the best part of this for me were the supportive relationships had by the main characters. i loved albie, meredith, bobby, and lord havenfort, and i look forward to seeing more of them in the sequel!! the conspiring, scheming bits were also very fun, so i'm excited that the next book will feature quite a bit more of that.

I really enjoyed reading "Don't Want You Like a Best Friend", a fresh take on regency romances out there!

Beth and Gwen, two debutantes this season, strike up a quick friendship that leads their respective Mom and Dad to meet. But meet they must have previously as both give hateful glares. Set to find out the trust, the ladies plan to unite both parent and figure out the connection. Plans may be foiled when Beth is matched with an eligible suitor.. even more so when she realizes she's falling for her best friend.

I loved the relationship between both heroines and their respective parent. I'm a reader that tends not to read the synopsis and thus was pleasantly surprised by the quick twists, turns and plotlines with Emma R. Alban's debut. The banter was spot on and I felt the spice was appropriately placed throughout (not just spice to be written to be included in the story). You can tell right away the tension brewing between both Beth's mom and Gwen's dad! Don't Want You Like a Best Friend is a strong debut by Alban.

*4.25 Stars*

I had a great time reading this one. I really enjoyed the dynamics between the characters, the main ones and their parents and the parents together, other side characters too honestly. It was a fun time in old dresses. I liked the plot, it was fun. I saw some of it coming but I didn't mind. I really fell into the story and kept looking forward to reading more. I can't wait to read book 2 even the main characters will be men. I wanna see more of these families.
I'll definitely be looking out for more books by Emma R. Alban, even in other universes.

let’s gooooo, queer bridgerton vibes!! i loved this so much. gwen and beth’s relationship was so lovely, the way it so naturally shifted from strangers to friends to lovers, and i really enjoyed how close they were with their parents. i think the strength of the bond gwen has with her father and the bond beth has with her mother is really such a testament to the writing here. gwen and beth want their happy ending, of course, but not at the expense of their parents’. the found family aspect was so interestingly accomplished and i loved watching their parents’ relationship develop and deepen as gwen and beth continued meddling (and falling deeper in love themselves). the cousins were such a delightful addition to this, and i found myself wishing it was 50 pages longer so i could spend more time with albie and meredith, and so i could dig even deeper into both relationships. besides the length, my only real critique is that the solution was so painfully obvious from the start and i found myself getting frustrated that they weren’t seeing it, but those two complaints aren’t enough for me to take off more than a star. it’s still a nearly-perfect book that you should absolutely read immediately.

taylor swift vibe: dress (obviously)

recommended for: those of us chomping at the bit for a heartwarming queer victorian romance

(and a bit i include in my public reviews... if you’ve read it please yell with me about: the fact that we get to do this all over again soon in the sequel??? feeling so spoiled rn!)

thank you avon for the advance copy in exchange for this review!!

I do not even know where to begin. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. Gwen and Beth have a special place in my heart. With this being a historical fiction of sorts, I was nervous to see how the concept of queerness played in the book and how it was handled. And I was pleasantly surprised and loved the fact that both Gwen's father and Beth's mother were very accepting of it and wanted them to be happy.

The ending was one of my favorite parts of the book. I also loved the friendships and the lengths that Albie and Meredith went to, to allow Beth and Gwen a moment together during the season after Beth's engagement. I can't read the next book and see if the scheme that Beth and Gwen have created will work in the end.

This debut was so so cute. I devoured it in two days, and found myself giggling and kicking my feet (almost) the whole time. Following endearing protagonists Gwen and Beth, this sapphic regency novel with elements of Parent Trap trickery was a super fun read.

I loved reading what was effectively a lesbian awakening in each of these girls, and then their absolute resoluteness in their love for each other. Was it slightly fast for them to jump from friends to lovers? Maybe. But how many straight romances have I read that did the same thing??? Countless. So I don’t take that issue too seriously.

Some reviewers have criticized how much time is spent on the relationship between Gwen’s father and Beth’s mother, but I thoroughly enjoyed that side plot, and rooted for them just as much (if not more) than our heroines!

