TITLE - Just Friends
AUTHOR - Monica Murphy
Synopsis:
It’s the end of summer. Just before I start senior year with my two best friends in the whole world. Dustin and Emily are everything to me. We’ve been inseparable since middle school, and when we’re together, nothing can go wrong.
But things aren’t always what they seem. Em’s turned into a drunken mess who parties too much. Dustin and I have hooked up a few times—and now he’s ready to take our relationship to the next level. Yet I’m not sure I want things to change. I’m scared if I take it any further with Dustin, our friendship will be ruined forever. Then there’s Ryan. The new guy. He’s hot. He flirts way too much. And Em has totally set her sights on him.
So when my best friend betrays me in the worst possible way, guess who’s there to help me pick up the pieces of my broken heart? Ryan. But he’s so confusing. Annoying. Sweet. Sexy. I want to trust him, yet he makes it so hard. What I really want is for everything to go back to the way it was before.
Before I found out that best friends make the worst kind of enemies.
Review:
Just Friends is a novel full of drama and scandal. If you love teenage angst and drama, this is the right book for you. There is plenty of he said she said miscommunications and backstabbing going on.
I liked this book, but I did not love it. I liked certain aspects, while I really disliked others. There is a cliffhanger at the end, which was shocking, but also frustrating. I wasn’t expecting it so I feel like the story is left undone when I was expecting satisfaction at the end.
The plot to this novel is a good one. It takes the teenage lifestyle to a whole new level. I am not used to authors not being afraid to really dive into what trouble teenagers get into. I really felt that this book had many realistic situations and characters. Monica did a wonderful job by making the reader feel as though they were right there with the characters and feeling the same emotions. I really enjoyed this aspect.
The characters are developed as well. The story is told from one point of view, Olivia’s. We get to see everything happening through her eyes and thoughts. This allows our views and opinions to be skewed as we don’t really know what is happening when she is not around. There are times I want to throttle Olivia. She can be annoying at times. I guess that makes it more realistic because teenagers can be annoying and make stupid mistakes. I guess what I didn’t like about this book was the fact that I felt that Olivia was one person in her thoughts and another person to others. While I know this happens with some teens, I felt it was not organic to her character.
The heat in this book is written very well. The scenes where heat is involved I felt were very organic. I could really see these teens getting themselves into these situations and making the decisions they made based on impulses. I really felt this was a throwback to when I was in school and going through similar situations. I think that this was the best part of the book.
In conclusion, I liked this book, but felt there could have been more. I feel like I really enjoyed the book for the most part, up until I got to the ending, which really irritated me. This is my personal opinion and preference and I really do think others will like it, but it just was not for me. This book contains sexual situations, lies, drama, backstabbing, betrayal, and heartbreak. If you love all of this, then go pick up Monica Murphy’s Just Friends!
Star Ratings:
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Heat: 5/5
Writing Style:4/5
Overall:3/5
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