Based on the title, you kind of assume what will happen, but getting there is what makes it interesting. I enjoyed how the author wrote about the past and present so you could understand how the characters got to where they are. It's a reflective book, but I do feel like I've been reading a ton of books with this plot lately.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this ARC.

Yes, it is similar to Friends We Meet on Vacation, but I really enjoyed this book. Joni and Ren are very likeable characters, and the story unfolds in an interesting way to finally let you know what happened to break their friendship. I enjoyed the story lines around their families and really all of the characters. It is a slow burn spicy, without a lot of details (fade to black). I highly recommend for a vacation or beach read. Thank you Net Galley for the advanced copy of this book.

This was a cute friends to lovers romance (as the title would suggest), very reminiscent of Emily Henry's People We Meet on Vacation. Joni and Ren are lifelong friends. Their families vacation together in their shared vacation home on the coast each summer. But through flashbacks, we discover the event that tore them apart. They come back together at the vacation house for Joni's sister's wedding, and they have to decide whether or not to give their friendship another chance.

Overall I enjoyed the story, but it was so similar to People We Meet On Vacation that it felt a little stale. If you enjoy the friends to lovers trope, you will probably enjoy this, but don't expect anything too groundbreaking.

Thank you to NetGalley and Canary Street Press for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy of this book.

I definitely enjoyed this debut, friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes after all. I enjoyed the back and forth timelines with their past friendship turned to love, to the present timeline of having to find that friendship, and maybe more again. The FMC, Joni, is incredibly relatable with wanting to prove she’s enough, and yet never quite feeling like she is. Joni and Ren’s story is sweet, and hopeful, and shows how strong you can be when you have someone to stand beside you and love you for who you are. If you loved People You Meet On Vacation, then this is definitely for you.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing and Sally Blakey for this advance reader copy.

What a gem! Friends to Lovers predictably follows two long-time friends on their journeys and struggles to discover what they truly mean to one another.

The care and love for one another seeped from the pages, and the characters are the friends and family you want to be around. I really enjoyed learning about them and their relationship through the flashbacks and thought the character development in this way was creative. I also appreciated that it wasn’t a simple and smooth path to love, but also explored living with anxiety, loneliness and job loss.

This is a great read for fans of Abby Jimenez, Emily Henry and Anna Monaghan, or anyone that enjoys getting lost in a love story set to a good playlist.

I love the way the story bounces between past and present and how what happened between Joni and Ren is revealed. The spots the story switches to the last flows seamlessly. The pieces of the past fit in so nicely with the present that the story until folds itself perfectly.
The chemistry between the two of them is so obvious, and their flirty banter has you routing for them to get together.
I found all the characters in this story very loveable and entertaining. You can tell that they all grew up together and have a fun dynamic. I really enjoyed the plot of this book and flew through it pretty fast.
This is a great book if you want a light-hearted, entertaining romcom style story!

This was such a fun read! And I love the friends to lovers trope! I surprisingly enjoyed it here as the characters evolved from friends to something deeper.

I really enjoyed Sally Blakely's writing style. It was smooth and effortless to read! She also did a great job blending the tropes and I was gripped the whole time!

Feel-good book that's Happy Place meets People We Meet on Vacation.
As the title suggests, Friends to Lovers is exactly that, playing on the well loved trope with sprinklings of 'forced proximity', 'he falls first' and 'secret relationship'. Ren and Joni have been best friends their whole lives, with their families sharing a vacation home and always in each others lives, and although they haven't spoken for 2 1/2 years, they find themselves thrown back together for a family wedding and must sort through the years of friendship and longing they don’t want to acknowledge.

Jumping back and forth between the past and the present to reveal their relationship, the plotting structure is very similar to People We Meet on Vacation. It’s predictable, but I don’t read rom-coms for originality. It’s mildly spicy with a great slow burn throughout the story and all the feel-good moments you might long for in a book with this title. The characters draw you in quickly and easily and portray different aspects of love (familial, friendship, romantic) and I love the ways that the characters show and express love for each other when words aren’t their strong suit. There are some lovely healing journeys where the characters have to reflect on their actions and inactions and find a way to move forward. However, in this story of upper middle-class white folks with a beach house, I would’ve loved to see a bit more diversity in the characters.

Adorable story for Ren and Joni finding their way around and to each other. The flashbacks to the different weddings and events that lead up to the current times I really enjoyed. Predictable ending but I liked it.

Joni and Ren have been friends forever. Since childhood Joni and Ren have spent every important life event together. Joni moved across the country and they make a pact to be each other’s plus ones to every wedding they’re invited to. Lines eventually become blurred and their friendship changes. They have one more chance at Joni’s sister’s wedding to face what when wrong and what that means for their future.

People we Meet on Vacation Vibe
I knew I would enjoy this story but I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be invested in it because it would be a “romance genre” cliche. I was surprised with how quickly I was invested in Joni and Ren. I genuinely enjoyed reading their relationship. The side characters were lovable and I felt invested in their stories too.

Overall I was surprised with how much I loved this story and it exceeded my expectations! I loved that the flash backs were multiple chapters and I felt like I was living them with the characters. Blakely did a great job with character development and using those flashbacks to add to each character full arc. Also I loved that music playlists are important in the story and at the end Blakely gives us the Friends to Lovers playlist!

This is a great summer read! Thank you to NetGalley and Canary Street Press for the eARC of Friends to Lovers. All opinions are my own. #NetGalley #FriendstoLovers

The People We Meet on Vacation meets The Happy Place in this emotional reunion between two childhood best friends. This book is definitely for fans of Emily Henry and those who enjoy going back and forth in time to make sense of the present. I devoured this book in a day, finding myself obsessed with figuring out how we found ourselves in this currently reality between friends Joni and Ren.

