Saturday, August 12, 2023

Friends Don't Fall In Love Review

Author: Erin Hahn
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: St. Martins Griffin
Release Date: Oct. 17, 2023
Order Link: Amazon

3.5 Friendly Hearts

Special thanks to St. Martins Press for an arc.

Review:
Country music star Lorelai Jones has a bright future ahead of her - she's the rising queen of country music soon to marry the self-proclaimed king.  She's close friends with his band mate Craig Huckleberry Boseman aka "Huck".  Then one night it all comes crashing down when she dares to sing a protest song and ends up getting blackballed right out of the music industry.  To top it off, her fiancé dumps her on social media to avoid letting her "taint" his career.  Needless to say, Lorelai leaves town in a rush to lick her wounds and heal her broken heart but not before a drunken one-night stand with friend Craig - never to be mentioned again.  You can't keep a good woman down for long and now she's back and determined to make a comeback in the music industry.  The first person she reaches out to is her old friend Craig who's managed to make a good career for himself as a record producer.  As they spend more time together, sparks fly, and things heat up between them.  Both have hidden feelings that go beyond the fantastic sex to something more, but neither is willing to risk their friendship by voicing their feelings.  The story that unfolds is full of miscommunications, missed opportunities and hurt feelings.  Even as Lorelai's career takes off again, something's missing.  Is it possible for friends to find the forever kind of love?  Does she dare take a chance on getting her heart broken yet again?

FRIENDS DON'T FALL IN LOVE is a spicy friend to lovers' story about two people who are in denial about their true feelings, afraid to risk a really good friendship on a "maybe" good romantic relationship.  Hahn has a way of delivering characters that are vulnerable and likeable and yet just a wee bit dense about relationships.  So much heartache could have been avoided with a little true communication, but the learning process makes them enjoy the end results more.  Characters are well fleshed out and while this one starts off a bit slow, it certainly picks up in the second half as things start happening to throw Lorelai and Craig together where things sizzle, crackle and pop!  There are some very, very sexy scenes in this book as the one place this couple does not have an issue is the bedroom.  I enjoyed the inclusion of some song lyrics as a form of communication and the text messages are funny and sweet.  This is a saucy contemporary romance story with great banter that I highly recommend to fans of friends to lovers' stories.
  
Synopsis:
Lorelai Jones had it all: a thriving country music career and a superstar fiancé. Then she played one teenie tiny protest song at a concert and ruined her entire future, including her impending celebrity marriage. But five years later, she refuses to be done with her dreams and calls up the one person who stuck by her, her dear friend and her former fiancé’s co-writer and bandmate, Craig.

Craig Boseman’s held a torch for Lorelai for years, but even he knows the backup bass player never gets the girl. Things are different now, though. Craig owns his own indie record label and his songwriting career is taking off. If he can confront his past and embrace his gifts, he might just be able to help Lorelai earn the comeback she deserves―and maybe win her heart in the process.

But when the two reunite to rebuild her career and finally scratch that itch that’s been building between them for years, Lorelai realizes a lot about what friends don’t do. For one, friends don’t have scratch-that-itch sex. They also don’t almost-kiss on street corners, publish secret erotic poetry about each other, have counter-top sex, write songs for each other, have no-strings motorcycle sex, or go on dates. And they sure as heck don't fall in love... right?

Erin Hahn’s Friends Don’t Fall in Love is about long-time friends, taking chances, and finding out that, sometimes, your perfect person was right there in your corner all along.

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