I’m a sucker for a good romance that’s sports related. I’ve never read anything else from this author, but after this book I want to read them all. You will not be disappointed reading this book!

This is a new to me author. I love a good sports romance and wow did it deliver!.I so need to stalk Amazon for this authors other works.

This book had a lot of potential, it started out really strong and Sariah Wilson has some writing chops. There were moments that literally made me laugh out loud -- and more than one of those. But unfortunately those moments didn't outweigh the fact that I didn't feel the chemistry between Logan and Jess, the banter left much to be desired, and I felt like the feelings they developed for each other were TOLD to me not SHOWN to me. Which is disappointing because based on those laugh out loud moments I experienced, I think that if Ms. Wilson gave me more banter and spent more time showing these two interacting with each other (instead of giving us their feelings as internal monologues) - this could have been a smashing hit.

Ultimately, it was a DNF for me at 48%. I found myself skimming and bored and wishing for that ache in my heart that lets me know I'm connected to the characters and their love story. It's light and sweet and will likely appeal to many, but I think the storytelling in this just didn't work for me.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I have to say Sariah Wilson does it again. I'm in love with this book. Once I started I could not put it down. This book is about second chances. Even tho it is called The Friend Zone. It is more than that. It is about getting second chances of doing the right things. Making the right choices, taking responsibilities that could have dire consequences.
Logan is given an opportunity to go to college for free, finish his degree and play college football, but there are rules. Rules in place to make sure you stay accountable to the program. Jess is the football's Head Coach daughter. She is one of the rules, Don't Date Her.
Jess tutor's Logan in math, Jess has a crush on one of the other Math tutors. Logan decides to help her get a date with this other guy. Even though he feels some kind of connection with her, he decides he can not break the Coach's rule. From there the adventure begins for Logan and Jess. You really get to see how each other thinks and how unsure of what to do next.
If you have read any of Sariah Wilson books, you will see she takes you on adventure and doesn't disappoint in the very end of the book. Can't wait until her next books comes out!

Logan and Jess meet when he shows up to his last chance at college to aim big in his life. There is just something about Jessica that he is intrigued about. But this last chance, at this college, there are rules, including no dating, no sex, no drugs, no cursing, no typical college fun stuff, the coach has forbidden it, and he is serious. Also, Jess is the coach's daughter, and she is definitely forbidden.

Logan didn't have the greatest childhood, he wants to make his life better, he doesn't like to be dirty, live dirty, he has alot of anger but starts to channel the calm because he knows if he does anything wrong, his future to a better life is gone! Your heart will break for him and learning about his childhood. You just want the all the best for this guy, because he is a stand up guy, honest, sweet and absolutely in love with Jess.

Their story goes into the whole tutor/student aspect, but they become friends. She also has a crush on someone else, and Logan wants to help her but during the process, they start to fall for each other, and Jess knowing how hard Logan needs to succeed while being in this college, she doesn't want to be reason he loses everything by dating her or loving her. Their chemistry, their touches, their gazes sizzlin....They are fighting it, and it was fantastic to read. While there is no sex, you don't miss it in this book, while it would've been HOT to read since their amazing chemistry is there, I didn't miss it. I'm hoping Keilani and Ford gets their book!!!! Definitely recommend.

This was my first book by this author and I really enjoyed it. It was a sweet college romance! Plus, I laughed a lot while reading it. But there are also a lot of serious issues addressed in the book too!

I think readers will enjoy the complexity to this book.

Logan Hunt was on the perfect path to having his dreams come true, playing his best football, on route to gaining a bid to the NFL... then it was all gone. One little bar fight, and he was kicked off the team, lost his scholarship, and was well on his way to becoming a blue collar worker. But someone saw his potential and decided to offer him the second chance of a lifetime, but this new opportunity came with lots of rules.

And he was determined to follow everyone of his new coaches rules.... that is until he met and fell for the coaches daughter!

The Friend Zone is a sweet and swoony story of second chances and young love. I really enjoyed this one, it's feisty heroine and smooth operating alpha captured my attention from the very first page, and held it tightly until the last. As much as these two tried to pretend that they were just friends, the harder their underlying feelings fought to get them to open their eyes and see what was in front of them. Nothing squeezes the heart quite like first loves, and this story had many moments that had my heart feeling like it was in a vise. There was tenderness, passion, humor, pain, and lots of love between the pages of this one, and two perfectly drawn characters to make you believe every word of it. And I can't wholeheartedly say that they did their job, I walked away with a happy, full heart. If you are a fan of new adult romances, with a sports twist, then I have a feeling you will really enjoy this one. Highly recommend!

I requested an advanced copy of this title from NetGalley, and I am leaving my honest and unbiased opinion.

