When it comes to delivering captivating stories, Camilla Isley truly shines, and "It's Complicated" is no exception. This marks the tenth book of Camilla's that I've delved into, and each one has taken me on a delightful reading journey. Her storytelling prowess never fails to impress, weaving plots that are as romantic and magical as a charming fairytale.

In "It's Complicated," we're introduced to three best friends: Lori, Jace, and Aiden. Jace has been harboring a secret crush on Lori for 15 years, while Lori has her heart set on Aiden, who's about to tie the knot with Kirsten. Talk about a tangled web of emotions! To make Aiden question his impending nuptials and see Lori in a new light, she convinces Jace to pose as her fake date for the wedding. But as their faux romance begins to stir up real feelings, things become even more complicated. Could Jace be the one Lori's been searching for all along?

What I adored most about this book was the genuine bond between the main characters. Their friendship, forged in college and strengthened through the years, is built on a foundation of trust, faith, and unwavering support. However, like any group of friends, they each harbor secrets that could put their relationship to the test, especially when Aiden's wedding invites arrive.

From the get-go, I was hooked by the fast-paced storytelling, relishing in Aiden's cluelessness, the witty banter between the characters, and the electric chemistry simmering between Lori and Jace. But I must admit, the third-act breakup felt a tad unnecessary to me, and the subsequent events left me feeling somewhat disconnected from the story.

Furthermore, the rush to tie up loose ends in the final chapters felt a bit hasty, lacking the impact I had hoped for. While Camilla Isley's signature happily-ever-after magic was present, it didn't quite sparkle as brightly as expected, leaving me yearning for a bit more depth.

Nevertheless, "It's Complicated" is a delightful read, especially for fans of the best friends-to-lovers and fake dating tropes. You'll undoubtedly find yourself swooning as Lori and Jace navigate the complexities of their relationship.

Look out for "It's Complicated" hitting your favorite bookstores on February 23rd. A big thank you to Camilla Isley, Boldwood Books, and Netgalley for granting me early access to this charming tale in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed It's Complicated. Lori has been in love with Aiden forever, Jace has been in love with Lori just as long. They are three best friends, so the guys have a pact to not pursue Lori. The synopsis really does cover what is going to happen in this book, you just don't know how it is going to go down. This book was really good. Usually I find that if there is a love triangle I end up not liking one of the three, but that isn't the case with this book. You like both guys and really can see Lori being happy with either of them. I can highly recommend this book. Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy.

It's Complicated was a very quick read for me. It held my interest, flowed well, and kept me wanting to read right until the end. I enjoyed the characters (quirks and all) and relationships between them. The story pretty much went how I expected in most parts, but this lighthearted read was just what I was looking for. I have enjoyed every book I've read by Camilla Isley, and this book was no exception.

Thank you to Boldwood Books and Netgalley for the advance review copy of It's Complicated! All opinions in my review are exclusively my own.

This story was so fun! Super chaotic and wild, but in a great way that I really enjoyed.

The characters were fun, the story was really well written and enjoyable and a GREAT romcom for when you want to smile.

This was such a beautiful, sweet story. Chaotic and messy but also funny and wholesome. Lori, Aiden, and Jace have been friends for the last 15 years but in secret, Lori has been in love with Aiden since the beginning, and Jace in love with Lori for even longer. It’s right before Aiden’s wedding that things start to get messy.

Lori wasn’t my cup of tea but really brought a fun kind of chaos to the story. I absolutely loved Jace though, but I’m weak for that type of overwhelming unrequited love. I had fun while reading this story and loved how the truth finally came out in the end.

This book wasn't complicated at all, in fact, it was a delight! Camilla Isley writes endearing, cute and charming, sweet books with characters that I enjoy and root for. I enjoy her writing and find her books to be fast and entertaining reads.

In It's Complicated, Lori, Jace and Aiden have been best friends since college. But now Aiden, who Lori has been in love with since they met, is getting married. Enter fake dating stage left. Lori comes up with a plan to fake date Jace, in a last-ditch effort to get Aiden's attention and hopefully make him jealous. As you can imagine, things get interesting fast.

Coming in at under 300 pages, I easily read this in one day. I was instantly swept up in the book and the characters’ lives. I found Lori, Jace and Aiden to be likeable characters and appreciated how Isley depicted their close bonds, witty banter, and deep friendships. There was also one moment where I laughed out loud and had a smile on my face for most of the book. I also enjoyed the POV chapters.

As I mentioned, I enjoy Camilla Isley's books. They are like a breath of fresh air. They are light, enjoyable, charming and leave me feeling happy. With romance books it is all about the journey and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey the characters went on in this book. I also liked how Isley showed how relationships can be messy especially when dealing with insecurities, making assumptions, miscommunications, and being vulnerable. The ending did feel a tad bit rushed, but it was easy to overlook as the book was so enjoyable.

Charming and well written fake dating, friends to lovers’ book which left me smiling. I look forward to reading more of Isley’s books in the future.

Thank you to Boldwood Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

I think the premise of going from best friends to lovers is what first drew me in but having it be a group of three best friends and there being a somewhat weird love triangle vibe even though one of them is getting married....not my vibe. I also found them all being doctors and working together highly unrealistic. Overall, this one just wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to be an early reader.

