Lease on Love

November 29, 2021
Debut author Ballard shines in this quirky, heartwarming contemporary romance. After financial analyst Sadie Green gets passed over for a well-deserved promotion, her profane outburst earns her a pink slip. While drunkenly commiserating with her best friends, she mistakes a roommate-finding app for a dating app and ends up matched with the reclusive Jack Thomas. They clear up the miscommunication fairly quickly and, after seeing Jack’s expansive Brooklyn brownstone—and learning how little in rent he’s asking—Sadie moves in and decides to chase her longtime dream of becoming a florist. At first, she sees Jack as just her kind but nerdy roommate, but when their chemistry sparks, it’s explosive. Then Sadie discovers that Jack has been keeping a (relatively mild) secret about his past, and their future seems anything but assured. Ballard’s snappy prose and unconventional couple charm, and she gets some good chuckles out of skewering the New York City real estate market. Meanwhile, stellar supporting characters (especially Sadie’s besties Gemma, Nick, and Harley) provide a solid underpinning to this enjoyable tale. This is a treat. Agent: Kimberly Whalen, the Whalen Agency.

December 1, 2021
Opposites attract as a grieving man and an excitable woman become roommates. For six years, Sadie Green has been working overtime as a financial analyst, and now a senior position in her firm is up for grabs. She thinks she's a shoo-in, but when it's revealed that her boss's soon-to-be son-in-law is getting the job, Sadie's profanity-ladened rant about nepotism and sexism gets her fired instead. She goes out drinking with friends, who commiserate and encourage her to get back into the dating scene now that she doesn't have a job to demand so much of her attention. She goes online and quickly matches with a guy named Jack Thomas, but the two get off to a confusing start--and it soon becomes clear that while Sadie thought she was on a dating app for singles, it was actually an app to match up potential roommates. Jack has a whole brownstone in New York City to himself due to the sudden deaths of his parents. He offers Sadie cheap rent--which she now needs, badly--in return for help getting out of his isolating rut of playing video games and watching movies in his basement. Readers may not match with Jack and Sadie right off the bat, given that their introductions make Jack seem rather joyless and Sadie, a handful. It takes a while for both to mellow out and become less caricatured. Once they do, however, the romantic beats and the slow-burning attraction between them are things to savor. With Jack and Sadie both in a transitional period, Ballard sweetly explores the ways they complement one another and also how they hope to reinvent themselves following catastrophic personal changes. A balanced romantic comedy, once it finds its footing.

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January 1, 2022
Ballard's debut novel, a fantastic read for fans of The Flatshare (2019), is a keenly funny roommates-to-lovers, opposites-attract rom-com. Sadie Green gets fired from her financial job for mouthing off to her boss. In her self-castigation over her loss, she mixes up a dating app with a roommate-finding app and finds herself with a rental room in an exquisite Brooklyn brownstone for a ridiculously low price. She decides to launch her dream florist business. Jack Thomas is wealthy and owns the brownstone free and clear. He is a gifted painter but spends his days playing video games. Jack is wary and shy. Sadie is loud and brash. She barges into his world, bringing along her close-knit group of friends, and changes his life irrevocably. Sadie's larger-than-life personality hides the trauma of emotional abuse by her father. Jack's circumspection hides his suffering from the grievous loss of his beloved parents. With profound sensitivity, Ballard shows how therapy and each other's company help Jack deal with his grief and Sadie with her low self-esteem and negative self-image.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 1, 2022

DEBUT A mix-up between a roommate app and a dating app leads to unexpected love and a fresh start in Ballard's debut. When Sadie loses her job as a financial analyst after years of working overtime and stifling her colorful personality, she drunkenly swipes right on the wrong app, and finds herself trading in a midtown apartment for a Brooklyn brownstone with rent that's too low to pass up. The brownstone's owner, Jack, is young, rich, and a recluse, and Sadie sweeps into his life like a fresh breeze. As she reinvents her career and opens a florist shop, she also draws Jack into her circle of friends. He starts to open up to the world again, and eventually, to Sadie. However, their tentative romance is threatened by Sadie's deep insecurity. This charming story of new beginnings and emotional growth has a sassy and likable narrator in Sadie, and the novel keeps a light tone despite touching on difficult subjects like toxic families and grief. VERDICT Readers who enjoy female entrepreneurs, found family, and gentle romantic leads will enjoy.--Sierra Wilson

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