3.5 stars.
This was a quick, easy read that I would recommend as a beach read or something not too complicated to read on your commute, for example.
Sadly it ended just as we were starting to see how Bea and Peter would be as more than 'Just Friends', which was slightly disappointing for me. When it comes to friends to lovers stories, this is what you're waiting on the whole way through and the pay off didn't live up to my expectations with this book. It was all rather anti-climactic.
As I finished this I also realised that not a great deal had really happened throughout it, yet I had kept reading all the same.
I would be interested in reading more from Holly McCulloch in the future though.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Bea's, 'best friend' Sam dumped her, so she vowed to keep her male friends at a distance. Bea has remained single for many years, disillusioned with her life, stuck in the same job for 10 years, she makes a drunken New Years resolution to start dating, signing up
to dating site Tinder and attending speed dating groups, she begins her search for Mr Right.
Bea's good friend is Peter 'Oddly' Bodley, whom she met at University they have remained close friends. Peter, always seems to know what to say at the right moment, Peter, who is kind and reliable.
Does Bea begin to see Peter in a different light?
She now faces a dilemma, does she risk her friendship with him when she is not 100% of her feelings and will Peter feel the same way about her.

A well written, enjoyable story.
Thank you, Netgalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers and the Author Holly McCulloch for allowing me to review a pre-publication copy of the novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

I really enjoyed this book and read it one sitting,

The book follows Bea in a year of her life where we get to see a well-rounded view of her life. Following her friendships, career as well as her love life. Is was great to read a book where you are routing for the character in multiple aspects of her life, getting to know her really well as a character. Bea is a such a relatable character and I became so invested in her.

A really well written and addictive book.

Sadly this book didn't live up to the description. It sounded like it was going to be a really good read but in my opinion it was just a pretty mediocre book. Sorry, this one isn't for me

3.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I want to preface all my thoughts by saying that this book is a hard one for me to review. I finished it last night and am not really 100% sure how I feel about it. However, 3.5 stars is probably the fairest rating to give it.

Just Friends is an adult best friends to lovers story. Our main character is Bea, and she is not happy: she has been stuck in the same job for 10 years without any progress, her card side business has gone sort of stale, and to top it all off, she is single. In order to attempt to put her life back together and be happy again, Bea decides to start dating.

Peter is Bea's best friend, and has been by her side since University. Kind, reliable Peter who always seems to know what to say and where to be. In the midst of all of Bea's failures in the dating world, Peter is always there to save the day. So much so that Bea starts to see Peter not just as her odd best friend, but perhaps as something more? But how is Bea supposed to risk her friendship with him over something she doesn't even know she feels for sure?

I love a good old friends to lovers story. The realisation that that person that has been there for you throughout all your ups and downs is actually the person who you are meant to be with, the person who lights up your world, is a beautiful thing.

And so the reason I had a hard time rating this book was because for the first half of it, I absolutely did not care for Bea as a character. I was struggling with empathising with her and found her to be a really difficult character to love. However, as the story progresses, my feelings for Bea were put in the back-burner and I was able to really enjoy the evolving love story. Peter is an absolute sweetheart and his character saved the story for me and kept me interested in the overall development of it.

I do think Just Friends was a fast paced, enjoyable read all together, and as far as friends to lover stories go, it was incredibly sweet and heartwarming.

Feel-good & relaxing read -

This is a positive book with laugh out loud moments across Bea's work, relationship and family life. I really enjoyed it and would recommend to fans of Mhairi Macfarlane etc. The characters were relatable and despite being a common topic for books at the moment, this still added a new and refreshing take on the story.

The only negatives I would have is that it felt a bit predictable at points but overall it avoided the trap that this genre of novels can sometimes fall into and so was still a good, relaxing chill-out read.

Would recommend!

Exactly the sort of feel good, rom com sort of read I needed right now and it didn't disappoint. While some elements were sort of predictable, this didn't bother me too much and is more of an observation than a real critique. I feel like readers will find Bea to be a fun and relatable protagonist and root for her to get what she deserves.

After a stressful few weeks, this is just the book I needed to read! Lighthearted, contemporary chick lit with a few twists & turns thrown in. Our leading lady, the thirty-something Bea has been single for most of her adult life. Following early heartbreak when her best friend come boyfriend, Sam dumped her, she has vowed to remain “Just Friends” with her male chums ever since. So when she makes a drunken New Years resolution to start dating, she doesn’t even contemplate anything ever happening with her oldest friend, Peter ‘Oddly’ Bodley and instead heads onto Tinder, off to speed dating and into the arms of her extremely handsome boiler engineer. But friends, serendipity and crossed paths may have other plans. I loved this book, it’s warm and witty right up until the last sentence.

