Welcome to the cozy corner of romance, where love blooms just across the hall or over the garden fence. In the world of neighbor romance, the path to true love doesn’t span continents or galaxies; sometimes, it’s only a matter of crossing the street. If you’re enchanted by the idea of finding love in close quarters, where every borrowed cup of sugar sweetens the possibility of romance, then you’ve come to the right place.
Our curated collection of neighbor romance novels promises tales of unexpected encounters, balcony flirtations, and the delightful awkwardness of falling for the person next door. From light-hearted banter to deep connections forged over shared spaces, these stories explore the magic of proximity and the surprising ways love can find us when we least expect it. So, fluff up your favorite reading nook, and let’s dive into tales that prove sometimes, home is not just where the heart is—it’s also where the heart finds its match.
7 Neighbor Romance Books
Neighbor romance features protagonists who live in close proximity to each other, whether they’re next-door neighbors, living in the same apartment building, or sharing a small-town community. The familiarity and proximity between characters create opportunities for spontaneous interactions and romantic tension. The gradual development of romance between neighbors leads to a slow-burn romance, where the initial spark of attraction grows into something deeper over time. We can enjoy a colorful cast of characters, including nosy neighbors, quirky townsfolk, and supportive friends, who add depth and richness to the story.
Here are seven neighbor romance novels that are uplifting and emotionally satisfying experiences that celebrate the power of love to blossom unexpectedly close to home. Let’s go!
| Name | Key Focus | Rating (Goodreads) |
|---|---|---|
| Passion on Park Avenue by Lauren Layne | A girl is trying to achieve upper-class life, but her neighbor is trying to stop her, and they fall in love. | 3.7 |
| All He Wants For Christmas by Kati Wilde | A rich girl discovers her neighbor as her bodyguard, and she can not hold herself to get close to him. | 4.0 |
| Forever Right Now by Emma Scott | The heroine deals with drugs and starts a new life where her neighbor is a lawyer, and they make a relationship. | 4.2 |
| The Air He Breathes by Brittainy Cherry | The hero and heroine are dealing with mental illness. As a neighbor, they help each other, which turns into romance. | 4.1 |
| Heidi’s Guide to Four Letter Words by Tara Sivec | A girl finally proposes to her neighbor on a radio station where she podcasts adult books. | 3.9 |
| Neighborly by Katrina Jackson | Two married neighbor couples swap their partner with each other, and they start a relationship. | 3.9 |
| Beach Read by Emily Henry | Two writers find out that they are neighbors and help each other write, but it turns into love. | 4.0 |
1. Passion on Park Avenue (Central Park Pact)
Passion on Park Avenue is a contemporary romance and women’s fiction. The story follows Naomi, who wants to be a part of Manhattan’s upper class forever. That’s what she’s wanted since she was a little girl born in the Bronx. She’s finally almost there because she is a big CEO of a top-rated and well-to-do jewelry company. However, Manhattan’s upper class, specifically her neighbor Oliver, keeps excluding her and reminding her that she was not born into this life.
Oliver Cunningham is the son of the family that her mother used to work for as a cleaning lady, and he used to torment Naomi when they were children. Now they live next door to each other, and Oliver can’t seem to remember Naomi and that they used to know each other as kids. It is a vast enemy-to-lovers romance. Naomi cannot stand all of her.
Oliver is very put off by Naomi but does not know why she hates him so much. He also doesn’t realize that that woman is the same girl he used to torment as a kid in his apartment. The character’s bonding and the building were not good enough for me. But the neighbor-to-lover in here was authentic and funny at points.
Author: Lauren Layne
Publisher: Gallery Books
Tropes: Friendship, Enemies-to-lovers, Arc, Fun
Number Of Pages: 290
Available: Audiobook | Paperback
2. All He Wants For Christmas
All He Wants For Christmas is a holiday neighbor’s romance. The story is about Cole, who is a detective. The mayor of his town has tasked him to keep an eye out for his daughter (Mia) and the hero here. He is obsessed with his daughter, but Mia’s relatively younger than him. So, he doesn’t want to make her uncomfortable, even though he is obsessed with her.
When Mia moves out of her dad’s house, she moves into the same apartment building that Cole lives in, thinking that the dad thinks Cole will look out for her and protect her. That gives them a perfect opportunity to fall in love by being in forced proximity.
Too many side stories and characters make the story a little bit boring. Overall, I enjoyed the bodyguard theme and the slow-burn relationship. The hardcover has some negative quality issues, but the paperback is perfect for font size, color combination, cover, page quality, and binding.
