Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the advance copy in exchange for a review.

I highly recommend Not Here to Stay Friends. It was a quick and exciting read. It has everything I love including childhood friends to lovers, witty banter, and a fun cast of characters. And it all takes place on the set of a teen dating reality show. My Love Island heart is swooning.

I loved getting to see the story unfold from the both POVs of the main characters, especially Liam and his relationships with his Dad, Aspen, and of course Sloane.

You can read my full review and interview with author Kaitlyn Hill on The Honey POP!

It's a mature YA with potential for adults to enjoy as well. I was rooting for Liam and Sloane.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC.

5/5 stars

I really enjoyed reading this book! Very light-hearted and low stakes. I loved seeing the two characters pine for one another and just not be completely sure what was happening with their feelings for one another. I’m also a sucker for reality show-related books.

The one thing I will say is that the love triangle wasn’t very developed. I really didn’t see the point, especially when the focus was on the two main characters and their romance, so I feel like the attempt at a triangle just made the romance progression feel kind of clunky.

Definitely would recommend to anyone looking for a fun read!

I don't know how better to describe Kaitlyn Hill's NOT HERE TO STAY FRIENDS than to say it's an enjoyable airport/plane read. While I was not rushing to get to the end, nor will I ever read it again, the story--though predictable--was entertaining enough. Even though you know (mostly) how the story will end, Hill executes the best friends to lovers trope well and satisfyingly 'lands' the ending. I especially appreciated that the plot wasn't about a bunch of women being catty and awful to each other while fighting over a mediocre man. There's definitely some sisterhood. However, I think some of the tension between Liam and Sloane and their respective parents was forgotten and honestly a missed opportunity. Oh well.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Children’s, and the author for sending me this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback!

Two best friends, Liam and Sloane, are looking forward to spending the summer together in LA doing all the touristy things, spending time out by the pool, and catching up after a year apart from each other.

Liam’s father, an executive producer for reality TV shows, has other plans and tells him that he will actually be working as a PA on his new reality TV show. They are about to start filming a dating show with a teen heartthrob actor, Aspen Woods. Turns out, one of the teen girls has dropped out and they need someone to take her spot - and Sloane now needs to join the show to help out her best friend’s Dad.

The only thing is that Sloane doesn’t want to date anyone else, she is beginning to fall for her best friend. And Liam is secretly pining for Sloane as he watches her date this superstar on set day in and day out.

I usually don’t vibe with YA reads, but this was just so wholesome and funny, and I wish there were books like this for me when I was a teenager. Liam and Sloane’s friends to lovers storyline was wonderful and they treated each other with respect and kindness. It was heartwarming and the writing was great. It immediately takes you back to falling for your first love as a teenager.

Sloane and Liam have been long-distance best friends since childhood. She is visiting him in LA for the summer. When she arrives she discovers Liam is suddenly HOT, and has been tasked with being the PA on the set of his father's new reality dating show, Aspen Woods' Future Leading Lady. When one of the girls drops out of the show last minute, Sloane steps in when Liam's dad promises to use his connections to help her film writing career begin. Liam isn't thrilled with the idea, as he tries to navigate the feelings he's having towards Sloane.

This was stinkin' cute! I'm a sucker for a friends-to-lovers romance, make it CHILDHOOD friends-to-lovers and I'm going to eat it up every time. I really loved both Sloane and Liam's friendship. They were so supportive of one another and always looked out for each other's best interests. I like how we got POVs from both of them so that we were able to see what they were both thinking in any given situation. I loved the mutual pining, and I was definitely rooting for them throughout the story. I thought the plot was really fun and I was engaged the entire time I was reading. I need more from this author ASAP.

Also, OBSESSED with the ending. We love girls supporting girls.

I DNFed this one at 11% and I’m so sad I didn’t like it! The original reviews and ratings were super good, but I’ve noticed (especially on Goodreads) that the ratings have majorly tanked since I requested this book, and I can understand why. It read too YA for me, and I didn’t feel any tension or pining in the first part that I read, so I didn’t feel set up for a romance. I also didn’t like the miscommunication happening right off the bat — the male MC hiding his summer job from the female MC until she actually showed up for their summer of fun! That made me sad. Thanks anyway for the advanced copy — I hope this romance speaks to others more as it just wasn’t for me.

