I absolutely LOVED this one! Juicy and Cyn’s evolution from friends to lovers was so fun and realistic. I had such a great time seeing them figure out how to be something more. Also sooooo steamy! Had me sweating lol

- There is so much to love in A LITTLE KISSING BETWEEN FRIENDS. Friends to lovers! Great banter! Black love! Stud representation! Super spicy scenes! S3x work treated as real work!
- I loved both Cyn and Jucee. Higgins is so good at characterization: both women and their friends and family felt like people you could know in real life.
- I unfortunately had real trouble with the third act breakup, though. !SPOILERS! It comes about because of a biphobic statement that seems to come out of nowhere and not fit with the world of the book. Then the characters discuss it to death with their circles, but when they finally talk to each other it’s quite nearly just glossed over for love.

This book started out great but got slow around the middle and dragged. It took me a few weeks to get through. It wasn't for me.

A Little Kissing Between Friends is a cute and spicy quick read. I loved the queer black representation and the supportive community that was depicted in this book. Cyn and Jucee, our FMCs, have a friends-to-lovers relationship that, for the most part, was interesting to read. I did feel like the love interest was a bit too swift and underdeveloped. I would have enjoyed it more if there was a romantic build-up. Although the romance felt lacking, the sexual connection was definitely there! It's a fun read overall, and I enjoyed Cyn and Jucee together as both friends and lovers.

Thank you NetGalley, Harlequin-Romance, and Chencia C. Higgins for this read!

Cyn Tha Starr, a successful music producer, enjoys her single life until a night out with her best friend Jucee changes everything with a flirtation. Unsure about committing, Cyn navigates her feelings while balancing her career and personal life. Meanwhile, Jucee, a top dancer and single mother, finds herself drawn to Cyn but wonders if their friendship can evolve into something more. Together, they explore themes of family, trust, and love in a vibrant and spicy romance.

This was on my most anticipated list since I found out the title. I am TRASH for friends to lovers. And this one definitely gave me just about everything that I needed at the time. Although there was more that I wanted in some places, I really enjoyed this one.

Ok so just to rip the band-aid off, I think that the only thing that I didn’t care for was the tension. It just didn’t feel THAT angsty. In reality it made me more mad. Because Cyn literally just shut down and didn’t say anything. And then next thing I know she was acting all biphobic? I was so confused. It felt weird because we didn’t really get to know her much, so when that thing came up it was like BANG all in your face. And I didn’t exactly care for that. Of all things in her background to know, she wanted us to know THAT? And the fact that ol girl scared her? Idk it rubbed me the wrong way.

But then I realized it could have been me. Jucee was more like me than i thought. She was soft and sensitive and it seemed so weird for me to connect with her like I did because I’m nothing like that. Was that the author’s intention for making her so soft and sensitive and real? And I love that she was her own person and made me sympathize with her. Even when she didn’t need it.

The romance between them was special tho. I loved the two of them together. Do I even know why? Not really lol They had issues and they were arguing over dumb stuff, but I could still feel that they wanted to be together. They really felt like every other relationship. It just felt very real.

I do wish that the music part and Cyn’s jealousy was more explored. Or something. It just basically had the entire book of them fighting it and then fighting each other and then fighting together. It didn’t really have a plot? But for whatever reason it worked for me. It just needed something. Was the other one like this? Maybe this is just a me thing, but it did make me feel a way.

This book was a little different than I expected, but it was still good. Of course there were some things I’d change, but not enough for me to not like it. Does this review seem like it’s all over the place? Yes? Well guess what, this book is also all over the place, but I was hooked before we even got to the 3rd chapter. I hope y’all also give it a shot like I did.

The first third of this was so good!! Chencia C. Higgins knows how to right a romantic comedy because this had me laughing!! Friends to lovers is a trope that I usually really enjoy but I could tell that this one was headed into a back and forth that might be a bit frustrating and heavily focused on the sexual tension and interest between the two characters. That being said, I’m giving this one a soft dnf for the time being. It’s still three stars for the first third because it was expertly done!!

Chencia did it again. She never fails to make me fall head over heels for her characters. I loved the character growth and how much love was shown. Not just between the love interests but from family and friends as well. I absolutely loved this book

"All of that combined is part of what makes you Juleesa Marie Jones, my best friend and the love of my life. You're my metronome; when shit feels off pitch and out of key, I know all I need is a few minutes in your presence to get my life back in rhythym. You're that exactly as you are right now, and I'm sorry that I made you feel like you have to defend yourself."

This book was a perfect balance of hilarious and hot. I think that some romcoms don't fully deliver on the 'comedy' piece and A Little Kissing Between Friends definitely did not have that issue and there were several lines that actually made me laugh out loud. The steamy scenes are also some of the best that I have read of late.

I also want to say that Chencia C. Higgins is also a master of analogies. I feel like she really pays attention to the small moments in life that not everybody may take note of and the way that she weaves those references and uses them as examples of feeling throughout the book really grounds both the characters and the stories in the real world. It makes them more believable and well-rounded as characters. I, myself, am obsessed with Jucee and really loved her plotline of realizing that she has built a found family for herself in Houston to support her and her son, even without the Cyn being around.

The only issue that I had was that I feel like the miscommunication trope went on for a bit too long for my liking towards the end. I feel like Cyn and Jucee's friendship was built so solidly in the first half and both were portrayed as being such strong, no-nonsense characters that it bothered me more than usual that they weren't communicating well, because we had seen them do it well before. I feel like this also kind of made the ending feel rushed.

