Narrated by: Teddy Hamilton & Erin MallonE-Audio, 09:34:50Release Date: June 11, 2019Published by: Hachette Audio
Read from: April 23-24, 2020Companion to The Happy Ever After PlaylistSource: Library (Overdrive)TW: Struggling with InfertilityFor fans of: Adult, Romance, e-Audio, Contemporary Romance, POC Author, Realistic Fiction
Kristen Petersen doesn't do drama, will fight to the death for her friends, and has no room in her life for guys who just don't get her. She's also keeping a big secret: facing a medically necessary procedure that will make it impossible for her to have children.
Planning her best friend's wedding is bittersweet for Kristen—especially when she meets the best man, Josh Copeland. He's funny, sexy, never offended by her mile-wide streak of sarcasm, and always one chicken enchilada ahead of her hangry. Even her dog, Stuntman Mike, adores him. The only catch: Josh wants a big family someday. Kristen knows he'd be better off with someone else, but as their attraction grows, it's harder and harder to keep him at arm's length.
The Friend Zone will have you laughing one moment and grabbing for tissues the next as it tackles the realities of infertility and loss with wit, heart, and a lot of sass.
BETWEEN THE COVERS!
*This book is part of the new adult contemporary romance genre! It is more mature than YA. I have featured it in Between the Covers as a way to feature the few Adult and New Adult titles I am beginning to read!"
*MY THOUGHTS*
There's so much about this book I LOVED, but also, so much about this I disliked. This one was tough to review because for as much as I liked, there was also something else I didn't. I had to sit on this one for a while.
I'd seen so many people talking about how Happy Ever After Playlist was amazing. But something told me to read Jimenez's first book before diving into that one. And I'm glad I did, because its driving the plot for the next one. And that's one of the things I didn't like about it. That one HUGE thing that happened seemed like it was done just for that. It didn't seem.... necessary to me? She could have written the other person surrounding Kristen for the next book, but she had to do that. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't care for it.
As for the characters, I LOVED Sloane and Josh. Kristen not so much. Why? She seemed really, really selfish and manipulative. I hated how she made the decision on what he'd do for him. It just felt like a lot of drama for no reason. Definitely used to keep the plot going. And even though I liked Josh, I did cringe at some things he said. Like when he called her a "unicorn" because she liked Beer and wasn't a like, "typical woman." I hate that we still have to tell them everyone is different and one isn't better than the other.
Other than the plot issues, I did think it was well written. I wanted to keep reading constantly and I thought their Meet Cute was adorable. It was written well enough that I ignored the troupey things that were happening. (Also, I totes called the ending. I would have preferred to be wrong to finally have a book about women who struggle with this type of thing, but I saw it as another phase of their HEA, so I saw it coming.)
And the audio of this was amazing. I loved the narrators. Because of all the drama, it was like I was watching a tv show. It was because of them that I got so invested in the book. I laughed, I got mad and raged at Kristen, and I even ugly cried at that one part. They really brought out the emotion in the book and Idk, I just fell for it.
I went back and forth thinking about what rating I wanted to give this. I enjoyed it, and the narrator made this story, but it still had some issues. I'll be back to read the next one to see if anything has changed.
Overall, I give this
