Showing posts with label Friends to Lovers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friends to Lovers. Show all posts
Thursday, January 3, 2019

My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren





Publication: December 4, 2018
Publisher: Gallery Books
Source: Publisher

Synopsis:
Millie Morris has always been one of the guys. A UC Santa Barbara professor, she’s a female-serial-killer expert who’s quick with a deflection joke and terrible at getting personal. And she, just like her four best guy friends and fellow professors, is perma-single.

So when a routine university function turns into a black tie gala, Mille and her circle make a pact that they’ll join an online dating service to find plus-ones for the event. There’s only one hitch: after making the pact, Millie and one of the guys, Reid Campbell, secretly spend the sexiest half-night of their lives together, but mutually decide the friendship would be better off strictly platonic.

But online dating isn’t for the faint of heart. While the guys are inundated with quality matches and potential dates, Millie’s first profile attempt garners nothing but dick pics and creepers. Enter “Catherine”—Millie’s fictional profile persona, in whose make-believe shoes she can be more vulnerable than she’s ever been in person. Soon “Catherine” and Reid strike up a digital pen-pal-ship...but Millie can’t resist temptation in real life, either. Soon, Millie will have to face her worst fear—intimacy—or risk losing her best friend, forever.


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My Favorite Half-Night Stand centers on Millie and Reid, two UC Santa Barbara Professors and their small group of close-knit friends, Alex, Chris, and Ed.
Even though they are all pretty tight with each other, Mille and Reid’s relationship has always been…different. They understand each other better and there is a subtle flirting that goes on between them. Their friendship is tested however when one night after a little liquid courage, Millie and Reid sleep together. Is it easy going back to just being friends only? Or do they want more from each other?

Millie, a criminologist, is smart, pretty, and successful. Though she has great friends, she never likes to share much about herself or her past. She’s pretty closed off and being her friend, you understand that dealing with emotions isn’t really her strong suit. She oftentimes frustrated me, but I still liked her character. 

Reid, a scientist, is successful and easy on the eyes. He works a lot, but always makes times for the people he cares about. Unlike Millie, Reid loves to communicate and open up about himself. He oftentimes tries to get Millie to tell him more, but he is rarely successful.

Wanting to make a good impression at a very important school banquet, they decide to join a dating app. Hoping to not only find a date to the banquet, but possibly someone they want to pursue an actual relationship with.

When it’s time for everyone to create their dating profiles, they all suck according to Millie. So she reluctantly agrees to re-write the dating profiles for them. When she is finished, she has made the guys sound very appealing. Well everyone except for herself. Her profile is found to be a little lacking. Even though Millie doesn’t divulge much in her profile, that doesn’t stop her from getting lame messages and inappropriate pics from weirdos. In an attempt to start fresh, she creates a secondary profile under her middle name with a somewhat blurry profile pic. 

With the new profile ready to go she unexpectedly discovers that she matches with Reid. They begin talking to each other through the app, but Reid doesn’t know that it’s Millie he is opening up to. After some time, Millie finds herself being more open about her life and past experiences as she talks with Reid through the app. And it feels good to finally be able to talk to someone about what she is going through. But how open is Millie being with Reid if he doesn’t even know it’s her? And what happens if he wants to meet her?

Told in dual POV’s, My Favorite Half-Night Stands is a sweet contemporary romance that goes into the world of modern day online dating and the adventures that can come from that. I loved the dynamic between all five friends. They are different, but their friendship works. They have each others back no matter what. Being able to see their online chats was a nice addition also. The story was very easy to get into and the writing was solid. Not to mention the characters were likable. I couldn’t help but root for Reid and Millie through the whole book.



RATING: 3½ out of 5.



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Thursday, September 6, 2018

Josh & Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren




Publication: September 4, 2018
Publisher: Gallery Books
Source: Publisher & Purchase my own copy

Synopsis:

Hazel Camille Bradford knows she’s a lot to take—and frankly, most men aren’t up to the challenge. If her army of pets and thrill for the absurd don’t send them running, her lack of filter means she’ll say exactly the wrong thing in a delicate moment. Their loss. She’s a good soul in search of honest fun.

Josh Im has known Hazel since college, where her zany playfulness proved completely incompatible with his mellow restraint. From the first night they met—when she gracelessly threw up on his shoes—to when she sent him an unintelligible email while in a post-surgical haze, Josh has always thought of Hazel more as a spectacle than a peer. But now, ten years later, after a cheating girlfriend has turned his life upside down, going out with Hazel is a breath of fresh air.

Not that Josh and Hazel date. At least, not each other. Because setting each other up on progressively terrible double blind dates means there’s nothing between them...right?



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Josh Im and Hazel Bradford share a pretty colorful introduction in college. And all throughout college Hazel has continued to make quite an impression on Josh. They always managed to run into each other during one time or another. After graduating, they don’t see each other for 7 years, when they reunite at a BBQ hosted by Josh’s brother-in-law Dave and sister Emily. Emily also happens to be best friends with Hazel and is surprised to see Josh.Hazel sees Josh as her blueprint for perfect and determines from the beginning that they will be best friends.


Josh comes from a pretty close knit Korean family and has more of a traditional background. He’s pretty even-keeled, a little reserved/serious, but also has a dry sense of humor. He is also a physical therapist and has a business there in Portland. His personality, loyalty, and easy friendship with Hazel had me falling in love with him right alongside Hazel.

Hazel, a third grade school teacher is not what you might expect when you first meet her. She has absolutely no filter and is pretty straight-forward. She usually says the first thing that comes to her mind, but isn’t rude about it. She has the biggest heart, sweet, super easy-going, loves to be happy and make friends. Essentially she is a giant social butterfly. And I loved her to pieces!


This book took me by surprise. I’ve been in a little bit of a book funk lately. Sometimes it’s taken me awhile to get really into a book. So when I started this one, I was not expecting to like it as much as I did. Actually I didn’t just like it, I kind of fell in love with it. Josh & Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating was a great story about friendship, love, and not changing who you are to suite others around you. I loved Hazel and Josh. I want to have friends like these two! I’ve always enjoyed reading, but this book…I had so much fun getting to know Hazel and Josh and watching their friendship grow and develop. The other characters like Dave, Emily, Hazel’s mom and Josh and Emily’s mother all added to the story and made it that more special. I lost count of the number of times I laughed. I ended the book with a big smile on my face. I couldn’t wait to tell everyone I knew about it.


In short, go check out Josh & Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating!






RATING: 5 out of 5.



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