Author: Kati Wilde
Publisher: Independently
Tropes: Holiday, Possessive-alpha, Virgin-heroine, Smutty, Small-town
Number Of Pages: 222
Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.56 x 8.5 inches
Available: Paperback | Kindle
3. Forever Right Now
Forever Right Now is an emotional college romance with a next-door neighbor. Our heroine, Darlene, is coming out of rehab. She was in a very abusive relationship and became a drug addict. Finally, she’s out of that life and never wants to return to that life. So, she decides to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a dancer in San Francisco in hopes of becoming a professional dancer. Since she moved to San Francisco, she has had new neighbors (Sawyer) below Darlene in the apartment complex below her lives.
Sawyer is studying to become a lawyer, and he is also a single father. To a beautiful baby girl, Sawyer and Darlene are very instantly attracted to one another. However, they decide to distance themselves from one another because Sawyer doesn’t want Olivia to get attached to somebody where it could eventually fall apart. He’s very protective of his little girl.
Darlene hesitates to be in a relationship with Sawyer because of her past. But then they start to get to know one another. Darlene may or may not babysit for a couple of times, and they start falling in love and finally telling each other how they feel. The book’s first half is dull, but the second half is a heartwarming and emotional story. It’s heavy and emotional at points. So please be aware. More people need to read it because it’s beautiful, and I recommend it.
Author: Emma Scott
Narrator: Greg Tremblay
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Tropes: Angsty, Strong-heroine, Family, Friends-to-lovers,
Number Of Pages: 285
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle | Audio CD
4. The Air He Breathes (Elements)
The Air He Breathes is a single-parent neighbor romance that won the Goodreads Choice Award Nominee. It is about our hero (Tristan), who recently faced a horrible tragedy where he lost his son and wife. Our heroine (Elizabeth) has also experienced loss. Her husband recently died, and she is now a single mother. Ever since her husband died, she’s been living with her mom, coping with what she’s going through. She and her daughter decide to return to their house after being away for a while. Then she realizes once she gets there, she has a new neighbor.
The way that they meet is very unfortunate. Elizabeth accidentally hits his dog with her car, and she drives him with the dog to the vet. Tristan’s super upset, and she’s trying to remedy the situation and pay him back in any way she can. Then, they start to get to know and use one another to deal with their grief of losing the person they love.
They get together and think that the other person is their spouse who died. It’s very unhealthy, and they decide to once they decide to cut things off. But they start to realize and learn about who this actual other person is, and they fall in love. The plot, storyline, character building, and romance are very satisfying. I recommend it if you like a second chance romance with a single dad/mom.
Author: Brittainy Cherry
Narrator: Brian Pallino
Publisher: Audible Studios
Tropes: Drama, Slow-burn, Second-chance, Suspense
Number Of Pages: 308
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | MP3 CD
5. Heidi’s Guide to Four Letter Words
Heidi’s Guide to Four Letter Words is a romcom neighbor love story. This book made me cackle more than any book I’ve ever read. Listen to the audiobook if you haven’t yet. The audiobook is fantastic. We have Heidi, who got fired from being a kindergarten teacher. The only job that she comes across is a job at an audiobook company. On her first day on the job, she doesn’t realize that this company only does steamy books. Heidi categorizes herself a little bit as prudish and shy.
So, one night, she gets drunk off some box wine gets some old podcasting equipment out, and decides to read scenes from a naughty book on a podcast. Then she posts it drunkenly in hopes of getting more comfortable around the space she’s been put in for work and hopefully getting enough confidence to ask out her next-door neighbor. She has a massive crush on him and talks about him on this podcast. He’ll do yard work in front of his house, and she’ll stand there and see him shirtless. But he’s so cute and sweet about it. If you want a book to make you laugh and show the romantic way to confess, this one is for you.
Author: Tara Sivec
Narrator: Andi Arndt
Publisher: Audible Originals
Tropes: Humor, Steamy, Love-triangle
Number Of Pages: 197
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Audio CD
6. Neighborly (Erotic Accommodations)
Neighborly is LGBT neighbor erotica. We follow Heaven and her boyfriend Calvin, who move to a new duplex. There, she meets their next-door neighbors. Their names are Tasha and Stephen. Tasha and Stephen have been married for quite a long time, but they also have an open relationship. So, when Tasha and Heaven see one another, they cannot stop thinking about one another.
These two women are thoroughly infatuated with one another. So their respective partners are all for it. They do what you want. I loved the honesty and open mind relationship between them. If you wish to polyamory romance, I recommend it to read with your partner.
Author: Katrina Jackson
Tropes: Polyamory, Queer, Spicy, Realistic-fiction
Number Of Pages: 116
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
7. Beach Read
Beach Read is a slow-burn, funny, steamy neighbor romance that achieved a Goodreads Choice Award Nominee. This one is about Jan and Augustus. Jan and Augustus are next-door neighbors during the summer of January. His father died, and she goes to the beach house he owns. There, she meets Augustus, who is having a huge party one night in his beach house and is very annoyed by it. They are both novelists.