The ending also heavily leans into setting up the sequel, which is an Achillean romance between respective cousins of Gwen and Beth. I anticipate that it’ll be just as fun and lovable as this one was. On the whole, this book was a very good time: a lighthearted romance, wholesome side characters, and a set of women you could root for (which for me is more than half the battle). I give this 4⭐️

*Thank you again to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

This was a very fun, if a little silly, historical rom-com. Some small anachronisms irritated me, but mostly I was able to ignore them, unlike in some other more egregious titles that fall into the same sub-genre Venn diagram overlap.

I loved the Bridgerton meets Parent Trap vibes of the story, their love story was sweet and swoonworthy and I'm excited for the sequel

Special thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was cute but extremely predictable. There were pretty much no stakes. While I found it to be entertaining enough, it really did lack substance. In addition, neither of the characters particularly stood out to me. I would recommend it as a light-read sort of book, but I did expect a bit more from it.

Don't Want You Like a Best Friend is a fantastic mix of Bridgerton (Specifically Season Two/Book 2) and the Parent Trap....which was exactly how it was blurbed and honestly it is refreshing to have a book meet those expectations these days. To do so flawlessly? I'm happy as a peach.
This was SO fun and it was great to see different portrayals of parental/child relationships as they could have happened in Regency London - maybe it is just me but I don't feel like we see outliers like this very often. This very much reminded me of The Perks of Loving a Wallflower by Erica Ridley in humor/banter though it showed some relationship building much better. I will note, like Erica Ridley this title is NOT YA it very much situates itself in New Adult/Adult Romance just due to the spice levels.
Our main characters Gwen and Beth are lovely and sweet and 20-something which is lovely to see. This one really just begs for you to go in with little knowledge, but knowing the premise, because how everything unfolds is just delightful. I loved this and cannot wait for the next!

I don't come across many queer Victorian romance books, but when I do I go CRAZY for them. There's something about a couple knowing their love is forbidden, making doing whatever they can to make their relationship work because their love it so real. Especially when their love supported by the people around them and it doesn't turn into an awful homophobic plot line.

I wish there was a bit more build up to Beth and Gwen's feelings for each other. It felt a bit rushed, but nothing less I enjoyed it so much and I can't wait for the next book.

This was such a fun read! I love when romance books also include a subplot of hijinks and this is absolutely the perfect example of that kind of thing. Alban also does an incredible job of making Beth and Gwen realizing their feelings be a laughably long process, and I have to say it was nice to see a romance where the feelings are there but we get to see them develop instead of immediately jumping into a relationship. The main characters and their supporting friends and family were a joy to read about and there’s a great combination (in my opinion) of historical happenings and generally fun plot and character development. Overall it’s a fantastic addition to the sapphic romance category, and the foreshadowing of the ending has me absolutely locked in to the sequel coming out later this year!

Honestly one of the greatest things about this story is it feels so well-rounded, with great attention paid not only to the romance, but the development of the main characters, the overall Parent Trap-esque plot, side characters and their relationships, and everything within the rest of the story comes together into an absolutely lovely romance and a fascinating read. While I was originally drawn into this book by the gorgeous cover and the promise of a queer Victorian romance, the side-by-side romances of Beth and Gwen with their parents was so fun and made the story all the better.

Like I said, this is a fun read, but I also think it’s a good book. It’s historical romance without feeling too stifling and it’s a delightful world that Emma R. Alban has created. I’d definitely recommend picking it up!

First and foremost, I would like to thank harpercollinscanada & frenzy for the eARC of this amazing book.

I loved this book so much. It has become one of my fave sapphic romances.

This wonderful book is set in England in the year 1857 and is reminiscent of Bridgerton. There are promenades, seasons, and women needing to find husbands.

Beth’s mother is on the hunt to find Beth a husband or they will be out on the street. Time is precious but time is all Gwen wants. Gwen is on her fourth season (not that she cares) and still no husband in sight. Gwen is in no rush to get married as her dad is well off and he is in no rush as well to get re-married.

Gwen and Beth meet and instantly get along due to their not wanting to get married. They come up with a plan to get their parents back together after discovering that once upon a time, their parents were in love.

