This was a cleverly written, heart breaking and heartfelt coming of age story about friendship, grief, love, finding yourself, mental health.

This story starts of with the friendship of Deanna and Jen. Their friendship is turbulent and mostly consisting of work and partying. But when one day something bad happens to Deanna, Jen finds herself scattered and broken. After a week or two she meets Stephanie. Feeling guilty of finding a new friend so soon after Deanna's accident, Jen doesn't know what to do. She struggles to go on with her life, but Stephanie seems a great help in this. Jen discovers that there's no such thing as only being able to have just one friend and a wonderful friendship between Jen en Stephanie grows.

A story about friendship, grief, love, finding yourself, mental health. I loved how easily the story took every one of these topics and made it so easy to read about and understand how the MC was feeling. I enjoyed reading this, although I was shocked at first that in the first 100 pages a big sad thing happened, but I totally understand this was necessary for the story. Well done!

After a lifetime of feeling 'weird' Jen finally realizes she was actually queer all along.

Raised by a hard-working single mom, abandoned at birth by her father, mostly friendless at school, 17-year old Jen takes it very hard when her best/only friend dies. Yet losing Deanna becomes a catalyst. With help from an undemanding therapist, and gradual stretching of her self-imposed social limits, Jen works her way toward a relationship with her absentee father, and finds a new group of queer friends.

This novel feels very real and credible. Jen's inner musings and outer behavior will resonate with many teens, whether questioning or not. The small-town setting is one millions of readers can identify with. The surprise twist with her father and his new family is likely to be all too familiar to some.

A gentle, disarming trip through one teen's gradual awakening to her own queerness. Recommended

If you just read this book at a surface level, the story and all the characters will really draw you in. I loved how the author was able to pull the reader into the emotional roller coaster of the many characters while still making a great story about friendship and acceptance.
On a deeper level, this book delves into intolerance, the way the characters defined themselves in respect to LGBTQ terminology, and the way society treats anyone outside of "normal". I liked how the author showed that we all have a lot to understand about each other and we need to be more accepting and open rather than making assumptions from our own world view.
There is a lot of insight as opposed to action / adventure in the book but it is still entertaining.
Enjoy!

Not Just Friends is an emotional roller coaster young adult, self-discovery queer awakening story that will pull at your heart string. Jordan did a good job bringing this story to life.

Thank you NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books.

Jen hangs out with her friend from work, Deanna. Deanna is all about going to the parties, which Jen is not excited about due to the amount of alcohol and drugs around. Not to mention that Deanna usually gets together with a guy, leaving Jen alone. Jen doesn't drink, so she is Deanna's self appointment sober driver. Jen is trying to distance herself from getting dragged to these parties, so she decline's Deanna's invite. The next morning Jen finds out that something horrible happened to Deanna and she falls into depression.
Jen meets a student from her school, Stephanie, when she is at the park. The two began a friendship that helps both of them work through their problems and move towards the future.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thankyou so much net galley and Jordan for the arc of this wonderful read! This book took me on such an emotional rollercoaster that I wasn’t expecting at all! Jordan managed to cover so many topics and did everyone so well, coming of age, grief, absent parent, self discovery, religion and sexuality. Jen was such a complicated character from the first page and I couldn’t wait to read more and learn more about her, she had so many things going on that so many people her age can relate to but so many niche issues that were written so beautifully. There isn’t a lot of asexual rep out there and Jordan handled the discovery and the conversations afterward so well I felt so warm at the thought of someone not quite knowing who they are reading this book. I laughed, cried and my heart swelled reading this and getting to see the epilogue was my favourite part seeing Jen and Stephanie together and happy but Jen figuring out who she is and what she wants out of life was so comforting as a 20 something who still doesn’t really know what she wants.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🏳️‍🌈🧑‍🎨⛺👯📚

Not Just Friends is a novel about finding yourself, overcoming grief, and opening yourself up to saying no to things that make you uncomfortable. This book had me go through a roller coaster of emotions, and let's just say it's really hard no to cry when you're reading in public.

Jen doesn't have many friends. In fact, she only has one, and she is a older work friend who likes to party, drink, and hook up with boys. Jen goes along because she thinks she has to, and gives in to peer pressure in guessing boys even though she has no interest in it, only because it means spending more time with Deanna. Jen finally decides she is over feeling uncomfortable at parties she doesn't even drink at and says no to Deanna more. At the same time this is happening, her absent father wants to get in contact with her again after abandoning her and her mom when she was only three months old. Then tragedy strikes and Jen finds herself in a whirlwind of grief, guilt, and confusing feelings. Thank goodness Stephanie sat down next to her and looked at her sketches.

This friends-to-lovers, queer awakening, and self-discovery YA book will make you cry in the ways there is to cry. It's sad, it's beautiful and it's the book I wish I had when I was 17. I see so much of Jen in myself. Especially the way she realised how she was asexual and a lesbian. For a long time, I thought I was asexual too. The way she handled it and made sure her Mom realized it wasn't a phase was brave and the fact that Stephanie supported and loved her no matter what was so amazing.

Make sure you have the tissues ready,

This book was so well written and I'm definitely adding Jordan to my must-read author list.

Quite a quick read but I loved that I could see parts of myself and my life reflected in this book which I enjoyed. This is a book I wish I could’ve read when I was younger

The first ten chapters or so introduce Jen and her relatively unsatisfying life, which makes them slightly dull themselves. A lot of details "told" that do not move the story forward and maybe could have been "shown" in a less intrusive way.

Once things start to happen, this turns into quite a sweet love story with an engaging plot. I liked it much better from there on. There is still a lot of "telling", not "showing", and also a certain educational undertone. But this mattered less and less once I got more engaged in the story. A much needed YA novel that deals with the less known elements of LGBTQIA.

As always, well edited and formatted by Bold Strokes Books!

(Based on an eBook ARC from NetGalley.)

Jen is seventeen and trying to figure out so many things. Her best friend Deanna is a 23 year old coworker who is into partying and hooking up. Her father who left her when she was a baby has made contact and wants to get to know her better. She isn’t sure what she wants to do with her life after high school. And she’s hasn’t had school friends in years till now. Stephanie talks to her while she is drawing in the park. And she brings her Jen with her to an after school book club that is LGBTQIA+. She begins as the token straight ally but realizes she may have feelings for Stephanie.

There are so many likable parts of the story. First, I commend Jen’s mom for getting her into therapy and I like that some of those sessions are on the page. The friendship with Deanna was a red flag to me and I was surprised mom wasn’t stopping it. Secondly, the mom is supportive and sex positive and has a good relationship with Jen. I like the openness of the club as well. Some are in the closet still like Stephanie others are out. It felt like a nice safe space you wish for everyone. The dad story adds drama and is an extra pressure on Jen.

I like the story and I have only read a few with asexual main characters. I felt the tone of the book is quiet and serious. It is Jen trying to figure out herself, and she is dealing with a lot of loss at the same time. The epilogue is a nice addition as often YA books leave you with a happy in the moment endings. This is a YA book for ninth grade and up. Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for the ARC and I am leaving an honest review. (3.5 Stars)

Jen, tired of her beasties' partying ways, pulls back a bit while trying to figure her own life out.

But after a tragedy strikes, Stephanie reaches out to her, and they become friends.

Young Adult novel, but good. It was a fast read, admittedly. Anyway... I liked Jen and Steph, they're very cute in a clueless sort of way.

(I do wish we got a Steph POV chapter or two, if only because her going total useless lesbian over Jen would be funny to read.)

But yeah, liked it. About a 3 1/2 stars out of 5.