His North Star: A Best Friends to Lovers Sweet Romance by Amanda P. Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Ever since her fiance dumped her, Maren Meyer's mom and her best friend, Tyler Montgomery, have been trying to get her to move on by setting her up on dates with progressively weirder and more random guys. The problem is that Maren's not ready to move on; she's still working through the emotional abuse inflicted on her by her ex, which she's kept a secret from everyone around her. The other secret she's keeping? Maren's actually been in love with Ty since they were sophomores in high school. She hasn't admitted her feelings because they've never been single at the same time, and besides, she has good reason to believe he only loves her like a sister. When James, a friend of Ty's from college, moves to town and starts pursuing Maren, she decides to give him a chance. Could he be the man of her dreams...or will the competition finally make Ty realize what he stands to lose by letting Maren move on with someone else?
I've (thankfully!) never been in an emotionally abusive romantic relationship, but even so, I couldn't help but empathize with a lot of what Maren was going through in terms of negative thoughts and self-image. From my own experience, it doesn't matter how many times people tell you that you're good enough; until you believe it for yourself, it won't make a difference. I loved that Ty kept trying to tell her how wonderful she was, however. I also loved their banter and how playful they were with each other, as well as the fact that Maren had a legitimate reason for not telling Ty about her feelings besides her fear of losing the friendship. The one thing that might have improved the reading experience for me is if the story had been narrated in dual POV. I wanted to understand more of what Ty was thinking when he was trying to set her up with the other guys. He explained his reasoning near the end of the book, but up until that point, it was somewhat frustrating for me not to understand why he did so.
This story definitely had me in my feels at times, but overall, I very much enjoyed it. I'd recommend "His North Star" for all fans of sweet/closed-door contemporary romance and look forward to the author's next release.
*Review copy provided by the author. All opinions expressed are my own.
CW: Emotional abuse
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