In a meet-cute fit for Meg Ryan & Tom Hanks, salad shop owner Hailey Sharp meets savvy business investor Wes Jansen, and they hit it off immediately. Since neither of them is looking for commitment or a distraction, they agree to be just friends. They even go so far as to create rules and a guide to being just friends.

Next thing you know, they’re going grocery shopping together and making dinner and hanging out with each other's friends and watching rom-coms like they are Harry and Sally. As they grow closer, they find themselves asking: Is this what we really want?

It’s a cute, HEA romance that gave me all the 90's rom-com feels. If you’re a fan of Sarah Adams or love a good friends-to-lovers trope, I think you’ll like this cozy, comforting read!

When I first started this I had no idea that it was the third title in an established series.

All in all, a perfectly acceptable story, but while I was reading I kept feeling like the novel was missing something vital. It was also unnecessarily drawn out and I found none of the main characters compelling or likeable.

Laugh out loud funny, and heartwarming. This series wraps up beautifully, hearing from the characters of books before and where they are now is such a wonderful thing!

This is a fairly stand-alone novel, last in a series about three wealthy brothers. I started reading it, was bored by it, dropped it after 40 pages, and went back to finish it and had to start over because I couldn’t recall a single detail.

The oldest Jansen, Wes, has sworn off love, and in the opposite of a meet-cute, accuses Hailey of being Hayden, his missing date, when they cross paths in the coffee shop where he is being stood up. Hailey is new to town and fresh off the Hollywood craft services circuit, recovering from an emotional abusive relationship and has started her own salad in a cup to go business right next door to a popular bakeshop. She quickly ends up in the inner circle of the Jansen brothers and their loves, and she and Wes agree to forgive and embark on a friendship. He helps her with technical and social media part of marketing, while she encourages his artistic talents. They cook, play video games, watch romance comedies and sci-fi thrillers and fall in love, denying it until a drunken kiss obliterates their friendship. Some angsting follows, they decide to make a go of it until something ruins it and they have to break up, have an epiphany, and get back together.

Something fell flat for me in this romance novel. The bones are there and the writing is solid (except for calling a path cutely paved, what does that even mean?), but I think it just seemed two-dimensional, from Hailey’s absent and obsessed with one another parents, to a kid from the community center with two doctor parents who are never around, who jumps in to become Hailey’s delivery boy, to the mysterious falling out with the Jansen brother’s mean father (maybe alluded to in other books in the series?) to the fast, fiercely loyal friendships and quick resolution. Maybe it’s that in spite of the title and a brief foray into Wes’s sketches of their inside jokes, a guide to just being friends isn’t delivered.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #AGuideToJustBeingFriends from #NetGalley.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cute romance novel and it was a fun read.

A delightful Jansen brother story - enter Wes Jansen, the eldest and most responsible one, who finally moved out to California to be close to his brothers while working on their business. He’s super smart and sexy and sweet and therefore quite a catch and is interested in dating but not anything serious. Meet Hailey Sharp, a smart and savvy and beautiful shop owner, who recently moved from LA to start fresh after a bad break-up and wants to focus solely on her business.

Wes and Hailey first meet briefly through a chance encounter that was a rather unpleasant misunderstanding and yet their respective lives throw them back together and they truly click. They make a deal to become only friends but the underlying spark between them is undeniable….isn’t it?

This is a fabulous friends to lovers romance with just enough angst that makes you realize that love is messy but always worth it in the end!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for sharing this digital copy with me in exchange for my honest review.

This is a great feel good friends to lovers storyline! It concludes the Jansen brothers series and it did not disappoint!
Loved the brothers and their love interests still having a large roll in this 3rd installment, but Wes and Hailey stole the show! Such great chemistry and a HEA for all of course! I loved the FMC being a strong independent woman that stood by her goals of making herself a priority in her life, the romance and chemistry with Wes did not take away from her business and personal goals! So well written!

Friends to lovers is my favorite trope, and there was a lot that I enjoyed about this story. The meet cute was the perfect disaster. Hailey and Wes' friendship arc was my favorite friendship I've read in a while. Slow burn and realistic. The romantic tension as they fell for each other was :chef's kiss: Their romance felt like it was written by a different author. The friendly, flirty banter suddenly felt choppy and awkward. As friends, they worked well, but the understanding they had of each other seemed to go out the window when they got together.

It’s true that I don’t always love a friends-to-lovers romance but this one definitely proved me wrong! From the very start of this book I knew I was going to love the story of Hailey and Wes because the authors made me love the characters so much from their great qualities to their flaws. One of the BEST friends-to-lovers romances I’ve ever read that also gives you found family and a strong independent female MC who has a major sweet tooth (much like myself)! Also their meet cute was adorable and gave me initial enemies-to-lovers vibes but of course I was proven wrong…

Coming out this January 17th, this is a definitely must buy!

Thanks to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the eARC!

I lost intrest at the 24% mark. DNF


****************************************I received an ARC for my honest opinion from NetGalley*********************************

⭐⭐⭐⭐
A Guide to Being Just Friends, Sophie Sullivan
St. Martin's Press, January 17, 2023

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wes and Hailey decide to be "just friends" and literally have a guide to follow to keep things strictly platonic. How do you think that's going to work out?