Bea is a fabulous main character, and her friends, family, colleagues and dates make a brilliant supporting cast, both for Bea within the realms of the story and for us as the reader. There’s no big surprises in this tale, and the ending is pretty obvious (although wonderfully written), but there are several mellow twists to enjoy before we reach the finale. Highly recommended for light, romantic summer reading, and Peter Bodley has definitely been added to the official Book Boyfriend list.

Thank you for the opportunity of reading this book. From the write-ups I read prior to starting this book I was filled with hope and anticipation. I like the idea of a blossoming relationship between friends. However, the book was slow and predictable. I loved the characters but nothing much happened to them. I struggled to keep reading the book waiting for something to happen. There was a glimpse around 70% into the book but only to be let down again. Great concept but execution was lacking.

This was a fun, light hearted read. It was well written and had relatable characters. It was a pleasant read overall.

I needed to read something light hearted and witty to take my mind off the events happening in the world at the moment. So I was very pleased to receive Holly McCulloch's debut novel Just Friends as an ARC from Netgalley and Random House (Transworld Publishers).

We begin at New Years Eve where Bea is maid of honour at her best friend's wedding. Its here she realises that she is a single woman in her 30's and is dissatisfied with her current job and life in general. Bea is fortunate that she has a very strong support system of family and friends, one of which is Peter who she has been friends with since university days. We quickly discover that Peter goes out of his way to support Bea and helps with whatever she needs. Her friends see it's obvious that Peter loves Bea but she doesn't seem to see him as more than a just a friend.

It did take me a few chapters to get a feel for the characters, story and authors style of writing but once I did I couldn't put it down. I enjoyed following Bea on her hilarious journey of finding what makes her happy and what she really wants to do with her life. We are all guilty of not seeing what is right under our noses the whole time. My only criticism of the book would be that the ending was a little rushed and seemed to end a bit abruptly. That said I would read this author again and would recommend this book. 4 stars

I liked the concept and the writing however I wasn't completely sold on the main characters and their relationship. It was a nice novel and I'll be happy to read more from this author.

Just Friends is a light and easy friends-to-lovers story that proves true love is sometimes right in front of us.

Bea is a relatable character. She is the definition of a people pleaser, and although she wants to be happy, she’s far from it. As a 30-something, single woman, Bea is still trying to find her place in life. Sometimes she says the wrong thing, sometimes she makes mistakes or gets the wrong end of the stick and I liked that she wasn’t perfect.

But I felt so sorry for Peter! He was described as an ‘oddball’ but I don’t think he did anything that was particularly strange. And I don’t think the inability to dance makes someone odd. To me, he was quite charming and sweet – I actually liked him more than Bea. And the poor man was stuck in the friend zone, the most brutal place a person can be.

It took a while to get started and I really wanted to skim from the first few chapters. I constantly felt like I was waiting for a big moment, or for the chapters to really take off. The plot was lacking, and drifted between secondary storylines, a lot of the time I felt the focus on the romance was stolen by other aspects of Bea’s life. There were a few parts that I felt didn’t add to the book, and those pages could have been used to include more humorous dating adventures or loving moments between the protagonists.

The friendly dynamic between Bea and Peter wasn’t well established so I struggled to pick up on any chemistry between the two. The romance wasn’t intense enough for a dreamy relationship to mature. There could have been more groundwork on the friendship before feelings developed to make the pair seem more compatible. Bea seemed to dread his company more than she liked it, so I didn’t long for them to finally fall for each other. When it comes to friends-to-lovers stories, I like to root for the main couple from the start, but I didn’t get that with Bea and Peter.

I also found it anti-climactic which was disappointing.

I was reluctant to give up on Just Friends because I loved the premise, but even 80% of the way through, I wasn’t feeling the story. It was a relaxed and comfortable read, but not the book for me.

Story

In a strange twist of fate, found myself reading more contemporary novels during the Great Plague. The provided me with some sort of comfort in the hopes that life would return to normal. Just Friends was one of the books I read during lockdown, and I found myself enjoying it. 

The story was a bit wonky in my opinion, and the large time jumps sometimes confused me. For a story about friends to lovers, I felt like there wasn't enough interaction between the main character and her friend/love interest. Most of the story happened in the last 20% of the book, and the rest of the book felt like a regular slice of life story. 

During the circumstances which I read the book, I actually enjoyed the slice of life, but under normal circumstances, it would have been a bit boring. 

