Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams: Strong start fizzles out
Beg, Borrow, or Steal starts off quippy and toxic in a fun way before giving up on life.
I really enjoyed the first 1/3 of this book. Main characters Emily Walker and Jack Bennett are long-time “enemies” from college onward to their teaching careers at a Kentucky elementary school in your quintessential small town — Hallmark with a touch of sass.
Tap here for a bit more back story
Emily Walker hates having her carefully crafted world disrupted by anyone, most of all her legendary nemesis, Jack Bennett. He’s the opposite of the wonderful heroes she dreams up in her double life as a romance writer, which is why Emily was perfectly happy when Jack left Rome, Kentucky, mid-school year, with his fiancée. The last thing Emily saw coming was Jack’s return at the start of the summer after calling off the wedding and ending his relationship, but he’s here to stay—as her colleague and her neighbor.
Jackson Bennett is glad to be back, eager to renovate his house and work on the next mystery novel under his bestselling pen name. But when he realizes he’s now neighbors with the one woman who has always pushed his buttons, he discovers something he’s even more excited for—thwarting Emily and her petty plans to sabotage his return.
The book starts with historic emails at the start of each chapter (these persist through the book) adding to the back story and building up the “drama” between Emily and Jack. However, the enemy feelings are really lightweight or frequently over-the-top.
For example, Emily goes to ridiculous lengths to run Jack out of town after he buys a house next door to her. Somehow, she manages to coordinate a town-wide blackout. It’s toxic in a fun way because it was so darn silly to contemplate the logistics and conversations that would lead to this. I didn’t mind the silly at all. The book was still charming through here with witty exchanges and the first ice-breaking incidents.
When things start to go south (no pun intended)
My problems with the book started building up a little way into Emily and Jack becoming friends. It goes well at first, and there are even some fun hijinks involving the two of them. Jack is incredibly supportive and an ideal man overall.
As their closeness grows, Emily’s hang-ups take center stage, and I found myself thinking this girl really just needed to have a book where she worked out her family feelings instead of starting a relationship. A lot of her thoughts about her sisters and brother as their lives progress are terribly unfair and regressive, and Emily apparently only navigated a few sessions of therapy to work through some unresolved early-years trauma.
It shows.
Jack ends up bearing the angst and feelings Emily has about her relationship with her siblings and her history– note these aren’t great either. Add-in some hang-ups about a high school romance ending, and her head is a real disaster zone.
At this point, Jack starts to feel like an emotional punching bag for her hang-ups, and dude is here for it even though he is simultaneously resolving his own issues with his mom and dad. At a dramatic juncture in the book, when Emily’s sisters tell her more or less the same thing Jack did (without his unique perspective, of course) about a key point, it all finally clicks for her. Umm…yay!
This situation and some ridiculously convenient phone calls (the phone ALWAYS rings to interrupt relationship progression and the minimal summarized spicy time) didn’t ruin the entire reading experience, but they did turn this book into one I would probably not revisit.
This book is Book 3 in the When in Rome series. I had no difficulty following along with this book without reading the prior books, and honestly, I think I would have been infinitely more annoyed with Emily in this one if I had read those books first.
If some of the other books in the series popped up at a Kindle discount, I could see myself checking them out to get a bigger picture view of Sarah Adams’ writing. I liked the first part of this book enough for that!
Tropes and themes in Beg, Borrow, or Steal, a contemporary romance
- Enemies to lovers
- Small-town vibes
- Secret identities
- Family angst
- Unresolved trauma (touched lightly to keep the book from being too heavy)
Full series book list (Beg, Borrow, or Steal is Book 3 in the When in Rome series
