Beg, Borrow, or Steal

౨ৎ | 'i may have lost the safe place i needed all those years ago, but i have found a far more incredible one for the years ahead.'

— ★ 5/5

this book series is literally so dear to me, i eat them up every time.

emily really needed jack, and jack really needed her. i loved watching them go from enemies, to friends, to loving each other. i loved their banter and how they were also so soft for each other. there was no unnecessary drama either between the two.

also jack the man you are. he had ME giggling, kicking my feet and sending voice memos to my best friend AHHHH.

i loved the scenes we got from previous couples (WILLANNIE COME HOME TO ME PLEASE) anyway i am super excited for maddies book, but also super devastated its the last one.

Definitely not my favorite romance, but cute! I think the ending was too rushed for the story and there were some loose ends that could've been tied up better.

Cute and innocent romance.

I just love this series. Something about how everyone loves living in their small town, the rumor mill is a well-stoked fire, and beautiful men with brilliant careers just HAPPEN to show up for all these sisters to fall in love with. Also the number of times Emily described Jackson as charming, geez. Can't wait for the fourth and final book.

𝒃𝒆𝒈, 𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒘, 𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒍

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

my 2024 book of the year!! i was hooked from chapter 1 and i could write a thesis about how emily and jack are the perfect couple 💫

💘 enemies to lovers

💘 small town

💘 forced proximity

💘 he falls first - elite

the third book in the 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘙𝘰𝘮𝘦 series, and every single book has just pulled at my heart strings! reading this book was reminiscent to a 2000s romcom, where our main characters hate each other but have to lean on each other for help, all while slowly falling for each other 🙈 the way i was giggling throughout because the way Sarah wrote Jack and Emily’s rivalry and the banter to go with it was truly my fave yet! the closet scene will live rent free in my mind forever 🥵

I truly loved seeing Emily’s personal growth throughout this one! she is the character I have most related to in this series, and Sarah wrote her and her struggles so well. Emily is so fiercely protective of her family and the people she loves but she also keeps so much of herself hidden. I love seeing the Walker siblings come together in each book, and watching Noah give Emily advice at the end made me cry actual tears!

Jack is truly like no other man I’ve ever read, he is on his own pedestal because he is perfection. he was so in tune with Emily and he would do anything for her. you could feel that he only ever competed with Emily so he could be close to her.

I loved the maturity in this book, there was no miscommunication trope, there were some emotional topics included and I think this is Sarah’s best writing yet 🦋

p.s. swipe for a blooper pic cos of the wind

thank you @hachetteaus for not only giving me an e-arc via netgalley so i could read this one early, but also for sending me a final copy as a trophy on my shelves 💘

Emily is the fix-it girl in her family.  She may not be the eldest but she is definitely the mother hen. Super organised, plain speaking (at least in her head 98% of the time!) and then there is Jack, nifty dressing, people charmer, all around nice guy - to everyone but Emily!

I teared up in laughter more than once with this pair.  Everyone, and I do mean everyone in Rome, can see that these two should be together.  They are like the same person in different fonts! But I think they both needed to grow a little, get a little perspective before they could put aside their verbal sparring and just "see" each other for the first time.

I loved the way that seeking and needing help are not seen as flaws, it is held up as a sign of being an adult and being self aware.  Emily's need to be everything to everyone and always be needed so that people won't leave her.  Jack's need to please everyone, to hide his career from his narcissistic father, to escape his verbal and physical assaults, the need to try and save his mother.  These are flawed characters and they are beautifully chipped, no glossy façade of perfection - just a functioning mess if we're honest lol. The banter and the emails between Emily and Jack from the beginning of their relationship to the present day are a hoot and I could hear the voices in my head and hear the thumping of the keyboard as they wrote back and forth, sometimes in anger, sometimes working together in spite of their rivalry. Their shared love of books and how they keep them sane really tied them together and just made them a great pairing.

This isn't a super spicy romance, there are only one or two smexy scenes but there is nothing over the top if that's not your thing.

The secondary characters are mostly couples from previous books and various townsfolk, all of whom seem to survive on gossip! One of my fave scenes is at the end of the book and it's not even about Emily and Jack, and I love that the author can still tell their story whilst giving some love to previous characters.