So, what happens when you can practically write a book about how to be best friends? Hailey and Wes are so precious, and their slow burn love story was a nice, easy read. Far more sweet than sexy, and the supporting cast of characters had cute love stories as well. This seemed to run just slightly long, but the narrator was wonderful!

Hailey opens up a salad shop and is working toward building a clientele and expanding. She is a bubbly ball of energy that makes you instantly like her. Wesley is financial advisor who invests in businesses. They two have a rough first impression, but quickly become friends. Just friends.
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But if they are just friends.... Why are there so many feelings .
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I was very excited to start a guide to be home just friends. I love friends to lovers. I'm all about a slow burn, however this book felt too slow... It really dragged on for me and fell flat. I didn't feel the chemistry I was hoping to feel. I wish I had read the first two books in the series ass well so I had some more background.
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Thank you @netgalley for the opportunity to read this book that comes out in January!

This book reminded me of when harry met sally. I loved how both MC’s created the guide to just being friends and the title says. Friends to lovers, and slow burn are the tropes if that’s your thing. I liked the book. AWESOME narration! Shoutout to Netgalley and publishing for allowing me to listen and review this book.

4 stars!

This was a cute read. Wes and Hailey’s friendship turned relationship was fun and quirky. Wes is the planner while Hailey is pretty free spirited, so I enjoyed reading about them interacting with each other. I also liked Wes’ dynamic with his brothers, so now I need to go back and read the other 2 books!

Firstly, I would like to thank NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me the opportunity to read and review "A guide to being just friends" in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was such a delight! At one hand we have Haley, a hard working, fun and with a good dose of pride girl that left a toxic relationship and is trying to be independent and have her own business! On the other hand, Wes is a business man with a talent for arts and coding that doesn't want to see himself in a committed relationship. After a funny first impression both of them decided to be friends, but of course with the time, things change..
I really enjoyed this book! It was fun and light. I loved how their relationship blossomed! It did not felt rushed and I was giddy at certain scenes. I really enjoyed as well how the characters do not feel flat and had interesting past experiences and how that affected how they approached their relationship with each other. The only thing I believed it could have been different, is that I wish both of them did not seem so stubborn. What I mean by that, is that it's ok for the characters to have their principle, but sometimes they are so adamant in their opinions that it feels narrow minded.
Nonetheless, I liked the healthy discussion they had to overcome past traumas.
That's totally on my recommend list for someone that wants friends to lovers!

Sophie Sullivan is back with her latest, A Guide to Being Just Friends, which obviously leans hard into the friends-to-lovers trope. It felt like When Harry Met Sally for a new generation, and it really worked for me. It was a solid, swoony romance, and I enjoyed it.

Hailey has just opened her own business—a little salad shop—and she’s desperate for it to succeed. She’s also freshly out of a really bad relationship, and she isn’t looking to jump into a new one. Wes has never seen the point of love. As the oldest kid, he got a front-row seat to his parents’ disastrous marriage, and that is NOT for him. When Wes and Hailey first meet, it does NOT go well, but when he comes back with an apology, a friendship springs up between them—and they decide that’s all it’ll be. They even write a guide, complete with silly illustrations. But what they don’t expect is to fall for their best friend.

Sophie Sullivan writes mostly closed-door romances, but she proves the door doesn’t have to be open to deliver the swoon. Wes and Hailey are perfect for each other, and I’m glad they finally pulled their heads out of the sand and figured it out. I also loved that we got glimpses of her characters from previous books—cameos are my favorite!

This is a wonderful rom com that is told over the span of a year and a half about two friends who fall in love. It’s very cute, there’s no smutty scenes that don’t contribute to the storyline like many others these days. It also seemed very realistic to me. Their meet cute was something that could very much happen and I appreciated that.

I listed to the audio and it was a cute story but the characters lacked development and it fell flat for me. I had a hard time connecting with the character.

Hailey and Wes are really, really... dumb. Not that they lack character development or anything. I actually really liked both characters and their dynamic together. They are just both incredibly dense and take way too long to act on their feelings. I don't mind a good slow burn, but these two... It got to the point where I got frustrated with the romance part of this book and instead got more invested on the salad shop marketing techniques.

The saving grace of this book? It was funny and the cast of characters were cute. And when the romance finally fired up, it was super adorable. From what I can tell, there are many cameos from previous books in the series. When I requested this book, I didn't realize it was part three of a series. Unfortunately, I have not read the first two, but this book can totally be read as a standalone.

As this was an ALC, I'll also add that the narration was good and clear! Though, I did find Wes's pov to be a bit more difficult to follow when sped up past the 1.5x mark.

I like Sophie Sullivan's writing, but this one missed the mark for me. I do not know if I just was not in the right place for it, but I did not care about the characters or the story. It just didn't do it for me. I do look forward to her next books, though.

This book was my jam! If there was a book that perfectly described me as a reader it would be this one. It’s a classic trope with standout characters that speak to your heart the moment you meet them. There’s enough depth to both the story and characters to make it a stand out read.

Hailey recovering from heartbreak and a firm believer in love mixed with Wes the love cynic that refused to open his heart to the idea of love was the perfect combo. They felt so relatable because the author wrote them with authenticity. They were flawed, complicated, and frustrating (I’m looking at you Wes) but it only enhanced your appreciation of their journey to love.

