Told in first person, present tense in alternating points of view, the novel starts with a flashback to the hours after Lorelei Jones, à la Dixie Chicks in the Dubya years, dared to sing a protest anthem at a sold out stadium–with the predictably awful consequences. Coming to her rescue is her friend–and abominable ex-fiancé’s bandmate–Craig “Huck” Boseman.

An unforgettable one-night stand and six years later, Lorelei is working towards her comeback to the music scene, Craig is still writing amazing songs while heading an indie label recording studio, Drake-the-slimeball is still a slimeball, and no one brings up the sex.

Except the pressure has never stopped building.

Beware: a lot of swearing; a lot of drinking; a character with a history of alcoholism; politics exist and matter; living with chronic disease; explicit sex; masturbation; references to school shootings and gun violence.

First things first: as one could guess from the blurb, the characters are politically progressive, and politics are mentioned–specifically when it comes to school shootings and gun violence, but also in Lorelei’s internal dialogue, the presence of married gay people, and so on.

If this is a problem for you, this book (and likely this author) are not for you.

Speaking of the characters. I remain not a fan of first person, present tense narration, but Ms Hahn makes it work, and I’m invested in Craig from the first page. Who wouldn’t love a leading man who describes himself thus:

“That’s me…Best friend trope in the flesh. (What? I’ve read romance. Well, I’ve read the “aliens fucking” ones, anyway.)” (Chapter 1, Craig)

I was glad to see that both of the main characters have good support systems. Craig has his siblings, nieces and nephew, his partner at the recording studio, and Lorelei; while she has him and her friends Shelby and Maren back in Michigan.

This is particularly important as regards to Lorelei’s recent celiac disease diagnosis–and props to Ms Hahn for writing a heroine living with chronic disease and showing how it affects all aspects of her life forever more.

Most of the characters, including some that only appear briefly, or near the end of the book, feel like actual people rather than a collection of traits–which is a neat trick to pull given the narrative voice.

As with Built to Last, texting and social media play an important role in Lorelei’s and Craig’s lives, both personally and professionally. (In the book, Twitter is still Twitter, because, who could have predicted, right?)

The setting is very firmly music–especially country. I know nothing about country music, and next to nothing about popular U.S. music (yes, I know), so I’m sure plenty of nuance that will make music fans’ hearts melt was lost to me. Nonetheless, the banter between the leads still works perfectly without getting all the layers.

And there are enough details about the business side of making music to make it real; from label contracts to agents to the importance of radio, and so on.

Now, as to the story; there are essentially three plot threads: one involves Craig’s songwriting and his ex-bandmate Drake, the other involves Lorelei’s comeback, and the third their relationship.

In all honesty, I wish more of the book had centered around the first two; there’s quite a bit to mine regarding the legal issues between Craig and Drake that I would have loved to see resolved on page, for example.

Instead the story focuses mostly on their relationship, which in turn hinges of their feelings of inferiority.

Which, granted, in Lorelei’s case is grounded in the trauma of having the man who actually had asked her to marry him after years together, dropping her via a social media post (followed by her agent, her label, her bandmates, and pretty much every other professional contact she had).

And, okay, Craig is the kind of unassuming person who prefers the background to the limelight, and has never had “the confidence of a mediocre white man”–at one point, he even thinks that *of course* Lorelei will give in to Drake, and renew *that* disaster of a romantic relationship.

Which. Really?

So it made sense to both of them to fall back into the safe friendship they had nurtured during the earlier years of their friendships, when Lorelei was Drake’s girl and later fiancée, and the boundaries between them were clear.

The problem for me is that it’s been six years, and now we have two adults over thirty, who have both faced pretty serious life setbacks and found a way forward, who somehow cannot hold a frank conversation with each other without getting derailed by assumptions and misunderstandings.

Oh, they do manage to have sex repeatedly–on page and off–and then go back to “of course she can’t love me” and “I’m a millstone around his neck”, and back again, which made the last third of the book drag for me, and made the final conversation feel a bit too facile.

