Friends to lovers is such a cute story. I was in a reading slump before this and it definitely pulled me out. I stayed up until the early morning hours just to finish it because I could not put it down. If you’re an Emily Henry Fan I believe you will like this book.

The story follows Ren and Joni who are childhood best friends. It’s a friends to lovers/forced proximity/second chance romance with a dual timeline. This book had me smiling ear to ear, giggling and kicking my feet, and then crying.

Another thing I really loved about this book were the secondary characters (Stevie being my favorite). It really made you get a picture of how loving and fun these two families are.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.

So, I don't read too many friends to lovers trope. I wanted to branch out and experience more tropes then my current obsessions with fake dating and enemies to lovers ;)

I fell in love with Blakely's writing. I could not get enough!!

Here are the things that I loved about this one:

Ren.... absolute swoon!! Oh my goodness he's such a cinnamon roll MMC. He is always willing to fight for Joni and it shows deeply how much he loves her.

I thought the friendship between Ren and Joni was beautiful and it showed how friendships change and grow over time.

What I didn't like:

I was not a fan of Joni at all. I was frustrated early on with her and felt she was extremely selfish. Her actions she made throughout her friendship with Ren made me so mad haha.

I feel like the pacing was a tad slow and focused a lot on wedding prep and it took a lot away from their relationship.

Joni's character development and her growth was not there. I feel like it felt super rushed at the end and almost like a "forced growth."

The ending felt rushed to me and a tad unbelievable. I felt Joni's actions towards Ren the entire novel overshadowed her true love for him. She made selfish decisions which pushed Ren away.

Due to this I felt a very strong connection towards Ren but was not a fan of Joni at all. But, I do look forward to seeing more from Blakely.

3/5 stars

Thanks to the publisher for my copy

Best friends. Joni and Ren. Ren and Joni. So much history and denial of the truth. One page had me holding my breath, feeling the heartbreak, while the next had me grinning at the witty banter and unspoken feelings simmering between them.

The story flips between past and present, unraveling the moments that pulled them apart and the emotions that never truly faded. The tension was palpable—every missed opportunity, every unspoken word making their journey back to each other feel even more intense. And with family chaos adding to the mix, the stakes only got higher!

A slow-burn romance that lingers in your heart long after the final page.

Friends To Lovers is a book about childhood friends who now in the present day have to attend a wedding together and we very slowly discover what went wrong in the past as we see them slowly reconnect in the present. It was cute but it was too slow for me. I wasn’t in love with the characters so it was difficult to cheer for them. The past and present switches were a little messy. So if you love a friends to lovers, second chance, slow burn, closed door romance this might be the book for you but at the moment not my personal favorite. The playlist at the end though chef kiss.

I read this as an arc from NetGalley, so thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, the author Sally Blakely, and of course NetGalley.

I haven’t read a lot of friends to lovers but this book was so cute! I have a love hate for communication issues in a book because it’s frustrating but I also like the added frustration and makes the story a lot more realistic to me. The friends/couple in the story are so cute. Thank you for the ARC!

If you’re a fan of Emily Henry, you’ll enjoy this book! I do enjoy a good friends to lovers plot except when miscommunications take place. There were a few moments that this happened and that’s why it’s a 4 star read!

Overall, the story was cute! The friendship was cute! I found moments I was smiling and giggling and just gave me all the good feelings.

Joni and Ren have been best friends and inseparable since childhood. When Joni moves across the country they plan to be each others dates for all the weddings they are invited to so they can see each other. When a line is crossed, there friendship is not longer the same. But what happeneds when they still need to show up to weddings as friends together? I hate happeneds when feelings come to surface, when they realize that maybe they can’t live without each other?
Two friends that happened to be lovers? Or will they never be friends again?


It was definitely a cute story, and I would recommend it !

Thanks to the publisher Harlequin Trade Publishing & NetGalley for this e-ARC!

Pub date: 7/22/25

Trope: Second chance romance and one bed/forced proximity

I really wanted to like this book. I mean the title itself had me sold. I just felt the delivery was boring. It’s fast paced but also a slow build. I ended up not being able to finish it by 20% and skipped to see if something would catch my eye but it didn’t.

I wanted to feel like I knew and understood their friendship however this did not give me that. I felt like if I understood their friendship that I would be more interested in why they stopped being friends. So, maybe if the author started off with a past chapter of what really made their relationship great and funny and cute then I wouldn’t have felt like I was blind and didn’t really care why they aren’t friends. Also, the format of the e-arc threw me off and it was difficult to follow. I’m sure that for others this would be a great story.

This was such a cute book! Gave Emily Herny vibes but different enough to be its own thing. Loved the dual timelines, loved the friends to lovers. and loved the setting. There was also so much depth between Joni and Ren.

I love a second chance Romance and this has that ! I also like dual time lines the place it lost stars was The Fmc Joni lord did I want to shake her sometimes ! Over all cute book . Everyone meshes well

I’m not generally the biggest fan of second chance romance, but Sally Blakely does it so well! I adored this book and all the tropes that this one hit:

One bed
Friends to Lovers
Forced proximity

Where it lost some stars for me was the back and forth timelines, I'm really just not the biggest fan of those. And we have so much angst and buildup with these characters that the getting together part could have lasted a bit longer.

All in all though, a solid read!

