the audio up. Eventually though, I got into it. The author kept us wondering for so long on just what it was that made the two of them have such a contentious relationship. I mean the flashbacks we got to start made him seem just so sweet, that I had no idea what in the world she could have done to make him hate her as much as he seemed to. There were really funny parts, like the song Justin wrote after he caught Amelia watching him when he thought he was alone in the house. And when they tried to go to the movie theater they used to go to when they were kids and it wasn’t showing the same type of movies, you can guess what they were showing now. There were really sexy parts. Really sweet, emotional parts as well. But then the thing that really irritated me was when Amelia was afraid Justin had cheated on her. He honestly had never given her ANY reason to think he would do something like that. So it made me extremely angry. In the end it was a really good story, and I will definitely read/listen to more by this author in the future.
The only part of this story you will hate is the not knowing. Not knowing why, what, or when… Being left in the dark of all their secrets makes the reveal seem agonizingly over due- but that’s my impatience talking.
I absolutely loved this book. it’s not a surprise Penelope Ward knocked it out of the park with this one. She always does.
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