I really enjoyed this funny, sweet, slow-burn, friends to lovers romance. Hailey Sharp has opened her new restaurant and is solely focused on making it successful. Wes Jansen is an uptight, nerdy businessman who is more comfortable talking shop than small talk. He and Hailey have a not so cute 'meet cute' but end up becoming friends. They feel comfortable with each other and share ideas, and dreams they never shared with anyone else. Hailey is determined to make it on her own, with their vast financial difference, when Wes tries to help her or give her expensive gifts, Hailey declines. When their feelings start to grow into more than friends, they are afraid to act on it because they don't want to risk losing the one person who knows them best. When Wes secretly crosses the line, and Hailey wants what Wes Wes isn't able to give, will they be able to trust each other again?
Wes was so sweet, giving, and protective. He was always there for those he cared about, making sure they had whatever they needed. Hailey was determined, kind, and loving, making them such a perfect pair. I really enjoyed Wes's family, they were fun, loyal, and supportive.
Narrators, Stephanie Willing and Timothy Andrés Pabon did a great job bringing these characters and story to life. They delivered all the wit, emotion, and steam and I was totally lost in their performance.

After a difficult break up Hailey Sharp moves across California to start over. She opens up her own ny the cup salad shop and hopes for success. While next door at the dessert shop she is approached by a man who believes that she is his date. After an awkward encounter she walk away feeling that he was extremely rude and is very happy to say that she glad she isn't try to date at the moment.

Wes Jansen a well off entrepreneur doesn't understand the fuss over being in a relationships. He is happy for his brothers but doesn't believe in love himself. After a few bad dates he decides he is done dating and decides to just focus on his business.

Hailey and Wes end up having mutual friends and just keep running into each other. They really hit it off... as friends and decide it would be funny to write a guide on being friends. The two of them end up being inseparable until one day they both realize that they are developing feelings for one another. Determined to not destroy their friendship they try to ignore the feeling and even attempt to see other people

Will they be able to stay friends?

This is book # 3 in the Jansen brothers series. This book can be read alone.

The third book in the Jansen Brothers series, and another winner from Sophie Sullivan! My favorite part was catching up with all of the family and friends from the previous books! I loved watching Hailey and Wes’s love blossom after they have both sworn off relationships.

What to expect::
•Great meet cute
•Friends to lovers
•Sloooooww burn
•Millionaire businessman hero
•New small business owner heroine
•Salads!!
•3rd person dual POV
🔥closed door

The third act conflict had me annoyed and I felt like the story was a bit repetitive at times, but overall a sweet and fun romance!

The audiobook performance from both narrators was great!

This a cute breezy rom-com to get through it. It is a slow burn strangers to friends to lovers; this is a fade-to-black book if you're not into too much spice. I did enjoy the audio version over the reading myself better. The male and female readers were great; they kept me in it longer, but it did take me a while to get into the story. I didn't feel as much tension between the couple as I had hoped; their miscommunicating and arguments became annoying. When they finally got together, they were charming, and I wanted them together, but I did have trouble caring in some parts due to a lack of feeling that tension.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to listen to this book.

A Guide to Being Just Friends was your average romcom; it was a cute, quick read but I couldn't really bring myself to care about or connect to the characters. The plot itself was quintessential romcom with a funny meet-ugly and slow burn romance, but the characters were really lacking. I believe these characters are supposed to be in their 30s or nearly 30, but at some points they acted more like teenagers. Their repetitive bickering and fighting was especially juvenile and grew old rather quickly. I don't think I'd reread this book, but listening to this audiobook was a relatively enjoyable experience and I quite liked the two narrators.

Hailey Sharp is starting over and is putting all her energy into By the Cup salad shop. She plans to do anything necessary to make it a success.

Wes Jansen doesn’t feel that love and a relationship is for him especially since he feels it’s destined to end like his parents’ marriage—in a divorce.

Hailey and Wes meet in an air of confusion. Wes later apologizes and they become friends. They hang out, grocery shop together on Saturday nights, but continue to maintain that they are just friends.

What happens when everyone around them sees what they don’t?

