The Best Of: Friends to Lovers Books

Welcome to a brand new series that has been in the works for quite some time. I’ve wanted to do both this theme and also fake dating books for the longest time, but I needed to make sure I actually had enough books to talk about.

These posts are completely subjective, you may not agree with every book I include and yu may not think they’re friends to lovers. However, that’s the beauty of literature, it can be interpreted in different ways.

If you have some great friends to lovers book recommendations do let me know, you may even remind me of ones I’ve already read but have forgotten fall into this category. I’m also going to go through my entire read shelf on Goodreads to see if I’ve missed any on my current list, so sorry this post is a little short!

Better than the Movies by Lynn Painter

I read this book in late December last year and it made it into my top five books of the year, that’s how good it is. I’m such a sucker for childhood friends to lovers and Liz and Wes are my absolute favourite.

The banter alone for me was an absolute winner. It reminds me of what me and my boyfriend are like and if a romance book reminds me of my actual boyfriend, well that’s just perfection really isn’t it?

Synopsis: Liz Buxbaum has always known that Wes Bennett was not boyfriend material. You would think that her next-door neighbour would be a prince candidate for her romantic comedy fantasies, but Wes has only proven himself to be a pain in the butt, ever since they were little. Wes was the kid who put a frog in her Barbie Dreamhouse, the monster who hid a lawn gnome’s severed head in her little homemade neighbourhood book exchange.

Flash forward ten years from the Great Gnome Decapitation. It’s Liz’s senior year, a time meant to be rife with milestones perfect for any big screen, and she needs Wes’s help. See, Liz’s forever crush, Michael, has just moved back to town, and—horribly, annoyingly—he’s hitting it off with Wes. Meaning that if Liz wants Michael to finally notice her, and hopefully be her prom date, she needs Wes. He’s her in.

But as Liz and Wes scheme to get Liz her magical prom moment, she’s shocked to discover that she actually likes being around Wes. And as they continue to grow closer, she must reexamine everything she thought she knew about love—and rethink her own perception of what Happily Ever After should really look like.

She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott & Alyson Derrick

This was a very recent read for me and oh my god I loved it. Most of you probably know Rachael Lippincott by now (Five Feet Apart), but this was written with her wife; Alyson and it’s her debut novel. So cute! I wonder how much of it was based on their lives. I like to think at least some of it which makes this book even better.

Watching their relationship grow from not liking each other to becoming friends, helping each other with dating and then actually getting together was so sweet. If you haven’t read She Gets the Girl, you absolutely need to.

Synopsis: Alex Blackwood is a little bit headstrong, with a dash of chaos and a whole lot of flirt. She knows how to get the girl. Keeping her on the other hand…not so much. Molly Parker has everything in her life totally in control, except for her complete awkwardness with just about anyone besides her mom. She knows she’s in love with the impossibly cool Cora Myers. She just…hasn’t actually talked to her yet.

Alex and Molly don’t belong on the same planet, let alone the same college campus. But when Alex, fresh off a bad (but hopefully not permanent) breakup, discovers Molly’s hidden crush as their paths cross the night before classes start, they realize they might have a common interest after all. Because maybe if Alex volunteers to help Molly learn how to get her dream girl to fall for her, she can prove to her ex that she’s not a selfish flirt. That she’s ready for an actual commitment. And while Alex is the last person Molly would ever think she could trust, she can’t deny Alex knows what she’s doing with girls, unlike her.

As the two embark on their five-step plans to get their girls to fall for them, though, they both begin to wonder if maybe they’re the ones falling…for each other.


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Like this post? Why not read this one too: Graphic Novel Review: Lore Olympus Volume One by Rachel Smythe

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