A Guide to Being Just Friends

Our leading lady opens a business that is doomed to fail because she has no idea what she's doing, but meets a group, including our romantic interest, that continue to help her until she starts to figure it out. The relationship in this book felt extremely stagnant, it didn't really build up to anything and I don't think the book have been any different if they had just remained as friends the entire time. The story was okay, but I wouldn't consider this to be a romance so much as two awkward people figuring out how to make friends.


*ARC via Netgalley.

This is for rom-com lovers that YEARN for the slow burn and love the friends-to-lovers trope. It had all the warm and cozy feelings of your favorite romance movies.
Sophie Sullivan does such a great job at making her characters multidimensional, full-fledged people that you can see yourself in. Some moments felt like I was actually enjoying the holidays and friend gatherings with them.
I love novels like this that go beyond the general plot and touch on important topics. This especially goes for the way the author showed how the characters' past traumas completely distorted their thinking and impeded their present lives. Everyone can relate to this in some form and it was just great to see the characters learning that they can change their habits and negative thinking.
A major aspect of this novel was community and found family. There was so much love written within the pages that made me want to jump into this cozy world.
This is the 3rd book in the Jansen Brothers series by Sophie Sullivan. I haven't read the previous ones so you can definitely read this as a stand-alone. Past characters are heavily mentioned through the story so readers of the previous books get updated on their favorite characters.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sending an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hailey Sharp, owner of an up-and-coming salad shop, wants to leave men in the past to better her business. Wes Jansen will do anything to avoid relationships due to his parents' rough past. After their not-so-meet cute, Hailey and Was slowly grow as friends and have to decide if they will remain just that or go against everything they wanted to commit to love.

I personally didn't read the first few books in the series and was still able to follow along. These can definitely be treated as stand alones but you will get more out of the character dynamics if you read them in order. Despite that, I really enjoyed Hailey's character. It was refreshing to see a character that was quirky but not totally spaced out of reality. She had her life together and genuinely loved her business.

Wes on the other hand made me angry. He clearly led her on even though he knew he didn't want things to go further, and he has big commitment issues that made me not root for him or them getting together. By the end, I didn't believe any feelings between them and weirdly preferred them as just friends. Because of that I give it a 2.5/5 stars but will round it up to 3 stars.

I personally do not enjoy closed door romances but in this case, it worked well for their dynamic. It would have fully taken me out of the story.

Overall, the writing is so well done, I just didn't personally like Wes. I would still recommend this book to people who enjoy closed door romances with a tight knit family dynamic and lovable fmc.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for my honest review.