4.75 ⭐

I was fortunate to receive an ALC and it did not disappoint. The audiobook brought the story to life. Just like the eARC I did not want to put it down. I fell in love with Tracey and Brian all over again. High recommend the audiobook AND the eBook if you like small-town romance, dislike/enemies to lover, workplace romance.

The book's title was somewhat misleading, as the "frenemies with benefits" theme was not fully developed. When the arrangement finally took place, it was mentioned only infrequently. Instead, the narrative focused more on Tracey’s journey to grow her business and boost her self-esteem. While I admired Tracey's evolution as she stepped out of her comfort zone and pursued her ambitions, the continual emphasis on her self-doubt and insecurities stemming from Bernard and her past felt repetitive and somewhat frustrating.

3

DNF. I think the narrator threw me off with the accents for every character that I just couldn’t get into it.

Good story. I loved Tracey and her boldness. Her growth was beautiful to watch. I really enjoyed the story and the characters but struggled with the narrator.

Small town
Friends with benefits
Messy exes
Starting over

Audio review
Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo


Characters: Brian and Tracey

This is the 3rd book in the series but definitely can be read as a standalone.


Growing up with parents in a toxic relationship, left Tracey with a deep sense of self awareness. She felt like she had to prove she was different. She didn’t trust easy. When she married the town’s favorite son, she tried to be the perfect wife. She own’s a very successful bed and breakfast. However, her marriage fell apart, and it rocked her.

Brian was involved with a woman who had him twisted. He dropped out of college, did some modeling and ended his marriage. Now he runs the town’s florist and is doing well. His marriage left him bitter. He is no longer interested a relationships.

Brian had a thing for Tracey when they were in school. She was standoffish. When she decided to get back out there and have fun without the drama of a relationship, Brian volunteered to help her out.

The story was engaging. The characters were likable. Fast pace with steam and drama.

I enjoyed this book, I'm not sure I would call it "Frenemies". The 2 main characters are friends and do end up being friends with benefits, but I don't feel like they are ever not friends. There is some drama, and I do love that the characters are in their 30s instead of being so young. I would definitely read more from this other and now that I know there are more books in this series, I will be checking those out as well.

When I first saw this book I thought it would be a cute fluffy romance. But I was pleasantly surprised that to see that this book touches on many real life issues like self worth, addiction, chasing your dreams. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone that is interested in romance.

Slow burn acquaintances to friends to lovers with truly AWFUL exes on both sides providing plenty of drama! I'm not convinced "frenemies" is accurate here but I enjoyed the story.

Tracy runs a bed & breakfast in a small town and is just finalizing a nasty divorce, complete with a pregnant mistress who was her former employee. Brian owns the local plant nursery and has been divorced for a few years, but while his cheating ex is re-married, she's trying to reinsert herself into his life. To prove a point, Tracy decides to look for a hook up and reawaken her sexuality, but Brian offers a no-strings attached deal with himself instead. Even if he is definitely becoming attached...

This is a great pick if you like messy external conflict with a couple doing a decent job with each other. Even if they're working on their communication. The audio narration is really good! I received an audio review copy via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

I struggled with this one from the very beginning. I’ve loved her previous books but had a hard time connecting with the characters in this story. It was ok.

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