We're Just Friends

This is the first book in the Big Fat Lie Series and is a great start. This was a great book and once I started reading I couldn't put it down. A friend to lovers romance that will get your juices flowing. Jake was Juliana'a best friend in high school and protected her from the bullies. They reconnected as she was divorcing her awful husband. The attraction is strong but she guards her heart as she knows that Jake has always been a playboy. Drama and emotions are strong as he his extensive business in another town. Is a second chance for them in the cards for them or does he go back to his business and his playboy ways. I enjoyed this book and found it to be a good read. The characters were likable and Juliana's seven year old daugther won everyone's heart, especially Jake. I read an arc and voluntarily chose to write a review.<br />

I liked Juliana and Jake but I despised Cam because I hate cheaters. This one deals with Juliana and Cam getting through a divorce. You have been warned. It was a good story, I like this author's work.<br /><br />I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Just not for me. To be honest, I had a hard time getting past the first 15% of this book. There was so much, in my opinion, meaningless, build up In the beginning that just made me not want to read. And then Jake’s attitude towards Julianna at the end just wasn’t redeemable to me.

I liked Jake &amp; Juliana's story. Good characters. This was a bit of an emotional book. I received a free copy of the book. And am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

KU*<br /><br />Possible Spoilers:<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I was intrigued with the synopsis I couldn’t wait to read this book, but, unfortunately, it fell flat for me.<br /><br />To start off, I really really didn’t like Jake; it’s one thing to be womanizer or lover of woman it’s another thing, being a total a**hole. Now if you skip him being a jerk womanizer before re-connecting with Julianna, how about when he does; he finds out she’s married and still plans to find a way to date her I’m sorry I mean “hang out” with her.<br /><br />Now for Julianna, at first I was loving the single mom who was handling a terrible situation, but geez she turned dramatic throughout the book. Not to mention she implies to Jake that she is happily married then proceeds to get drunk and flirt with him and then finally reveals her true martial status.<br /><br />There was just so much I couldn’t tolerate from this book I was so disappointed from the dramatic responses, to the derogatory comments, to the consistent brand name drop of every piece of clothes they wore and cars they drove (in case you are wondering they only wore Gucci, Prada, Armani, Louboutins, Aston Martin, etc). The immaturity of the main characters was annoying and to be honest the synopsis doesn’t match much in the book.<br /><br />They decide to have a fling then they decide to date then when it’s time for him to go back to work they say it was just a fling (a fling that lasted 6 months and involved her daughter, Caley). Another thing was Jake’s company, he has been working remotely the entire time, but now his employees were telling him it was time for him to come back; in what world does the employees tell the owner when it’s time for him to come home (and start hanging out with San Diego people), he could just fly in take care of business and come back to River Valley, but apparently that wasn’t a realistic option. Then we have Julianna who hears he has to go back and has an emotional breakdown and starts crying her heart without giving him a chance to make plans.<br /><br />Remember I said Julianna becomes dramatic well what I mentioned above is just one instance another is when she wakes up alone after Jake stays over and she can’t find her daughter. Now this is normal you can’t find your kid you worry, but her main basis for worrying is when Cam, her ex-husband, never used to come home; so was she afraid the man who dropped his daughter the minute he dropped Julianna was suddenly going to come into the home and steal her? How did we jump from deadbeat cheating husband/dad who doesn’t even call his daughter to him kidnapping her?<br /><br />There was just too much nonsense to actually see the romance: he acted like a h*rny frat bro who never grew up and she acts like an over dramatic person who doesn’t even try to make things work.<br /><br />The next book will be on Annie, Julianna’s sister and Richard, Jake’s older brother; Annie was the only person who I liked in the book, Richard sounded like an older womanizer with lots of old man tendencies.

Before I tell you about this story let me tell you about J.P. Comeau Romantic stories. These stories are well written. I loved the way they are tied to together. In this case it is the sisters marrying brothers and best friend marrying a young man who happens to work for the company and they consider a best friend. I wanted to read this story so badly, that I stopped reading my ARC book to read this book. I love the way J.P. involves sex in the books but they aren't outrageous or way over the top. I don't mind reading her book because I know that it will have a different plot but in the end she will leave me in a good place. Big props to you J.P, keep writing.<br />Now about We're Just Pretending. I don't know if Gavin and Crystal were just pretending but they gave it a good try. I believe that Gavin and Crystal were two lonely people that just happened to be part of the Truman brood in one way or the other. <br />Gavin Tillery grew up in Massachusetts. He was a child prodigy, a nerd. Mother died of cancer when he was young and father died of a heart attack when he was away at college. Gavin went to college when he was 15 because he was a prodigy, so while his 18 year old classmates were out partying, Gavin was in the dorm room playing video games. We find out that Gavin had a love of flowers and plants he had a garden in the back of his mansion. He had strawberries and tomatoes and all sorts of plants and herbs and a flower garden. He went to work for the Trumans, Richard was Gavin's best friend and encouraged his father to hire him. River Valley became Gavin's home. He loved the quaint shops and boutiques. Crystal Hotchkiss was raised in River Valley. Her parents split when he was 4. Her mother had passed about 6 months ago with cancer. So these two meet when Gavin had just returned from Spain and he was late for a meeting with the Trumans and he was rushing and not paying as much attention as he should and hit Crystal's honda as she was backing up. His BMW hit her Honda but to make it worse for her, Gavin told her that he would buy Crystal a red Lamborghini sports car. She thought he was kidding so imagine her surprise when it shows up at her front door at the Yoga Studio owned by her best friend Annie where she works and lives. This was a really good story. I liked that it included the characters from both the other Big Fat Lie Books, Books one and two. <br />

