Review: Just Friends by Monica Murphy

ABOUT THE BOOK

Just Friends

by Monica Murphy
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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.

REVIEW

I requested to review Just Friends because it had quite a promising premise. Who doesn't love a good story about best friends turned frenemies? And let me tell you, it packs on the drama left and right. High school is full of insane parties and antics, and the characters in Just Friends get into a lot of hot messes. In fact, they are all kind of a hot mess. Their emotions and hormones are pretty much all over the place.

Olivia has two best friends: Emily and Dustin. They do everything together. But after being gone for the summer, she comes back to find everything has changed between the three of them and once she figures out why they are acting strange, she decides to take matters into her own hands and control who she lets in her life. Enter Ryan and Amanda. Ryan is the guy that her best friend has been hooking up with but has an instant connection with him when they meet. No matter how hard she fights it, it's a losing battle. Even though pretty much everyone has warned her about him, she can't stay away. Amanda is basically your all around good girl. Out of all of the characters in Just Friends, Amanda is definitely the most grounded. I connected with her the most out of all of them, including our protagonist. Olivia couldn't make up her mind to save her own life, and she was incredibly selfish in her actions. And if I'm being honest, they all were, with the exception of Amanda. They all seemed to just do whatever the hell they wanted... morals, integrity and respect be damned. The guys in this story seemed to only want one thing and didn't know how to keep it in their pants. They went from girl to girl, even the girls best friends. And the girls didn't really seem care if they were fooling around with the guys their best friends wanted or were with. They only seemed to care about themselves. I actually wanted to reach through the book a couple of times and slap a few of them. Not to mention that the guys got pissed off whenever the girls didn't want to give in to them. Don't even get me started on that. I really didn't see why Olivia wanted Dustin or Ryan. She couldn't make up her mind about either one of them, but they were both pretty lame. I was left feeling frustrated over most of the situations she put herself into, especially when it concerned them. And her moms boyfriend??? Complete CREEPER. It was like all the guys in the story were absolute d-bags (for lack of a better word). The girls would swoon over every single one of them because of their looks, nevermind how they treated them or any other girl. Olivia just couldn't keep her hands to herself either. She flitted back and forth between Ryan and Dustin so often I'm sure I've gotten whiplash. Like seriously, pick one already!

The story was fast-paced and exciting though. It kept my heart racing, mainly with the steamy scenes. Although, I really hadn't expected them to be so detailed. I also felt like I was reading more about college kids than high schoolers, though I'm sure high schoolers do act the way the characters in the story did. I was probably the exception in mine because I was a good girl in school.

I would definitely continue on with the story if the chance to read the second book in the series was presented to me, however I do have my reservations about reading it considering all of the above. I am interested to find out what happens between Olivia and Ryan after what happened at the end, and also to see if she and Emily will ever patch things up. And hopefully she'll be able to convince her mom to give Fritz the boot because I'm just not feeling the way he's treating her. My creeper senses are on high alert with this one.

RATING

AUTHOR

About Monica Murphy

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 a traditionally published author with Bantam/Random House and Harper Collins/Avon, as well as an independently published author. She writes new adult, young adult and contemporary romance. She is also USA Today bestselling romance author Karen Erickson.

She is a wife and a mother of three who lives with her family 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 many angst-filled moments before they finally get that hard won HEA.

**This book was given to me by YA Bound Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.**