2.5 stars.
A romantic story featuring two almost perfect people who go from friends to torrid lovers. The wounded hero first avoids, than much later on accepts his impending disability and prepares himself for it, a dimension I liked. The romantic couple is fiercely in love and devoted to each other – another aspect I enjoyed.
I didn’t enjoy the author’s writing style, with lots of descriptions of the character’s external and internal beauty/perfection and mutual praises. I found the talk about emotions and feelings repetitious and boring, the story dragged a lot and could have been written in much less pages. There’s a melodramatic tone which really isn’t my favorite.
The take on the corporate world seemed a bit off, but I really didn’t care for it.
There’s a disabled character in the story that tends to be super-efficient, but her disability felt sometimes a bit vague.

I think that this story was cute but the majority of the book is all sex. Sex is fine in a book, I just felt it was but much. I didn’t like the POV changes, I personally prefer one point of view when I’m reading a book.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this book in exchange for my honest review.

Lucas and Elodie are fast friends, but there is definitely some more-than-friendly chemistry between them. The trouble is, the very British Lucas doesn't feel that he should start a relationship when he has an awful medical diagnosis hanging over his head. But Elodie, with her lovely French accent and charming ways, wins him over. Can their relationship survive for better or for worse?

This book had interesting characters and a few moments of delightful literary banter; however, if you removed all the sex scenes in the book,you would probably lose about a third of the chapters. Subtract also the constant references to Elodie's round rear end and various people ogling it and you could remove half the word count. Although I enjoyed the characters, the sheer volume of bedroom scenes felt gratuitous.

This was so cute and I was pleased with it all the way through. I enjoyed how well the author wrote about struggling with a disability. I found it very realistic and i loved that something like this is being featured in a romance novel. There were some minor issues, such as we as the readers were kept in the dark for such a long time but it did add to the story. I do think it focused quite heavily on Lucas and while I understand why I still wish we had a bit more Elodie.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥☄

What's not to love about an inclusive book that talks about disability accurately and also has more Harry Potter references than you can count? I loved everything about this book and I found so many quotes resonated deep in my soul. Of course Chloe Liese is a literary genius and I neeeeed her next book asap. She has quickly moved onto my top author list and has also found herself on my auto buy author list. If you haven't read one of her books, what are you waiting for?

Strictly friends is one of those emotional, but steamy romances that will immediately draw you in. I made the mistake of starting this one at bedtime and I don't regret staying up until 3am to finish it. I had to keep reading to find out what happened to both Lucas and Elodie because I wasn't going to be able to sleep without knowing how their story ended.

While I always go into Chloe's books knowing they pack an emotional punch, I wasn't ready for how emotional and heartwarming this one was. While Lucas gets some devastating news at the beginning (you won't find out until a ways in), you'll still keep rooting for them to find their way to each other. The sexual tension drips of the pages as they try to remain strictly friends, but the heart wants what the heart wants. As they try to navigate a new relationship while adapting to a new disability you will fall for them both a bit more. This was such an exceptional read that you should head over to Amazon to preorder your own copy now. You definitely won't want to wait a second longer to get this one.

Three things I loved about this book:

1. This love story is told from both POVs. So often we get the POV of the female and seldom get the male perspective, so this was such a welcomed change of pace.

2. I LOVED how this book was mindful of both partners and didn't negate either person's feelings. Both characters had personal growth and it was nice to see a couple do the work required to grow together instead of growing apart.

3. This book acknowledges the fact that toxic people are toxic people and you are better off without them regardless of their relationship to you. I personally found this very relatable and this part may have caused me to shed a tear or two.

I can't wait for the second spinoff! Such a great epilogue that made all my dreams come true (well dreams pertaining to her next book 😂). Thank you Chloe for a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and a positive review was not required.

*4.5 stars rounded up to 5*

I would like to thank the publishers for providing a free copy of this book through NetGalley.

They’re Strictly Friends is a mature (steamy), contemporary romance about two friends becoming more than that in the face of the harsh reality of disabilities. My expectations for this book were of a funny romance so I was completely surprised by how emotional this book really was and made me feel.

