A heartfelt, sexy friends to lovers tale with a twist that sees maid of honor, Maggie, talked into finding a date for her two best friend's joint destination weddings in Thailand. After a lot of disappointments, Maggie finally hits it off with a hot heart surgeon at the gym only to learn her best guy friend, Garrett also has romantic feelings for her.

This forces Maggie to choose between something new or the guy who knows her best and if taking a leap with Garrett is worth the risk. Steamy with great female friendship and cameos from past characters, plus lots of great food references and positive fat rep. This was a fun read but does have a love triangle trope which isn't always my favorite but worked for me this time.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review. I think this latest is my new favorite from Taj McCoy. It was great on audio narrated by Adenrele Ojo and I am absolutely OBSESSED with its gorgeous pink cover!

LOVED this book.

It hit every spot of romance that I like. I also need to confess that I love a good love triangle. As well as please give me more plus size romance books. I need this book to be made into a netflix movie right away please!

I had fun as it's a refreshing and well plotted rom-com featuring a strong female characters and a realistic description of the world of dating.
No insta-love, the frogs who thinks are swans and a lot of dates that makes you you wish you were home watching television.
Maggie is single after a breakup but she's lucky because she's got great friends and maybe one of them could be the right one.
This is a friend-to-lover story and, even if it takes some suspension of belief, I rooted for Maggie and Gareth.
The Queen-of-Skipping-sex-descriptions did her job and I had fun in reading the adventures of this groups of characters.
Entertaining and well plotted even if a bit dragging at times.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The Good Ones are Taken 4.8 Stars

Anyone that has dipped their toes into online dating knows that sometimes you can find a diamond in a rough and other times you end up with a wild story to tell your friends. Sure it would be great to organically meet someone out in the real world and not experience the pain of swiping through profiles, but sometimes it's just not that easy.

When Maggie is the Maid of Honor for both of her best friend's weddings, they decide to create a dating profile for her and tell her that she has 9 months to find a date for their weddings. Still recovering from her break up a few months ago, she decides to give it a chance and thankfully has her best friend Garrett there to step in if a date turns out less ideal. Besides, if she can't find a date, she'll always have her best friend Garrett for the wedding. Until she happens to find her "perfect" guy at the gym and finds herself on the dates she always dreamed of. But something still feels off for her and maybe it's because the right person has been in front of her all along.

There were so many things that I loved about this book and truly enjoyed. For one the body positivity and a strong, confident female lead with so refreshing to read. Then there was all the food mentioned in the book... As someone who is a foodie and enjoys trying different dishes, I loved reading about Maggie and Garrett's Saturday dates and salivated over the descriptions for all their favorite dishes to order. Which may have been a problem when I'd read parts of this book before bed and found myself getting hungry.

The only reason I can't fully rate this book a 5 star read is that personally I'm not a fan of spice in books. I think that there was the perfect amount of spice in the book where it didn't become too much for me. But that is the only reason I'm rating it 4.8 stars. I really did love this book and even though I read this as an e-ARC, I think I will need to buy myself a physical copy.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this ARC.

3.75⭐️, 2🌶️

This was a feel-good, friends-to-lovers romance with the tiniest bit of a love triangle, but it was also a celebration of female friendships. As much as I loved the love story, I loved reading about this friend group again.

We got introduced to Maggie in Savvy's story "Savvy Sheldon Feels Good As Hell", along with Joan and then Beth when she started training Savvy and dating Joan. They were a fantastic group then, and they've only gotten better in this story.

In fact, the few places this story did fall short for me, (namely Maggie's refusal to admit what she clearly already knew in her feelings for Garrett [especially once he finally admitted them to her after almost 20 years of pining!] and the fact that the story is told in 3rd person only from Maggie's POV - just not my personal preference), the friendship between those women brought me back into the story over and over. I was laughing, crying, and ready to deliver Maggie the tough love right alongside her girls! 🥰

If you want to feel like you've gained a new group of girlfriends, while reading about 2 friends who finally admit how much they've always felt more for each other, and read about them discovering a new side to their relationship they never let themselves explore before (hello spice 🥵), then this book is for you. And if you like a little "will they, won't they" with a bit of a love triangle (everyone is aware and there is no exclusivity so no cheating), then this is also going to be your cup of tea. I know who I was rooting for the whole time. 😏

This story was definitely a 3.5, it was a really cute romance where it follows the main character Maggie, as she tries to navigate the dating scene in her late 30s. She has a great support system of family and friends that also try to get her to join the dating streets by online dating or meeting a new man organically. Two of her friends are getting married and they want her to bring a plus one for their weddings. Maggie tries her best to snag a date but stated if she can’t she has no problem bringing her best friend Garret of over 20 years. These two have known each others flaws and all since being friends since college, but Maggie refuses to cross their friendship line because she doesn’t want to ruin their friendship. I really loved that she was such a foodie in the book, some of the food described felt like you could almost taste it. I did find that Maggie had to be the center of attention a lot, even when her friends were discussing their upcoming nuptials. She seemed exhausting but her BFFs seemed to know how to keep her in line I’m guessing. To conclude, it’s a cutesy journey of a love story for the audience to enjoy but the main character is very extra. Grateful to have read this ARC & all opinions are of my own.

