Thank you to Netgalley for this book!

I hate writing not so good reviews for books i had high expectations for..
let’s start with what i liked; cover, fmc having a goal in life that she worked through, their relationship only at the first quarter..
So why was this book not for me,
It was really hard to pick it up every time i put it down, i hate miscommunication trope with my whole heart, side characters were uninteresting, the writing was full of sudden changes and abrupt shifts that didn’t make sense and it was not explained, mmc had a sudden change of heart in a freakin heartbeat about his thoughts about love, children, marrying and it was not explained.
For all these reasons I couldn’t enjoy it, hope she keeps on writing and improving herself as an author cause she has potential!
Best of luck!

A slow burn friends to lovers, with lots of talk of salad, giving back to community, and working through past trauma.

Hailey just opened a salad bar, and runs into Wes in a coffee shop where a case of mistaken identity leads to a misunderstanding. When they run into each other again Wes goes out of his was to make it up to Hailey. They embark on a friendship that has its ups and downs but grows into a relationship they both value in their lives. Will they stick to being just friends are will they develop deeper feelings?

A highlight for me in this one was the journey of friends to lovers. The build up of their relationship, and communication was so well done. You could feel the progression, it felt natural and believable. What did not work for me was how the characters did not grow, they let past traumas dictate too much until all of a sudden everything was okay, and it felt too abrupt.

A Guide to Being Just Friends is, nominally, a friends-to-lovers romance. But the main characters' immediate mutual attraction, followed by their shared, out-loud declaration that they will only be friends, suggests that their romantic relationship actually began on their first meeting. Regardless, I enjoyed watching the relationship grow, and I really liked the female lead, Hailey, and her commitment to developing her friendships and her small business.

When Hailey and Wes started to actually get together - about 60% of the way into the book - the story took an unusual turn. Plenty of romances would have ended here, and I thought it was a nice departure to follow this couple as they navigated the transition from friendship to relationship. However, I began to find both of the main characters more frustrating, as all the emotional intimacy and awareness of each other's foibles that they'd developed during their friendship seemed to evaporate and they struggled with basic elements of trust and commitment. This was, I think, intentional on the part of the author, but I think it needed more development in order to feel realistic.

That said, this was a sweet story and rounded out a romantic trio - but I could imagine the series continuing with some of the unpaired characters in this well-developed world. 3.5 stars.

Oh, boy. This book took me FOREVER to get through. Like, three weeks, which is a long time for me!

Things I liked:
•FMC was driven and wanted to make a name for herself.

Things that I didn’t love:
•For the title to be what it is, the “guide” needed to be a larger part of the story.
•too many side characters. I couldn’t keep them straight.
•instead of coming off independent when she refused diamond jewelry, FMC came off snobby and rude.
•miscommunication trope will win my heart .001% of the time
•the dialogue felt static and choppy, and there was too much repetitive internal monologue , especially when just dialogue would have sufficed.
•MMC had all these things he didn’t want in life (marriage, love, kids) and the book needed to explore his VERY rapid conversion to the literal opposite side

Thank you St Martin's Press and Netgalley for this ARC!

A Guide to Being Just Friends is a very cute friends to lovers romance. I liked the main characters and found them to be cute and cozy.

I have been getting more and more into the best friends to lovers type of trope that I was genuinely so excited to read this one. I must admit though that I'm relatively disappointed in the way that this story ended up turning out. The chemistry between the two felt a little bit lack-luster to me. This book felt like it went on and on with no real ending in sight for a while, and I don't know, I just really didn't vibe with this book. I know that there are many fans of the author, and that they will probably like to see this considering it is the "third" book. It just wasn't for me.

This was a sweet, light and endearing read. When Harry Met Sally is one of my all time favorite movies, so I really enjoyed this reimaging. It's a dual POV with a slow burn. I loved watching Wes and Hailey's friendship build into something more. I apprecriated that the evolution to "more" felt authentic and wasn't rushed. The supporting cast of characters were charming and added another layer to the story. Light steam/closed door romance.

This was overall an okay book.

I liked our characters but I didn't love them or feel any real connection with them. Characterization was poorly done. There was so much room for development but this kind of failed at that.

Lastly, where's the guide???? There's no guide!!!!

All in all, an underwhelming novel that was too clean.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this book in exchange for my honest review!

What a lovely conclusion to the Jansen brothers series !!! Wes took a little bit to grow on me, but overall he turned out to be great. Hailey was so mature and I loved how she ultimately stood up for herself when she realized her and Wes may not have been meant to be after all. As always, the brothers cameos were making me laugh ! I loved Noah’s sense of humor lol so this was amazing

A Guide to Being Just Friends (eARC) — 4 ⭐️

𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: January 17th, 2023

𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: When the dynamic ambitious duo Haley and Wes meet for the first time, it was anything but an adorable meet-cute, but with similar goals in mind, they were able to form a friendship. Neither is looking for a relationship, but who knows what happens when they start spending time together…

𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰: I enjoyed reading this next book in the Jansen Brothers series! The author’s writing style and short chapters keep me engaged, and I liked the character’s personalities. I appreciated Hailey’s ambitious personality, and seeing more of the Jansen family was so satisfying. At the same time, I’m so sad the Jansen’s brothers’ journeys have ended, but I’m holding onto hope that maybe the series will be continued... I guess we shall see. Regardless, I can’t wait for the author’s future stories!

