Quick Info
Book: A Very Good Bad Idea
Author: Emma Chase
Rating: 4.25/5
Spice: 3/5 🌶️
Format: e-reader / audio (70/30)
Best for: Readers who love rivals to lovers with crazy-hijinks energy, like You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle or The Hating Game by Sally Thorne.
I received a complimentary ARC from Valentine PR. All opinions are my own.
What Are the Main Tropes?
This is a rivals-to-lovers rom-com with forced proximity and a hero who falls first and falls hard. Two rival real estate developers are stuck in an old woman’s house, trying to make each other so miserable that one of them leaves.
⚔️ Rivals to Lovers
🏠 Forced Proximity
🏗️ Rival Real Estate Developers
📜 Inheritance with Strings Attached
😈 Petty Pranks and Hijinks
😂 Rom-Com
What Is It About?
Two rival real estate developers keep going after the same deals, and neither can stand the other. What neither knows is that they’ve both been quietly befriending the same sweet old woman, Clarabelle, who owns the last piece of land each of them needs. They started out just buttering her up in hopes of landing the property. Then, somewhere along the way, they both actually fell for her.
Clarabelle has the last laugh. When she passes away, she leaves the house to both of them, on one condition: they live in it together for four months. No phones, ankle monitors that track them if they step off the property, and a friend who can drop off supplies once every two weeks. If one leaves, they forfeit. So naturally, each of them decides the move is to make the other one miserable enough to quit
What Did I Love?
The hijinks. I kept a running list of my favorite pranks in my voice notes while I read.
🕷️ Spiders in her dresser drawer.
🐭 Mouse traps scattered across the floor so he can’t take a step without setting one off.
🐟 Salmon hidden under his floorboards.
🪟 Every window in the solarium painted over in black.
Some pranks are more inventive than others, but the escalation is what makes it so fun. You can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
The heroine. Chapter 8 has a moment where she eats a spider, and I’m not going to say more than this: I could have done without it, but it was also kind of badass. Then in chapter nine she’s stuffing saltines and honey into her bra, and there’s a line about botulism near the end of that chapter that had me laughing out loud.
The angst. It’s a rivals-to-lovers story with real heat under the humor. They’re attracted to each other from the very first page, and as the months in that house wear on, fighting it gets harder. The funny moments and the longing sit right next to each other, and that balance is why this one worked for me.
Clarabelle. A meddlesome old woman who locks two rivals in a house for four months and plays matchmaker from beyond the grave? Yes, please. She’s the heart of this book.
The leads. Both are flawed, big personalities with good hearts, and we get their backstories and the tragedies that made them who they are. Damon is absolutely gone for her, and a hero who falls first and falls hard is my favorite.
The spice. Really, really hot and steamy, and it fit the story’s trajectory.
The emotional depth. I came for the pranks, and I stayed because there’s more underneath them than you’d expect.
What Didn’t Work?
Not much, and the little I have is a nitpick. There’s no way they wouldn’t have given the two of them some way to contact someone in case of an emergency (e.g., a landline). I get that it adds to the drama, but it nagged at me. The same goes for living on nothing but saltines and peanut butter and honey for two weeks. It’s unrealistic, but it’s all in good fun, and it feeds right into the chaos.
Alli’s Scorecard
🏗️ Plot: ████▌ 4.5/5
💞 Characters: ████▌ 4.5/5
🔥 Romance and Spice: ████▌ 4.5/5
⏳ Pacing: ████░ 4/5
😂 Gut Feeling: ████░ 4/5
🏠 Ambiance: ████░ 4/5
⭐ Overall: ████░ 4/5
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for something fun, hilarious, and over the top, A Very Good Bad Idea delivers. It reminded me a lot of You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle, so if you loved that one, put this on your list. Don’t let middling Goodreads ratings keep you from a book with a premise that genuinely excites you. It’s under 300 pages, so it’s a quick read, and the audiobook is fantastic.
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