I loved this book from beginning to end. The characters were so relatable and it made me feel like I was reading a story about me and my friends. I really enjoyed the riding style, It made me forget that I was reading words on a page. This book draws the reader in and everything is told feeling like a movie.

I almost didn’t finish this book because the formatting of my digital arc was horrendous, but I’m glad I pushed through and gave it a chance.

I really enjoyed the relationship that Maggie had with her girl friends. I loved their banter, how they were there for each other, and how they held Maggie accountable.

I didn’t really care for Maggie and Garrett, they were cute but did she really not know he had feelings for her after all that time. It seemed so obvious to me and felt like she just kept him in her back pocket for when she needed to feel better about herself.

The ending was eh for me, and I feel like it could’ve been done better.

This was my first time reading a book from this author. I enjoyed the story line, I do feel like the main female character was a tad bit selfish and entitled.

I LOVED THE GIRL GROUP.

There was good banter, entertaining and a quick read.

Also enjoyed the Friends to Lovers trope, only took them more than a decade to get together but when they did it all worked out as it should!

This is a slow burn, friends to lovers romance about Maggie and her best friend, Garret. It follows Maggie’s ‘escapades’ on the online dating scene and the best friend who has been on the sideline all along.

I enjoyed this and felt the slow burn added depth to the plot otherwise the story would have ended even before it started.

Maggie’s relationship with her girlfriends was an highlight for me. I enjoyed their banter and how real they were with each other. They were not afraid to call Maggie out.

It beggars belief it took 19 years for both parties to take their friendship to the next level. I also did not understand how Maggie was able to string both men along before making a choice.

If you love friends to lovers with unforgettable characters then you will love this. I received an advanced copy via NetGalley and the review is mine and voluntary.

I really wanted to love this, because I really loved the author when I heard her speak on writing craft. I did also read Savvy’s story because this is related, and I didn’t love that one either. I do think they are similar and the author’s voice is consistent, so if you liked Savvy, go for this one! This felt more of a friendship novel with romance thrown in, rather than the opposite. And the dueling MMCs just were not my vibe, plot wise. There is good spice, and a lot of fun food scenes! It does have LGBTQ and fat rep, which both felt genuine.

I wanted to like this one more. I actively tried to like this one more than I did. It has things I love: friend groups! body positivity! women of color! I love all of these things. But the maybe love triangle was killing me. Particularly because the guy you know she isn't going to pick is just so...blah. It really is "do I pick the guy who is a great listener who I get along with easily" or "this guy who is good on paper but doesn't jive with anything"?

Thank you Netgalley for an advanced copy for an honest review.

The Good Ones Are Taken is about Maggie and her journey to try and find her Mr. Right. After a break-up, Maggies friends get her into online dating in order to find a suitable guy to take to their weddings. As she finds out, finding the right guy is incredibly hard, until she meets Blake at the gym. He is a dr. who takes his health seriously and spoils Maggie. However, she comes to find out that her best friend, Garrett, might also have a thing for her. They have all the same interests and they know each other better than anyone else. Maggie has to decide if she wants to continue to try and pursue something with Blake or possibly ruin her friendship with Garrett, if a relationship between the two doesn't work out.

I would give The Good Ones Are Taken a 3.5/5 stars. This book was a bit tough for be to get into at the beginning, but as it kept going I wanted to continue reading. One of my favorite things about this book was the friendships among Maggie, Savvy. Joan, and Beth and also Maggies friendship with Garrett. They were all so close and were there for each other with any situation and I loved that the ladies had a scheduled Zoom meeting to catch up. I also really liked that Maggie was so into food and she wasn't afraid to say that she loved food and was always hungry. I just felt like that was realistic. Maggie and Garretts friendship/relationship was great because he treated her so well and you could genuinely tell that he had feelings for her, even through his messages towards the end of the book.

