I’m back with another blog tour today with Rachel’s Random Resources for Mr. Right Across the Street. Thanks to NetGalley and One More Chapter for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Be sure to click on the banner below to check out the other bloggers on tour!

Goodreads: Mr Right Across the Street
Release Date: 22 January 2021
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Panda Rating:

_{(3 pandas)}

Mia Abbott’s move to Manchester was supposed to give her time and space from all the disastrous romantic choices she’s made in her past. But then the hot guy who lives opposite – the one who works out every day at exactly 10 a.m., not that Mia has noticed thank-you-very-much – starts leaving notes in his window…for her.

Bar owner Luke Doyle has his own issues to deal with but as he shows Mia the sites of her new city he also shows her what real romance looks like for the first time. And when he cooks up a signature cocktail in her honour, she realises that the man behind the bar is even more enticing than any of his creations. And once she’s had a taste she knows it will never be enough!

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A former pharmacist, I’m now a medical writer who also writes romance. Some days a racing heart is a medical condition, others it’s the reaction to a sexy hero.  With a husband who asks every Valentine’s Day whether he has to buy a card (yes, he does), any romance is all in my head. Then again, his unstinting support of my career change proves love isn’t always about hearts and flowers – and heroes come in many disguises.

Author’s Socials:
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TL;DR: One look at this cute as cover was all it took to get me to want to read this book. As it is, I have pretty mixed feelings about it! There were cute and fun “non-dates”, cheeky banter and flirting, awesome side characters that I couldn’t get enough of, and ultimately a nice love story with a HEA. That said, there were things that irritated me and made me uncomfortable. Mia was hard to like! She was so hot/cold and extremely judgemental and it made me feel lukewarm about the book towards the end. It was still a fun romance though and I’d recommend it if you’re looking for a light, entertaining and fast read! Oh, not to mention a little steamy too 😉

Everything about this adorable cover (and synopsis) screamed at me to read this book and so I was very excited at the opportunity to join the blog tour for it. Having read the story now, I’m a bit sad that the people on the cover aren’t accurate representations of the characters (i.e. Mia is actually blonde and Luke is mega buff) but I know only a weirdo like me notices and gets bothered by things like that. 😂 Back to the book itself!

The story pulled me in really quickly. I liked our initial glimpses of Mia and although she has a major “not-like-other-girls” complex, she came across as relatable. We also quickly learn that Luke, the man next door and owner of the local bar, is very much a ladies man–that is, of course, until Mia steps into his bar. Were some bits of their ‘we’re just friends’ routine a bit cliche? Sure, but I still had fun with it. Their non-dates around Manchester were so much fun and their flirty banter definitely had me chuckling a time or two. I loved the cheesiness of the names that Luke would come up with for Mia and her hair, not to mention the cocktails he’d make her! Of course, there’s the way they communicate with each other which I also thought was really cute. I love the idea of leaving little messages for each other like that!

The side characters were the real winners for me. Phil and Sandy were great support systems for Luke! I really appreciated that she formed such a great friendship with Stan and that they genuinely cared about each other and pushed each other to go after what they each wanted! Honestly, we need more stories about oldies in love! 😍

Where I started to run into trouble was actually with Mia’s character. She ran very hot/cold with Luke until the very end (yes, THE VERY END!!!) and it got old very quickly. She was incredibly judgemental and despite Luke’s obvious efforts to prove how serious he was about being with her, she kept reverting to her juvenile “the cool boys can’t like nerdy girls” mentality and it was like, girl, please! You’re no longer in high school! 🤦🏻‍♀️ Not saying Luke was always perfect because he made some pretty dumb mistakes, but I honestly felt at times that Luke got the very short end of the stick because of how harshly Mia judged him and it really wasn’t fair on his character. They both definitely could’ve worked harder on their communication but also, a large part of that was kinda on Mia. It’s “funny” because there were times Mia would acknowledge how she was being bitchy and judgemental but then she’d keep doing it again anyway. 🤷🏻‍♀️

There’s also a fair bit of slut-shaming in this story. Another thing about Mia that made me uncomfortable was her constant need to judge women for putting an effort into their appearance. I understand being insecure about appearances but Mia was so adamant about not caring and having a “what you see is what you get” persona. Yet she was so fixated on comparing other women’s appearances to her own and making them out to be try-hard attention-seekers just cos they made an effort to look nice. Not to mention she’d always harp on about them doing it just to catch Luke’s attention and um, can’t they just be dressing up for themselves? If she was so happy with not caring about how she looked, I don’t think she’d have been so obsessed over this. Plus, it would’ve been easy for her to put in some effort if she was so worried rather than shaming other women for doing it…

Okay… so I got a bit frustrated with her character 😬 She wasn’t always all bad though and for the most part, I did enjoy the friendships and romance. The side characters really made this more enjoyable for me!

Have you read Mr Right Across the Street or is it on your TBR?