Whilst the premise was compelling, and I am interested in the friends-to-lover trope, there was very little that I enjoyed in this one.

Bea is a thirty-something woman who isn't happy with her life. She has a job that she detests and has lived through a series of failed dates and relationships. However, there is one person who has always been there for her but she has never seen him as anything more than a very good friend.

It is fairly obvious how the book goes - you can basically guess it just from the plot summary. Consequently, this was the books biggest downfall - zero substance. Nothing of interest happened at all and it was such a dull read. A lot of the scenes could have easily been scrapped without having any impact on the story.

The main character (Bea) was an absolute nightmare too. She came across as so unlikeable that I really struggled to connect with her throughout the entire book. Considering that this is a romance, the relationship was pretty weak. I failed to detect any traces of chemistry between the two characters and I'd put this down largely to a lack of prior establishment of the friend dynamic.

Overall I thought this was a huge disappointment. It has the potential to be a great read but I personally found it to be poorly executed.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Just Friends by Holly McCulloch is such a lovely, light and fluffy, somewhat romantical read. Although more than a tad predictable it was an absolute joy to read. I laughed, I sighed…mostly over Peter the friend who has spent entirely too long in the friend zone……and not really a book crier, I was suprised to shed a few happy tears over the ending. Maybe it was the relief of a happy ending, maybe it was my highly emotional state atm….who knows? What I do know is that I REALLY, REALLY liked this book.

I had a little thing for Peter who reminds me of my hubby in that he is so kind, patient, reliable and supportive. What a gem of a man!!!

But for me Bea was the highlight of the novel.

Bea’s character, as a perpetually single 30-something, is completely authentic and relatable, inspiring compassion in the reader. With a lacklustre job, a cardmaking side gig and dreams of running a small business, Bea feels stuck. Alone and still bruised by the loss of her best friend/boyfriend Sam years ago, and having recently ‘lost’ her best friend to marriage, Bea drunkenly decides to start dating again. What follows is an engaging journey of self-discovery…not only the slow realisation and acceptance of her feelings for one of her closest friends, Peter.

Seeing her confidence ebb and flo as she starts to take action to create the life she wants, putting herself out there in her friendships, her relationships (and on dating apps), creating a work/life balance that works for her, boosting her creativity and following her small business dreams (with the help of the dreamy Peter) was by far the greater part of the story. The romance stuff with Peter was just icing on the cake….the very predictable but delicious icing….you know, like vanilla buttercream.

With thanks to the publisher via NetGalley for this advanced copy in return for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Holly McCulloch for this advanced copy to read.

I really enjoyed this book. It's a friends to lovers story that was fun, light-hearted and a great form of escapism in the current crazy world. I fell in love with Bea's character and of course Peter too. It was wonderfully written and had me laughing, cringing and tearing up at the end!

This is a quick, light story about two university friends, one of whom makes a new years resolution to actively date and find a partner, but ends up working on all the parts of her life that make her unhappy. /Short and sweet story about peter and Bea, who have been friends since university. Its a lovely light read and is relatable throughout.

This was easy to read if a little bit predictable. I like friends-to-lovers as a trope so it catered to my interests for sure.

I really enjoyed this book and read it in one sitting. It’s a sweet little read for anyone who’s ever found themselves going through the motions or in a bit of a rut. I got huge Bridget Jones vibes from the book, I felt it could’ve been a little heavier in the romance department and wish it had a little more substance towards the end, but overall it’s definitely one that I’ll remember! Also I found Bea’s narrative to be really relatable and I love that there were little moments of humour, rather than trying too hard and having comic overkill and therefore making her look like a calamity. This was a really enjoyable read.

This book gave me all the happy feels. Let’s be honest, who doesn’t love a best friends to lovers story? I absolutely do!

Bea is having a bit of a crisis in her life. She’s in her 30s and feels like she’s stuck in a rut. It doesn’t help that one of her friends gives her a few home truths one day, which sends her on a bit of a mission of self improvement.

