After Dani finds out that her fiancé is cheating, she wants revenge! With the help of her best friend and cousin, Mia and her quirky new landlady Iris, Dani decides that the perfect way to spite her cheating ex-fiancé is to buy and build a vacation rental on the vacant lot beside his house—who doesn’t want to hear ongoing construction noises and see a new build outside of their window and blocking their gorgeous view? But Dani needs help planning and building her “spite house” and the only person willing to help is her handsome yet surly co-worker, Wyatt. As the build progresses, Dani comes to realise that her “spite house” is becoming less about revenge and more about wanting to spend time with Wyatt outside of the office (where dating each other would be frowned upon).
Love at First Spite is an adult romance novel featuring the enemies to lovers and forbidden love tropes. The “spite house” construction as well as Dani and Wyatt’s relationship was reminiscent of Wes and Bethany’s story in Tools of Engagement by Tessa Bailey and Dani’s personality, especially when she trashes her wedding dress at paintball, reminded me of Zara from The Singles Table by Sara Desai; so, if you liked either of these books, you are sure to enjoy Love at First Spite! If you also liked The Fastest Way to Fall by Denise Williams, How Sweet It Is by Dylan Newton, and 99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne, then definitely pick this up. The novel deals with themes such as love and heartbreak, revenge, destruction, communication or lack there of, family, female roles, social class, trust, as well as health and wellbeing. For me, the moral of Love at First Spite is that moving forward is better than living in the past.
On the positive side, the chapters were relatively short and thus quicker to read. I liked how the “spite house” construction, as well as Dani and Wyatt’s relationship, was reminiscent of couples and builds on HGTV shows like Flip or Flop and Masters of Flip. The incorporation of extra pranks or jabs that Dani included in her “spite house” construction and planning, like tons of novelty garden gnomes and a big photoshoot involving LARPers, made for an enjoyable read. It also features some unexpected twists that kept things interesting, including an incident involving the fire department and a ninja-like break-in. Lastly, I loved how Dani’s story ended and I appreciated that Collins extended Dani’s story by including an epilogue and a playlist at the end of the novel.
The main thing that I disliked about Love at First Spite was there was a lot of unnecessary information included in the first third of the novel pertaining to the acquisition and designing of the “spite house” that I could have done without. Furthermore, I was disappointed that Dani and Wyatt’s love story didn’t really start until about halfway through the novel. But, after the halfway point, things get a lot more interesting as this is when Dani and Wyatt start to blur the lines between professional and romantic and conflicts arise with both Dani and her ex-fiancé and Dani and her Cousin Mia.
Overall, although slow to start, Love at First Spite is an enjoyable read and would recommend it to fans of Tessa Bailey, Sara Desai, and Dylan Newton as well as fans of building and renovation shows featured on HGTV!
Love at First Spite is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of January 4th 2022.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Falling in love is the ultimate payback in this delightful, breezy romcom about an interior designer who teams up with an enigmatic architect at her firm to get revenge on her ex the only way she knows how: by building a spite house next door
They say living well is the best revenge. But sometimes, spreading the misery seems a whole lot more satisfying. That’s interior designer Dani Porter’s justification for buying the vacant lot next to her ex-fiancé’s house…the house they were supposed to live in together, before he cheated on her with their Realtor. Dani plans to build a vacation rental that will a) mess with his view and his peace of mind and b) prove that Dani is not someone to be stepped on. Welcome to project Spite House.
That plan quickly becomes complicated when Dani is forced to team up with Wyatt Montego, the handsome, haughty architect at her firm, and the only person available to draw up blueprints. Wyatt is terse and stern, the kind of man who eats his sandwich with a knife and fork. But as they spend time together on- and off-site, Dani glimpses something deeper beneath that hard veneer, something surprising, vulnerable, and real. And the closer she gets to her goal, the more she wonders if winning revenge could mean losing something infinitely sweeter…
