2.5/3
This is going to be hard, because I wanted to love this book so badly. It had a lot of potential, but it fell very flat for me.

Let's start with the main characters.
I did not like Maggie at all. She was selfish, self-centered, and completely self-absorbed. (There's a theme here.) Every conversation with her friends, family, and coworkers were all about her. I mean, both of her best friends were getting married, but she still made everything all about her. Even Savvy's wedding dress fitting was all about Maggie. And her Maid of Honor speech? That was ridiculous. I also didn't realize at first she was 38, because some of her actions and words led me to believe she was younger.
Garrett was a good guy. He deserves a medal for putting up with Maggie for 19 years, let alone having feelings for her. I honestly thought they were dating in the beginning just because of how he treated her. He continuously bought her food, and they spend every Saturday together having "date night" by watching movies and eating and typically falling asleep together. Um... Hello? That's basically dating in a nutshell. Plus, he has his own key to her place.
Blake was wholly boring. He didn't have any substance to him outside being a surgeon. I'm not even sure why he was a contender. He was allergic to cats, and Maggie has a cat. He watches his calories judiciously, and she's a huge foodie. The whole "incident". They were an odd pairing, and even the friction he caused was lackluster because we all knew who she would pick. There was no angst.

The relationship between Maggie and Garrett was stale. I didn't feel any chemistry between the two. And you'd think after 19 years of pent up sexual frustration there'd be some heat. But sadly, they were barely lukewarm. Also, he waited 19 YEARS?!?! That seems highly unrealistic.

The friendship between Maggie, Savvy, and Joan (or is it Joanie? Her name kept going back and forth so much I thought it was a whole separate person!) was realistic for the most part. How Savvy and Joan put up with Maggie's arrogance and selfishness should put them up for sainthood. Though, I am glad they didn't hesitate to put Mags in her place most of the time.

Let's move on to the plot, what little there was. The main plot of Maggie finding a boyfriend for her friends' (starting separate and ending up joint) weddings was okay. The side plots of her wanting to make partner at the firm, Garrett's podcast, and the other things that popped up were also all fine. But that's all. They were just fine. There was no anticipation or tension. It was slow moving.

When you get to the crux of the plot, Maggie having to choose who she wanted to be with, the way she went about it made no sense. Things happened in the big scene between the three - Blake, Garrett, and Maggie - that made the choice obvious. But yet she couldn't decide. And we spend multiple chapters seeing her asking everyone - her friends, her dad, and Garrett's MOM (I'm not even going to start with how I feel about that) - what she should do. Maggie is supposed to be this smart woman, but I guess it's all book smarts because she's lacking in the common sense.

There were quite a few time jumps throughout the book that made it choppy. Some of these jumps happened in the middle of a chapter. Just randomly, with no warning. This happened with scene changes a lot, too. It left me feeling like I was missing pages and took me out of the story.

The writing was not the best. There was so much repetitiveness throughout the entire book. I'd say at least 150 pages were devoted to heavy descriptions of what everyone was wearing and what foods they were eating. I get mentioning foods and clothing choices in some scenes, but the extensive details for every meal and outfit change was unnecessary. Plus Maggie's profession was mentioned no less than twenty times. We get it; she's a badass tax attorney. Other topics were also reiterated numerous times, like she was in her busy month at work, she loves food, the world revolves around her, etc.

The blurb was also misleading. We don't find out about Garrett's feelings until 61% into the book. Starting a love triangle that far into the story was lazy writing. Although, Maggie didn't even meet Blake until around 50%. You don't need 50% of a book to "set the scene" for your entire plot when it's a 300 page book.

I really wanted to love this book, but it just wasn't for me.

I received an ARC copy full of grammar mistakes, formatting issues, punctuation errors, setting/date inconsistencies, and various other issues. Hopefully the final copy will have everything straightened out.