This was a cute fun read! There was a lot of beachy music vibes, which I feel like is perfect for summer coming up. The story kept me interested and reading. The side characters were entertaining.

Spoilerish? No major plot points, but overall vibes.. It did feel like the tension between the main characters in the present day could have been drawn out a bit more- I would have expected more silence and awkwardness between them but they pretty much resumed their friendship immediately. Likewise, they never truly felt like just friends in the past scenes- they clearly were very into each other all along.

Thank you Sally Blakely & NetGalley for the arc!

This was such a cute read. I enjoyed it very much
Thank you so much NetGalley for letting me read it

4 ⭐️

Tropes: Friends to lovers, second chance romance, dual timeline

This had tension, flirty banter, lovable characters and it was seriously swoon worthy - I’m literally OBSESSED!

Ren and Joni were best friends and inseparable since they were little. They hit so many milestones side by side and grew up together - they were each other’s safe space. Eventually life sent them on different paths and they were no longer just a 30 min drive from each other but they always made it a point to come back together whenever they could. What started off as a joke because of the distance that now separated them, Ren and Joni created a tradition to always be each others plus ones to weddings. They used these wedding to see each other for a few days or a long weekend - they were always a constant in each other’s life’s…until they weren’t.

BUT in true rom-com fashion they are eventually forced to see each other. And because the universe is cruel they are seeing each other for the first time in years because of a wedding. When weddings were once what kept them coming back to each other by choice, they were now giving them a chance to fix what was broken.

“I just feel like everything might have led us to this moment. Like it was always supposed to happen. Like our friendship was one long precursor to this…Like ours is a love story”

I adored that we had a glimpse of how they grew up together, how they fell apart and how they came back to each other. It was beautifully written and gave me all the feels - cannot recommend this enough.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing and Sally Blakey for an eARC for exchange for an honest review.

This book gave me all the feels! A beautifully told story that has you rooting for all the characters.

Friends to lovers is a dual timeline rom com that follows Joni and Ren, friends since they were 3 years old, going to school together all the way through college. Their families own a lake house together. They were always each other’s plus one.

Joni and Ren’s relationship was great until Joni got a job in New York. They made a pact that they would always have their wedding dates. Things with them slowly started to change, Joni got busy at work, and Ren got a serious girlfriend, and then they became strangers. On New Year’s Eve, one night, they became ex best friends.

2.5 years later, Joni sister is getting married at the lake house the two families share, and Joni and Ren have to face each other for the first time.

I liked this book enough to finish it, but it always felt like something was missing. I think if this was duel POV, I would feel differently. It just seemed like their relationship was not as strong as what was trying to be portrayed. They kept a lot of their lives from each other but were supposed to be these lifelong friends. The miscommunication played into them, just not really sharing much with each other. I felt like the resolution was rushed, and I just ended the book wanting more.

Thank you to Harlequin and NetGalley for the ARC

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me the ARC. This is a Debut Book for Sally Blakely, and what a hit! Joni & Ren’s story is so classically torturous, yet way cute. There were so many moments that made me laugh out loud, swoon, & feel their pain. Each character had a unique back story that brought the descriptive plot full circle.

Totally put this on your TBR stat!

This book truly gives Emily Henry and Caitlin Moss vibes. So much yearning and longing. Friends to Lovers is a (well lol) friends to lovers, forced proximity, second chance romance. Joni leaves for NY to follow her dreams while keeping the promise that her and Ren will be each others’ plus ones in weddings they’re invited to. They have a falling out and the story dives into how they’re dealing with seeing each other again as part of the wedding party.

Blakely’s story-telling was pretty magical, addicting even. There was so much romance in this book, you too will fall in love with the characters. The chemistry between them was electric and undeniable. Reading it makes you feel like you’re in the story with them, watching their story unfold and witnessing the main characters rekindle their love. It felt like my heart broke and healed reading this.❤️‍🩹

Such a cute read, I was hooked from the first page and read it in one sitting!!!

Imagine growing up with someone that knows you so well people accuse you of cheating when being a team for game nights! But then suddenly 2 1/2 years go by with no contact. Going from always being each other's plus ones for weddings to not seeing each other til your sister's wedding week.

This book will keep you hooked with the back and forth between the present to past weddings. Waiting to know how bad things could get between two people who clearly love one another to cause such a rift. And maybe will make you want to book a ticket to Oregon!

Joni and Ren grew up inseparable, the kind of best friends who were always there for each other. When Joni moves to New York, they come up with a clever plan—to be each other’s plus-ones at every wedding. For a while, it works. But two and a half years ago, everything changed. After a falling out, they stopped speaking. Now, reunited at their families’ beach house, they have to pretend they’re still friends. As the week unfolds, Joni is reminded just how much she’s missed Ren—and starts to wonder if what they have is more than friendship. But is it worth the risk to find out?

The “friends to lovers” trope is always promising, and this book had a lot of potential. It reminded me of People We Meet on Vacation and Love and Other Words, but unfortunately, it didn’t quite capture me in the same way. The narrative flips between past and present, which sometimes made it difficult to stay grounded in the story. Additionally, the large cast of characters became a bit overwhelming, making it hard to stay focused on the central relationship.

Still, there are heartfelt moments and themes of reconciliation and personal growth that readers may connect with. If you’re a fan of slow-burn second chances, it might be worth a read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Canary Street Press for the advance reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.