She enlists the help of her best friend Peter - lovely, reliable, organised Peter, who she absolute doesn’t fancy. Except that she does. Cue lots of hilarious moments, some cringey and some just plain funny, as Bea tries to work out how to navigate this situation without losing her best friend.

I really enjoyed this book. It was feel-good, funny and made me smile from ear to ear!

3.5 stars.
This was a quick, easy read that I would recommend as a beach read or something not too complicated to read on your commute, for example.
Sadly it ended just as we were starting to see how Bea and Peter would be as more than 'Just Friends', which was slightly disappointing for me. When it comes to friends to lovers stories, this is what you're waiting on the whole way through and the pay off didn't live up to my expectations with this book. It was all rather anti-climactic.
As I finished this I also realised that not a great deal had really happened throughout it, yet I had kept reading all the same.
I would be interested in reading more from Holly McCulloch in the future though.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Bea's, 'best friend' Sam dumped her, so she vowed to keep her male friends at a distance. Bea has remained single for many years, disillusioned with her life, stuck in the same job for 10 years, she makes a drunken New Years resolution to start dating, signing up
to dating site Tinder and attending speed dating groups, she begins her search for Mr Right.
Bea's good friend is Peter 'Oddly' Bodley, whom she met at University they have remained close friends. Peter, always seems to know what to say at the right moment, Peter, who is kind and reliable.
Does Bea begin to see Peter in a different light?
She now faces a dilemma, does she risk her friendship with him when she is not 100% of her feelings and will Peter feel the same way about her.

A well written, enjoyable story.
Thank you, Netgalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers and the Author Holly McCulloch for allowing me to review a pre-publication copy of the novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

I really enjoyed this book and read it one sitting,

The book follows Bea in a year of her life where we get to see a well-rounded view of her life. Following her friendships, career as well as her love life. Is was great to read a book where you are routing for the character in multiple aspects of her life, getting to know her really well as a character. Bea is a such a relatable character and I became so invested in her.

A really well written and addictive book.

Sadly this book didn't live up to the description. It sounded like it was going to be a really good read but in my opinion it was just a pretty mediocre book. Sorry, this one isn't for me

I am going to be honest here. I try to get to 20% before I decide to either continue with a book or leave it, and with this one I got to 25%. It had a really compelling blurb, the trope of friends to lovers is to me what catnip is to cats. I love a trope and so I went into this book expecting to enjoy everything about it.

What I hadn't prepared for was the lack of any excitement whatsoever. It was dead boring, there were scenes that had no weight, the secondary characters seemed more developed than Bea (the protagonist) and I found myself almost shouting at Peter to RUN in any scene where he popped up. Bea was depressing and in a time in the world where there is little warmth and the future uncertain, I just couldn't get aboard her pity train.

So it is with sadness that I have to give this a lower rating than I was expecting to give. Life is too short to read books that don't capture my full attention.

3.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I want to preface all my thoughts by saying that this book is a hard one for me to review. I finished it last night and am not really 100% sure how I feel about it. However, 3.5 stars is probably the fairest rating to give it.

Just Friends is an adult best friends to lovers story. Our main character is Bea, and she is not happy: she has been stuck in the same job for 10 years without any progress, her card side business has gone sort of stale, and to top it all off, she is single. In order to attempt to put her life back together and be happy again, Bea decides to start dating.

Peter is Bea's best friend, and has been by her side since University. Kind, reliable Peter who always seems to know what to say and where to be. In the midst of all of Bea's failures in the dating world, Peter is always there to save the day. So much so that Bea starts to see Peter not just as her odd best friend, but perhaps as something more? But how is Bea supposed to risk her friendship with him over something she doesn't even know she feels for sure?

I love a good old friends to lovers story. The realisation that that person that has been there for you throughout all your ups and downs is actually the person who you are meant to be with, the person who lights up your world, is a beautiful thing.