A final thing that bothered me is that both of them, but especially Lorelei, drink a lot–to celebrate, to commiserate, to have fun, to pass time with a friend. For every occasion, there’s alcohol; and a lot of the time, it’s drinking to get drunk. Not tipsy. Drunk.

And while there’s a mention of another character becoming a teetotaler after a bad run with alcoholism/addiction, there’s nothing about Lorelei’s drinking. I found that very jarring.

In sum, though I generally enjoy Ms Hahn’s writing voice, her the characters, and the world she has created for them, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as her previous one.

Friends Don’t Fall in Love gets a 7.75 out of 10

Don't let the cute cover fool you; this book is surprisingly SPICY. Of course a guy with the name "Craig" has an anonymous erotic poetry Instagram account. It's always the most unsuspecting ones who are the kinkiest. And don't let the title fool you, either, because these friends most certainly DO fall in love. Craig (or "Huck" short for Huckleberry, his middle name) is a 36-year-old music producer in Nashville, and Lorelai is a 33-year-old disgraced country music star turned school teacher wanting to return to music. Once upon a time, Craig was in a band with Lorelai's now-ex-fiancé, who unceremoniously dumped her through an Instagram post after she protested gun violence at one of her concerts (he was an abusive prick, so she's better off). Craig is a talented songwriter wrote all of the band's songs (including one clearly about Lorelai) but was never credited, not even as a co-writer. After her "scandal," Lorelai moved from Nashville to Michigan, and now, five years later, she has returned to Nashville, living in one part of Craig's duplex and hiring Craig's record label to produce her comeback album. This book is perfect for he falls first (and harder) lovers, because Craig has been in love with Lorelai forever, but it's been a right person, wrong time kind of thing. Seriously, they're the epitome of "it's been a long time coming, but / it's you and me, that's my whole world / They whisper in the hallway, 'She's a bad, bad girl.'" I could write an entire essay about how Lorelai is the poster child for Miss Americana.

This book started off pretty choppy, with several consecutive time jumps that left me both confused and wanting more. With all the history behind their relationship, I constantly felt like I was missing some context. For this reason, I struggle with books where one of the main characters is (secretly or not so secretly) already in love with the other. I don't get to witness the process of them both falling in love with each other. There is also some lasting miscommunication and uncorrected misunderstanding regarding what each person wants from the other (i.e., casual or serious). And yes, this leads to a third act breakup. Even though this book is a standalone, it heavily connects with You'd Be Mine (Annie and Clay) and Built to Last (Lorelai is best friends with Shelby and Maren), neither of which I have read. Craig and Lorelai are both great main characters (though Craig has some major side character energy, lol). They're likable but flawed. With a name like Craig, his personality needs to do all the work (haha), so I'm glad he is a cinnamon roll (I guess you could call him a beta, though he def takes charge in the bedroom! Beta on the streets, alpha in the sheets?).

At times, I felt so frustrated for and with Lorelai. For her because of how she has to resign herself to such disgusting and crude sexism to gain back her career. With her because she couldn't see an alternative to the "apology tour" and hiding her true thoughts and beliefs. I don't doubt that country music, especially the industry (and labels) as a whole, is still ultra conservative, but the tides have been changing over the last few years. And then there are progressive icons who have long carved out a space in country music (take Dolly fucking Parton, for one). So the fact that Lorelai couldn't see this as an opportunity to embrace rather than stuff down her values was hard for me to relate to or understand. She eventually gets to the point of being unapologetic, and I was rooting for that growth.

As a Swiftie, Lorelai's situation totally reminded me of Taylor Swift, specifically the frustrations she expresses in Miss Americana. While Lorelai is nowhere near as famous as Taylor (it's hard to reach THAT level of fame), she has to deal with the repercussions from her label and the country music industry after speaking out about injustice (though Taylor no longer writes country music). In Miss Americana, Taylor and her dad argue over what she should do: speak out and potentially lose fans or keep quiet. I definitely see more spunk and an activist inclination in Lorelai than I do in Taylor (as much as I love Tay, her feminism is very white/performative and she doesn't speak out nearly as much as she should), and I could really relate to Lorelai's inner turmoil over her return to country music. When I requested this book on Netgalley, I wasn't expecting the overtly political messaging in it, but I really appreciated it. I could feel how near and dear the subject is to Erin Hahn. And despite my hang-ups, I did enjoy this book, and I liked Craig and Lorelai together.