Hero-⭐⭐⭐⭐
Heroine- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story-⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Romance- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Friendship⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall-⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I must start by saying that i am very lucky to get an arc of this wonderful college sports romance book by the talented sariah wilson. Its not my first sariah wilson book so when saw that she was releasing a new book with a sports romance context i was naturally hooked.
This story focuses on the romance between a disgraced college athlete logan and the coach's daughter jess. They met when jess was tasked to pick up logan and his teammate and take them to the EOL college they were assigned to. Logan was a bit attracted to jess from the start and when he later find out that she is coach's daughter she was friendzoned by him. It also did not helped that coach has a set of strict rules about no drinking ,no partying , no fighting in addiction to no dating policies. A bit harsh i know. Since logan already lost once due to a bar fight so he has no plans to follow through his attraction to jess whatsoever. But our miss wilson had other plans so jess and logan gradually became friends and jess started to tutor him in math to help his grades up. What follows is a wonderful story of friendship and budding romance . The chemistry was on spot and the father/ coach was a bit harsh. This book also has mentions of spiked drink at parties which is definately is a serious issue.

"Nobody deserved to be treated like that. Nobody."
I totally agree. And thats the reason why the story of logan and jess began with them being strictly friends.
I love sariah wilson and everything that she writes but it was a delightful book no questions asked.
I will definate buy this book and i recommend it whole heartedly.

4.5 stars
"You should dress how you want, and no guy should tell you differently"
Game of thrones and Harry Potter references who wouldn't love this book!
This book is not your typical boy meets girl. Logan had a hard upbringing, one, he decided he would never return to. Luckily, Logan gets a second chance to go to school and play college football. To get his dream Logan has to follow his coach's rules. Don't drink, don't do drugs, don't date and definitely don't go near the coach's daughter Jess.
Logan has full intentions of following the rules. They can be friends though right??

I haven't read any of this author's books and I hadn't heard about this book until the publisher emailed me and this book was included in the email! The cover and synopsis intrigued me, so I downloaded a copy and read it as soon as I could! After reading this book, I have to say that I enjoyed it a lot! The plot developed at a nice pace and it kept me interested and wanting to find out what was going to happen next! I loved the direction that the author took the plot in as well! I mean, it was kinda easy to work out what was going to happen next, but I was so invested in the main characters relationship that I didn't care lol! There was also plenty of romance in the plot and a few hot scenes between the two main characters! The characters were also amazing and made this book even better! Jess was the main female character, and in this book she worked hard and she had her head on straight! Jess had also been through a horrible situation and this made me feel so sorry for her, but Jess was a strong character that had come a long way! I also connected with her in this book and found her to be a very likeable character! I loved the way she was with her love interest too and it was beautiful to see her feelings for him grow! Logan was the main male character and love interest of Jess! I loved Logan a lot in this book! I actually thought that he was going to maybe be a bit of an ass or quite big-headed, but he wasn't at all! Logan was also seriously hot too and he had been through a lot in his childhood! This meant that he worked hard in this book to make sure that he did something with his life! This made me have a lot of respect for him! I loved the way that Logan was with Jess too and it was easy to see how much he loved her! I loved that this book was written from both Jess and Logan's point of views! I wasn't sure if it was going to be before I started reading as the synopsis gives the impression that it's only going to be written from the male character's point of view, so I was really happy when I started reading and discovered that it was written from dual point of view! It helped me connect and understand Jess and Logan more and it allowed for a few more things to happen in the plot, especially as they didn't spend every minute of the plot together and had their own goals! I can also completely understand why this book is a standalone! I'm really sad that it is because I would love to read more on Jess and Logan, but the ending was left at the perfect place and was very beautiful! I now can't wait to read more books from this author! I know that she has quite a few released, so I can't wait to give some of them a read! The cover for this book is also absolutely perfect for it! I love it a lot and it would definitely draw me to the book! It suits the feel of the book too and the cover model is the perfect Logan! Big thank you to Sariah, Montlake Romance and Netgalley for an ARC of The Friend Zone!

