ARC Review: Would You Rather

Hi, loves! 🥰 In honor of Would You Rather‘s release day tomorrow, let me convince you to read this adorable friends-to-lovers, marriage of convenience romance!

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Mia and Noah have been best friends since childhood. Mia has a chronic illness, so when she gets the opportunity of a lifetime to go back to college and finish her degree she’s going to have to turn it down because she relies on the medical insurance her job provides. Noah would do anything for Mia so he offers to marry her (*purely for logistical reasons, of course*) so that she can be on his medical insurance and still follow her dreams. Mia hesitantly agrees. Since they’re taking a big risk, they know they have to convince everyone around them their marriage and romance are real. It shouldn’t be too hard since they’ve been secretly pining for each other for years (ahhhh!!). Mia and Noah’s marriage forces them to finally confront their feelings and determine if they can finally be more than “just friends.”

I absolutely loved the tropes in this book. Marriage of convenience is always one of my favorites to read, but I also really appreciated this instance of friends to lovers. The main thing I usually dislike about friends to lovers is when the main characters string other people along despite knowing they really want to be with each other, but that wasn’t the case here so I was able to whole-heartedly root for Mia and Noah.

This was easy to do because Mia and Noah make a great couple. While Mia is an extrovert and makes friends everywhere she goes, Noah is more reserved and introverted. This difference creates balance between them rather than friction though, and it’s so cute to read about how Noah admires Mia’s ability to charm everyone because he can’t fathom not being charmed by her.

There’s also an emotional aspect to Would You Rather that involves Noah’s brother, Nathan. As heartbreaking as it was to read, I felt that it added a lot of depth to the story and illustrated how fiercely Noah loves those who are important to him.

The only aspect of this book that I didn’t love was how stubborn Mia was in refusing to be with Noah because she didn’t want to be a “burden” to him. One of my top reading pet peeves is when characters deny themselves what they really want because they think they’re doing what’s best for someone else. Although I thought Mia’s reasoning was well-explained and it didn’t impact my enjoyment of this novel too much, it did start to feel a little repetitive and frustrating by the end.

Overall, I thought this was a super cute, well-written debut novel! I would highly recommend giving Would You Rather a read and I will definitely be reading whatever Allison Ashley writes next!