And so the reason I had a hard time rating this book was because for the first half of it, I absolutely did not care for Bea as a character. I was struggling with empathising with her and found her to be a really difficult character to love. However, as the story progresses, my feelings for Bea were put in the back-burner and I was able to really enjoy the evolving love story. Peter is an absolute sweetheart and his character saved the story for me and kept me interested in the overall development of it.

I do think Just Friends was a fast paced, enjoyable read all together, and as far as friends to lover stories go, it was incredibly sweet and heartwarming.

Feel-good & relaxing read -

This is a positive book with laugh out loud moments across Bea's work, relationship and family life. I really enjoyed it and would recommend to fans of Mhairi Macfarlane etc. The characters were relatable and despite being a common topic for books at the moment, this still added a new and refreshing take on the story.

The only negatives I would have is that it felt a bit predictable at points but overall it avoided the trap that this genre of novels can sometimes fall into and so was still a good, relaxing chill-out read.

Would recommend!

Exactly the sort of feel good, rom com sort of read I needed right now and it didn't disappoint. While some elements were sort of predictable, this didn't bother me too much and is more of an observation than a real critique. I feel like readers will find Bea to be a fun and relatable protagonist and root for her to get what she deserves.

After a stressful few weeks, this is just the book I needed to read! Lighthearted, contemporary chick lit with a few twists & turns thrown in. Our leading lady, the thirty-something Bea has been single for most of her adult life. Following early heartbreak when her best friend come boyfriend, Sam dumped her, she has vowed to remain “Just Friends” with her male chums ever since. So when she makes a drunken New Years resolution to start dating, she doesn’t even contemplate anything ever happening with her oldest friend, Peter ‘Oddly’ Bodley and instead heads onto Tinder, off to speed dating and into the arms of her extremely handsome boiler engineer. But friends, serendipity and crossed paths may have other plans. I loved this book, it’s warm and witty right up until the last sentence.

Bea is a fabulous main character, and her friends, family, colleagues and dates make a brilliant supporting cast, both for Bea within the realms of the story and for us as the reader. There’s no big surprises in this tale, and the ending is pretty obvious (although wonderfully written), but there are several mellow twists to enjoy before we reach the finale. Highly recommended for light, romantic summer reading, and Peter Bodley has definitely been added to the official Book Boyfriend list.

Thank you for the opportunity of reading this book. From the write-ups I read prior to starting this book I was filled with hope and anticipation. I like the idea of a blossoming relationship between friends. However, the book was slow and predictable. I loved the characters but nothing much happened to them. I struggled to keep reading the book waiting for something to happen. There was a glimpse around 70% into the book but only to be let down again. Great concept but execution was lacking.

This was a fun, light hearted read. It was well written and had relatable characters. It was a pleasant read overall.

I needed to read something light hearted and witty to take my mind off the events happening in the world at the moment. So I was very pleased to receive Holly McCulloch's debut novel Just Friends as an ARC from Netgalley and Random House (Transworld Publishers).

We begin at New Years Eve where Bea is maid of honour at her best friend's wedding. Its here she realises that she is a single woman in her 30's and is dissatisfied with her current job and life in general. Bea is fortunate that she has a very strong support system of family and friends, one of which is Peter who she has been friends with since university days. We quickly discover that Peter goes out of his way to support Bea and helps with whatever she needs. Her friends see it's obvious that Peter loves Bea but she doesn't seem to see him as more than a just a friend.

It did take me a few chapters to get a feel for the characters, story and authors style of writing but once I did I couldn't put it down. I enjoyed following Bea on her hilarious journey of finding what makes her happy and what she really wants to do with her life. We are all guilty of not seeing what is right under our noses the whole time. My only criticism of the book would be that the ending was a little rushed and seemed to end a bit abruptly. That said I would read this author again and would recommend this book. 4 stars

I liked the concept and the writing however I wasn't completely sold on the main characters and their relationship. It was a nice novel and I'll be happy to read more from this author.