The Roommate Pact – ARC review

The Roommate Pact
by Allison Ashley
Release Date: August 1, 2023
Publisher: MIRA
Standalone
Number of Pages: 320
Kindle Edition
Source: ARC from NetGalley
Contemporary Romance
Ages 14 and up
CW: grief, bullying, PTSD
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All of the fun, none of the heartache…as long as they stick to the agreement.

The proposition is simple: if ER nurse Claire Harper and her roommate, firefighter Graham Scott, are still single by the time they’re forty, they’ll take the proverbial plunge together…as friends with benefits. Maybe it’s the wine, but in the moment, Claire figures the pact is a safe-enough deal, considering she hasn’t had much luck in love and he’s in no rush to settle down. Like, at all. Besides, there’s no way she could ever really fall for Graham and his thrill-seeking ways. Not after what happened to her father…

Just as things begin to heat up way before the proposed deadline, Graham’s injured in a serious rock climbing accident—and he needs Claire’s help to heal. She’ll do whatever it takes to nurse him back to health…even if it means moving in to Graham’s bed and putting up with his little dog, who hates her. But with this no-strings arrangement taking a complicated turn, keeping “for now” from turning into “forever” isn’t as easy as they’d planned.

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My feelings are all over the map with this one. There are things I adored and I read this book quickly, yet I always felt as though something was missing.

It’s obvious that Graham is not only very physically attracted to Claire but also has feelings for her. This isn’t even on Claire’s radar as Graham is a very anti-relationship type of guy. Graham doesn’t even realize how deep his feelings go. The same can be said for Claire, although she has denied any feelings because she does want a traditional relationship and does NOT want it with anyone with a dangerous job. When Graham gets hurt (not on the job as a firefighter, but pursuing his love of rock climbing) all of their preconceived notions of what their relationship is go out the window.

One of the things I love about this story is a sort of journal Graham keeps. Through this journal, which he frames as messages to Claire, you see his growing realization of the feelings between them. Not that I didn’t get some of that chemistry when the two are on page together, but it’s these journal entries that set the butterflies free in my belly. This aspect of the story is wonderful and kept me engaged with the characters.

I think one of the things that didn’t work for me is how things happened with the inevitable blow-up of this budding relationship. Not so much the reasons it happened but what happens after. Until Claire and Graham reconcile, that space between, it just didn’t make sense to me. That being said, I did enjoy it when they finally made up.

One last thing, that did not affect my rating but was a surprise to me that I thought worth mentioning. This is a closed-door romance. Not a big deal, although it’s not my preference I’m fine with it for the most part. But I found the way it was closed door to be a bit odd. It didn’t read like a closed door until – BAM – the door was slammed in my face. It was almost like the author was going to go back and write the intimate scenes and forgot. The characters would be getting hot and heavy and suddenly it’s the next scene. It is just very abrupt every single time. I’ve never experienced that before, and this is a new-to-me author so I don’t know if that’s her usual style.

All in all this story was enjoyable. I will definitely give this author another try. It’s obvious that these are crossover characters from a previous book of hers so I may try that one someday.

3.5 stars

**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**