Maggie’s last relationship ended in a rough breakup but she’s ready to try again. The problem is that all she’s finding are duds. Her best friends are getting married and since she’s the maid of honor for both, they all agree Maggie needs to find a date. Meanwhile her best friend from college, Garrett, is criticizing each guy and doesn’t seem to approve of anyone. After feeling defeated by all the unsuccessful matches, she unexpectedly meets a good looking doctor at the gym. After finding what seems like a perfect guy, Garrett has to admit the reason he doesn’t want Maggie to date anyone is because he has feelings for her. Maggie has to figure out if she wants to take a chance and change everything. This was a fun read and kept me interested. Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this book! The girl group was one of the things I liked most about this book. The women in this book love and support each other so much, I’m excited to go back and read Savvy’s book.
Friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes and you could tell from the start how much Maggie and Garrett cared for each other. I was rooting for these two to *finally* get together.
The love triangle storyline was an interesting premise to me since I haven’t read many books with a love triangle. I think it was done well in this story and I liked that this was different than a lot of other romance books.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the arc!!

This is such a hard one for me to rate and review. I wanted so badly to love it, but I don't think I did. There were some parts and aspects that I loved, but I think those things were overshadowed by what I didn't enjoy and what made me a bit uncomfortable.

Lets start with what I loved:

Maggie's friend group. This aspect felt so real and relatable. They were all hilarious and just seemed like a good time. Garrett's mom was also so lovely. I also really loved Garrett for so long and then he started giving me secondhand embarrassment. He did seem like a really good guy. While the story was a bit predictable, I did like the friends to lovers trope (but could have done without the love triangle ).

Here's what I didn't love:

Initially I loved Maggie. She seemed ambitious, funny, and like a girls girl. As the story went on she was still those things, but she also started to rub me the wrong way. She came across a bit selfish and inconsiderate. The main thing that drove me nuts was how she treated Garrett and his feelings. This man has loved you for almost 20 years and once you find out his feelings, you still leave him on the hook like it's only been 2 weeks. Her initial hesitancy when they had a moment back in the day was the fact that she didn't want to do anything to jeopardize their friendship, but it seemed like all of her actions after finding out his feelings were doing just that. At that point it felt like she was solely focused on her feelings and what she wanted.

This brings me to Garrett. I felt so sorry for him to an extent, and then it was like dude, come on. His character didn't feel very real to me. He waited almost 20 years for this woman, they finally have some steamy moments and he professes his love to her, then when she tells him she's still unsure, he's like "cool, I respect that. You do what you need to do. I'll still be here." WHAT!?!?!?! That was just wild.

Overall, this was a very quick, predictable romance that I think it will be great for fans of love triangles, great friend groups, and friends to lovers.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to be an early reader. All opinions are my own.

It was so good to be back with this friend group again. It is so important to have such an a great good of women in your circle to bounce ideas off of and to support you. This is a friends to lovers, second chance romance and it was done perfectly. Maggie is looking for her prince charming when her best friend declares he has feelings for her. In my opinion, as friends to lovers, it was done perfectly. It has a few spicy scenes. The book was such a good romance on how we might self-sabotage and run away from a good thing. I loved it.


I was gifted an ARC by Net Galley and Harlequin Publishing in exchange for an honest review as always, all words are my own.

I liked the idea of this book. I really enjoyed the online dating aspect. All of the dating shenanigans were very funny.

I did not like the main character Maggie. But I did enjoy the dynamic of the friend group.

Maggie was competitive, indecisive and
self-absorbed. She was not a very good friend to Garrett. She played in his face the whole book.

This is a everyone sees it but them trope.

This was a cute story with a fun dating premise. I wish there was second pov for Garrett so that we can really get to know him deeper than what we got. Taj created two great men for Maggie & I was happy to see who she ended up with in the end.

My first book by Taj McCoy and I highly enjoy it.
The book was relatable in this new modern dating. I love the friendship between Maggie and Garrett. They supported each other, knew one another, and how everything was natural with them.  I am glad Maggie and Garrett got a happy ending.
Thanks Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC and the opportunity to read and review this title.

