Julieta and the Romeos by Maria E. Andreu
Julieta has three different love interests and they’re all good for different reasons. However, the person she does even up with is the best option. From the get-go, they have insane chemistry and I love a good bit of flirty banter – the foundation of which friends to lovers is built on if you ask me.
As this one has two potential love interests I can’t comment too much on the romance aspect, but I thought it was very cute. It’s a clean, teen romance so you can expect cheese, a little bit of angst and all round cuteness. It doesn’t feel like the romance is the main point of this book though, but you’ll have to read it yourself to find out why – no spoilers from me.
The structure of this book is also really cool, it’s both Julieta’s life and the story she is writing. This has nothing to do with the friends to lovers aspect, but it is worth mentioning.
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Synopsis: Julieta isn’t looking for her Romeo–but she is writing about love. When her summer writing teacher encourages the class to publish their work online, the last thing she’s expecting is to get a notification that her rom-com has a mysterious new contributor, Happily Ever Drafter. Julieta knows that happily ever afters aren’t real. (Case in point: her parents’ imploding marriage.) But then again, could this be her very own meet-cute?
As things start to heat up in her fiction, Julieta can’t help but notice three boys in her real life: her best friend’s brother (aka her nemesis), the boy next door (well, to her abuela), and her oldest friend (who is suddenly looking . . . hot?). Could one of them be her mysterious collaborator? But even if Julieta finds her Romeo, she’ll have to remember that life is full of plot twists. . . .
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
I had such a lovely time reading this book and who doesn’t love a queer romance that has a happy ending? I actually think both the book and film are great, the film does make it pretty obvious early on who Simon’s love interest is though so I’d recommend reading the book first (which is what I do 99% of the time anyway and I assume you all do too).
Just mentioning that this book is friends to lovers could be seen as a spoiler, however, if you’ve been emailing with someone for months surely you’re considered friends. Even if you don’t know each other’s identities.
You can’t go too wrong with a Becky Albertalli book. Well I’ve only read a few of them but they’ve all been great so far.
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Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.
With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.
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