I was excited to read this one after I enjoyed D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding, and overall it was good! Unfortunately, it fell apart towards the end a little bit as the conflict felt forced and made me annoyed with the characters (mostly Cyndi). But this book had great spice and I especially liked how natural the dialogue felt between the characters.

First off thank you @chenciachiggins @harlequinbooks & @netgalley for the ARC! This book was DELECTABLE! From the moment I picked it up I could not stop, I was enthralled. It’s not very often that I come across black queer romances, but this was one that I’m glad to have taken the time to read! I related to Cyn and their need to prioritize her career ambitions while also trying to figure out what she wants relationship wise. I felt that for the headstrong daughters this would be such a good read! The relationship between Jucee and Cyn was of course complicated given they were figuring out what they wanted, and how to go about their relationship given Cyns dedication to music and Jucee being a single mom. However, I felt that the conflict was well addressed and I enjoyed seeing the familial aspects of their relationship play out. If I were to recommend one queer book for you to read during pride it would be this one!

Chencia C. Higgins is an auto-buy author for me! A Little Kissing Between Friends is the perfect friends-to-lovers sapphic romance. Cyn is a successful producer who knows how to get every woman's attention. Her best friend Jucee is a talented dancer at an adult club that dotes on her son and loves on her friends.

Chencia writes in a way that brings her characters to life and makes them feel familiar. It's also refreshing to see a sweet relationship between a stud and a femme! The love and care that she pours into her characterization is wonderful to read and I recommend this story to everyone!

Thank you to NetGalley and Carina Adores by Harlequin Romance for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have never loved a story while hating a main character so much in my life. When I first started reading “A Little Kissing Between Friends” Cyndi (Poppa) was giving off peek f@@@ girl energy but the more I read the more pulled into this story I became. Before I get any further, please note this review contains spoilers and was written in exchange for a free advanced reader copy of said book.

“A Little Kissing Between Friends” tells the love story of Jucee and Poppa, two best friends that can’t keep their hands off of each other. Poppa, a music producer, starts the book off after returning home to Houston having been in Cali for about a month. During that time she has missed her best friend Jucee, an exotic dancer who uses her new music in her performances. The two women are so attached to each other that they are the only two people that don’t realize the act like they are a couple. The two spend so much time hearing and seeing other people treat them like a couple that they start to question if maybe there is something to all the jokes being made by others. Before long the two are no longer just thinking about it but also testing out box springs, unfortunately both have some luggage to unpack that almost ruins their developing romance. All told I really enjoyed this novel even if Poppa was a touch too friendly for my taste.

It just wasn't for me that the love interest, Cyn, was nicknamed "Poppa" by Jucee from page one. I did really love D'Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding so am hoping I get to read more of Chencia C. Higgins's other work.

Jucee and Cyn's relationship went beyond their romantic feelings. They had merged lives so exploring more could be either the best or worst thing. We get a little bit of everything in this entry from Chencia C. Higgins, Houston culture, queer community care, stripper culture and found family. What I think is the most interesting is that the author chose leading characters that were both fat rep and highlighted different types of lesbians. Whether intentional or not I think it was a choice to show the vast faces of queer women. The other thing I think was a smart choice was their relationship wasn't linear even though they had a preestablished relationship. This entry was very much a slow burn because the stakes were so high.

This was okay. I was enjoying it until the MCs got together. I wasn't 100% sold on their relationship and how it just suddenly seemed to change. The writing was good so I will pick up other novels from this author.

*2.5

I love Davaughn and Kris Plan A Wedding, so I was looking forward to this book and it was such a disappointment. To start off I didn't understand where Jucee and Cyn's relationship was at the beginning of the book. In both pov's they talked about how the touching they were doing wasn't normal and I think as a reader it should have started before they got romantic feelings for one another. The timeline was also confusing because at one point they both agreed that they wanted to be more but it felt like it was forgotten almost as soon as it started. The main thing I can't get over is how Cyn was biphobic to Jucee and I don't feel like her apology was good enough. I know that I certainly couldn'y get over it. The last thing is fully personal but I can't stand that Jucee calls her Poppa. I can deal with it if it's just during sex but that is simply her name for Cyn.

I received an arc through netgalley.

Some authors try to make their craft invisible to the reader; others, like Chencia Higgins, write to steal the spotlight. In A LITTLE KISSING BETWEEN FRIENDS (Carina, 303 pp., paperback, $18.99), we meet a Black Sapphic stud music producer and a femme fat bisexual dancer at Houston’s premier strip club, Sanity. Cyn Tha Starr (a.k.a. Poppa) mixes the tracks, and Juleesa (a.k.a. Jucee) makes the dance videos that turn them into viral hits. They’re best friends and absolutely, definitely, not even a little bit in love with each other. Until they start hooking up, that is.

Romance loves a couple who have to overcome a messy shared history: Lizzie and Darcy, Harry and Sally, and now Poppa and Jucee. They know each other so well, yet somehow not at all. It’s a wonderful, low-stakes ride as each relearns who their partner really is.

This is a powerful book. Black and queer and unapologetic, I really loved it. It was one of my favorite reading of the year. A friend to lovers romance fill with joy and a little bit of angst, but especially joy.
I love every bit of it. Thank you for writing it. And thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

“A Little Kissing Between Friends is a cute and easy read. I loved the body positivity represented in the story with a Black bisexual femme and a fat masc lesbian. The fact that one of the characters is a sex worker also a plus. Add in the supportive family and hilarity and this book has so much potential. They really had a great friendship and it showed by the way they interacted and supported each other.