There was a lot of formatting issues in the electronic version of this book which made it difficult to read and follow. As discouraging as this was, I kept reading.

Magnolia "Maggie" Jones has it all - an amazing career as a tax attorney whose goal is to reach partner for her law firm, an uber-supportive friend group and a male best friend named Garrett Bailey who has been in love with her for almost 20 years!

Of course Maggie doesn't know it!

Maggie's friends are getting. married in a double wedding in Phuket, and Maggie needs a plus 1. By the encouragement of her friend group, Maggie sets up a dating profile on a popular dating app, and things get very interesting. Garrett tags along on the dates in case things "go left" and they often do, and saves Maggie from the disasters that strike.

But in comes Blake, an amazingly attractive heart surgeon who is crazy about Maggie, as she is about him. But guess who has a tinge of a jealous streak?

What does Maggie do?Who will she choose? A really good read if you have a physical copy!

There's potential here, but I truly don't think the author's writing style in this book is for me. Instead of consistent, necessary pacing, there's lots of focus on details I'd deem more distracting than necessary for the reader to know. The descriptions were odd and off-putting in a lot of cases. The writing style really prevented me from getting attached to the characters at all, because even the dialogue felt very stilted. Beautiful book cover, though.

This is my second Taj McCoy book and I really love her writing style. Dating is extremely difficult for us singles! I love that Taj shed some light on how bad online dating is (which is why I don't have any of the apps). While this story is pretty predictable, I liked that Maggie was thoughtful in her decision on who she wanted to be with. Mags definitely got lucky having a very patient best friend in Garrett. Taj knows how to write boss ass characters that go through relatable ish. Enjoyed this one!

3.5 stars.

This book was cute! But woo Maggie got on my nerves. She KNEW she wanted Garrett. And the fact that Blake tried to force himself into her apartment and she still had to THINK about which man she wanted to choose. Girl stop it! For Garrett to wait 19 years for his dream girl…..what a man! I read Savvy Sheldon Feels Good as Hell and I prefer that one more. But still a good cute read with a little smut which you can never go wrong there. Can’t wait for more from this author.

Maggie, a strong and successful woman in her late 30s, finds herself in the position where she has to decide between two eligible bachelors - her best friend of 20 years and a rich and successful surgeon who wants to spoil her with the finer things in life. It had all the makings to be a five-star read for me, and I am so disappointed that it couldn't live up to my expectations.

My main issues boiled down to pacing and conflict.

SPOILERS
Maggie didn't meet her second option until more than halfway through the book, so it felt completely unbelievable that he was even
a possible contender. We didn't even see a real conflict until around the 85% mark, and even that wasn't a compelling conflict (and also felt thrown in after the book had been written). Even though the book is clearly friends-to-lovers, so we all know how it is going to end, I needed there to be some actual hurdle they had to overcome once their feelings were out in the open. I could not understand why Maggie was even worried about Mr. Doctor once she realized things with the MMC were real because she didn't seem that into him when he was her only option.

In all, still a nice, quick read. It was also nice because you got to check in with some characters from previous books, which I found cute.

I enjoyed this book and loved how realistic all of the characters were. The banter, jokes, realness, and history between friends, all reminded me of my friendship with my college bests.

I absolutely loved the friendship and bond between Maggie and Garrett. They supported each other so much and knew one another so well, probably more than they knew themselves.

I also was drawn to how Maggie was unapologetically herself all the time! Her love for food touched my soul to the depths!

I had such a great time reading the Good Ones Are Taken by Taj McCoy !

I found myself laughing out loud at multiple places in this book and Taj McCoy PERFECTLY describes the agony of having batteries die at the most inopportune time (IYKYK)

I loved the FMC Maggie and how relatable she was as a 30-something single woman. She’s someone I would want to hang out with in real life, and the support system she has is friendship goals.

I loved the amount of body positivity, fun, and sass there is in this book and I will definitely be reading more titles by this author.

was a decent book, but I was not enthralled to pick it up. It didn't "hook" me in like most books do which was kind of disappointing.