I really enjoyed listening to this novel and also enjoyed narrators.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to listen to an ARC of this novel. #NetGalley #AGuidetoBeingJustFriends

This book was a cute enough rom com. It was a quick and easy read, but nothing really stood out to me. The FMC opens up a salad shop and it made me crave salad every time I started to listen, lol lots of salad talk. If your looking for a book to pass the time and a HEA give it a try.

An easy breezy rom com review. I listened to this one via audiobook and I will say that I enjoyed the narrators but the story was just ok.

Thanks to #netgalley and #macmillanaudio for the audio copy in exchange for my review.

I really struggled through this one. It was cute with a slow burn romance. It just didn't hold my interest for very long. It look me awhile to get through this audiobook. I just didn't feel a connection with the characters, and I was just bored from the beginning. I'm thinking this author just isn't my style. I thought the narrators did a good job. Huge thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to listen and review this audiobook.

Fun, sexy, and cute. I was charmed by Hayley and Wes's story right from their meet-ugly. It was interesting to see their friendship and attraction grow. There's just something about people trying to explain away their feelings that makes me squeal. Looking forward to reading more of Sullivan in the future.

A quintessential cute cartoon cover book complete with friends-to-lovers, a little third act breakup and the perfect combination of sweetness and snark! Hailey and Wes are definitely polar opposites, but I found both to be equally endearing characters and their pasts were portrayed well to show why the issues they had were present. There was no annoying guessing game or dramatization of certain issues to create a breakup, it felt natural and plausible! The voice actors were awesome and I was definitely sucked into the story even more through their portrayals of these characters. Overall a sweet, simple read guaranteed to give you the warm and fuzzies!

It was perfection and had everything I love when reading a romance novel. I laughed so much throughout the book. There is so much fun banter that will leave you completely satisfied. Their relationship was fun and quirky and I love the tiny and thoughtful displays of affection. It was hard to put down. It really wants you to make you fall in love with your best friend in hopes of getting what they have. The audio was great! The narrator did a great job that I didn’t feel the need to follow along with the book

Book Title: A Guide to Just Being Friends
Author: Sophie Sullivan
Series: The Jansen Brothers #3
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Pub Date: January 17, 2023
My Rating: 3 Stars

This is Book #3 in the Jansen Brothers series. Although I have not read the other two, readers indicate that the story is a slow burn and that it can be told as a stand-alone.

Hailey Sharp has just opened her Salad by the Cup restaurant and is busy making sure her dream is kept afloat. She had been in a relationship that didn’t work so her love now is her restaurant and not looking for romance.

Wes Jansen doesn’t do relationships. His parents had an angry marriage. So he is a happy bachelor.

Wes apologizes to Hailey after a misunderstanding that took place the first time they met. They are fine with bring friends as neither wants a relationship in fact, not interested in any relationships.
Hmmm so what happens when they both start to feel attraction? Read on . . . .

I am not a big romance fan but am okay with a light fun sweet romance.
This is listed in the genre of ‘Contemporary Romance’ aka modern romance. It started off with more nasty language that I believe necessary but that’s me! Plus at first I didn’t like Wes!
My feeling's did change as I stuck with this slow burn story.
It turned out much better than what I first expected.

Want to thank NetGalley and Macmillan Media for granted me this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for January 17, 2023

I did not like this book. It was the first I read from this author and it was way too long, boring, and predictable. The market seems to be flooded with these recycled themes of a girl opening a business, and bumping into a guy, drama ensues when they don't want the same thing but then he realizes he can't live without her. Zzzzzzz.

I really enjoyed this book! I enjoyed that it was part of a series and the other characters made appearances. I like the character development of both Hailey and Wes. As well as that it was a slow burn kind of romance.

A Guide to Being Just Friends by Sophie Sullivan was a lovely read! In this dual-POV contemporary romance, our main characters are Hailey Sharp, the plucky, optimistic and hardworking owner of By the Cup, a to-go salad shop, and Wes Jansen, nerdy, reserved, (kinda) secret billionaire who, seconds into meeting her, accuses Hailey of not being herself. He's there for an online date, which Hailey slightly resembles, and he's convinced that she's his date but is trying to flee--which she isn't, making sweet baby angel Wes look like a total jackass. You know, a perfect meet cute.

