Just Friends by Monica Murphy
Synopsis:
It’s the end of summer. Just before I start senior year with my two best friends in the whole world. Dustin and Emily are everything to me. We’ve been inseparable since middle school, and when we’re together, nothing can go wrong.
But things aren’t always what they seem. Em’s turned into a drunken mess who parties too much. Dustin and I have hooked up a few times―and now he’s ready to take our relationship to the next level. Yet I’m not sure I want things to change. I’m scared if I take it any further with Dustin, our friendship will be ruined forever. Then there’s Ryan. The new guy. He’s hot. He flirts way too much. And Em has totally set her sights on him.
So when my best friend betrays me in the worst possible way, guess who’s there to help me pick up the pieces of my broken heart? Ryan. But he’s so confusing. Annoying. Sweet. Sexy. I want to trust him, yet he makes it so hard. What I really want is for everything to go back to the way it was before.
Before I found out that best friends make the worst kind of enemies.
Nothing like teenage angst and drama! Monica Murphy brings a large dose of both in her newest mature YA read Just Friends. Just a heads up, this book has many unlikable characters. I spent a large part of it just sitting here shaking my head waiting for the next crazy thing to happen, but it was completely unputdownable and captivated me from the start. It reminded me of the times I was addicted to those high school tv dramas (think 90210, Gossip Girl etc) and I would just binge watch no matter how many crazy things happened.
Olivia has two best friends. Em and Dustin. She is forced to spend the summer before her senior year in Oregon with her father. Two months away from her best friends. It seems like an eternity. Right before school is ready to start, she comes back home. Everything should be the same, right? There is Em. Her long time best friend. They’re inseparable. But now Em is drinking and doing god knows what at all the parties they go to and things aren’t the same. Then there is Dustin. Dustin and Liv have a strange relationship. They’re ‘Just Friends’ but it’s clear that he wants more. She’s undecided though they have hooked up.
“We’re friends.” Best friends. Who want something more.
If that wasn’t complicated enough, there is Ryan. The new guy who appeared this summer. Ryan and Em seem to have a little something going on, but it’s apparent that Ryan is way more into Olivia then he is with Em. Oh, what a confusing and tangled web we weave!
“I may have been with Em last night, but I wanted it to be with you.”
So as you can tell, it’s sort of a hot mess right now. As school is starting, Olivia doesn’t know what she wants. Dustin feels safe. She’s attracted to him but doesn’t want to ruin their friendship. She feels something strong for Ryan, but is it just lust? Can she trust him? She finds out quickly trust is not something easy to come by. When Olivia finds out she’s been betrayed by those closest to her, everything changes.
Some of Olivia’s thoughts annoyed me. She stressed me out at times, but like I said before, I was totally addicted to her story and didn’t want to stop reading. Olivia and Dustin, I have mixed feelings about. Em is just ugh for me, and Ryan… well, the verdict is still out on him. Olivia did make friends with a girl named Amanda and she is by far the most likable of the bunch. I could connect with her better than any of the other characters, perhaps because I was more like Amanda in high school than any of the others.
I have mixed feelings about this one, but overall I did like it and I’ll be reading the next. I need to know whats going to happen with these crazy kids! I’m anxious to see where Amanda’s story will go, and of course… which guy Olivia will choose (if she ever does choose LOL)
“You need to make up your mind who you want, Olivia. You can’t have us both.”
If you’re looking for a story with lots of drama, frenemies, love triangles (or maybe a love square) and you can handle the angst- this will be the book for you! Just be prepared to binge read, because you won’t want to put it down!
Buy Links:
iBooks: http://apple.co/2aeSduM
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2bNGXUX
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2bIEISO
Amazon CA: http://amzn.to/2bhsEbM
Amazon AU: http://amzn.to/2byYFg7
About the Author:
Monica Murphy is the New York Times, USA Today and #1 international bestselling author of the One Week Girlfriend series, the Billionaire Bachelors and The Rules series. Her books have been translated in almost a dozen languages and has sold over one million copies worldwide. She is both self-published and published by Random House/Bantam and Harper Collins/Avon. She writes new adult, young adult and contemporary romance.
She is a wife and a mother of three who lives in central California on fourteen acres in the middle of nowhere along with their one dog and too many cats. A self-confessed workaholic, when she's not writing, she's reading or hanging out with her husband and kids. She's a firm believer in happy endings, though she will admit to putting her characters through angst-filled moments before they finally get that hard won HEA.
Connect with Monica:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MsMonicaMurphy
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2c9ViiI
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2bRP5bR
Website: http://monicamurphyauthor.com
Newsletter: http://bit.ly/IW5U0y
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