I honestly enjoyed this book a lot, with this being my first book by the author! Taj McCoy’s writing is phenomenal and relatable when it comes to friendships and modern dating. It had the perfect mixture of the good, bad, and a forever love. I felt like I was apart of the best friend group during the entire read. I also found myself laughing out loud so many times; it was so cute and real! Savvy and Joanie are definitely her ride or die friends! Every girl needs friends like them. Now when it came to Maggie and Garrett, this is the type of book that will have you reassessing your relationship with the guy you’ve been bestfriends with for years and wondering what could’ve been! I love how everything was natural and genuine between them. I couldn’t help but smile whenever they had their dates on Saturdays or when he would call her beautiful. Garrett was such a gentleman and they knew each other like the back of their hands, even down to the food orders! Garrett knew nobody was good enough to be with Maggie! It was so many times I wanted to just yell at Maggie like “Girl, that’s who you need to be with! Garrett has always been the one! Stop playing and open your eyes!!!” This book was truly a page turner and I’m glad Maggie got her happy ending!

Thank you netgalley and harlequin trade publishing for the arc.

I think the story is cute for that friends to lovers feel but it didn’t snatch me up like i thought it would. I did like the friend group and how they were always there for one another. One thing i thought was weird and probably will always be that way for me. Is them wanting her to have a man for their weddings. Yeah i could tell they wanted her to be happy but why does she have to have someone y’all’s weddings?? It’s about y’all and people that love y’all unconditionally. Also Maggie was a little caught up on herself and was forgetting to do things for the wedding couples. Like you’re the maid of honor in both weddings ma’am. Tighten up.

The whole online dating aspect of the read is cool because that’s truly the time we are in right now. Maggie having a career and doing well at it is a nice pov. Showing she’s not putting that on the back burner for love. Making love the end all be all of her life like some people and forgetting there’s more to life.

I like the spice that we got. It wasn’t a lot but enough to hold you over. Especially between Maggie and G. Blake and Garrett were to an extent good dudes by profile. Like Blake with the career, house and style but was finishing first in the bedroom!! Maggie not saying nothing about it?! Then trying to force himself in your place but yet you still couldn’t choose?! oh okay girl. You be talking any other time. Some people are for real book smart over street smart and that’s Maggie.

Then Garrett you sir 20 years??? Like what the heck! I get that people don’t want to lose a best friend but don’t you want the person you marry to be your best friend. Y’all almost 40 out here playing around. Like y’all literally check each other’s boxes. Garrett knows Maggie like the back of his hand, y’all can crack on one another and have a Saturday night route. Is that not what relationships are made of. Smh. Everyone seen and knew how Garrett felt but Maggie?! They all had to tell her in order for it to stick. Girl you stressed me out.

Just wish we could have gotten them two together sooner so their “lovers” relationship could have developed more.

This book had to grow on me. I'm not a fan of the misdirects in communication rather than being upfront. But the characters were so likeable that it was pretty easy for me to get past that point. It's clear from the start that Garrett is in love with her, so you definitely root for them throughout the story, but you also want Maggie to know how great she is all her own. Written in a style that leans women's fiction, if you enjoyed this author's previous works, you'll definitely like this one. It's worth picking up if you are interested in a friend's to lovers with a twist.

This was a light and fun friends to lovers read. I did like the book but it was a little slow for my taste and predictable. Maggie got on nerves y'all. She was very self centered and I was over the food obsession. I love the plus size love but didn't like that all she seemed to care about was food all the time. Like talking about food in almost every chapter. I believe the author has good intentions gassing Garrett up. She did it so well that Blake didn't have a chance in my opinion. Blake was just off to me and needed more for me to believe he was a true contender. Lastly, the fact that she knew someone for 20 years and he finally shares his feelings and she runs all around town asking everyone and they mama about if they knew his true feelings. Overall I love the ending and the amount of Spice. That last Spicy scene I actually enjoyed. The ending was everything I hoped for her. This was my first book by Taj McCoy and I look forward to reading more from her.