Love these characters & the chemistry💖💗✨💕

"Thank you so much netgalley, the author and the publisher for the advanced review copy if this book💗
"I voluntarily read and reviewed the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

“I didn’t get to make a wish.”
“That’s a shame, because I hear butterfly wishes are even more powerful than shooting stars or birthday candles.”
“Is that so?”
“Oh yeah. It’s quantifiable. Scientific.”

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Spicy Meter: 1 fire emoji
Content Warnings: Mentions cheating and describes an injury. Contains some romantic content.

This book is the textbook definition of butterflies in your stomach. I absolutely fell in love with Best Friend Alex and Hazel. Told through two points of view, “Just Friends” is an adorable romcom about exactly that—two friends that decide to set each other up on blind dates when all they really want is to date each other. This slow burn almost killed me.

“Just Friends” is the third book of a series but it works just as well as a standalone—take it from me, I legit haven’t read the previous installments (yet) but still thoroughly enjoyed and understood the story it was setting out to tell.

I would highly recommend this sweet novel to all readers that enjoy that good, ol’ friends-to-lovers trope, and who are looking for a relatively clean and closed doors romance.

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ARC provided by NetGalley and the author in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: July 14, 2023

You feel so bad for Hazel as she gets her heart broken and you feel so bad for Alex, as he waits, hoping that Hazel will get over her cheating ex and see what is right in front of her. But its not always easy to see a 'friend' as something more and its sweet and tender as they navigate their relationship and see if it can go further than just best friends. Sweet, charming and you are rooting for them to get together. A little light and airey which is what makes romantic fiction so appealing, Sweet and cute.

I HAVE NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE HOW BEAUTIFUL IT WAS TO READ THIS BOOK.
This book is precious, it is a hug to the heart, it is connecting with a protagonist who has been made to feel that it is not enough, it is wanting someone to love you as the protagonist loves the protagonist, genuinely, with the good and with the bad. bad.

But I will start by telling you a little about what this story is about, in this story we meet Hazel and Alex who are best friends and have always been there for each other in everything, when Hazel discovers that her boyfriend has been unfaithful to her all over the world. he breaks down and decides to move to where his brother and his best friend Alex live. After a while, Hazel decides that it's time to move on, so she decides to propose an idea to her best friend, that they set up blind dates between them so they can both find love. Alex, for his part, has always been in love with Hazel and when she tells him about her proposal he doesn't know what to do, so he makes a plan to make her see that he is what she has always been looking for, he makes a plan to make her her best friend falls in love with him.

As the story progresses we see the feelings of both grow and grow, we see the love they already have and how much they care for each other, we also see Hazel's fears, many of them made me feel quite identified and on more than one occasion I wanted to be able to enter the book and hug her, because, even with everything she was feeling, she never stopped being kind, noble, funny and believing, while Alex is everything that is good in the world, always taking care of Hazel, knowing her so well that he knows exactly the words or things she needs to smile, is that I fell in love with him from the first moment I read it.

Of course it's important for me to say that this book is a SUPER slow burn slow burn, really, so if you're not that big of slow burn romance, then maybe this book may not be for you, but if you like it the romance that grows little by little and fall in love hand in hand with the protagonists, then you are going to love it as much as I loved it.

This was a cute story of friends to lovers with an incredibly long slow burn. It was a he falls first which I love, but I hated Hazels delusion and not realizing that Alex loves her. My heart ached for Alex just waiting for Hazel to realize that he could be the one. This was a cute end of Summer read, and I do look forward to more books by Madison Wright!

thank you netgalley and the author for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

this book was so stinking adorable :,))) i went in with no expectations, and i was pleasantly impressed!!! now i'm a sucker for friends-to-lovers romance books so i might be a little biased 🤭

starting with the characters, both were very well written and likable. i love dual POVs when they're written properly, and the ones in this book were impressive. both characters are complex, and the way the author characterizes them and gives them shape as the story goes on was really interesting. the guy falls first in this book, and i was swooning the entire time. his POV, unlike usual male POVs, wasn't written from a lustful perspective. this man was SMITTEN with the fmc and he showed it alllll. there was so much showing rather than just telling. the way he describes how she looked to him was so vivid it was like i was looking at her through his eyes. i loved how he was so attentive and patient with her and how careful he was with her feelings and not wanting to ruin what they already have by confessing his feelings 🥹 the fmc is also absolutely adorable and i loved how family oriented she is. she was a bit too oblivious sometimes, but that was understandable because of what she went through.