Want to end with the things I liked most so starting with what I liked least. The first being we were like thirty-forty percent in before Jake even calls Juliana. This was dueling POVs and lives. Here I was worried about this poor single mom who had been an attentive wife who finds out her ex had been cheating on her for awhile. And he is now being a dead beat dad. But, when Juliana surprises me instead of her being all hurt and upset with Jake for abandoning her as a best friend and becoming a man whore for the world to see, no she falls into bed with him.<br /><br />Which leads me to point two, he at first believes she’s married but still is coming on to while she is drunk. But, when he asks her over to his brother’s guest house she says yes at one in the morning. Never once giving a second thought to her daughter who is with a teenager, until the morning. Speaking of sleeping, while she is sleeping sex, Juliana asleep in his arms, he sent a text Hilliard his friend. Only showing how low in his life he had fallen into darkness since they were kids. But, when he came over once by surprise Juliana it should have never happened again, knowing he was going back to San Diego. Her ex-Cam is a piece of work and why isn’t she pushing her lawyer? Just saying, and for sole custody to. <br /><br />Now, the good. It was so cool to see how Caley melted Jake’s heart instantly. Speaking of Caley her little character was a hoot you will love her. How she along with Juliana show Jake how to truly love something he didn’t get much of as a kid. So, when Richard was telling him to bite the bullet he kept fighting it. He ends up staying like three months and then the call from work comes saying boss we need you back. Annie Juliana’s sister is there to try and hold the pieces together.<br /><br />The relationship explodes and Juliana banishes him from their lives because once she accepts that it’s over she has to tell her daughter that another man she loves is walking out of her life. Especially, when she asked him when they would see him again and he had no response and wouldn’t look her in the eyes. Before you know it things turn around for the better and find a HEA. Found this on kindle unlimited.

Eek. This book is just not for me. Honestly, I feel really bad giving bad reviews but this book failed to interest me for so many reasons: <br />-cheesy/unrealistic/boring-ass dialogue <br />-Jake is not likable: a totally gross fuckboy, doesn't even redeem himself throughout the book, literally saying he'll find someone just like Juliana when he moves back to SD?<br />-The lack of respect for women in this book was appalling. The fact that Jake and his friends/father disrespect women to such a degree, especially when it comes to sleeping with them, not to say I'm a prude because I read a lot of books with "playboy" guys, but he felt so blase about it like it was one of his character traits<br />-The conflict was so dumb: Jake has to choose between work and Juliana... ugh. That's not how the world works. <br />-Everything having to do with Caley was so annoying. She was literally a plot device and only served to further cement the relationship between Jake and Juliana... <br />-There was hardly ANY build-up to Jake and Juliana hooking up. Just suddenly are making out? He didn't have to work for it at all. Her falling into him was literally predicted by his gross friend. <br /><br />I just found this book to waste my time. Sorry again for being so critical, this is just not my type of book. <br /><br />❤️ : 0/5<br />? : 2/5

Uneven pacing. The MC didn’t talk to each other until 30% and I didn’t see why the H suddenly thought of h to call her. Abrupt transitions like months would go by and suddenly they’re closer. A lot of cliches: flirty waitresses, women who just want money, except for the h of course. Jake was a 2 dimensional character, following the script of badboy billionaire without much depth. The hardest part was the writing put down women who wanted the H’s attention, some shaming there although the H had indulged in bad behavior with married women, multiple women, etc. Suddenly he looked down on them when he was through with it. His 2 closest guy friends and dad were misogynistic and he was too eager to please his dad. I never understood why it took Julianna’s lawyer so long to get back to her, just a plot device to keep her ex around and contrast him to the hero? With these second chance romances, I always wonder why they didn’t keep in touch even though they were best friends. There was no explanation for it. I think it’s possible to have a romance where women who flirt with the hero are not villainous. The 7yo daughter was written in a with dialogue that was kind of young for her age. <br /><br />I did like Julianna’s work in art gallery and her friendship with her sister. <br />

<p> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1630952014i/31886450._SX540_.jpg" alt="Rating and Review" width="355" height="64" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </p><br><b>Rating:</b> 3 Stars <br><br>Both the plot and characters felt underdeveloped to me, the timeline in respect to the FMC and MMC’s high school friendship is muddled, and the MMC himself was unimpressive. However, it was a quick and simple read, and I didn’t hate it. <br><br><p> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1630952014i/31886451._SX540_.jpg" alt="Book Details" width="355" height="64" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </p><br><b>Title:</b><a href="https://goodreads.com/search/search?q=%20We're%20Just%20Friends&lt;br%20/&gt;(Big%20Fat%20Lie%20#1)%20by%20J.P.%20Comeau" title=" We're Just Friends&lt;br /&gt;(Big Fat Lie #1) by J.P. Comeau" rel="noopener"> We're Just Friends<br>(Big Fat Lie #1) by J.P. Comeau</a><br><b>POV(s):</b> Dual—First Person <br><b>Interconnected Series:</b> Yes<br><b>Standalone:</b> Yes<br><b>Cliffhanger:</b> No<br><b>HEA:</b> <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="88a0372f-d482-4be7-b656-9df280761975" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="88a0372f-d482-4be7-b656-9df280761975">Yes</label><br><b>Relationship:</b> M/F<br><b>Genre(s):</b> Contemporary Romance <br><b>Triggers:</b> N/A<br><b>Tags/Tropes:</b> <br>❖ Divorced-FMC<br>❖ Former-Best-Friends<br>❖ Lost-Touch<br>❖ Playboy-MMC<br>❖ Rich-CEO-MMC<br>❖ Single-Mom<br>❖ Small-Town<br></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]></["br"]>