From New York Times bestselling author Talia Hibbert comes an electric, domestic, roommates-to-lovers standalone romance between a whirlwind party girl and her uptight best friend… plumbing disaster screws everything up and leaves Jas homeless. Luckily, she has someone to turn to: her best friend Rahul.
For seven years, Rahul Khan has followed three simple rules.
* Don’t touch Jasmine if you can help it.
* Don’t look at her arse in that skirt.
* And don’t ever—ever—tell her you love her.
He should’ve added another rule: Do not, under any circumstances, let Jas move into your house.
Now Rahul is living with the friend he can’t have, and it’s decimating his control. He knows their shared dinners aren’t dates, their late-night kisses are a mistake, and the tenderness in Jasmine’s gaze is only temporary. One wrong word could send his skittish best friend running.
So why is he tempted to risk it all?
This book was previously published as Wanna Bet?. The Roommate Risk is a steamy, standalone, diverse romance. This book is 75,000 words of fluff, angst, and extreme pleasure, with NO cliffhangers, NO cheating, and a guaranteed HEA. Please be aware: this story contains themes of parental neglect and abandonment, parental death, and alcohol dependence that could trigger certain audiences.
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I started Wanna bet on a Saturday night and finished on the following evening. I couldn’t put it down. It is intensely emotional and so incredibly sexy. And romantic. Wow. The relationship between Rahul and Jasmine was unique, real and breath-taking. They started as friends, had a brief foray into lovers, but he decided he’d rather have her as a friend than not at all. So Rahul hid his feelings for his best friend for 7 years. But when Jas’ apartment floods and she temporarily moves in with him, all bets are off. But Jas has issues that stem from childhood, and it skews the way she looks at relationships and herself. So they both battle that while trying to navigate this while turning from friends to lovers. This book leveled me with the beautiful writing, the witty and funny dialogue, the emotions that just twisted me up and the passion that just burned up my Kindle. In a word, this books is simply AMAZING!! Now I’m on a Talia Hibbert binge…
Why does Book Bub not have tags for “Underlineable writing”? This was a difficult book to read at times because the protagonist was a difficult “person” to really “love”…. which was the point. Hibbert exposed the motivation artfully instead of bogging down the dialogue with expository and didactic paragraphs of backstory. She crafted multiple dramatic arcs and in that way gave us multiple versions of the same characters. As always, she can turn a phrase or three. The writing caught my breath at times. Who says sexy romances can’t be literary? Idiots.
The pining. Oh my goodness the pining. Pining has never been so satisfactory. How did Talia Hibbert wreck me like this? How is she so good at writing such sexy brown men? One of my favorite movies has a main character named Rahul and I have always had a crush on him and this book just gave me all the feels. Rahul was so freaking sexy. I loved reading Jasmine’s POV as she described Rahul (especially that scene in the pool). Rahul was 100% book husband material. He was so loving and caring. I loved how he had to work on himself just as much as Jasmine did. He was the perfect hero, but he had to love himself and give himself some slack before he could fully commit to Jasmine. He had to have some development before he could fully commit to Jasmine and he didn’t even realize it.
Hibbert wrote both POVs so wonderfully. You got to see their insecurities inside their own head only to jump into the other person’s head and see them love the other and lust over the other unconditionally.
I will be honest, I was annoyed with Jasmine for a good portion of the book. Her commitment-phobia was a little too much for me at times. But a similar thing happened when I read Dani Brown, now I love them both. I honestly think I was annoyed with them because they reminded me of myself at times. I love reading cynical heroines who end up with men who are heads over heels in love with them and Hibbert does a great job of writing that.
I appreciate that Hibbert didn’t overcomplicate and make a mess of the story by trying to have a sub-plot outside of the romance. It worked really well for this story. The focus of this book was the beautiful, emotional development and history between Jasmine and Rahul.
I’m not a big “happy ending with kids” kinda gal but Hibbert wrote a great epilogue.
I read this book after Hibbert said in one of her lives that this is the book that made her realize that she can write. We all already knew that she is talented, but this book just reinforced how talented she is at writing emotional and riveting stories of loving others and yourself.
/ 5 stars | / 5 steam
I don’t normally like very angsty romance stories, but I adored this one. Things I loved:
• Superbly well-rounded characters. I felt I understood them down to their molecular level, which is a testament to the author’s skill. At no point was I aware of any info dumps, but she seamlessly worked Jasmine and Rahul’s considerable baggage into the story.
• So much pining! Rahul has been in love with Jasmine since their first steamy encounter, one she swore never to repeat because “I don’t f*ck friends,” and she wants to hang onto their friendship. So does he, so he makes the sacrifice—but oh, how he suffers!
• Delicious slow burn. Once things turn steamy again—and no one writes steam like Talia Hibbert—it’s really hot and ramps up the angst.
• Flawed characters I can root for, especially Jasmine, because the author shows us her good, good heart.
• Outspoken, bold heroine and shy, introverted hero.
• Heroine with non-standard beauty and a hero who’s absolutely gaga over her.
• Some truly lovely writing. I don’t often stop and gasp over a finely wrought phrase, but I did here.
• Super-satisfying ending because the characters had to fight so damn hard for it. Highly recommend!
The hottest best friends to lovers I’ve read!
Y’all when I say this one is hot, I mean it! Jasmine and Rahul have been friends forever and, aside from one time when they first met, they have never crossed the line into benefits territory…but now they’ve not only crossed it then blew it up completely!!!
I loved the mix of deep emotions, Jasmine’s abandonment issues and Rahul’s grief about his dad, and absolutely set the sheets on fire sexy times.
I’m now firmly and forever on the Talia Hibbert One Click Without Needing to Read the Synopsis Team!
My new favorite friends-to-lovers romance!
I’ve yet to read a word of Talia Hibbert I don’t love, but this book! Tears streaming down my face throughout. Just lovely.
Best friends to lovers
I quite enjoyed this story. Rahul and Jasmine were the best of friends who turned out to be perfect for each other. They had to learn how to really love their own selves before they really could love each other the way they deserved.
Jasmine was mature enough to realize she had issues and in order to ever have a good relationship and love someone she needed to work on them.
This is my first book by Talia Hibbert and I really really enjoyed it. I will be looking to read more books from her.