Book Review: Friends to Lovers by Sally Blakely

GOOD READS SUMMARY...

Best friends Joni and Ren have been inseparable since childhood. So when Joni moves across the country for her job, the two devise a creative way to stay in they’ll be each other’s plus-ones every year for wedding season, no matter what else is happening in their lives.

It’s a tradition that works, until a line is crossed and the friendship they once thought was forever is ruined.

Now Joni is back at their families’ shared summer home for her sister’s wedding, and she’s determined to make the week perfect, even if it means faking a friendship with Ren—and avoiding the truth of why they have to fake it in the first place. How hard can it be to pretend to be friends with the person who once knew you best?

But as sunny beach days together turn into starry nights, Joni begins to question what her life is without Ren in it. And when the wedding arrives, bringing past heartaches to the surface, she’ll be forced to decide if loving Ren means letting him go, or if theirs is a love story worth fighting for.

TEE'S THOUGHTS:

Friends to Lovers, the debut by Sally Blakely started a bot slow for me, but quickly caught my heart with main characters Joni and Red. They were childhood best friends, and somewhere in their teens or early 20s they made a pact to become each others plus one during wedding season's, platonically of course. As with many childhood friendships, things happen, and the friendship fades, but Joni and Red decide to reunite for one last wedding, even though it has been years since they have spoken.

The story turned out to be much more than the Rom-Com I was expecting it to be. This story had so much emotional depth. Joni's feelings for Ren will feel familiar to many readers, loving someone more than you realize. Their connection to each other remains strong even after not speaking for many years.

The setting is beautifully detailed through Blakely's writing. She places you right in the middle of a Pacific Northwest summer. Its dreamy.

Friends to Lovers is the perfect  summer romance, it is sweet and heartfelt, but not to sugary. There is just the proper amount of tension between Joni and Ren, just enough to having you wondering what they will be doing next. There is a bit of heart tugging or heart break, from Joni realizing she actually loves Ren. There is also so much more in this book, but I don't want to give any more than I already have.

Beautifully written by the author and narrated by Patti Murin, Friends to Lovers was exactly the type of book I was looking for.

Thank you to Harlequin Audio for the advance listen.

Friends to Lovers has a Pub Date of July 22, 2025