i was skeptical of the writing in the beginning because it was amateurish. i wasn't hooked until the 30% mark maybe. the side characters and found family trope were good additions though. i also liked the slow burn of the romance!! it kept me on my toes, wanting to know more and to see how they end up together. the yearning, the angst, and the emotional rollercoaster these characters go through are all described so well, i felt them too :,)

overall, this was a really good friends-to-lovers book. i enjoyed it a lot and it actually might've played a part in curing my reading slump so it definitely gets brownie points for that!! i will be checking out the other books in this series bc the other couples in this book sounded so adorable as well <3

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this book, the first book I have read in this series or by this author and now I want to read more! Achingly sweet and full of laughter and tension, the friends to lovers plot of this story is filled with a new take on so many little tropes! I loved the story of Alex and Hazel and couldn’t stop smiling! I super sweet ending to a lovely twisty tale!

Just Friends was cute! I was worried that I would be a bit lost when I noticed that it was the third in a series (Nashville is Calling), but the characters' personalities were woven into the story so it was easy to pick up as a standalone! I haven't read too many friends-to-lovers books, but I really enjoyed reading a romance where the reader didn't have to pretend to believe that the two main characters hated each other for a split second before they hooked up. It was comforting to read about Hazel and Alex and I actively wanted them for each other. A fun and cozy romcom!

I AM OBSESSED. I WILL READ ALL OF HER BOOKS.

If you need the sweetest friends-to-lovers romance book, this is the one for you! My heart could not handle the love I have for Hazel and Alex. They are so sweet and genuinely deserve one another. Please please please read this series. Your heart will melt and you will feel warm and fuzzy while reading it!

To start, I haven't read the other books in this series, but it didn't seem necessary. It seems to be a continuation of the other books in that the characters overlap.

I didn't looooove that the siblings of the love interests are married. So, Hazel and Alex are best friends (and soon to be more). Hazel's brother is married to Alex's sister. It was definitely in reference to Jane Austen's Emma, but I still didn't love it.

Overlooking that element, I did enjoy the book! It was sweet and cute. I loved Hazel and Alex's friendship. The progression to a romance made complete sense. I enjoyed that Alex wanted more than friendship but he never pushes Hazel, instead he works for her to see him in a new light.

I read this book in one sleepless night- so quick and fun! I'd recommend it to anyone who likes lighthearted, sweet romances!

Thank you to NetGalley for this cute and feel-good romance. Friends to lovers is not my favourite trope, especially when the male characters are perf and clearly into the main gal. I struggle to believe anyone could be friends with someone when there’s a lot of chemistry there but having said that this was a fun read and for all the romance lovers out there you’ll enjoy this one.

The perfect friends-to-lovers romcom! I didn't want this book to end. Swoonworthy, hilarious and unbearably cute!

4 Stars!

I absolutely love the friends to lovers trope and this book was just the cutest! Alex and Hazel were so sweet and I found myself rooting for them immediately & come on ... the hair ties?? goals. (iykyk)

✨friends to lovers
✨he falls first
✨forced proximity
✨slow burn

This was my first read by Madison Wright but I am definitely going to go back and read the first two books in the "Nashville is Calling" series; I loved the side characters in this one and can't wait to read their love stories too!

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC!

3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing Group for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Hazel and Alex are the perfect couple, except they’re not. When Hazel meets Alex at her brother and his sister’s wedding, they fall naturally into an easy friendship complete with endearing banter and routine takeout. When Hazel finds herself ready to date again after a difficult breakup, Alex reluctantly agrees to set up blind dates for each other, secretly hoping that he can use the arrangement as a way to prove to Hazel that he is the man for her. Even though Hazel is unaware of her best friend’s intentions, she becomes less and less interested in dating anyone that isn’t him as the experiment goes on, prompting her to ask herself whether or not she is willing to risk their friendship to give love a shot.

This was such a sweet friends to lovers story. Both Alex and Hazel are so likable, and the *dialogue* was incredibly well-written. This is the first book that I have read in a while that was completely free of cringey text threads. (You know, the ones that are filled with outdated acronyms and misused colloquialisms that are very obviously written by someone who doesn’t correspond with anyone under the age of 45.) This was a closed-door romance but it wasn’t lacking chemistry and tension - and no third-act breakup!