I was instantly pulled into the story. It was fast-paced and there was never a dull moment, especially between Elodie and Lucas… To say it without revealing any major spoilers, this book portrays well the difficulties of becoming disabled and everything that the person and their partner go through emotionally, physically and I have nothing but good things to say about the plot. Still, I will say that there are several issues that might be triggering for some.

Something I didn’t like, however, was that the characters were a bit stereotypical and flawless. Though I still really liked them, they are adorable!

Lucas and Elodie are so stereotypically British and French, respectively. From reading the synopsis, I almost think this was on purpose but I just didn’t like that. On several occasions, “typically” British/French things were mentioned and I wanted to roll my eyes.

Secondly, the way these characters were portrayed made it seem like they had “flaws” that barely bothered anyone, and certainly not each other. And everyone loved them…. Every single member of Lucas’ family is basically perfect too, by the way. It just doesn’t feel realistic…

The writing has overly detailed descriptions and was even a bit formal at times somehow, and that was something I personally didn’t enjoy, but overall it was not something that hindered my reading experience since I was so invested in the story.

Overall, this is a book I strongly recommend! It was funny, adorable, heartwarming and it just made me incredibly emotional (in a good way)! I could barely put it down!

*I requested and started this book without knowing it was a spin-off of another series. Although there were frequent references, I feel that I didn’t really miss out on anything important to this story and that this book can easily be read on its own.

A huge thanks to netgalley Connect for this wonderful ARC. This was my first Chloe Liese book and I enjoyed this story immensely. I am looking forward to more of her books in the future.
I loved Lucas and Elodie's story. Their banter and chemistry was awesome and so was their chemistry. I simply loved it and recommend all romance book lovers.
Happy reading!

They’re Strictly Friends, though deemed a standalone, is in essence a spinoff from Chloe Liese’s first ever series, Tough Love. This addition to the Tough Love world explores Lucas, Zed’s friend and old soccer teammate, and Elodie, Nairne’s oldest and best friend from her soccer days, as Lucas tries to put distance between Elodie and himself just as their love story wants to take off after receiving a bad prognosis from his doctor.
Throughout the beginning of the book I felt as though the entire premise of this book was that every character lie and keep the truth to themselves until the very end. Thankfully the withheld information between characters peters off. However, just as one issue was dealt with, another issue would crop up and the whole roller coaster of emotions and impending disaster would hover over the characters’ heads, making a reader dizzy by default.
I felt like this book was a little more plausible than reading Nairne and Zed’s love story, even though Elodie and Lucas went through such dramatic and, oftentimes, over the top scenarios to have their happily ever after. I also felt like giving Lucas a medical issue was very symmetrical to giving Nairne a disability in her book. It seemed manufactured, as did a lot of the mushy, cliche romantic conversations that Elodie and Lucas had with each other. I didn’t understand, just like I didn’t understand from the Tough Love series books, the reasoning for the book taking place in 2003. I didn’t feel like it was a significant enough time period, and the author never explained in the book or outside of it, what 2003 means to the characters or herself.

I did enjoy Elodie’s business sense and her passion for her career, and her amazing self confidence in her person and body. Even though she has overcome a lot in her life, she still has the perseverance of self to push on and fight for what she wants. The same goes for Lucas; his accomplishments are vast and with time, he is able to better understand and begin to function in a world while orienting himself with his new limitations. The way his health issue was dealt with, the conversations had between characters about the ailment, was well written. I now understand more about this illness and the depth of will and strength it takes to love someone going through a powerful crisis.

I received an ARC from the author and publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first time reading anything Chloe Lises has written and I can honestly say I am not disappointed one bit! I am a huge book worm and love my rom-com books , I would say this story is more on the romance and love then the comedy side, but with that said I did find my self laughing out loud a few times.
I was hooked on this love story from the very beginning and found myself falling in love with the two main characters right away. Lucas and Elodie meet thru mutual friends and form a friendship but both have an immediate chemistry that neither have acted on that is until they both become godparents to same adorable boy. With each of them dealing with their own life crises they find away to come together and work thru them. This story deals with how a person can accept a life changing health diagnosis, finding their own independence along with learning to love someone enough to share it with. I love the fact that things didn't start easy for these two people and we are taken on their journey how they overcome all the obstacles in a realist way. This was truly a good read for me and I'm looking forward to reading more books from this author. Thank You so much for allowing me to read the ARC of this book.