Was this friends to lovers to friends to catfish back to lovers story great? Yes

Does it have all of the humor and sexual tension you'd expect from a CLo book? Yes

Will you like it? Yes

Did it completely freak me out that the main character is named Reid just like my six year-old son? Yes

This book reads like a memoir, although it's fiction. I really felt connected to the characters Christina Lauren portrayed in this book. I would recommend it.

Another excellent novel by the dynamic duo, Christina Lauren! I felt a connection to this story, the characters, and just about everything else in between. I hope that everyone gets a chance to pick up this novel because it's not one to be missed! I am eagerly awaiting more books from the authors in the NEAR future!

This is the cutest, most comical book I’ve read this year! All I can say is I wish it didn’t end. These authors nailed RomCom here with a cast of characters that have such hilarity, chemistry, and tight sense of friendship, I pray we get a book for each of them! Ed, please, Ed!

The book revolves around this group of five close friends- four guys and a girl- Millie. Millie is always the life of the party and the last person to talk about things close to her heart. Dean is almost the opposite. He sweet and very attuned to others. He and Millie have a close bond of friendship, have long talks over take-out, whatever. It’s all just easy-peasy with them. Until a night of too many drinks and one poor choice...they sleep together. Can they get back on the friendship track? Sure. They have no choice.

When a big event is upon the group of them, All calling for a plus-one, they decide to venture into the land of online dating. Let the fun begin....

There isn’t a thing I’d change about this ride. It has a great balance of it all, is the perfect length and will leave readers with a permanent grin throughout the reading experience.

If this is what Christina Lauren books, deliver, I’m picking up some of their past releases ASAP.

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A group of best friends need dates for a university function and decide to try finding them on-line. The results are quite entertaining.

I seriously can’t get enough of this writing duo! I’ve read all of their novels and I have loved every.single.one. “Half Night Stand” was no exception. These authors have a PhD when it comes to witty, humorous banter. Read this book! Hell, read all of their books- you’ll surely have a new favorite author!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Gallery Books.

I like Christina Lauren's books. They are funny and witty. However, I struggled with this one. I couldn't connect to any of the characters and found myself skimming until the end. It lacked the charm her other works have.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Gallery/Pocket for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. I like the author but I don't read every book she writes. I found this to be a fun book. I loved the characters, they aren't perfect! Not everyone can be open about their feelings. Millie is a PhD with flaws , but she is trying. This is a friend's to lovers. Reid is also a PhD- a tenure track neuroscience professor. I found the online dating thing funny because I have no idea how it works! Have never done a dating profile. I rate it a 4.5.

My Favorite Half-Night stand by Christina Lauren. It took me awhile to get though this book. I liked the characters and the connection between them. It dragged at times but for the most part a good storyline.

Will leave a 4 star review on Amazon under name of Connie.
A look at modern day dating apps.

Thanks for granting me access to this book.

It was very refreshing to have the story move along without graphic steamy scenes. Oh sure you knew that sex, rock your world sex, but without graphic details. A sign of a good writer in my book.

this is a wonderful love story that is so very believable. It has all the mistakes we make in relationships from little lies to denial that love is there- friendships and loyalty are key factors that help creat the confusion and hurt. So very real to life.

This book was very much a fast, entertaining read. Even though it seems simple and a chick flick it touches upon some very important aspects of today's society: the Internet. First off, with most people now a days have given internet dating a chance. This book talks about the challenges for both bed and women. from dick pics, to ghosting to just not having the same chemistry in person as over the web. Additionally, it talks about how people have the ability to be more open over the web rather than in person. This reflects how today society is become less intimate with personal contact. That now there seems to be a need for more of barrier, which the internet allows.

Christina Lauren rarely disappoints me with fun contemporary romances, and this may be my favorite of hers! The characters are fully fleshed out, the romance believable, and it’s filled with equal parts fun and dramatic moments. I am BEYOND excited to add this book to our collection and am already thinking of ways to talk it up to staff and patrons.

Coming out of Josh & Hazel's Guide to Not Dating, one of my favorite books of the year, I was convinced Christina Lauren could do no wrong. So this book was a healthy slap in the face. I really, really, really was not a fan. In fact, I think it's the first Christina Lauren book I've encountered where I didn't like the main character, and I hoped she wouldn't end up together with the love interest.

This started out so promising. I LOVED the best friends to lovers trope in the beginning. I would give this book 5 stars for the first 10 percent if it were a novella on its own. But I was quickly disappointed.

I usually applaud Christina Lauren novels for having characters that are so communicative, but this was the opposite. I hate how Millie misled Reid and tried to catfish him rather than being open and honest about her feelings. This is probably my personal preference, but it’s annoying and unrelatable to me when main characters don’t like opening up about themselves, so all the drama that occurred because of that felt very preventable and exhausting. I really hated Millie for misleading Reid and causing so much drama in their friend group and making Reid look like an idiot rather than simply being honest. It was frustratingly immature, especially because Millie is 30 years old with a doctorate degree and yet couldn't even communicate the littlest details of her life.