I could not finish enough of this book to be able to leave a comprehensive review, but I hope it finds its audience and I am grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

You've seen the Bachelor show. But have you ever read a friend's to lover story set in a Bachelor-like show? Well, buckle in with this lovely story. Kaitlyn Hill could not give us any more lovey dovey butterflies while also delivering the standard fast dating trope that comes with romance reality shows. Who will you pick? The starry hot guy or the best friend?

* I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this book. All thoughts are my own.

I know this is a YA romance, but something about teenagers on a bachelor-esque dating show was just so awkward to me. It was also super easy to tell that Aspen was going to be a major jerk from the beginning so I really wasn’t invested in the story. I liked Liam and Sloane but there just wasn’t enough romance on their side for me to really get into this book

Read it if you want to, it’s not bad just not really my speed.

This was a very cute book, friends to lovers who obviously can’t tell each other how they feel they didn’t know what those feeling were, they are young and just coming into these big feelings. It didn’t grab my attention like I wish but it was entertaining, a good summer read, a little predictable but that’s sometimes a good thing, specially with romance, you know where you’re going and what you’re getting and there’s comfort in that.

Rating: Absolutely Loved It

I loved this book for what it is, a fun, light rom com for teens. It was laugh out loud funny and has some of my absolute favorite tropes, such as reality tv/dating setup and friends to lovers. AND it had dual POVs. I think that the friends to lovers was handled really well for the most part, although I did have some complaints every once in a while about the amount of time spent agonizing over everything, for the most part it was super easy to read.

I flew through this one in just a few hours once I had the time to devote to it. I think that my favorite thing about it is that it truly feels like it is written for teens. I would have loved to have this book to devour when I was in high school.

Overall, it was funny, I loved the characters, and I just had a great time. Highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for a review copy. All opinions are my own.

This one was super cute! Laguna Beach vibes but make Stephan the bachelor (tell me your a millennial without telling me your a millennial). The behind the scenes of the show was so intriguing to me! A couple of the characters were sketch (Ty)! Overall, a sweet little friends to lovers 😍

This one just isn’t doing it for me and I had to DNF.

I’m a big fan of YA, but I find it frustration when the narrators sound dumbed down for the age group. I just couldn’t do it.

As someone who loves The Bachelor, I loved this so much! This was so cute and full of those warm and fuzzy moments - will definitely be reading more from this author!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

As someone who only watches Survivor in terms of reality tv...this book was a joy to read.

A classic best-friends-to-lovers and you only realize your feelings towards each other when one of you goes on a reality dating show with a hot celebrity?!? I mean come ON, this is drama gold.

Overall, this book kept me constantly entertained. I never felt like the pacing was off or that it was too eye-rolling. Which is especially good since it's written for YA.

I am definitely looking forward to what this writer has in store for the future!

Overall, I liked this book. I liked the demisexual rep, and I emphasized with Sloane's struggles. I'm interested in the film industry myself, and this is now the fourth romance book I've read that uses film as a backdrop, and I enjoy it every time. In general, Sloane's progression was good as she came more into her own, and she and Liam made for a good couple. (I love friends to lover trope, if you can't tell.) There was a scene towards the very end where <spoiler>they confessed their feelings</spoiler>, and I REALLY liked that scene - it felt so genuine between the two of them.

I was warned that the ending was meh for this book, and yeah, out of the whole thing, the ending is where I had the most issues. For one, the revenge against a certain Hollywood character was just very quick. The rest of the novel had what I thought was a good pace, and then in one chapter everything comes crumbling down (a bit too conveniently) for one of the leads and the book is left on a note of "girl power!" I did enjoy the comradery between all the girls at the end, but it seemed a bit too neat and predictable.

Not Here to Stay Friends by Kaitlyn Hill is giving the reality dating show vibes. Just picture the Bachelor. It's an easy read, easy to follow, and entertaining enough to keep you reading on. I like the little plot twist at the end. I wish there was more interaction with the other contestants but understood that is not what this book focused on.

So anyone who knows me (which admittedly is probably the majority of people reading this review) knows that I avoid YA novels. Obviously there's nothing wrong with them, they're just a genre that I don't like and avoid. On a whim I read the synopsis and was immediately interested. This book was so freaking cute, I'm so glad I requested it in the first place!

So I very hesitant with starting this book. I kept putting it down and picking it back up. It started off pretty slow and I almost didn’t continue with it. But I am so happy that I did. It got better in the middle and the end was really really good! This is a cross of teenage drama shows with a bachelor type of scenario as well. But ultimately it was a friends to lovers, which turned out to be a great YA book. I enjoyed it and happy that I stuck it out.

I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley and the opinions on the book are my own.