Reviews with content warning for Cursing - The Friend Zone

This book is an interesting read. In the one hand there were things I really liked (josh, primarily) and other things I really didn’t (the entire existence of Tyler, the purposeful miscommunication). Sometimes this book reached for 4 stars and other times I wanted to rate it a 2.

I think the author’s note gave a lot of insight and empathy toward the fertility plot line. but the pacing of it, the way Kristen refused to have a proper conversation about it with Josh, the late OCD reveal (which makes a lot of sense and makes me think she’s an unreliable narrator and almost want to reread it through that lens)… to me it was just frustrating to read. I feel like a lot of things could have been explored more but were brushed aside to make it a ~romance~.

Speaking of the romance…again I have mixed feelings. I think they had great chemistry, but they also fell for each other ridiculously quickly. I feel like the central conflict being her fertility would have been better than if it was just that. But instead she had this not-exactly-cheating plot line with Tyler and Josh (that led to her eventual pregnancy iirc), and Tyler’s proposal, her “thinking about it” only to immediately refuse. It’s just felt unnecessary when the central conflict could have just been her working through her health issues while grappling with her growing feelings for Josh. (To be clear, a lot of time is still spent in that conflict, but it felt like stonewalling and not actual progress).

Them the thing with alone and Brandon….felt gratuitous. Now that I know it’s a setup for book 2 it makes sense, but it was A Choice for the third act conflict and i just didn’t really like it!

TLDR this book tried to do too much, instead of digging deep with the most interesting bits.

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I loved the representation of women’s health issues but I was bothered by unrealistic physical descriptions of the main characters, some overused tropes, and some background characters that felt like caricatures.

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