And that's another thing: this book is definitely not written for someone my age (early 20s). I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re a millennial or younger. It’s about older people with careers trying to navigate online dating apps, and it’s just SO cringy. I’m usually down for how “modern” Christina Lauren romances are, but this one is just downright embarrassing because the characters are writing bios for dating profiles to try and make themselves seem appealing and dateable, but the ones they agree on are so cringy. If I were reading those profiles, I would definitely pass on all of them. I’m sad because usually Christina Lauren books are funny and just the right about of pop culture references, but this one was just… bad. Often.

And beside the tech part of the story, a lot of the dialogue was uncharacteristically cheesy in this. Again, I usually like when Christina Lauren pokes at modern references, but more often than not, I feel like they were used clunkily in this story, probably because the characters themselves were weirdly awkward. For example, at one point Reid said something like, "You should download this app" and Millie's immediate response was "I know, you mansplainer!!" and I get she was poking fun at that word and how it's come into popularity recently but it was so forced and gimmicky. And I felt like this, often.

This particular comment didn’t take away from my rating of the book but still was something I got stuck on a time or two—the cast of 5 main characters in this book was diverse racially, but every single one of those people was heterosexual and looking for a partner of the opposite sex. A bit heteronormative.

So I don't know if it's because Christina Lauren is publishing two books in 6 months, but this one was so much weaker than Josh & Hazel. I skim read a lot of the confrontation and drama scenes because I was so over Millie being non-confrontational and lying because she was afraid of her feelings. By the end, I understood why she behaved that way, but I much prefer seeing characters who are open and communicative instead of slogging through 200 pages of conflict that is completely preventable if characters just opened their mouths and were honest.

Funny, light-hearted, completely enjoyable! A group of friends have to find a date for an event so they turn to the dating app. Their experiences are hilarious!

I cannot tell a lie...I almost didn't finish this book. That is hard for me to say because I LOVE Christina Lauren. But this one...this one almost got a DNF. But it didn't.
What I loved: After I finished the book, I looked at it deeper. This book isn't just a "romance" it goes deeper than that. We learn A LOT about the Millie right from the start, but we forget that. We are given a statistic about women serial killers and I think that stat is telling us more than just about Millie's job. I loved that this book actually made me think (how many romance books really do that?). You may think that Millie is the MC, but I think the MC is really Reid.
What I liked: This wasn't just a "romance" in the true sense of the book. There was some deviation from the typical roles in a romance novel.
What I hated: I was trying to pigeon hole this book into a category that it didn't belong in...I tried to make it "just a romance" and it's not.

In the beginning this book seemed WAY to similar to Josh and Hazel, but keep going. It's a very different book.

This follows Christina Lauren's usual style of alternating narrators. Which is great, but I think their writing is getting deeper and deeper and I love it. Excited for what comes next from these two.

I absolutely loved this book. This is the first book by this author I have read and I'm so glad I took a chance. This book was funny, charming, sexy, and has great friendships.

Millie and Reid are friends. They hang out with a couple of other guys but the two of them are the closest. However it wasn't until one night that Millie has a little bit too much to drink that her eyes are opened to just how HOT Reid is. After a night together they try and go back to being friends.

I really liked these two as a couple. From the very first moment these two are introduced, you know they are meant to be together. They already act like they are together except for the physical intimacy. Their friendship was just more..that was why it didn't seem weird when people found out.

One aspect of this book I really liked was that Reid was the one pushing for more of a emotional connection. He was the one asking for Millie to open up more. This is rare in a book and I loved seeing it from the male perspective.

I wish I knew how Christina Lauren comes out with multiple books a year and they are all this good! I love how they take such a fresh perspective on relationships and totally suck me in every time. The premise of this one involves dating apps (which is allllll too real for me) and best friends Millie and Reid. Be sure to catch this one in December!

Thank you to Gallery books for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

I was looking forward to reading this book as I adore these authors, but somehow it missed the mark. The characters didn’t grab me as I’d expected. Millie wasn’t all that likable, she was too insecure for the woman she was supposed to be. I also thought her reaction to things Reid would say or do were a bit childish and didn’t exactly fit her character. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to love this story I did not. It just didn’t work for me.

Hey, CLo-- y'all available for writing an online dating bio? Asking for a friend.

But seriously, the world nowadays is a crazy, beautiful, messed-up place, and to throw dating in the mix-- are you kidding me? I couldn't have related to these thirty-somethings more if I tried. Their friend group is total goals and I was living for their group chats. Online dating and text features are not new additions to books, but CLo kept it fresh, y'all! Each character was so unique and had captivating personalities. And props to whoever decided to add the avatars/pictures to the group chat scenes-- so dang accurate!

Also, I loved the role reversal in My Favorite-Half Night Stand-- not all men are emotionally unavailable and not all woman want to find the closest man and tie the knot, and it was fun to watch these two fall. I was so invested in this fictional friendship/relationship that there were parts where my heart felt like it was in a meat grinder. I was like, "No, Millie! Say it! JUST SAY IT!" And, "OMG Reid open your eyes! I feel you buddy, but look right in front of you!"

Basically what I'm saying is that you all need to read this book. My Favorite Half-Night Stand is for all of us out there living life and slayin' our goals... but would like to find the one person that just gets you and wants to slay away right alongside you.