Her Unexpected Roommate by Jackie Lau

Rose Pang is the last in her group of friends to be single. Would she like love? Sure. But she's got depression and her mental health is not the greatest. Should she be hooking up with a guy she just met? Maybe not. But he is really hot. Too bad he ghosts her.

Caleb Dempsey was just as into Rose as she was to him, but his phone was run over. No seriously. So he is pretty darn happy that his new roommate is the woman he hasn't stopped thinking about for the past seven months. Now he just has to make her believe that his story is true.

Three stars

This book came out August 29, 2023

Follows Her Favorite Rebound

Borrowed as ebook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Her Favorite Rebound by Jackie Lau

Ufda. I wasn't sure about the premise of this book but a) this series has been really fun and b) Lau is an amazing writer, if anyone could pull off a heroine dating a billionaire at the start of the book but ending up with someone different, it would be Lau. But... well. I finished the book and Lau's writing was still good but we have a good dash of insta-love tossed with a side of the hero being creep (and acknowledging it!) with just a dash of a flat villain caricature and this book fell pretty flat.

Sierra Wu is a divorced woman who doesn't want children and her mother berates her about it every time they meet. But Sierra has a secret in her back pocket, she's dating a billionaire. And at the beginning of the book, she lets this news drop. Sierra's friends have secrets as well (which we know from previous books in the series); they don't like her billionaire. And Jake Tong doesn't like him either.

Jake worked for Colton Sanders and knows just what a bad guy he is. When he sees a woman in a restaurant one night and falls immediately in love with her, he has to let her know that Colton is bad news. And then Jake has to track her down at her workplace. Thankfully, he backs off after that but he still jumps in with both feet and railroads Sierra when she does end up calling him later because... plot reasons. 

Two stars

This book came out March 29, 2022

Follows A Very Beery New Year

Followed by https://themeanderingreader.blogspot.com/2023/02/her-unexpected-roommate-by-jackie-lau.htmlHer Unexpected Roommate

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

The Professor Next Door by Jackie Lau

All she wants is someone with no strings to stay no strings but also just stay. Nicole Louie-Edwards is about to turn thirty-four and she can't seem to find the kind of life she wants. But she's having a lot of fun while she waits. 

David Cho is Nicole's next-door-neighbor. And, as he notes to himself, they share a very thin wall. He is very aware of how she spends her nights and it... affects him. 

The two of them meet when the elevator to their apartment stops while they are both in it. But that is a small part of the book and the two begin a more adult relationship. But, it's very possible that it will turn into something more. 

Four stars

This book came out June 8, 2021

Follows Her Pretend Christmas Date

Followed by A Very Beery New Year

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Her Pretend Christmas Date by Jackie Lau

Younger sister Julie Tam has always felt inferior to her sister Charlotte. No fault of Charlotte's but she is an engineer with a job that their parents understand. Now, Charlotte's dating a perfect guy and Julie is... well... she's making jewelry and waiting tables. She's not ashamed of either but neither does she enjoy getting into fights with her parents over what she's doing with her life. She needs something and the perfect fix might be the right man. Too bad the blind date she's been set up with, Tom Yeung, isn't going to be that man. But she decides to tell her parents he is anyway. And when her mom asks if Tom wants to come for Christmas, Julie throws caution to the wind and asks the man who's unknowingly been her fake boyfriend for months if he'd like to go with her. When he says yes, she's absolutely floored. But grateful.

Through tribulations (sleeping on the floor) and trials (couples gingerbread house bakeoff), the two start to get to know and appreciate each other.

Four stars

This book came out December 8, 2020

Follows His Grumpy Childhood Friend

Followed by The Professor Next Door

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

His Grumpy Childhood Friend by Jackie Lau

The book opens in the middle of Charlotte Tam's worst nightmare, her boyfriend proposing to her at a Toronto Blue Jays game on the big screen. She loves the Jays, hates the public. So why didn't her boyfriend get that? 

Years later and Charlotte is generally happy in her job that lets her work from home without having to put on real pants (we hear about that a lot; since I agree with her sentiment, it didn't bother me) and generally not going out except to occasionally meet her friends at a cider bar. One night, she recognizes the boy who used to live next door, Mike Guo. He left suddenly one night and she never heard from her best friend again. But now he's all kinds of grown up and hot. Surely he must have women crawling all over him. He'd be the perfect person to get her back into the dating game!

Mike isn't exactly the stud that Charlotte thinks he is but he has missed his old friend and is delighted  to spend more time with her. The fact that he now has grown up feelings for her is just icing on top of the cake. 

I loved that the fake relationship didn't last too long. I loved that most of the conflict from these two was external to their relationship because they talked to each other. The timeline was maybe a little fast but I really enjoyed this book.

Four stars

This book came out October 27, 2020

Follows Her Big City Neighbor

Followed by Her Pretend Christmas Date

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Her Big City Neighbor by Jackie Lau

I only discovered Jackie Lau last year even though the Smart Bitches have talked about her for years. Her characters are captivating and her stories are generally pretty fun even if the last Big Misunderstanding in this one was a bit forced.
Victor Choi is still mourning the loss of his brother five years ago. And I did think the mourning was handled realistically (having lost my own brother just over 2 years ago, I connected with him.) He was always the more serious sibling but now he is downright dour. His new neighbor, Amy Sharpe, is exactly the opposite. 
Thirty years old and entering grad school, Amy inherited a house in Toronto from her great aunt and is delighted. She gets to try new foods, she gets to meet new people... like the hottie next door who tends to mow his grass with his shirt off (we hear about that a LOT). Sure, he's handsome and good in bed but he needs to step it up. Amy spent years in a relationship where she put in the majority of the work. But first he needs to pull his head out of his own ass.

Three and a half stars

Followed by His Grumpy Childhood Friend

ebook borrowed from CloudLibrary

This book came out September 8th, 2020