They meet again and realize that they have things in common and good chemistry, so they decide that they should be friends, and take any pressure for more off the table...that way they can be friends with no expectations. They jokingly make a "Guide to Being Just Friends," which they regularly refer and add to along their road to becoming actual best friends--even when they can't see that they're each other's besties, we know it!

What follows is a cute love story peppered with pop-culture references and enough graphic depictions of food that you'll be salivating for a salad and chocolate cake--and enough drama to keep you engrossed while maintaining relatively low stakes. Wes' brothers and their girlfriends take to Hailey, because let's face it, she's sunshine personified and (most) everyone loves her. Hailey is fiercely proud and independent, which I love, but there were moments that I wanted to scream at her. Girl, let this man spoil you if he wants to!

The only real complaint that I have is that I wish a particular character (which I won't name because SPOILERS!) had gotten theirs--either a punch in the face, or realizing what an idiot they were, or, preferably, both.

I'll be honest: I requested this book via NetGalley because of the title and cover, and only after starting the book did I realize that it's actually part of a pseudo-series. I say pseudo because it doesn't seem like these books have to be read in a specific order, but so far the "Jansen Brothers" books have each apparently featured one of the Jansen brothers and their love story. This book definitely made me want to go back and read more of Sophie Sullivan's work, because I know it will have me high-pitched squealing just as much as this story did.

As far as the audio-portion goes, I have no complaints about either of the narrators--they did an excellent job representing the characters and showing their ranges of emotions.

4.5

Love this series and enjoyed this audiobook! These can be standalones but I highly recommend all of them!

Thanks Netgalley

I do love friends-to-romance, so this was a cute story, and I thought pretty well-paced for most of it; because Hailey and Wes only met at the beginning of the book, they really did need that friendship time to settle in with each other to make the payoff feel worth it for me. . Still, the last quarter of the book felt much rockier, with multiple arguments resolving and then reopening, but then the characters' major issues being wrapped up too quickly although they both have clear psychological issues based in their respective childhoods - I almost would have liked to see them separated and in therapy for several months before finally getting together rather than rushing through a quick fix. I did think that the secondary characters were pretty strong, and I appreciated getting group scenes, stuff about Hailey's business, scenes with the two of them getting involved in the rec center (what happened to Hailey's actual book club, though???), despite the "REMEMBER THESE COUPLES FROM THE OTHER BOOKS WHO YOU LOVED SO MUCH?!" tone to some of the sequences with Wes's brothers and their girlfriends (I guess because I only read one of the books and wasn't super invested, that bugs me a bit). I also appreciate how their differences were clear but not to such a degree that it felt like they wouldn't work together as a couple, although I wouldn't say they necessarily felt like they had crackling chemistry to me. Overall, a sweet read if not a particular standout, and both narrators on the audiobook were pretty good.

The story was okay but I didn't like the writing, multiple times important information was brought up by the opposite POV without the readers ever having read the conversations where this information would have been shared, so it felt like we were missing crucial conversations and it led to a very choppy and confusing reading experience. There were also multiple seemingly casual fatphobic comments and it really pulled me out of the reading experience and dislike the book more and more. They just felt so unnecessary and it was hard to read.

A Guide to Being Just Friends is a cute rom com about a salad shop owner and a rich, nerdy guy. This is a slow burn, friends to lovers romance, pretty clean, and while the third book in a series can be read more as a standalone. The downside of this book is the first half. So much detail is given to salads that it becomes tiresome! And the friendship portion felt less than believable and their agreement to stay just friends felt forced given they had quite literally just met. The second half of the book picks up and the actual relationship between Wes and Hailey feels less forced and more natural. Overall, a cute rom com!

This book wasn’t anything special and with an over saturated romance genre it’s hard to stand out. What really threw me off was the characters not having the conversation that he doesn’t want to ever be in love until she said it. It’s the kind of thing that would have been discussed before.