Somewhere along the way…Gwen and Beth fall in love with one another.

However, how can two women in 1857 make a love story work?

Gwen’s dad was the highlight for me. Why? He was so supportive of who his daughter was and just wanted her to be happy even if that meant not getting married. I also loved how taken he was with Beth’s mom. Gwen and Beth have such a cute friends to lovers story! I’m hoping that the next book that focuses on Bobby and James (James is Beth’s cousin, Bobby is Gwen’s) has some scenes with Beth and Gwen.

Parent Trap meets Bridgerton, and make it sapphic. Don't Want You Like a Best Friend has a heckuva fun hook, and the story definitely lives up to the hype! It's charming, heartwarming, and absolutely delightful.


It's Beth's first season, and she has just this one shot to snag a wealthy husband or else she and her newly-widowed mother, Lady Cordelia Demeroven, will be out on the streets. This is also Gwen's fourth season; she's pretty sure she's destined for a 'most seasons without a match' medal, and mostly amuses herself at parties by challenging friends and cousins to 'spot the heir and the spare' games.

When Gwen rescues Beth from an over-eager old man, both young women realize they'd much rather hang out together than deal with all the tediousness and stress of the season's endless social events. They also realize that their parents seem to be attracted to each other, and scheme to help them along towards their own happily ever after.

Beth and Gwen's relationship is really sweet. Even more than the physical attraction and the fun sexytime scenes, their friendship and desire for each other's happiness really shines through. These are characters who genuinely enjoy spending time together, and my favourite parts are when they're just having fun hanging out together and laughing at silly things going on around them.

For me, though, the main highlight of the book isn't the main romance, but rather the second-chance romance brewing between Beth's mother, Lady Cordelia Demeroven, and Gwen's father, Lord Dashiell Havenfort. When both were in their own seasons, they fell in love, but Lady Demeroven was in a similar situation as Beth, where she needed to marry rich to secure her family's financial stability. Lord Havenfort was heartbroken, and even though he went on to marry Gwen's mother, when his wife died, he never bothered finding a new one, and instead chose to remain a perpetual bachelor and lady charmer for the rest of his life.

Their meet-cute at the same ball where Beth and Gwen meet was just sparking with unresolved sexual tension, and their will they/won't they dance running parallel to Beth and Gwen's romance just stole the show for me. I absolutely felt for Lady Demeroven's desire to reunite with Lord Havenfort yet also secure her daughter's future with a wealthy match to another family. The man who eventually began courting Beth seems sweet enough, but his father is a total ass. Seeing through Beth's eyes the parallels between this potential future father-in-law and her own abusive father is heartbreaking, especially when she notices how much her mom makes herself small to feed this man's ego, just so she can secure Beth's future. I love how Beth pushes her mom to consider how their happiness (Beth's and her mom's) is more important than financial security, but I also understand why her mom would be afraid to make that leap. 

Lord Havenfort seems like a good man, and I sympathize for how much Lady Demeroven's fears keep happiness away from both of them. A member of the House of Lords, he's championing a bill to give women the right to divorce their husbands. This objectively makes him a hero, but on a more visceral level, it also makes him a personal knight in shining armour to Lady Demeroven and women like her, because if such a law had existed earlier, she may not have had to put up with an abusive marriage for so long.

Honestly, their romance just stole the show for me, and the big climactic moment between them just made my heart swell. I am so absolutely fantastically proud of Lady Demeroven, and so happy for them both.

I also really like how the novel explores the ways in which social conventions determine the options available to Beth and Gwen. It's illegal for two women to marry, and most couples in their situation make do with being friends who visit each other's estates and steal whatever moments they can for romantic encounters. Both Beth and Gwen struggle to come to terms with that restriction, yet as women, they couldn't really have careers on their own, and so need husbands for financial stability. This is especially true for Beth who doesn't have the security of Gwen's father's wealth.

The book highlights this theme with the two women servants who both work in the same household under different married surnames, but are actually a couple. Social snobbery works to their advantage, because most members of society don't bother paying enough attention to the servants to even notice they're romantically involved. One of them tells Gwen that this is the one time she'll admit that Gwen's wealth and social status puts her at a disadvantage, and I like how the story explores these kinds of nuances about privilege.