If there’s one book I hope everyone reads it would be this one, but I highly recommend the audiobook. The narrators embodied Hailey and Wes, brought them to life, and told this story with such emotion and love. I couldn’t have picked a better combo than these two narrators.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this ALC

4.5 stars!

I ended up listening to this one and it was fabulous on audio! The main characters were so much and I didn't want to stop listening to it.

Wes and Hailey were so fun together. I loved how they first met, how she owned a salad shop & didn't want his money. They both pushed each other to grow and worked so well together. One of the conflicts were obvious from early one however that third act breakup was not my favorite so I knocked off half a star. The ending was really good tho!

Thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press & MacMillan Audio for advance copies in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you @smpromance @macmillanaudio for a copy of this book. I enjoyed the first toe in this series and enjoyed this one as well. This was a cute friends to lovers story between Wes and Hailey which still started with a disastrous meet cute. It was fun to see how they keep bumping into each other and set a pact to being friends. So much fun to see the other brothers and their significant others appear in the book too.

The dual narration was a lot of fun too.

I struggled with this one & ultimately didn’t finish. There was zero character development at the beginning. Just jumped right into it. I also really struggled with the idea that she bought & started a business in a coveted area of town….. with no business plan? Come on!

I loved this slow-burn friends-to-lovers romance. I can struggle with slow-burn but not this one.

Hailey is chatty and full of sunshine. Wes is hesitant when it comes to relationships. He's overly serious but deep down has a heart of gold. I loved the dual POV and seeing his feelings develop and seeing him fall for the girl. He messed up at times but his effort to show that he cared had me swooning.

This is the 3rd book in the Jenson brothers series. It can be read as a standalone but you get a better sense of the Jenson background reading the previous books. I loved seeing the other brothers. The relationship newcomer Hailey built with their girlfriends was amazing.

This friends-to-lovers story is full of charm and some fun banter, especially between the brothers.

From the moment I started to listen to this as an audiobook I was hooked! This was my first book of Sophie Sullivan and it will not be my last. Her style of writing was so engaging, leaving you interested at every chapter. The back and forth between Wes and Hailey’s point of view gave a wonderful flow to the story. This book felt like watching your favorite romcom. The female lead, Haley was so like-able and relatable that you felt like she was either you or your best friend. Macmillan Audio is probably my favorite auto book publisher and this audiobook was a very clear example why, the different voices for Wes’ point of view and Hailey’s, kept me engaged and hanging on their every word. This is definitely one of my new favorite books. A romance novel that isn’t graphic. And a bit of humor to brighten up the situation. Will definitely be buying this in paperback, hardcover, and any other form that is possible. Huge fan of this work of art. (But seriously can they make this into a movie?)

Thanks to NetGalley, MacMillan Audio, and Sophie for the chance to review this book with my honest honest review. Thanks for trusting me… but more importantly- thank you for introducing me to this wonderful author!

This was a cute friends-to-lover romance that has a fun meet cute - I enjoyed the relationship buildup, but I had hoped for a bit more chemistry. The friend group from the prior books in the series were incorporated a lot, which I also enjoyed. IDK, despite this being a cute and easy read, there just wasn't much that was memorable for me.

3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's for the audio ARC!

Friends to lovers is one of my least favorite tropes, but every once in a while I will give it a shot just to see if I still feel the same. However, I enjoyed this book, overall. It had its ups and downs, though.

Hailey is a new and unexperienced business owner of a salad shop in a bustling area. She meets Wes in pretty typical rom-com fashion: a drink mishap at a coffee shop. It didn't lose me there, just because I initially really liked Hailey. She was bumping Taylor Swift in her shop, just left a trash relationship, and was trying to figure it all out. Relatable enough. I have worked in food before and I thought it did accurately portray the way some people look down on essential workers.

Wes, on the other hand, was so-so. A run of the mill, rich, white love interest. There was nothing that made him interesting, in my opinion. He was socially awkward and that was basically his only saving grace. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked their friendship. The chemistry once they got together seemed to dissipate, though. I was not rooting for them because they just didn't seem to have the same values in life. From Wes' perspective there was also this "woe is me, a rich, privileged individual, I'm so misunderstood" narrative that was annoying.

Basically, I really liked the first half of the book but the last half just didn't work well for me. Wes was getting on my nerves, then Hailey started to as well. I appreciated her trying to remain independent despite his wealth but she started sounding like a broken record. Either accept him trying to buy your love or leave his ass, y'know? Overall, I thought the writing style was solid and there was a lot of potential here. My hang-ups came with the lack of chemistry once they got together and some of the characterization.

I really liked Sophie Sullivan's first two books, but I found that A Guide to Being Just Friends fell a little flat for me. I think it's because the "Friends to Lovers" trope gets repetitive to me. That being said, I enjoyed the audiobook MUCH more than the text book. The narrators really brought the characters to life!

I like Sophie Sullivan a lot and look forward to her future books!

Thank you MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook in return for an honest reiview!

I received an ARC (advanced reader copy) of this audiobook from NetGalley.

Author: Sophie Sullivan
Narrators: Stephanie Willing; Timothy Andrés Pabon

This is a good audiobook… a good romance. It’s a slow work up to a sizzle… and don’t expect any real steaminess.

This is a story about two people who are obviously destined for each other, having to work through their own emotional baggage before they can be together.

I kept wanting more sizzle and steam. So, this book was good and I do recommend it… just be aware that the sizzle you are going to yearn for is slower than you’re going to want it to be.

The narrators were fantasic! I loved them both! Very easy to listen to!!