4/5! This was a great closed-door romance. Alex’s longing and pining was fantastically written, I felt for him the whole way through. The pacing was very quick for the first half which pulled me in fast, especially that first scene when Hazel and Alex meet. Alex is just a total book boyfriend, loved him. There were also quite a few fun moments with the friend group all hoping for them to get together and cheering them on.

I will say that because we do not see Hazel’s break up with her ex or witness her friendship with Alex during her recovery from the break-up I felt a bit disconnected from Hazel’s emotion there. I got a bit annoyed with how long it took her to see Alex in a proper romantic light. Had she really never considered her before? While I enjoyed the no third act break-up there was also no union between them until right at the end, which dragged this on a bit too long. This was a fun read but I lost steam at the end. On a sidetone, I really did not like Alex’s brother, felt he was very unsupportive of Alex and Hazel and that felt strange and had no resolution.

But when Alex takes care of Hazel after her accident? Chef’s Kiss!

I didn't realize this was technically the third book in a series but could easily be read as stand-alone so that's what I did. Now, I need to read the other two books!! Hazel and Alex become quick best friends at her brother and his sisters wedding. When Hazel moves to Nashville to be closer to everyone, she spends more and more time with Alex, best friends. Or, that's what she thought. They decide to make a deal to set each other up with dates and have a date on the same night and same place so that they can escape it together if they need to. These two are the absolute cutest and you can bet everything that I was screaming for them to just kiss and get together so much, you could tell he was falling for her so hard just from the first chapter,

💕 Best friends to lovers
⚡️ Blind dates
👫 Dual POVs
🍂 He falls first
🔥 Slow-burn
🥑 “Clean” Romance

When Hazel is finally ready to date again, she asks her best friend Alex to set her up on dates. Unfortunately, it seems she’s the only one who doesn’t realize Alex is already in love with someone…. This someone being her.

It was a really cute and relatable friends-to-lovers book. It’s actually the third book in the ‘Just You’ serie, so there’s a lot of people you should recognize if you read them (unlike me because I realize it was book 3 too late). I really think Hazel’s fears and reactions are something all couples like them could have felt. Their relationship was real.

I liked this book, and I would recommend it, but because I’ve read tons and tons of friends-to–lovers recently, I can’t rate it more than 4 stars, which is still a good rating !

This romance book was a cute Friend's to Lovers story with an unconventional premise. Specially that the two friends go on blind dates with other people, despite Alex being in love with Hazel and hoping she was asking for a date with him.. Awkward.

I enjoyed this book, but I felt like the writing has some quirks. Frequently the smiles shared between them is described more than 3-10 times a chapter throughout the first 60% of the book. I found the repeat of this to be a bit distracting. Some moments I think lacked the depth to make me feel deeply for the struggles Hazel faced. These critiques are not a reason to skip out on this read though.

This is a very cute, heartfelt love story. It is completely what romcoms are made of. The depiction of emotional and sexual tension between the two characters left me fanning myself at certain points, despite the entire book being fade to black for their one on page interaction or being referenced in the final chapters.

I recommend this book if you are looking for a feel good romance that will make your heart warm. You don't have to think too much to enjoy this book, which makes it the perfect read for when you are beating a reading slump.

Well. This is one of the cutest books I’ve ever read! Surely Alex is up there with the best book boyfriends?! Just so beautifully uncomplicated. I always thinks friends to lovers like this, where the male is secretly pining like Alex, is the best form of escapism - because I do not think these men exist and I love to read about them 😂 So many moments in this book just made me feel all fuzzy 🥰 And also made me curl my toes(in the good way) because the sexual tension between them is just 🔥.

Also A grade epilogue - adorable ☺️

What to expect:

- friends to lovers
- he falls first
- extremely lovable MMC
- slow burn
- one bed
- closed door romance , but still 🔥
- dual POV
- third in series, but can be read as standalone

this book was instantly one i was drawn to! a lot of my favorite tropes (small town, friends to lovers, fake dating) it was also just such a beautiful story! i really ended up falling in love with the characters! i definitely connected with hazel. i understand the way she thinks and the way she spoke about her insecurities. alex was her perfect match! i have a new found liking for when the MMC is head over heels for the FMC!