Ali Hazelwood's, Under One Roof

The plot of this novel had the potential to become something that readers will swoon after and get lost in days after they had closed the final pages, but it's poor execution totally ruined it.

This book falls within the enemies-to-lovers trope and I wouldn't say it was poorly written, but I wouldn't also say the storyline was perfect either.

"Under One Roof" is a roommate romance novel about Mara and Liam.
Mara is a recent PhD graduate who is looking to settle down somewhere nice and favorable, while she begins her character as am environmental engineer.
However, Mara's favorite person, her college mentor, has just died. She is in for a shocking surprise when she discovers that her mentor left her a house.
However, her happiness is short-lived because she finds out that the house is already being occupied by a very aloof, very broody and temperamental lawyer.

Liam on the other hand, is dreamy. However, he works for a corporation Mara hates and even though they'll be living as roommates, or housemates, she already doesn't like him.

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Liam also wouldn't budge that easily. Even though the house was bequeathed to Mara, he keeps offering her huge and ridiculous amounts of money to sell her share of the house to him.

What Liam doesn't realize, is that Mara too is as stubborn as he is, because not only wouldn't she sell, her obvious bias against the corporation he works for still stands.

Rather than fight it out for a long time, they form a truce. A truce, that might eventually lead to friendship, or even something more than friendship.

This book was too predictable for me, and I was very glad it was short and to the point. It would have been such a waste of time if the author made this book long.
Don't get me wrong, the plot is okay at best, but the storyline is too predictable.
As someone who has read a considerable amount of enemies-to-lovers romance storylines, it wouldn't be so bad if I saw an author who changed the status quo.

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I already knew Liam was going to eventually fall in love with Mara. It was too predictable not too happen.

Furthermore, let's not dive into the fact that the author's narrative style did not leave room for any kind of suspense. Granted it was a short novel, but even the slightest hint or bit of suspense would have been very much appreciated.

I would have also liked to get to know the characters on a much deeper level than what the surface description paints them as.

I mean, Mara is an environmental engineer who wants Liam to leave the thermostat alone, but how strong of a lead character is she?
Her character lacked depth, and even though many would attribute it to the short nature of the novel, I feel differently.

Do I recommend this novel? For readers who love a short on-the-surface enemies-to-lovers story, this one is for you.