Friends to Lovers by Sally Blakely

Friends to Lovers by Sally Blakely

Published by Canary Street Press

Trade paperback, $18.99, 352 pages

From the publisher:

Always each other’s plus-ones, but never each other’s real dates, two childhood best friends have one last summer wedding to fall in love in this dual-narrative debut. 

One of The Washington Post’s ‘8 Romance Novels to Read this Summer’!

Best friends Joni and Ren have been inseparable since childhood. So when Joni moves across the country for her job, the two devise a creative way to stay in touch: they’ll be each other’s plus-ones every year for wedding season, no matter what else is happening in their lives.

It’s a tradition that works, until a line is crossed and the friendship they once thought was forever is ruined.

Now Joni is back at their families’ shared summer home for her sister’s wedding, and she’s determined to make the week perfect, even if it means faking a friendship with Ren—and avoiding the truth of why they have to fake it in the first place. How hard can it be to pretend to be friends with the person who once knew you best?

But as sunny beach days together turn into starry nights, Joni begins to question what her life is without Ren in it. And when the wedding arrives, bringing past heartaches to the surface, she’ll be forced to decide if loving Ren means letting him go, or if theirs is a love story worth fighting for.

My thoughts:

I was immediately drawn into Friends to Lovers from the first page. I felt for Joni, who lost her job in New York and hasn't told anyone in her family- or Ren, her best friend since childhood. Ren and Joni had spent every moment together growing up, and when Joni moved away for her dream job, they kept up by being each other's plus ones to the weddings of family and friends. Until something happened two years ago and they haven't texted or spoken since.

You can feel the discomfort leap off the page between Joni and Ren as family and friends gather for Joni's sister's wedding. They pretend to everyone that all is well even as they share a porch bedroom as they always have. 

I liked seeing their relationship through the lens of the weddings they have attended over the years, it's a unique and interesting way to tell their story.

The secondary characters of various family and friends are so well drawn, and in another author's hands it could have felt crowded or confusing, but here it only adds to this wonderful story. The reader feels like we are there at the family vacation home along with everyone else, participating in the week of wedding festivities.

We root for Ren and Joni to figure out their relationship- should they make the leap from friends to lovers? Read and find out, you'll be rewarded. I recommend Friends to Lovers.

Thanks to Harlequin Books for putting me on the Summer 2025 Blog Tours.