Ms. Wilson is one of the few authors that I will request/buy without hesitation when a new book comes out. That's partly why it's taken me so long to sit down and actually write a review for The Friend Zone. I imagine authors read some (if not all?) of the reviews from the ARCs their publisher gives out, so I'm cringing thinking about what I'm going to say, but I hope Ms. Wilson understands my still-standing admiration when I start by saying "You've done better."
The plot should be 5 Star - forbidden romance because the new recruit to the football team isn't allowed to date the coach's daughter. My problem is the characters and execution of the plot. First off, as the reader, I'm not really sure why this unbreakable rule is an issue because I didn't feel any real chemistry between the two main characters. They're good looking. She doesn't seem to give him any interest - which of course interests him more. She knows he's got a not-so-awesome past. Uh... so? Other than the obvious physical attraction they have to each other, they do really hit it off right away, but, I don't know... it always seemed more like friends than really a lover vibe to me. The flirting was cute, but it just fell a little flat in terms of me really believing it. I wasn't grossly invested, I wasn't unable to stop from turning the page.
In fact, the execution of the plot kind of dragged on. Obviously this is the kind of book where you know what's going to happen before you read page 1, I don't mind that. But too early on, I found myself like "let's get on with it." It felt repetitively slow and yet rushed at the same time. Honestly, had it been almost any other auhor, I would have DNF'd it. (After all, I know where the plot is going before page 1...) I'm not really sure what about it led me to feel this way. The dual POV? The fast paced, instalove? The sheer predictability of the overall plot? The fact that it felt like neither of them was really "fighting" their attractions to each other even though they claim to be? It's obviously a slow burn type plot - which I typically LOVE - but this one seemed to be the end of the bonfire when you're wondering if it's going to relight itself or just burn out.
Overall, this is still a fun, cute story about growth and love. It's clean, it's sweet, and I would definitely recommend it to my girlfriends or my students. It reads a little YA even though it's set in college, but honestly what even is YA/NA anymore? You should give it a try; I do believe that. I also refuse to give this lower than 4 stars because I think Ms. Wilson has a true talent, and just because aspects of this particular work didn't work out super well for me, I will still be impulsively requesting her future works. It does deal a little bit with the aftermath of a sexual attack, child abuse, and coping with a dying parent, but that is absolutely not the plot. (Dare I say more like a plot device, even? You judge that.) Also, I couldn't picture anyone but Tim Riggins as Logan, and I need someone else to be stuck with that wonderful image as well. You're welcome.

This was a fun and cute story. It didn't go where I expected it to do bonus points for keeping me guessing. I would love to read more by this author. She has a unique voice.

4 Stars

I enjoyed this story. It was a good read that tackled some serious issues. I thought the main characters were likeable (mostly) and the secondary characters had prominent stories as well which I always feel helps to shape the story. I would recommend this one.

DNF

I would like to thank netgalley and Montlake Romance for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I'm usually a fan of this authors work, but the main character not being bothered to say a character of colours name because she couldn't pronounce it, turned me off this book.

The Friend Zone by Sariah Wilson a five-star read that you will want to win all of the zones of. This was a great story filled with characters that you will adore, it will make you chuckle, and it will make you want to punch some people as well, mainly a football team, but a girl can have dreams can’t she. Logan Hunt starts as one man and ends as another, I’m not saying I would kick either out of bed for eating crisps, but I would definitely prefer the second version. Jess is sublime and I can honestly say I would even take math again just so she could tutor me (I may have a girl crush as she was so well written and such a great woman). Being just friends sucks, but sometimes you need to try and do what’s for the best for everyone, but what happens when that doesn’t agree with what you need. This story will show you in the best possible way.

This was a sweet book, if a bit juvenile. It skewed YA but the hero and heroine we're pretty adorable. I liked their relationship development.

I absolutely adored The Friend Zone. Logan and Jess have already had some hardships in their short lives, which makes them relate to one another on a level no one else has before. However, Jess' father's very strict rules stop them from moving past friendship, no matter how much they might want to. The Friend Zone was equally funny and moving and had the romance tropes we love but with a twist that made it fresh and exciting. I highly recommend it.

The story was cute and I liked the characters. Just wish it would have moved along faster, as I never really understood what she liked in Ben, and I would have liked to see him not help so much once he knew he liked her.

**I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.**
This book was adorable. It’s odd to say that when there are serious issues from the past for both main characters. Logan comes from a home full of serious neglect and his anger has already gotten him kicked out of one college. EOL is his last chance to play football and finish college.
Jess is the coach’s daughter and had a horrific experience in her first college that resulted in her dad losing his job.
The coach has a lot of rules for his team and he’s very serious about them. Logan and Jess become friends but both start to feel more.
I loved the banter and the playfulness of Logan and Jess’s relationship. I really appreciated that these two were smart kids faced with tough decisions. They were able to talk about things instead of running away or causing unnecessary drama. I’m not sure that Danielle was necessary but some of Jess’ comments about her are hysterical.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It’s well written and a really solid story.

Thank you Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This was actually pretty good. Logan gets an opportunity to play college football and falls in love with the coach's daughter who is assigned as his math tutor. He cant really date her since her dad forbids it but they find a way to stay friends. Eventually they fall for each other. Both have incredible chemistry and get to know each other organically without all the heavy sexual scenes. This is a clean romance and worth the read