4.5⭐️ This book had me giggling and kicking my feet all weekend! After a falling out and two and a half years of no contact, Ren and Joni, best friends since they were 3, have to spend a week together for Joni’s sister’s wedding. The story is told through chronological flashbacks leading up to their falling out interwoven with present day. The time jumps worked for me and it had me reeling to find out what happened next.

Second-chance, friends to lovers, and forced proximity are all things I LOVE, and if you enjoy them you’ll love this book.

I absolutely LOVED Ren and Joni as well as the other characters. The two families mesh so well and I would love to know more about everyone. I do wish we could have had more of Ren and Joni at the end, after everything they’ve been through together.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin, and the author for the ARC

Friends to Lovers was a warm mix of every favorite romance book Ive read over the last few years (Happy Place meets People We Meet on Vacation sprinkled with This Summer Will be Different).

The wedding plus one aspect was a nice way to sprinkle in romantic settings, and I enjoyed the implied childhood experiences rather than the book progressing through the entire lives.

Overall an enjoyable read, even though I wanted to shake Joni roughly by the shoulders multiple times.

A delightful tale of friendship and love. When two best friends discover their deeper feelings for each other, it results in moments of silence until a wedding brings everyone together. Although the beginning is a bit slow, the intense longing towards the end more than compensates, and I devoured the second half of the book! I appreciate the storytelling style, which presents the problem at the outset and then unfolds through flashbacks that explain how the main issue arose. However, I wish there had been dual narrators to provide a fuller perspective on both sides of the story.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Friends to Lovers by Sally Blakely.

This book had such a heartfelt and engaging start, immediately drawing me into Ren and Joni’s dynamic. As lifelong best friends, they have an agreement to always be each other’s plus-one at weddings, but when they reunite for Joni’s sister’s wedding, something between them feels different—strained, awkward, and full of unspoken words. The forced proximity at their shared family vacation home only heightens the tension, making it clear that something happened between them before the story began.

The story is told partially in alternating timelines, flashing back to a handful of the weddings they attended over the past six years. These glimpses into their past added so much depth, showing their evolving relationship, the undeniable sparks between them, and the slow unraveling of the friendship they once thought was unshakable.

The chemistry between Ren and Joni is undeniable, with sparks that have clearly been simmering for years. Their banter, the way they understand each other, and the history they share made their romance feel so natural and deeply rooted. Fans of People We Meet on Vacation will love the slow-burn tension, the emotional depth, and the way these two navigate their complicated past.

I loved watching them fall back into a rhythm despite the time apart, and the way Ren still knew exactly how Joni was feeling even when she tried to hide it. The romance was sweet, the emotional moments were touching, and the ending left me with a happy heart. If you love best-friends-to-lovers stories with forced proximity, alternating timelines, and deep emotional connections, this one is a must-read!

⭐️ 4.5 rounded up!

I LOVED the story of Ren and Joni so much. As others have been saying, this is the love child of Happy Place and People We Meet on Vacation. Any of you EmHen lovers are going to adore this book!

Thank you Sally Blakely, NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review! This is going to be the perfect summer read and I’m so excited to read more by this author.

Thanks So much to Sally Blakely and Harlequin Trade Publishing | Canary Street Press for the eARC of this book. I loved this one! The friends to lovers trope is one of my favorites! Sally wrote Ren and Joni's so well! I can't wait to read more from Sally! Definitely recommend.

I will say that friends-to-lovers isn't usually my favorite trope, but when it is done well and feels realistic - count me in. I'm so glad I gave this book a chance because I really loved it. I loved both characters and felt for each of them as I cheered on their love story. I was honestly sucked in from the very first page. Our library already has holds for this book and I will keep recommending it. Thank you so much for letting me read this early.

”I thought I knew how our story would go, two parallel lines stretching into forever. But in retrospect, our lives were never destined to take that shape."

4 Stars

What a debut novel! I'm a big fan of the friends to lovers trope so this book called to me from the title alone. But once I started reading, I realized how much more this story and these characters had to offer.

Ren and Joni are childhood best friends, who have grown up together, visiting a shared beach house every summer as kids. After college graduation they end up a cross the country from one another but attempt to keep their friendship alive by attending weddings as each others plus ones. This seems to be working until Joni realizes she's been in love with Ren the whole time. But a series of miscommunications and lies, break them apart for 2.5 years.

Enter today, where they are thrown back together for Joni's sister's wedding. Over the course of the week, they find their way back to each other, but is it enough to start a real love relationship or should they stay best friends?

YES to this book!! This was reminiscent of People we Meet on Vacation (with the flashback weddings) and The Summer I Turned Pretty (with the childhood best friends love interest). Both of those are favorites of mine so this was a total winner.

Congrats Sally Blakely! I can't wait to read what you write next.

Thanks to Net Galley and Harlequin Trade Publishing. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a very quick, cute read. I loved the relationship between Ren and Joni and how their friendship was portrayed over the years. I loved the time jumps as well. The first 70% or so of the book was leading to the build up of the friendship break-up. I was really interested to find out what caused it. The actual breakup reasoning fell flat and then it seemed tough to finish once I learned the "why". I also struggled with how oblivious Joni was to his love for her, and how clueless she was towards it. Overall I did enjoy this and would be interested to read more from this author.