Estimated reading time: 10 mins
Book: Just Friends
Author: Haley Pham
Number of pages: 313
Genre: Contemporary romance, romance, fiction, friends to lovers
Attended Audience Age: Young Adult
Medium Type (physical, digital, audio): physical
Book rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Summary:
Moving back to her hometown, Seabrook, California for a brief time, Blair is thrust into a painful reality of losing her grandmother. Eager to find a job before moving back to New York, Blair runs into her longtime friend and ex-boyfriend, whom doesn’t seem too happy to see her. Getting a job as barista at a local coffee shop, memories of her life with Declan, now manager, make their reunion all the harder. Despite their differences, Blair and Declan are determined to be just friends, even when heartache looms overhead.
Qualities:
Prose: The narrative is close to home, lyrical, and heartwarming. The language is deep and thought provoking.
Character Development: The characters interact pretty fluidly and make a big impact on each others lives, beliefs, and decisions. How Blair and Declan meet after many years of separation, feels appropriate to their past and current dynamics.
World Building: Much of the world building is settled in Seabrook, California. We see different parts of the town and how close people are with one another. Blair’s memories take us back her teenage years in Seabrook as her relationship with Declan blossom and ultimately wither.
Recommendation:
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a unique friends-to-strangers-to-lovers trope. The story feels light and heartfelt as difficult decisions alter the characters relationships. This is a fast, romantic read that makes you feel right at home with the characters.
Notable Quotes:
- “If you’ve ever gotten ‘the call’ in your life, you’ll unfortunately know what I mean. The one that creates a before and after in your story, bookending you each side. Whatever you had been doing prior to it becomes so hilariously insignificant in comparison to the words coming through the phone speaker” (p. 8).
- “No one told me grief would feel so physical. It was the heaviness that sat at the top of my thighs, a bone-deep fatigue settling into my extremities like wet cement bring poured down my limbs. My thoughts don’t race, but they don’t settle either. They’re unclear. A wild mixture of disbelief and hopelessness, fighting for purchase over one another” (p. 132)
- “Being his feels like coming home” (p. 313).
Related Music:
- Cold by Maroon 5
- Somewhere Only We Know by Keane
- Your Side of Town by The Killers
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