Writing

The writing was standard and had a nice flow to it, which made the book easy to read and follow. McCulloch has a simple yet elegant style that had me reading way past my bedtime. 

Characters

I have to admit that Bea annoyed me in the first half of the book. It seemed like her happiness depended too much on other people, and I'm glad she overcomes that by the end of the story. Peter was just a sweet cinnamon roll of a character and I loved every moment he appeared on the page. 

All in all, this was a quick, fun read that fans of the friends to lovers trope would enjoy.

I couldn't get on with this one. I'm not sure if it's the writing or the general story, but me and Just Friends didn't click.
I wasn't overly fond of the protagonist, Bea, and I felt a little disconnected with the plot and where it was going I just stopped caring so I didn't finish the book.
Peter was okay but I didn't find him particularly interesting or stand out.

Also the layout and format of the book was offputting that that's most likely because it's an ARC.

I did like this book and towards the end I found myself racing to find out what happens.

However, I feel it really picked up towards the second half of the book. I would have liked to have seen more of Peter and Bea's relationship in the first half. Establish them as firm friends as it felt like their close friendship was emphasised much more in the second half of the book.

Also - just a note I'm not sure whether it was just something that went wrong with my copy/kindle but I did find the format very odd. I know it's a early text for review but there were a lot of broken sentences etc where lines stopped mid sentence and started again below etc.

I received an ARC of this book a couple of days ago and haven't put it down since. It's just what I needed in this uncertain and scary times - witty, comforting and heartfelt without being schmaltzy.

I found Bea very relatable - I think we all go through spells (or, entire years in my case) where we don't know what we're doing, what we want or who we want it with. I found all the characters really well-written, fleshed out and easy to visualise; I could easily see this being made into a rom-com series and I would be HERE FOR IT.

It's easy to do this sort of trope wrong, as the "friends to more" storyline has been doing so many times - but in this case I thought it was a really strong debut by Holly McCulloch, I really enjoyed it and I thoroughly look forward to reading more of her work!

‘Just Friends’ is Holly McCulloch’s incredible debut novel. Bea is sort of coasting through life whilst everyone around her is starting to get married and start families. We follow her disastrous forays into online dating, her attempts at taking yoga and attending that dreaded university reunion. The novel starts at her best friend Mia’s wedding where Bea ends up hiding in the background with her long time friend Peter, getting drunk enough to end up sobbing and wondering why she can’t find love. We follow these three friends as they cope with the challenges of growing up and moving on.
I adored this book, couldn’t put it down for a moment. Not since Bridget Jones have I loved a female protagonist so much. Bea was a mess and I wanted to be her best friend, I completely related to her and she felt so real. Although Bea went through some rough times that really affected her mood the overall tone of the narrative was lighthearted, casual and fun which made it so easy to keep turning the page. Humour is so subjective but it really worked well for me in this novel.
I hope this isn’t the last time we see these characters as I’m not ready to part with them and I’m dying to know what happens next!

Just Friends describes the friendship between Bea and Peter, who are there for each other whenever it’s needed.
Bea pretends to be happy most of the time for other’s sake and likes to help in any circumstances. But she soon realises that she forgot how to be happy herself because she hasn’t dated someone in a long time. This is when she decides to start seeing someone again and life her life. All along, Peter is there seeing women himself and trying to make it work, but he appears to not find the one either.
After a while, Bea realises that she may “fancy” Peter, but she doesn’t know how to manage those new feelings because she risks to lose her friend.
This book was a very quick read, the chapters were very short and there was no sexual tension between the main characters until the very last pages. There is no clue at the beginning that they may have hidden feelings for each other, and they treat each other as just friends, which makes the story not very interesting. The book ends too suddenly.
Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

I received a free digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own and given freely.

First i have to say that friends to lovers isnt my usual choice for romance i find the unbelievable ad lacking something undefineable... However i really liked the sound of this one.

I enioyed the character although I wasnt a fan of the constant downer internal monologue... I know why she thinks this stuff to herself however it all becomes a little unbelievable when she cant even give herself a small confience boost about anything at all.

I loved Mia's straight talk/bluntness and it sucka that she qent back to simpering so easily for someone who is supposedly very blunt...

I really liked Peter's character but sadly we didn't see a whole lot of him, which sucks, i would have liked to explore their dynamic more and see more of their interactions.

For me there waa sadly too much blabbering internal monologue and not a whole lot else... And the book was too long for the very abrupt ending, yes i got the happy ending but it seemed very rushed compared to the rest of the book.