One of the things I didn't like was that towards the end when Maggie is trying to figure out her feelings, she literally talked to 6 people about what she should do. Each one told her SHE needed to be the one to think about her feelings and what she wanted but then she'd go on and talk to someone else, who would then, tell her the same thing. Then, when she did finally figure it out, she only told him because he was struggling at his job. I just felt like she just strung the guys along. My other dislike was the fact that the way Blake treated her, was never addressed. When he made comments about her then tried to force her to let him into her home, that was never addressed by anyone and then she says he's still a great guy, no I don't think so.

This was definitely a friends to lovers, slow burn romance. It was also a pretty easy read, so if you like that, I would recommend this book.

I enjoyed this story so much and connected to it in so many ways. I love the friendships, and I love the friends to lovers. I loved Maggie character because I see myself in her in so many ways. I've been there done that with dating apps, lol. This was a great ready funny, and it kept me engaged with some spicy 😍

This book had everything in it…friendship, love, comedy, romance, a lil spice. This friends to lovers romantic comedy is a slow burn romance, but keeps you interested throughout the book! Mags and Garrett are just so adorable. I did cry a little about 75% of the way through, but no outright bawling (lol). If you like a slow burn rom-com with a lil spice the. I would highly recon this book!!

This was my first book by this author and I’m not sure if I’ll read another one by her.

What I enjoyed most in The Good Ones are Taken were the friendship between Maggie and her girlfriends. I found them to be hilarious and like a real life group of friends. The beginning of the book had me hooked and I wanted to pick it up and read it. The further I got along, it became really repetitive. Especially when Maggie began to date…she really didn’t have much chemistry with any of the men she dated. Besides maybe Blake, but then it was very superficial. She spoke mainly about his lifestyle. Even when she broke it off with him, she spoke to his house, money, and career as a surgeon. She didn’t really seem invested in the “man” but more so his status.

I found her and Garrett’s relationship to be very predictable. I feel as if she strung him along and kept him close to make herself feel better. Nineteen years and you didn’t think this guy had any feelings for you?! It was quite obvious. So either she was naive or she kept him to herself until she was ready for a relationship.

The ending gave me the ick. I’m not a fan of showing someone else up at their wedding. It’s tacky. I felt this book was too long and lacked depth. The characters were very flat, personality wise. And the plot was predictable.

I’ rated this book 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3

Thank you to the author and publisher for the Arc! This was a cute friends to lovers, he fell first story. I love a strong, intelligent, independent FMC, which Mags is, but she annoyed me when it came to her love decisions. But is that a lot of us? Yes, so very relatable. The MMC, Garrett, was very liakble. To pine for someone for so long, bless him. And Blake would be damn near perfect if his stroke game was better. I also peeped what he said to Mags when he met Garrett. I read this before Savvys story. Though I know what happens, it makes me excited to go back and read her and Spencer's story! Hope yall find this enjoyable.

I love Taj McCoy's writing - I think she brings together these rich worlds for her main characters that are full of friends and family that feel so real and fun to spend some time in. The Good Ones Are Taken is no exception. I loved Maggie - a little tough, a little bit of an overachiever, deeply soft for the people she loves - and seeing her tender friendship with Garrett absoutely ignite into something more was *chef's kiss*. My only real complaint was that I didn't buy the love triangle; it didn't prevent me from enjoying this book, but Blake was clearly not the man for her so the decision she was making between Blake and Garrett felt a little artificial. That said, I rooted so hard for Maggie to figure out that the one she wanted was right in front of her eyes and I did cry during that last little chapter that put a bow on everything. Also, I LOVED Taj McCoy writing this super successful, beautiful, sharp Black heroine with this incredible support system and life around her so we got to see her black female joy radiate - more of that, please!

In 'The Good Ones Are Taken', we follow Maggie, a 38-year-old lawyer who is ready to find the love of her life. When her best friends decide to have a wedding in Thailand, they send Maggie on the journey of finding a date for the wedding. Maggie turns to online dating with her best friend, Garret, to help her weed out the guys who are not good enough. When she finds a man who is perfect on paper, Garrett starts to act out, and Maggie's love journey begins from here.

This book was extremely charming. What intrigued me the most at the start of the book was that Maggie is a 38-year-old woman. Many romances always center on younger main characters, and this was so refreshing to see. Specifically because the structure of her life at the point was extremely realistic. This is also an honest and refreshing take on the journey of dating in today's society. Overall, the main romance interests were great to see, as was how she navigated her feelings for both. This was a slow-burn but a fun time.

*3.5

I liked the romance between Maggie and Garrett but I don't understand why this was a love triangle. I think that it would have been a great story about her realizing that she's in love with him. He was so good for her and has loved her for so long. Blake was so annoying and the book ends with him still being called a great guy when he's not. He tried to convince her to let him into her apartment even after she said no three times and he was never really concerned about her after he punched her best friend.

I received an arc through netgalley.