This fun romcom is a healthy piece of escapism and easy read to keep you happy and believing in the power of love errr...friendship.

@netgalley @authorsophiesullivan #romcom #bookstagrammer #bookstagram @stmartinspress

Mixed feelings about this book. The storylines for some of the scenes drug out longer than what they should have. SUPER slow burn romance. Hailey played hard to get so much that Wes almost “threw in the towel”

Thanks Netgalley for the read and review.

3 STARS

I love this friends to lovers story. Wes and Hailey's characters are so well written, they compliment each other. To read how great they are as friends and slowly they become more was fascinating, it was not rushed and the chemistry was there from the beginning. It was very sweet and I'm obsessed with Hailey's salad, i definitely tried to make one with ideas from her description of her salads.

I loved Hailey and Wes! They were so great as friends turned to lovers. My one call out was not having a resolution to the Jansen brothers dad issue after 3 books!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book, it was the first one I have read for Sophie Sullivan. Wes and Hailey start off as friends because he wants to help her with her salad business but as more time goes by their feelings deepen. I did like Hailey I felt she was ambitious, a good friend, and was there to balance out Wes with his black and white thinking.

Wes was genuine and you could tell her cares for the people he loves and wants to solve problems that they have. I will definitely be reading more of Sophie's books now!

A Guide to Just Being Friends by Sophie Sullivan

Hailey Sharp has a one-track mind. Get By the Cup salad shop off the ground. Do literally everything possible to make it a success. Repeat. With a head full of entrepreneurial ideas and a bad ex in her rearview, her one and only focus is living life the way she wants to. No distractions.

Wes Jansen never did understand the fuss about relationships. With a string of lackluster first dates and the pain from his parents’ angry divorce following him around, he’d much rather find someone who he likes, but won’t love. Companionship, not passion, is the name of the game.

When Hailey and Wes find each other in a disastrous meet cute that wasn’t even intended for them, they embarrassingly go their separate ways. But when Wes finds Hailey to apologize for his behavior, they strike a friendship. Because that’s all this can be. Hailey doesn’t want any distractions. Wes doesn’t want to fall in love.

What could possibly go wrong?

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Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of A Guide to Being Just Friends! This book was cute. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite and it didn’t really stand out to me. However, I still enjoyed reading.

3.5⭐️

I’m so sad the Jansen Brothers series has come to an end. I just can’t get enough of them! I love all of the different relationships throughout the book, but I especially love Wes and Hailey together. I will admit, Wes is probably my least favorite of the brothers. Overall this story was good, but I love it even more in addition to the other two stories.

First of all, I loved this book. The characters were so loveable, and I had no idea that it was the last in a series! I appreciated Hailey's dedication and drive as a small business owner, even if it did cloud her judgement and she was a little bull-headed at times. She and Wes were a great couple with a fantastic friendship to build a relationship on.

I did find that the end conflict came out of nowhere for me and kind of made the ending a little less believable for things to turn around so quickly. It did make me cry though. 😂 So for that I did dock a star, as well as some of Wes' questionable yet well-meaning actions.

I would recommend this if you're wanting a fun, light read or you like a romance series!

When I requested this book, I didn't realize it was part of a series, let alone a series I had read part of before. Wes and Hailey's friends to lovers arc was fun but made more interesting because I knew and cared about several of the background characters. I know the Jansen brothers series is now complete but I would love more in this universe (maybe Tara's story next?)

That being said, I am getting pretty tired of romance novels where the main tension between the romantic leads is that one of them "refuses to love" despite being actively clearly committed. This might be naive of me but if you're already doing all of the right things and like your reality, it shouldn't be difficult to accept a label once it's brought up. The thing that annoys me about this plot device is the head shaking no I can't possibly be in love reaction once it's pointed out to someone. Like come on, I know romance isn't a genre known for its basis in reality but at the least we can have humans whose reactions are mildly plausible, no??

There's no guarantees...not in real estate, investments, or love."

For those who like a slow-burn, friends-to-lovers, clean romance, this is a good book for them. But I tell ya, I've never wanted to smack someone upside the head as much as I do Wes. My god, is he thick (and no, not the good kinda thick). It was marketed as a standalone, but I came to find too late that it is the final book in a trilogy of brothers finding their love, so I'm interested to know if Wes factored in either of the previous two books and what his character was like then.

Told in dual POVs, our MCs (Wes & Hailey) meet each other at a seminal moment in both their lives. As their relationship develops, we see them grappling with their need to stay away from romance and keep themselves as 'friends'. Both dealt with a lack of parental love growing up and approach romance differently - Wes would prefer to focus on 'liking' rather than 'loving' a partner, while Hailey is looking for someone who will treat her as more than 'an extra...a nobody.' Can you see where there may be some friction & miscommunication as their relationship develops?! Because Wes sure can't! He doesn't trust his own emotions enough to be vulnerable, even though he is totally smitten.

While they did have some cute banter, the push-me-pull-you of their feelings was repeated over and over, and it became tiring to read. Had more time been spent fleshing out their actual romantic relationship rather than the filler of how to run a business, or some awkward forced OW/OM situations to spark jealousy between Wes & Hailey, perhaps I would have enjoyed it a bit more.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.