Speaking of the author, I had no idea that she also writes under the name, Jody Holford! Did you?

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝 —
👀 Multiple POVs
🥰 Feel-Good Story
👩‍🏫 Ambitious MC
🔐 Closed Door Romance
💗 Friends to Lovers
🍽 Foodie Inspired

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐢𝐟 —
🥗 You eat salads everyday
💼 You want to own a business
🎮 You’re a gamer
💍 You don’t need fancy gifts to be happy
🧘‍♀️ You enjoy doing yoga

𝐓𝐖: strained family relationships, divorce

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, for providing me an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an early copy of this book!
I will admit, I did not realize that this was the third in a series and should have went back and read those first to help tie everything together. I recommend this, though it can be a cute rom com on its own.

“I might not have the romantic hero down but I know what makes you smile, I know who you are and who I am when I'm with you."

I did it again - read a book that’s part of a series without knowing it until more than halfway through 🤦🏻‍♀️ I think I would have enjoyed this one a little more if I had liked the stories for the other two of three Jansen brothers, since the family is heavily featured in this one, too.

Wes is practical and not going to waste his time on love. So when he meets Hailey and they hit it off, they immediately decide to stay just friends because neither is looking for a relationship right now. You see where this is going.

This one is a super slow burn, closed door type book. The final conflict for the characters was redundant and unnecessary. A cute story, just not my favorite this year.

📚Read this if you like:
⁃ Friends to lovers
⁃ Slow Burn

3.5 ⭐️ this story follows Wes and Hailey, who meet under unfortunate circumstances. This friends-to-lovers story of very sweet with fade to black romance scenes. I do wish that the story would have moved a little quicker. The pacing was a little off for me. (I feel like this book could have been 100 pages shorter.)

It was nice to see a FMC whose pride and ego almost stood in the way of her relationship. It was refreshing because it made her more relatable.

Definitely check it out if you are looking for a sweet, romantic story.

So my pet peeve with Sophie Sinclair never changes: I like her plots and characters, but at the end of the day she tends to tell, not show, too much. She tells us how the characters felt about a scene more than she wrote the scene. I read all the other books in this series, so I was glad to complete the set, but as a one-off I don't think this would have been my cup of tea. The "let's just be friends" setting has been done a lot, and although people always catch feelings, as the kids say, we just didn't quite see enough of why the main characters were MFEO. Also, am I the only person weirded out by the fact the MFC's business is serving salad in a CUP?!?! Rich, fancy people are supposed to go nuts for salad in a foam to-go coffee cup?! But anyway, it was a totally no-stress, quick read, and that's always appreciated these days.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my copy of A Guide to Being Just Friends by Sophie Sullivan in exchange for an honest review.

Can women and men be just friends? Hailey and Wes think they can, at least until feelings start happening. Both have baggage and vow to themselves that being friends is enough. But can they stay that way?

This book had me feeling ALL the feelings! If I ever had a male BFF crush, it would have to be Wes. These two have a great friendship, even at the end of the book. Hailey needed to back off a bit on letting Wes look out for her, especially after the way her previous guy treated her. Although, she had a right to be weary of relationships.

The friend groups in this book were so awesome! I have not read the previous books that feature Wes and Chris, but they are on my TBR list now.

So thankful to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

So, this book was cute but not my favorite. I appreciated that it was a friends to lovers story because I adore that trope. The friendship between Hailey and Wes was adorable and it was cute seeing their relationship develop. Other than that, I didn't enjoy a lot of this story. Everyone almost seemed too nice, and everything happened too easily like Hailey making her friends and getting business through them. I also thought her issues with her previous boyfriend were never really explained well so then her trust issues just came off annoying when Wes would try to buy her gifts or do favors, and she would just argue with him about them. The whole third act breakup was just ridiculous and was all rushed very quickly. I think this book had a lot of potential but just wasn't executed great.

Completely adorable. Finished in a weekend and loved every second. This is a book I’ll be telling friends to look for at a bookstore and when I go to a bookstore making sure they have on a featured table.

I was excited when I got this book, however, it didn’t work the way I was expecting. It took me a while to finish it and then a little longer to think about what to say in this review.
The thing is the blur, and the concept is good, but the problem is the execution, the writing felt too forced even from the beginning when the Mc spent the entire first chapter rambling about food and being hungry. It might be a hard review, but as a writer to be and as a reader, for me, the most important part of a story is to care about the characters and to connect with the story, and it didn’t happen, on the contrary, the story felt just plain.

I loved every second of this book. It was a cute and fun read. I couldn’t put it down. I will definitely really another book from Sophie Sullivan.

This one was okay. I found myself kinda of bored with it, but I still thought it was cute. I just didn’t really connect with the characters.
Thank you NetGalley for the arc!