A cute and easy read that delivers exactly what the title promises. The friends-to-lovers trope is always a comfort, and this story had some sweet moments that made me smile. That said, it didn’t feel especially unique or memorable, and the pacing dragged in a few places.

Still, if you’re in the mood for a light, low-stakes romance that leans into familiarity, this one does the job. A solid three stars for me.

𝑵𝒆𝒕𝑮𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒚 𝑨𝑹𝑪 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘: 𝑭𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔
🐚🌊🐚🌊🐚🌊🐚🌊🐚🌊🐚🌊🐚

“ 𝗜 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗜’𝗺 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗜 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂.” - 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗹𝘆

𝑹𝒆𝒏 𝑿 𝑱𝒐𝒏𝒊 💕

This is a must read for readers who enjoy an Emily Henry or Carley Fortune novels. This was 𝐸𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎 𝒮𝓊𝓂𝓂𝑒𝓇 𝒜𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇 meets 𝒫𝑒𝑜𝓅𝓁𝑒 𝓌𝑒 𝑀𝑒𝑒𝓉 𝑜𝓃 𝒱𝒶𝒸𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃. There was so much chemistry and romantic longing between Ren and Joni. Ren was the calm, steady and loveable golden retriever MMC that makes nostalgic playlists that include millennial anthems like “Mr. Brightside” (which seemed to give away how he really felt about Joni). Joni was the career driven, black cat FMC with anxiety who wants to prove to the world she’s strong.

The inside jokes, shared history, so many moments where they almost became more than friends but couldn’t quite commit were well written. There was a loveable cast of friends and family enjoying summer fun at a shared summer house. I especially enjoyed how Sally incorporated mental health into the story.

However if you are looking for plot twists you aren’t going to find it here. I gave this book three stars because it was predictable, the title gives it all away. It doesn’t meant I didn’t enjoy the story, I just found myself waiting for Ren and Joni to wake up and realize they had feelings for each other.

Also if you are looking for spice you won’t find much here, there’s a few moments that I swooned over including kiss scene during a capture the flag that was so romantic. 🥰

Thank you to @netgalley and @harlequinbooks for gifting me this advanced digital copy. The review and thoughts are all my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Canary Street Press/HTP for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

If you don't love friends to lovers then you should probably avoid this one. I found it to be perfect - it was sweet, emotional and just such a great feel-good romance. Jodi is a mess, and watching her come back from being fired from the job she gave everything to, and get to reunite with her former best friend? It was such a heartfelt arc for her!

This book is told in dual timelines - all we know is that she hasn't spoken to her former best friend in 2 years, and something bad happened, but now they're reunited at her sisters wedding. It was just a lot of fun watching them reconnect and get back together.

Such a perfect light read.

This book was so cute! I loved the storyline! The family seemed a bit toxic but I think that is what made their relationship so much better. It was kind of a miscommunication trope book which isn’t my favorite, BUT it was for kind of nice reasoning so I was okay with it. This kind of gave me the same feeling as reading love and other words and I loved it! Overall a great read!

This was such a sweet, summery read! The “plus-one wedding pact” between Joni and Ren was such a fun premise, and the tension of seeing them fake a friendship while clearly still caring about each other kept me hooked. I loved the mix of beachy vibes, wedding-week chaos, and second-chance romance. Perfect for anyone who likes their love stories with a side of nostalgia, humor, and heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

When I started this book I was very into it, but somewhere in the middle it got slow for me. I was glad with the ending of the story.

Friends to Lovers by Sally Blakeley had some really sweet moments, and I enjoyed the chemistry between the characters. That said, parts of the story felt a little predictable and didn’t totally hook me. Overall, it was a nice read, just not super memorable.

Such a cute read! Friends to Lovers hit all the right notes: sweet, lighthearted, and full of those feel-good moments that make you smile. I loved watching the relationship unfold naturally, and it left me with such a happy heart.

I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did but I was incredibly engrossed. The characters had so much depth and I was so invested in their relationship but also their career journeys.

Friends to Lovers by Sally Blakeley delivers on the classic trope with some sweet and heartfelt moments. I liked the chemistry between the characters, but parts of the story felt predictable and didn’t fully pull me in. Overall, it was an enjoyable but fairly average read for me.

2.75 stars, but I round up.

There were many aspects of this story that I really liked or felt had potential. These include:
-Ren and Joni have genuine chemistry and really shine when they are most relaxed and able to banter. As childhood best friends, they have great banter.
-The siblings really shine in a few brief moments. As someone with childhood friends very, very similar to Ren and Joni's families, the relationship between all the siblings, on both sides, should have been exceptionally fun. There are glimpses of this-- The "fratty chicken" storyline is exceptionally cute, for example.
- The final 2 flashbacks are very informative to the character development.

