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.

When Maggie's best friend admits he's in love with her, she'll have to decide whether it's worth giving up something good for something that could be amazing in this laugh-out-loud friends-to-lovers rom-com.
I was so so so excited about this book. I love friends to lovers, I love he fell first, I love this concept so much! But ultimately I could not get past Maggie. Her complaining was driving me crazy and her hypocritical nonsense with her friends was insufferable. Her banter with Garrett was cute! But even then it was, "I'm so single, I'm dying alone, everyone's happiness is a direct attack on me".

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.

Overall, this book was fun and was well written. The author was quite good at writing well-developed and interesting characters, with a strong friend group and people who felt authentic. What kept me from giving it a higher rating were the following.

1) Although I appreciate the heroine's friend group keeping it real and keeping her "overbearing" personality flaws in check, I felt it was overboard and drove me crazy.

2) The heroine's love language was food, but there was too much description at times about the food. I felt like I was reading a foodie blog.

3) However, my biggest problem with the book was the resolution of the love triangle. It was pretty obvious who she was going to choose. While I understood her hesitation, it seemed to drag on for too long, and I felt there was a problem with the pacing and emotional impact of the last 1/3 of the book.

Overall, the book had a satisfying ending and the strength of the author's character writing would make me try her again.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me this arc for review.

This book isn’t officially considered a Rom-Com but it should be. Maggie the MC was funny and just seemed like a fun person. I want to be her friend! The relationship she has with her girlfriends was fun to read and they were funny together. This is a light and fun read with some very steamy scenes. So read with caution 🥵😮‍💨🫣

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 - ARC Review: The Good Ones Are Taken by Taj McCoy

Pub Date: April 23rd 2024

Thank you to @netgalley and @harlequinbooks for sending me this ARC to read and review. I was so excited to dive into this one having read Zora Books Her Happily Ever After.

Now I want to start this review by saying this book was extremely cute. And I’m always for a friends to lover trope because what’s better then having a lover and best friend rolled into one?

We start this story meeting Maggie, a 38 year old tax lawyer who’s fresh off a break up with a guy she thought was it. While trying to figure out her love life, her two best friends, Joan and Savvy are getting married and she’s the maid of honor. Encouraging Maggie to get back in the game, they set up an online profile and Maggie starts searching for her prefect wedding date. While searching Maggie enlists the help of her best friend Garret who truly thinks nobody is good enough for Maggie. One day, Maggie meets Dr. Blake and is put in a who do I choose situation?!

I’ll say I really enjoyed the friendship aspect of this story. Between Maggie and her girls and especially between her and Garrett. They were always there for her even when she got on their nerves. I will say for me the story started a little slower then I liked but when in picked up it picked up!! The spice was just enough and there were moments when I laughed out loud. Especially when that man brought Maggie that soup and salad. As a fellow foodie even I was offended! Taj McCoy writes love triangles so masterfully and it always feels like you’re in the middle of a rom com! I was so happy when Maggie got her happily ever after!

I would definitely recommend this one for the romance girlies ✌🏾❤️


This review will be available on Instagram and Goodreads on 3/24/24