Do yourself a favor and read this book if you like:

👩🏻‍🎤 Taylor Swift-coded FMCs (and your fav Taylor song is Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince)
👩🏻‍🎤 he falls faster AND harder
👩🏻‍🎤 she upgrades from her ex to a much better model
👩🏻‍🎤 friends to lovers, SLIGHT celebrity romance (they're not UBER famous)
👩🏻‍🎤 country music (but like, make it progressive)!

Thank you SO much to the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest, voluntary review.

Sweet friends to lovers story. Be warned- you will automatically ship Buck and Lore but get frustrated at all the miscommunication. Their feelings for each other couldn't be more obvious if they were hit with a truck but alas, the miscommunication trope is strong with this one.

A very cute and sweet friends to lovers story between a ruined country musician and her ex fiancee's cowriter who also happens to be a musician. Lorelai Jones had it all: a thirving country music career and a superstar fiance, but it all came crashing down when she played a tiny protest song at a concert and ruined her entire future including her impending celebrity marriage. Five years later she finds herself coming back to music and back to the one person who was with her through it all, her best friend, and her former fiance's co-writer and bandmate, Craig. Craig Boseman has been in love with Lorelai for years but he knows that as the backup bass player, he'd never get the girl. Yet things are different now and now he owns his own indie record label and is starting his songwriting career. Lorelai and Craig have a secret, the night where everything went wrong for Lorelai was the night they both finally caved into their feelings for each other and had a one night stand, a one night stand that both of them still think about five years later. Yet neither wants to destroy the friendship they have with each other and can't tell if the other one is trying to give them a sign that they want more, cue miscommunications, deciphering poetry posts, song lyrics, and the age old "lets try being friends with benefits" routine. All the while Lorelai is trying to start up her music career again and dealing with her ex fiance trying to get back into her life when she's trying to figure out if she's ready to open her heart up to the one man who has stolen it and Craig is trying to finally get the credits that Drake owes him for all the songs he's written and finally tell Lorelai that he wants a serious relationship. This is such a sweet and fun country music romance, seriously Lorelai and Craig are so in love with each other but are struggling with the "we've been best friends for years but also I want to be with you" and it was so much fun to read about. This was a really cute read and I had fun with it! If you enjoy a good friends to lovers romance give this one a go, it's so cute!

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this one at 21%. The beginning is super confusing, the timeline genuinely doesn’t make sense and the “6 years earlier” “4 years earlier” etc, really threw me off.

I couldn’t get into it because of that and how choppy it was, and I just didn’t feel a connection with the characters or the plot.

Thank you to the publisher for an early copy, I know a lot of readers will eat this up! Friends to lovers and country music should be a fun read if you can get through the first bit.

Friends can fall in love!

Lorelai Jones had been an up and coming country star planning her wedding to her fiancé until she played Crosby, Still, Nash and Young’s Ohio to protest all of the school shootings. Lorelai was blacklisted in Nashville with no career and no fiancé so she retreated to Michigan to lick her wounds. Now she was back in Nashville to try Nashville again with the only person on her side was her friend Craig Boseman who had played bass for her fiancé but now he ran his own record label and wrote music.

Craig Boseman had always carried a torch for Lorelai Jones but now she was back in Nashville and maybe this time he would make his move if Lorelai doesn’t make a move first.

Friends Don't Fall in Love is related to You'd Be Mine and Built to Last if you want more books about Lorelai’s friends and you really need to put them on your list to read!

