Review: "Just a Friend" by Deb Goodman

Just a Friend: a Sweet, Small-town Brothers RomCom by Deb Goodman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oliver Tate and Sophie Lawson met as teenagers while working summer jobs at a milkshake shop in the small town of Longdale, Colorado. They quickly became friends and, at the end of the summer, made a pact to meet up at the shop once a year on the same date. They've drifted apart since Oliver broke the pact last year, but now he's back in Longdale to open his family's new lakeside resort, and it only takes one accidental meeting for him to realize how much he's missed spending time with his old friend. He impulsively decides to offer Sophie a job curating the resort's new library, a dream come true after she's spent the last several years running a mobile library out of a converted school bus while petitioning the county for funds to establish a permanent location. Working together brings their long-hidden romantic feelings to the surface, but Sophie's roots are planted firmly in Longdale, while the demands of Oliver's job will have him leaving town again in just a few short months. Can they find a middle ground or is their relationship doomed before it's even begun?

This was such a cute story! Oliver and Sophie had great chemistry and their problems felt very realistic and relatable to me. I particularly appreciated that they started the conversation about wanting different things so early in the story. I hate it when couples in books ignore their problems until there's a big blowup at the end, resulting in a third act breakup that could have been prevented with better communication. In this case, the real question was whether Sophie and Oliver actually wanted things that were so dramatically different. Sophie realized that, as much as she loved Longdale, she also felt suffocated there at times, while Oliver realized that it was worth taking a risk on love as long as it was with Sophie. They found a compromise that worked for them, and I was rooting for them the whole way.

I highly recommend "Just a Friend" for all sweet/closed-door contemporary romance and romantic comedy fans and look forward to the next book in the series.

*Review copy provided by the author. All opinions expressed are my own.

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