This is the third book in the Peachtree Cove series. I highly recommend reading the series in order for the best experience.

Like the first two books in this series the pacing is great, the small town setting works well, the supporting characters are interesting, and the story has depth and heart. This installment focuses on Tracey and Brian who are prickly, sarcastic, and perfect main characters for this enemies to friends to lovers story. I enjoyed learning about their back stories and watching them fall into each other.

I would have really enjoyed full cast narration, but Adenrele Ojo did a very solid job as the sole narrator.


#FrenemieswithBenefits #NetGalley

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for the early copy of the audiobook!

I recently got into this series and have enjoyed each installment. This one did not disappoint at all. Frenemies with Benefits follows Tracey and Brian, childhood rivals turned friends. Tracey is going through a divorce at the start of the book and trying to find out her new normal. Brian seems to be the only person she can tell her true feelings to and both grow closer while navigating rumors and new scandals in Peachtree Cove. One thing I can attest to in these books is that you will never be bored as drama is always going down. I do wish that there was more focus on the romance as it feels like sometimes that gets pushed to the side for the sake of the plot but this book had the better romance out of the three so far for me. I loved how Brian was super understanding towards Tracey and never let her believe that she couldn't achieve greatness. The side characters in here were very annoying so be warned if you don't like that aspect. Besides that, this book was good and I recommend everyone check this series out!

📖 +🎧 : Frenemies with Benefits, Peachtree Cove #3

✍🏾 Author: Synithia Williams- Read The Secret to a Southern Wedding-4⭐ and Waiting for Friday Night- 5 ⭐


📅Publication date: 2-11-25 | Read 1-20-25

📃: 304 pgs. e-ARC

🗣️Narrator: Adenrele Ojo voices all characters with a great southern accent for Tracey, Brian, and other characters. The reading style brought the text to life, and the author and narrator worked together perfectly. The pacing and flow allowed me to get lost in the story. The narrator paused and announced new chapters and there was a table of contents which helped me follow along.

🏃🏾‍♀️‍➡️Run Time: 9:38

Genre:
*AA Interests
*Contemporary Romance

Tropes:
*small town
*family drama
*divorce/exes
*friends with benefits
*cover lover
*high school crush

👆🏾POV: 3rd person, dual

⚠️TW: h and H cheated on, toxic parents-h, alcoholism-h's father

🌎 Setting: Peachtree Cove, GA

Summary: Tracey is going through a divorce after eleven years when Brian told her about her husband's cheating. They went to high school and secretly liked each other but never acted on it. Neither Tracey or Brian wants a serious relationship, so they come to an arrangement of "friends with benefits."

👩🏾 Heroine: Tracey Thompson-35, owner of The Fresh Place Inn

👨🏾 Hero: Brian Nelson-36, runs a plant nursery

🎭 Other Characters:

* Halle + Quinton-Tracey's BFF + Brian's BFF
* Imani + Cyril -Tracey's BFF + Brian's BFF
*Bernard-Tracey's ex-husband
*Loretta-Tracey's mother
*Jessica-Tracey's new assistant
*Monique- Tracey's ex-assistant, Tracey's husband's pregnant mistress
*Renee-Brian's ex-wife
*Gretchen-Brian's mother
*DeWayne-Brian's older brother, an investment banker
*Makayla-1st millionaire in Peachtree Cove, teaching an entrepreneur class Tracey and Brian enroll in.

🤔 My Thoughts: I saw the cover and requested this ARC immediately. Tracey reminded me of Bernadine from the movie Waiting to Exhale from the drama with her husband to her makeover. I loved how Tracey's friends supported her and gave her "tips" for sexy times with Brian. Both loved their jobs looking to expand their businesses. Tracey's parents were co-dependent and couldn't stay away from each other.


Rating: 4/5⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice level 4/5 🔥🔥🔥🔥

🙏🏾Thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing| Canary Street Press, Harlequin Audio, and Synithia Williams for this ARC and ALC! I voluntarily give my honest review, and all opinions are my own.

This was the Arc for the audio so honest review. The narrators voice threw me off this book. I’m not sure of the range of voices that was tried to characterize the characters or the goal which was intended. I believe the southern accent was the goal while it was southern it was off. Based off the cover of the book and guessing the supposed age range I believed they were suppose to be. It did not match. The FMC and MMC sounded as if they were in their 50s and 60s with the parents still running around like teenagers. I was confused many times when the characters switched because the narrators voice didn’t change, everyone sounded the same. The only part of the narrators voice I liked was when she was reading the narration part of the story, she could have used her normal voice for Tracy and possibly gotten a male voice for Brian. I think the story itself was pretty good if I read it to myself in my head. The drama was there and I like the way the story went. Tracy daddy and mama pissed me off but it was so good.

This one was a miss for me but it was a decent read for someone, maybe.

I’m having a hard time putting my finger on why it didn’t resonate bite one thing is the title doesn’t make sense. The FMC and MMC weren’t Frienemies? Or at least there was nothing to support them being such in the story.

I am thankful to have gotten the ALC for free from Harlequin Audio through NetGalley to listen to which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

The format may have been the issue as well as I didn’t really enjoy the narrator and I tried listening at various speeds to make it better but to no avail sometimes you just don’t jive with a narrator!

Also the dialogue was silly and contrived. But I did like the slow burn. And this is part of a series which I did not read the earlier books. However, the author did a fine job of making it a standalone as all older info was integrated into the book.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again