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

Lorelai Jones is back in Nashville a few years after her country music career ended abruptly when she sang a song in protest of school shootings. She's still persona-non-grata, but sharing a duplex with her old best friend, Craig (who she calls Huckleberry) definitely helps. He gets her in a way few people do, and he's a producer now, which makes him the perfect person to bounce new ideas off. And so what if they slept together right before she left town all those years ago and she can't stop thinking about it? So what if she knows her favorite erotic poetry account is run by him (and, she suspects, is about her)? They can keep things friendly and professional, can't they?
But Craig has the same feelings Lorelai does, and as the two get closer again, it gets harder and harder to avoid crossing that line. Again. Because he also can't forget the night they slept together--which just may have been the night he realized he was in love with his best friend's ex-fiancee.

Friends Don't Fall In Love is sweet and heartfelt, and everything I've come to expect from an Erin Hahn book--though there's a little less trauma in this one than in some of the others. It's a wonderful read and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

tw for mentions of school shootings

DNF around 20%. It was a little messy/choppy. I felt like I was missing information. It may have all made sense eventually but I wasn't interested in continuing.
Thank you NetGalley for the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

A great follow-up to Built to Last with the most Golden Retriever of Golden Retriever book boyfriends. A swoony, low stakes, Friends to lovers romance with amazing country music references and original song lyrics.

Lorelai Jones was living the life with a rising career in country music and engagement to a superstar. After singing a protest song Nashville cancel culture kicks in and she is back to teaching school. On the night her world crashed she had a one night fling with a backup base player Craig Huckleberry Boseman. Five years later Huck is now a record producer with his own label. When Lorelai reaches out to him with a potential new song he immediately invites her to Nashville and to stay in his guesthouse.

This is a cute, spicy, friends to lovers romance. The miscommunications between the two is off the charts annoying. Somehow they can say things with lyrics and poetry but can’t have an honest conversation. The whole, don’t want to mess up being friends seems silly as they’ve already shared a night of passion. The telling is a little choppy as there are jumping flashbacks to get the whole back story. I’m not a big country music fan but this was light and enjoyable. I thought texting with best friend Shelby was hysterical. This book is a standalone but Shelby is the MC from the author’s previous book, Built to Last (Oct 2022) which I’ve read. (3.5 Stars)

Friends Don’t Fall In Love is the newest adult romance novel by Erin Hahn, and is what I refer to as ‘a sequel that’s not exactly a sequel.’ If you’ve read Hahn’s Built to Last, then you’ve been waiting for this book: the story of Lorelai Jones. The book starts with a bang, giving us the lyrics to Jonesin’ (as sung by Drake Colter). And if you read Built to Last, you know the song I’m referencing: A song sung by Lorelei’s ex-fiancé, in what everyone assumes is an attempt to woo her back. That’s not to say you have to read Built to Last first - they’re both excellent books that flow from one to the next, but they’re also stand-alone novels. Everything you need to know about Lorelai’s past is sprinkled throughout the book.

Friends Don’t Fall In Love takes us back six years to when Lorelai is dropped by her record label, her agent, and her fiancé for using her position to speak out against school shootings and gun violence. It’s very dramatic. Lorelai is devastated and prepared to leave Nashville behind. The only person who comes looking for her is her friend Craig. They say goodbye with a drunk hookup, and Lorelai moves to Michigan to teach elementary kids.

The book begins with Craig’s point of view, moving forward from that incident six years ago, showing us just how in love this man has been with Lorelai. He’s written songs about her - songs his ex-bandmate Drake Colter used without crediting him. Lorelai knows who wrote Jonesin’ - she knows his lyrics when she hears them - but doesn’t see them as the declaration of love they were written as. A declaration Craig never intended to see the light of day.

Lorelai is a talented lyricist and singer, but having been to the top of the charts and dropped by everyone that mattered, she’s timid and doubting her chances at a comeback. “Do you realize how impossible it is to become a famous country starlet one time, let alone twice? I’d have better odds inhabiting Mars on some billionaire’s dick rocket.” That lack of confidence isn’t just about her career; she is also oblivious to her friend’s love, all while quietly pining for him. Classic romance. And Hahn knows how to be tongue-in-cheek: Craig even says, “Best-friend trope in the flesh.” It’s delightful.