Overall, this is a fun, lighthearted, and feel-good book. The sequel, You're the Problem, It's You, featuring Beth and Gwen's cousins, also seems like fun. Both cousins' meet-cute at the end of Don't Want You Like a Best Friend showed a lot of promise for their chemistry together.

+

Thanks to Harper Collins Canada for an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Omg!!!! Such a good book! It was very interesting and I really liked it! The vibes, the characters, the story!!! One of my new favorite definitely!

Included as a top pick in weekly January New Releases post, which highlights and promotes upcoming releases of the month (link attached)

what a fun debut!! this definitely will not be my last emma r. alban book.

historical romances aren’t typically my favorite thing to read but theres honestly not much about this book that didn’t immediately draw me in! sapphic, parent trap meets bridgerton and of course the taylor swift song lyric title!! (though thats where the ts things ends for my swifties that are considering just for that)

gwen and beth were super adorable, they were exactly what each other needed. gwen was so much fun and my heart hurt for her almost the entire time due to history repeating itself 😭 i was insanely surprised (good surprised) by the open door scene, i definitely wasnt expecting it but i absolutely loved it!!

i think that the 3rd act conflicts started a bit too early for my liking, the girls should have been able to have a little bit longer to sneak date imo but i do get why it was that way. a nice chunk of the plot revolves around a marriage act where women would be allowed to leave their husbands and i would have loved to see the girls more involved with it!!

all in all this was a super cute friends to lovers, its a little over dramatic but that was expected and its really fun ☺️

thanks to NetGalley for the eARC

⭐️=2.5 | 😘=5 | 🤬=2 | 18+

summary: Parent Trap romance…? the protagonists notice that their respective single parents seem to have some sort of past together so they try to set them up but then they?? fall?? in love?? also?? are we seeing the problem here?????? are we getting concerned??

thoughts: i was (initially) charmed by the anachronistic (like, reverse anachronism because it’s reminiscent of future eras, not older eras) elements; the only reason this is historical is so that there was drama with the MCs not being allowed to get married due to Victorian homophobia, big pretty hoop skirts, and some minor background political drama––otherwise, the dialogue and descriptions were so modern (characters saying “yeah” and high fiving, for example) it was kind of funny. the bodice ripper genre in general is not renound for its adherence to historical accuracy, though Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend was beginning to tax even my patience. however!! this traditionally accepted silliness did not translate well to other plotlines once the technically-not-incest thing got underway! normally it’s basically acceptable for i-guess-they’re-not-related romance to occur in bodice rippers and there is historical precedent for this kind of genuinely romantic tomfoolery in literature (see Austen’s Emma ), but with the characters acting so hilariously modern it was disturbing and came off as less sweet and more sweet home Alabama. like they literally refer to themselves as stepsiblings by the end. it is tonally disturbing and significantly less justifiable based on cultural context because the cultural context is so muddied with modern slang and vibes for the sake of audience relatability or something.

if you can stand Clueless without viscerally cringing, you’ll probably like this; the protagonists are genuinely cute (friends to lovers is so underrated) and there’s pretty decent conflict introduced (I looooove economic conflict in bodice rippers. it’s so specific to that genre I think it’s fascinating), though the pacing wasn’t perfect.

so. overall this is fine? I guess? but it does leave me wondering, like… why would you write this 😭 why would you write technically-not-blood-related sapphics when you can write literally? anything? else?? someone needs to inform Ms. Emma R. Alban that this is not the representation the LGBTQs are looking for.

this was such a refreshing romcom to have read!!! getting to read a bridgerton meets the parent trap sapphic romance wasn't on my bingo card for the year but I'm so glad it happened. everything about this book and its characters had me giggling with joy every time something worked out in their favor, both beth and gwen were such sweethearts to read about and follow along. this was simply a silly regency era romcom about two women falling in love with a taylor swift reference as the title and I couldn't have asked for anything more!

Delightful queer historical romance. It's definitely rooted in the styles and political issues of a certain year-- this is not a decade I read about often, but the more political side of the plot is handled well. Looking forward to the sequel.