I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Just Friends by Jo Lovett Also by this author: The First Time We Met, The House Swap, The Mistletoe Pact
Published by Bookouture on 14th March 2022
Genres: Chicklit, Contemporary, Humour, Love & Romance
Pages: 335
Format: eARC
Source: from Netgalley
Goodreads
Amazon Kindle
Lily took a deep breath. She wasn’t going to pass out from her now-galloping heart. She was thirty-three years old and way beyond having issues seeing an ex. Even the ex. She was going to just ignore Matt and enjoy her best friend’s wedding…
Lily is fine. Really, truly, she’s ok. She might have to attend her best friend’s wedding with the ex-boyfriend she never got over, on a gorgeous Greek island that’s so small it’s impossible to avoid him, but she is determined to be friendly.
And Matt, too, is completely and utterly fine. Lily may have broken his heart, but he moved on. And surely they can be amicable, as this week is about his best friend’s wedding too? So he will be civil, stay out of her way as much as he can, and get on with the celebrations.
But then the wedding comes under threat, and Matt and Lily are thrown together in the efforts to save the day and – yet again – sparks fly. What happens when you try to repeat the past though? Can a holiday romance turn into a lasting love, for the second time? Or are Lily and Matt destined to remain just friends, forever?
Thank you to Bookouture for my copy of this book via Netgalley and for letting me take part in this tour. This is the 4th book I’ve read by Jo and I really enjoy her writing style. I love a book about the right person at the wrong time which is a theme of Jo’s books.
Lily infuriated me a lot. I understand that she didn’t want to go back to feeling like the sick kid who is so fragile but her lack of communication drove me nuts. I admit I get the whole sympathy thing. My mum died when I was at primary school and when I went to secondary school with a whole bunch of new people I didn’t tell many people because the constant looks of sympathy and the awkwardness of it were hard. So from that point, I understand why Lily doesn’t necessarily share everything but to not tell someone you were in a long term relationship with is different. I don’t think Lily deliberately wanted to hurt Matt but she could have handled it better. I think she is still struggling with her childhood and therefore pretends it didn’t happen. I do like Lily. I just wanted her to trustna bit more.
Matt poor Matt. I just wanted to give him a hug most of the time. Lily broke his heart and he’s never got over it. Matt is such a sweetie I just wanted everything to go right for him.
I don’t think I would have been so calm and patient if I was Lily dealing with Tess’ bridezilla moments. Aaliyah was probably my favourite character. She wasn’t going to put up with Tess being selfish and brought some straight talking to the group.
The island sounded beautiful! I love Greece and all of the areas I have been to have been beautiful.
I love a dual (or more) POV so this was great for me. I thought it gave a more rounded view of the story.
The story is sweet with some really funny moments. It’s an easy read that lets you escape from your day to day life.
About Jo Lovett
Jo Lovett lives in London with her family.
She worked in Corporate Tax before taking a longer-than-expected career break to have more-than-expected children (five). She started writing romantic comedy when she realised that she was regularly begging her oldest son to let her do his English homework but she wasn’t actually that interested in haunted houses or Macbeth.
Jo was runner-up in the Good Housekeeping/ Orion First Novel Competition 2018 and shortlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Award 2019.
When she can escape from her laundry mountain and childcare, she enjoys reading, tennis and wine.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
@JoLovettWrites Thank you!
@bookouture Thank you for the lovely review – so pleased you enjoyed it! 🌞🇬🇷😍