There were, however, many more moments that felt under-developed.
- The mis-communicatiom trope is heavy throughout the book, with not just Ren and Joni, but their siblings, parents... literally no one talks with one another. Joni and Ren refuse to have the "define the relationship" talk for literally YEARS. In particular, Ren and Joni's break up from 2 and a half years ago is cringe-inducing.
- Rather than further the plot, the flashbacks at times kinda halt the plot, which is frustrating.
- Joni has a panic attack /anxiety disorder-- one that leads to her losing her job and that she is not treating well. Her mother, a therapist, is over-protective and harsh with her, but no one, including her life-long childhood best friend that she is now in love with, seems to know or care or help her. Her panic attacks seem instead to be glossed over, despite being kinda a major reason for most of her actions. (This is the 2nd romance book recently published in 2025 that glosses over this plot point and like... why include it then?)
- Most side characters are underdeveloped, which is a bummer because they are all interesting people.

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Vibes: 💕😂☕📚🌆🎧💌✨🙄🍷
Rating: 3.25⭐
Tropes: friends-to-lovers / forced proximity / slow burn
🌶️🌶️/5 (open door)

Definitely a fun, light romance that stayed true to the title -- plenty of sweet, sometimes awkward moments between Ren and Joni toeing the line into something more. I liked the banter and the cozy vibe, but at times it felt predictable and I found myself thinking that the slow burn was a little too slow. Cute, but it didn’t blow me away.

A true friends-to-lovers story with heat! These two characters were equally fun as they were annoying (the miscommunication trope hits again). Enjoyed the spice!! 3/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️

(Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.)

OMG! This book was so incredibly good! It was a first person, single POV, dual timeline. I instantly fell in love with these characters. I could tell from the beginning that they adored each other, but Joni’s doubts always lingered in the back of her head. I know it was a part of who she was, but I hated that she didn’t allow anyone else into her life to help ease her burden when things got to be too much. She buried herself in work and then work was suddenly not there anymore so she had to face her friendship with Ren head on. This book was such an easy read and was fun but moved me to tears as well. I’m so glad I was able to read it! Ironically, it’s more like friends to lovers to enemies to lovers, lol!!!

Joni and Ren have been best friends since 3 years old, even vowing to always be each other's wedding dates when Joni moves across the country and they are worried about drifting apart. This arrangement worked until they crossed a line that ruined their friendship two years ago. Now they are forced back into each other's lives for Joni's sister's wedding at their shared family lake house. Ren and Joni will be spending a lot of time together for a week and they need to figure out if they can repair their friendship or go their separate ways forever.

I really enjoyed this story. It was predictable in a very comforting way. I could tell where the story was going, but the fun was entirely in how we got there. The entire cast of characters is so delightful. A wonderful summer read for anyone looking for a quick fun book - if you can read it at a lake house, even better!.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Canary Street Press and NetGalley for the ARC of Friends to Lovers.

Friends to Lovers is a charming, lighthearted romance that delivers the comfort of a familiar trope: two friends navigating the tricky transition to romance. Sally Blakely writes with warmth and humor, and the banter between the leads is often enjoyable and relatable. The small-town setting adds a cozy, inviting backdrop that makes the story easy to read.

That said, the plot is fairly predictable, and some emotional beats feel rushed or underdeveloped. While the characters are likable, they don’t always feel fully fleshed out, and the romance, though sweet, lacks the spark to make it truly memorable.

Overall, Friends to LoveFriends to Lovers is a charming, lighthearted romance that delivers the comfort of a familiar trope: two friends navigating the tricky transition to romance. Sally Blakely writes with warmth and humor, and the banter between the leads is often enjoyable and relatable. The small-town setting adds a cozy, inviting backdrop that makes the story easy to read.

That said, the plot is fairly predictable, and some emotional beats feel rushed or underdeveloped. While the characters are likable, they don’t always feel fully fleshed out, and the romance, though sweet, lacks the spark to make it truly memorable.

Overall, Friends to Lovers is a pleasant, easy read—perfect for fans of feel-good romance—but it doesn’t stand out in a crowded genre.rs is a pleasant, easy read—perfect for fans of feel-good romance—but it doesn’t stand out in a crowded genre.

3🌟 I really wanted to like this one more than I did. I typically love friends to lovers. I was sucked in immediately and then it was just meh. Joni was a little annoying so that didn’t help.

Thank you NetGalley, Sally Blakely, and Harlequin for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I felt them more friends than lovers, majority of the book was when they were friends before they crossed the line to lovers and it may have downsized the romance a bit. A miscommunication led to them not speaking for two years, a little dramatic, they reunited at her sister’s wedding and things got awkward, I was confused most of the “present” timeline because of their estrangement and not knowing what had happened that caused it. Overall I was stressful while reading.

My interest was first sparked for this book due to everyone saying If you were fans of Emily Henry's, then you would love this book! If you are an addict to friends to lovers and summer romance books tropes like I am, then this book is for you. The slow burn and angst in this book had me squealing when things finally came to a boiling point. Such a fantastic debut novel and she has found a new fan for life.

i was looking at some of the reviews and SO MANY said this was like a pwmov knockoff and honestly yeah. that perfectly sums up what you need to know about this book. it felt like someone trying to he emily henry but, it didnt work out for me.