As any romance reader knows, knowing the trope doesn’t mean readers have a clue how the story will unfold, and, as always, Hahn’s readers will be sucked in. Built to Last fans will love the tidbits we get of Shelby and Cameron. You’d Be Mine fans will be head over heels to see Annie and Clay. Hahn knows how to please her readers, and we love getting to see old characters hop into new books. She deftly melds the old and the new together. She also knows how to bring the heat to these adult romances. I don’t want to spoil anything for readers, but the poetry in the book is swoon-worthy and so, so hot. Readers are going to love it;)

Friends Don’t Fall In Love is everything readers want.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-book. I really enjoyed this story between Huck and Lorelai. I enjoyed the POV of both. Sometimes I was annoyed at how they couldnt see what was in front of them but when they did it was so exciting. I loved how the author made me feel like I was right there with them I could feel the chills of the songs total A Star is Born vibes without all the toxic and drama lol if that makes sense. I loved also seeing Shelby and Cameron and heres to hoping Maren is next.

This brought me right back to one of my favorite cities - Nashville!

Lorelei and Craig have been friends forever. One wild night after a break up, they hook up…to then never talk about it for what seems like forever. While the miscommunication trope is not my favorite, this did redeem itself in how adorable both main characters were.

Overall, I loved this story and will definitively be recommending to friends!!

-He falls first and hard!
-he’s a closet romantic poet
-she’s a country music star and he’s the producer
-the side characters are amazing!!

3.5 stars. This book was a fun read. I enjoyed it overall, though there were some structural decisions that made it a little bit less enjoyable for me. I enjoyed the friendship between Lorelei and Craig. I enjoyed Lorelai’s character specifically because she seemed very passionate about not compromising who she was to fit into any mold. This book starts off six years in the past, then goes to three years ago, then two, then one but then also throughout the story there are random flashbacks in time at random intervals. For me I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if the flashbacks were more structured. But overall, I enjoyed it. One thing I really liked was that it started with song lyrics that end up being something revisited throughout the book.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
Friends Don’t Fall in Love is Erin Hahn’s second adult romance, and she once again delivers a great balance of sweet and steamy. I’m a sucker for friends-to-lovers, and this book gave me all the feels.
While I’m only peripherally aware of country music, because of Taylor Swift and a handful of hits from a few others, I love the way the country-music community was conveyed here, from the positive aspects to the more problematic ones. Even as a more outside observer, I saw allusions to the Chicks’ infamous blacklisting in the early 2000s for their anti-Bush rant and the subsequent fallout to Maren Morris’ recent decision to leave country music, coinciding with recent conflicts with others in the country music scene about social issues, most notably her clash with Jason Aldean’s wife about trans rights.
Lorelai perfectly fits in with her rebel peers in this regard, albeit with a bit of a twist. In her previous career as a country star, she chose to sing a protest song condemning the Second Amendment in the aftermath of a school shooting, and this results in her immediately being blacklisted and immediately fading from relevance. Plus, she gets dumped by a country superstar fiance. Even with how intense that was, I admire Lorelai for not giving up; she took the time to lick her wounds and allow the public to hopefully forget, but she didn’t give up on making a comeback one day.
Craig, also nicknamed Huck after his middle name, is Lorelai’s longtime best friend and a songwriter. He also happens to have a somewhat adversarial relationship with Lorelai’s ex Drake, having gone from being bandmates with him to now being merely an uncredited writer of one of Drake’s biggest hits. However, Craig now has clout within the industry, owning his own record label, and this leads him to being able to more capably battle for rights to the song, as well as helping Lorelai with her comeback.
Their romance was so sweet. Craig has always had feelings for Lorelai, and they had a one-night stand in the past back when all Hell broke loose, before she disappeared into obscurity. Now reunited, I loved seeing them contend with their feelings now that they’re in proximity with each other again. They have such great chemistry together, and I rooted for them each step of the way.
I enjoyed this book as much as the first, and would recommend it to readers looking for a steamy contemporary romance, especially if you’re also a music lover.

