Review: Finding Mr. Right Next Door by Sarah Ballance

Finding Mr. Right Next Door
by Sarah Ballance
Publisher: Entangled
Publication date: May 11, 2020
Genre: Romance
Rating:

For Lexi Dean, burning down her kitchen was disaster enough. Agreeing to move in next door with her totally off-limits best friend, Matt Freeman, until her house is livable again?

Utter madness.

They’ve always been close, but this is ridiculous. If she’s not bumping into him at the refrigerator, he’s at the front door giving her date the third degree. And slipping between his borrowed sheets? That’s about as distracting as listening to his shower run, because suddenly all she can think about is rivulets of water cascading down is spectacular body—the one he seems to be going out of his way to make sure she notices.

Not that it matters. He can flaunt his firefighter abs around her all he wants. They already share everything—their jobs, their friends, their backyard, even their dog—and that means only one thing: Lexi is not going to risk losing any of it by dipping a single toe in the temptation that is Matt Freeman.

Lexi may not know how to handle a fire extinguisher, but this is one fire that just might burn them both if they’re not careful…

Lexi is clearly not a baker… or a cook. It’s well known that she should not be allowed in the kitchen. Which is kind of ironic since she works at a firehouse and her best friend/neighbor is a firefighter. But I suppose we all have our strong points, and clearly being a domestic goddess is not one of hers. So, needless to say, it comes to no surprise when Lexi manages to set her kitchen on fire when trying to bake a simple tart. Which is how she ends up crashing at her best friend’s place, who she may or may not have a thing for.

I really liked that this book focused on a best friends to lovers romance. Both Lexi and Matt have a thing for the other, but since they’ve been friends since the moment they could walk and talk , they try to keep their feelings at bay. However, with being in such close quarters, they find themselves having a hard time resisting temptation. I loved that these two had such a long history together. The story that Matt’s grandma tells about the time they were 5 and Lexi wanted a flower on a tree, so Matt tried really hard to get that flower for her was really cute. However, then it’s revealed that even as he got older, he kept that photo on his nightstand of the one time he was unable to get her what she wanted… my heart melted.

However, with that being said, I just didn’t buy their romance. I feel like we were being told it was a thing, without actually experiencing it. It was cute and light hearted, but it didn’t heat up the sheets, if you know what I mean. I suppose I wish the author took a bit more time to fully develop the characters and their relationship. The pieces were all there, but I just wasn’t fully immersed in their story. I think I just needed a bit more from them.

Finding Mr. Right Next Door was a cute quick romance between friends. There’s not a whole lot that takes place. No crazy drama. No huge climatic parts. Just two best friends stumbling their way through new territory.