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pagesplotsandpints 's review for:
The Friend Zone
by Abby Jimenez
Read Completed 5/28/23 | 4.25 - 4.5 stars
I actually tried reading this book years ago and was so turned off by the beginning (something that didn't bother me this time around) that I didn't pick up another Abby Jimenez book until this year. I'm actually thankful for that because I think if I had read all of her books (well, the ones that were available at the time), that I wouldn't have appreciated them as much. I started a little backwards with PART OF YOUR WORLD and then YOURS TRULY and *almost* started THE HAPPY EVER AFTER PLAYLIST but thankfully, I didn't and came back to THE FRIEND ZONE. (Side note: Don't even *look* at THE HAPPY EVER AFTER PLAYLIST unless you've read this book. Major spoilers for something here.)
SO. I breezed into THE FRIEND ZONE after floating on a cloud of loving the other two Abby Jimenez books. I really love these two audiobook narrators and I was so happy to be reading this one and enjoying it so much more! I adored the chemistry and I just really love Abby Jimenez's writing style. There's so much cuteness and fun falling in love story but also some incredible emotion and real life struggles. (Check trigger warnings if you need to!)
This book also hit close to home in many ways, one of which I was not expecting. Something that happened to someone in this book happened to a friend of my husband's almost exactly that it was a very emotional scene for me, and I wasn't expecting that to happen out of nowhere! The rest of the book was a big experience for me as well and I really liked seeing it through the eyes of these two characters.
There were a couple things I didn't love. The refusal of communication was a little frustrating at times, and it took a long time for Kristen to share some important things with Josh. I truly get it, but as a book, it got a little frustrating that it took SO long. There was also maybe a bit TOO much of a happy ending that I don't think needed to be there... At least not in this book. Maybe to pop up in a future book. The author's note said she pulled that chain of events directly from the experiences of one of her friends, which is wonderful, but not altogether likely. It's difficult... you want the characters (and anyone going through that experience) to get their happy ending like that but sometimes it's a little *too* perfect and makes it feel not realistic and undoes some of the representation and normalization of what half the book was about.
This makes it hard to rate because I LOVED the feeling of everything else. I didn't want to stop reading this book and absolutely inhaled it. I wish those two minor but major points had been a little bit different for my own selfish reasons so I could give this five stars, but any time I have issues with a plot point, I don't usually do that. Abby Jimenez did make me cry, however (twice), so there was just a ton of connection here.
I actually tried reading this book years ago and was so turned off by the beginning (something that didn't bother me this time around) that I didn't pick up another Abby Jimenez book until this year. I'm actually thankful for that because I think if I had read all of her books (well, the ones that were available at the time), that I wouldn't have appreciated them as much. I started a little backwards with PART OF YOUR WORLD and then YOURS TRULY and *almost* started THE HAPPY EVER AFTER PLAYLIST but thankfully, I didn't and came back to THE FRIEND ZONE. (Side note: Don't even *look* at THE HAPPY EVER AFTER PLAYLIST unless you've read this book. Major spoilers for something here.)
SO. I breezed into THE FRIEND ZONE after floating on a cloud of loving the other two Abby Jimenez books. I really love these two audiobook narrators and I was so happy to be reading this one and enjoying it so much more! I adored the chemistry and I just really love Abby Jimenez's writing style. There's so much cuteness and fun falling in love story but also some incredible emotion and real life struggles. (Check trigger warnings if you need to!)
This book also hit close to home in many ways, one of which I was not expecting. Something that happened to someone in this book happened to a friend of my husband's almost exactly that it was a very emotional scene for me, and I wasn't expecting that to happen out of nowhere! The rest of the book was a big experience for me as well and I really liked seeing it through the eyes of these two characters.
There were a couple things I didn't love. The refusal of communication was a little frustrating at times, and it took a long time for Kristen to share some important things with Josh. I truly get it, but as a book, it got a little frustrating that it took SO long. There was also maybe a bit TOO much of a happy ending that I don't think needed to be there... At least not in this book. Maybe to pop up in a future book. The author's note said she pulled that chain of events directly from the experiences of one of her friends, which is wonderful, but not altogether likely. It's difficult... you want the characters (and anyone going through that experience) to get their happy ending like that but sometimes it's a little *too* perfect and makes it feel not realistic and undoes some of the representation and normalization of what half the book was about.
This makes it hard to rate because I LOVED the feeling of everything else. I didn't want to stop reading this book and absolutely inhaled it. I wish those two minor but major points had been a little bit different for my own selfish reasons so I could give this five stars, but any time I have issues with a plot point, I don't usually do that. Abby Jimenez did make me cry, however (twice), so there was just a ton of connection here.