This book was absolutely perfect. I knew it was going to be, I loved Built to Last so much. It was SO GOOD. The friends to lovers, the found family, the fact that he falls first and falls harder but somehow she’s also been harboring FEELINGS for so long but doesn’t know what to do with them, how difficult it is to be a women with actual opinions especially in the country music industry, making a comeback even though it was seemingly not in the cards for you, standing up for yourself and getting credit where credit it due. It was PERFECT.

First and foremost Craig Boseman is PERFECT. He is the perfect book boyfriend. He writes music, he has his own label, he writes anonymous (that everyone obviously knows about) sexy poetry (that’s definitely NOT about Lorelai), he stands up for his girl even though she doesn’t NEED him too. I loved their friendship and how easily it turned into more. They both wanted it SO BAD. And of course they didn’t ACTUALLY communicate their feelings…. And YES there was the part where Lorelai was convinced she was no good for him, for anyone really (but that was part of her journey!!) and of course he couldn’t do casual with her. Jokes on them neither of them could do causal!! Lorelai just didn’t know she actually loved him. And I loved watching her realize it.

I also loved Lorelai’s story arc. She never gave up her morals, even on her crappy ‘apology tour’ when she thought that was her only option, she just couldn’t give in. And I LOVED that. I also loved that she was able to find people who wanted to be there for her, really support her, and help her find her way again.

The epilogue was PERFECT. I think I cried the whole time and I loved every single second of it!! I cannot wait for Maren’s story!!

The first thank you goes to Erin Hahn for this beautiful book! And then of course a thank you to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I loved Erin Hahn's Built to Last and was looking forward to Lorelei's story! Unfortunately for me it mostly fell flat. I did not feel like I truly got a sense of the deepness of Loralei and Craig's friendship. I kept getting confused by the multiple names of people in the story. I usually love a good friends to lovers trope, but I didn't feel that between Craig and Lorelai.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

This was my first Erin Hahn read, and I'm happy to say that it won't be my last. The rockstar romance trope is still growing on me, this one helped in a positive way.

I was super intrigued by the main problem in the book, in which Lorelai sings a protest song and as a result, essentially flatlines her country music career. I wasn't expecting it, but it was definitely realistic considering the subject of the song in question. Her agent tries to get her to rebrand herself as an apologetic, sweet country girl in an attempt to get her career back (ew), but Lorelai remains true to herself and her beliefs throughout the entire story, which I absolutely loved. Although she questioned her worth at times, Craig never once doubted her and her abilities. He is truly the perfect companion for Lorelai. This friends to lovers story was a little different, but I appreciate Erin Hahn's approach to it, and I loved seeing the few jumps in their timeline to put different pieces together on how their relationship and feelings for each other grew.

I'm going back to Craig, because what a character. He is beyond swoon-worthy with his sexy poetry and his passion for pleasing Lorelai. He's incredibly wholesome and cares so much about the people around him. He hates to cause problems, but he knows when to stand up for himself and others, and that only adds to his charm. He'll go to bat for anyone he loves, and he doesn't give up until he's successful. I adored him. Read this if you like rockstar romances and an MMC who almost exclusively writes poetry and songs about the love of his life.

Thank you so much to netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

This book. Out of this WORLD. Friends who have been secretly in love for years. He’s a producer/songwriter, she’s a famous singer. Everything about this was phenomenal, the writing, the musical insights, the poetry(HORNY LOVE POETRY) Erin Hahn just cemented herself as a favorite for me.

This is such a fun, feel good book. I really enjoyed getting to know Lorelai better (she appeared in the book prior to this with her friend that was the main character) & getting to know Craig. Erin Hahn is good at writing relatable characters even though they're famous in the book. These are characters that sound like they would be interesting and nice to know. I look forward to reading Maren's story next.

Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for advanced copy, & I give my review freely