Jan writes romance books, and Augustus writes murder mystery, more deep-thought books. So, both of them are a little bit in a writer’s rut. They ask the other person or challenge them to write in their genre instead. Or she tests him to write a happy ending to his story, and he tests her to do something else.
So, they go on these research trips to research their books and fall for one another. The only negative side of the book is the lack of chemistry or romance. But it is a big staple in the romance community. If you haven’t read this yet, please do.
Author: Emily Henry
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Tropes: Rom-com, Slow-burn, Grief, Forced-proximity, Banter
Number Of Pages: 384
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Spiral-bound | Mass Market Paperback
Bonus book: The Wallflower Wager
The Wallflower Wager is a historical neighbor romance. It is the third book in the Girl Meets Duke series. The plot is about Lady Penelope. She lives in a house filled with a bunch of animals she rescued. There are so many different kinds of animals living in this house. She saves them because no one else will and provides them with a home. Gabriel is an up-and-coming man who wants to renovate the house next to Penelope’s Howe.
However, Gabriel realizes she owns all these pets, and no one will want to live next to a house and buy a home filled with smelly, stinky, and loud pets. So he tells Penelope to get rid of all these animals. It is their journey to find homes for all these animals. I may fall in love with the middle of it, which is so cute. He’s very broody and standoffish, and she’s the sunshiny heroine. It’s a very grumpy sunshine romance book.
Author: Tessa Dare
Narrator: Mary Jane Wells
Publisher: HarperAudio
Tropes: Alpha-hero, Historical, Funny
Number Of Pages: 368
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Mass Market Paperback | Audio CD
5 Grumpy Neighbor Romance Books
- “The Flatshare” by Beth O’Leary
Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and Leon Twomey needs cash. Their solution: share an apartment and never see each other, thanks to opposite work schedules. Leon is a bit of a recluse, not exactly grumpy but reserved, contrasting with Tiffy’s outgoing and quirky nature. Their unconventional arrangement leads to an unexpected romance through notes left around the apartment, showcasing how two seemingly opposite people can fall in love without meeting face-to-face.
- “99 Percent Mine” by Sally Thorne
Darcy Barrett has traveled the world and can confidently say that her brother’s best friend, Tom Valeska, is the best man she knows. The problem? He’s 99% her brother’s, not hers. But now, as they work together to renovate her grandmother’s old house, Darcy is determined to make Tom see her as more than just his friend’s sister. Thorne delivers a deliciously angsty romance filled with tension, humor, and heart as these two grapple with their long-suppressed feelings.
- “You Deserve Each Other” by Sarah Hogle
Naomi Westfield has the perfect fiancé in Nicholas Rose. Or so everyone thinks. In reality, they can barely stand each other but are too stubborn to end their engagement. When they both start engaging in antics to make the other break it off first, their pranks lead to a rediscovery of why they fell in love in the first place. Hogle’s debut is a hilarious, grumpy neighbor story turned inward, where the couple are neighbors at odds, living together.
- “Wait for It” by Mariana Zapata
Diana Casillas has finally settled into a new home with her two young nephews when she meets her grumpy and intimidating neighbor, Dallas Walker. Known for her slow-burn romances, Zapata crafts a deeply moving and gradually unfolding love story that proves patience and kindness can break through even the toughest exterior. “Wait for It” is a testament to the power of family, community, and second chances at love.
- “Travis” by Mia Sheridan
Travis Hale has lived with the weight of his past for years, leading him to become reclusive and wary of others. His quiet life is disrupted when quirky and vivacious Johanna moves in next door, bringing light to his shadowed world. Sheridan weaves a poignant tale of healing, hope, and the transformative power of love as they navigate their complicated feelings and the secrets that have held them back.
Through shared laughs in elevators, moments of comfort during late-night porch talks, and the inevitable intertwining of lives in shared spaces, these stories have warmed our hearts and reminded us of the beauty in the everyday. Whether you’ve found a new book to cherish or simply enjoyed the journey through love stories that feel as comfortable as a chat over the fence, we hope you’ve been inspired to look at your surroundings with new eyes.
Love is waiting in the most familiar places, ready to greet you with a smile as you step out your door. Until our next literary adventure, may your days be filled with neighborly kindness, and may your bookshelves always hold stories that feel like coming home.
Read more romance books:
15 Forced Proximity Romance Novels
5 Contemporary Romance Books Like My Life Next Door
10 Romance Books With Small Town
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