This was a fun lighthearted easy to read rom com. A friends-to-lovers romantic comedy from Camilla Isley. All the main characters are likeable and well written with good interaction between them. Aide, Lori and Jace are best friends from college. Lori is secretly in love with Aiden, Jace is secretly in love with Lori. Present day and Aiden is getting married, leaving Lori heartbroken. She asks Jace to become her fake boyfriend to make Aiden jealous. Que the main body of the story.
This is the first book I have read by this author and really enjoyed it. Recommend

This was super cute! It was not deep at all and quite a short book. It was a fun time. It's simplistic in its storyline and I loved how it was the guy pining for the girl.

I docked a star because:
1) Third act conflict felt more akin to a YA novel than a story featuring adults over 30
2) Taylor Swift references

It's definitely complicated..Lori, Aiden and Jace have been best friends since college. Lori has always carried a torch for Aiden, while Jace has always carried one for Lori. When Aiden decides to get married, Lori - completely oblivious to Jace's real feelings - asks Jace to be her fake boyfriend for all the wedding related events, as she secretly hopes that somehow this will cause Aiden to cancel the wedding..
I enjoyed this book but not as much as others by this author. I thought the ending was a bit rushed and unrealistic.
Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the review copy.

Do you love a good early 2000’s romcom? How about Taylor Swift? The friends to lovers trope? Well this book has it ALL. It’s Complicated is such a wonderful and easy read! I picked this book up with high hopes and it delivered on every point. If you want a romcom that feels nostalgic and fresh at the same time, I’d highly recommend you give this one a try!

3.5 ⭐️

This was a nice and fluffy fake dating, friends to lovers and I this being closed door romance did fit the tone of the book.

I always love a dual POV as we get both sides of the story but I didn't like the miscommunication, it was a big overreaction and then when it was resolved the rest of the plot went from 0 to 100 very quickly. Without spoiling the ending the timeline was just a little implausible that feelings would switch that fast.

I liked the friendship dynamic between the three main characters and that this wasn't written as your typical love triangle.

Even if the overall story was a little predicable I still enjoyed reading it.

I love this author and her writing style! This book was really well written and very interesting. I will definitely be recommending this book to anyone and everyone!

All the stars!

I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH!!

I love reading romance for the pure escapism, to feel what the characters are going through. The longing, yearning... those little touches. This book gave them all.

This book has so much yearning and feels like an old fashioned romantic tale told in modern times. I couldn't put it down.

I highlighted so many beautiful passages. Most of them from Jace's pov. I need to buy the paperback.

If you love romance novels where the hero falls first, if you love a beautiful love story and you simply want to escape into a delicious romantic story, this book is for you

5 stars.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

Lori, Jace, and Aiden are best friends from college. Lori is secretly in love with Aiden, and Jace is secretly in love with Lori. Aiden is getting married, and a heartbroken Lori asks Jace to become her fake boyfriend to make Aiden jealous.

Even though this book is said to have a love triangle, it only covers a small part of the plot.

All the characters were likeable. Lori housing 4 cats and 6 hens and rescuing books was cute; I like her for that. Jace is in love with Lori but still listens to Lori gushing over Aiden because she’s in love. Aiden is an understanding character. Their friend is adorable.

I was enjoying reading this book, but in the last 25% it went downhill for me. First of all, the annoying third act breakup, the miscommunication between Jace and Lori, poor Aiden having to clean up all the mess, and Jace running away instead of confronting Lori and Aiden. Towards the end, things were moving too fast, and the ending was unrealistic.

It was an easy read with a fast-paced plot. The plot was predictable.

Read if you like:

Best friends to lovers
Love triangle
Fake dating
Closed-door romance
Dual POV

↳plot: The oldest story in the book. The girl is in love with one best friend and the other best friend is in love with her, but she has no clue. This book plot was so cliche but I enjoyed it every second of it. Jace is a book-boyfriend everybody deserves. He has been in love with this girl for fifteen years. I enjoyed this book a little too much. I wish it was a little more messy because I love messy. I think Aiden was a little too reasonable lol and the progression of Jace and Lori's relationship at least on her behalf was a little fast but I still devoured this book in one setting. Thank you, NetGalley for this arc.

↳tropes: friends to lovers, workplace romance, fake dating
↳relatability: I could relate to both Lori and Jace in terms of their insecurities about love and being vulnerable.

↳main characters: Jace was 5/5, Lori was also very funny with her cats and chickens 4/5
↳side characters: Aiden is going to be more of 2/5, he was just too reasonable and bland for me.

↳spice: 2/5
↳overall: 4/5

I feel like I am always singing the praises of @camillaisley . This book is so good! I could. It put this book down. It had me laughing out loud and grinning ear to ear. I adored Jace and Lori. They had a fun, playful relationship and their chemistry was 🔥. Definitely grab this one!
Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Lori has “secretly” been in love with one of her best friends, Aiden, since college…but now he is getting married and she convinces their other best friend, Jace, to pretend that they are dating. Lori is in for a shock when Jace is the perfect fake boyfriend and it makes her start to see him in a different light. Even though Lori, Aiden, and Jace have all been best friends since college, the dynamic starts to change with Lori & Jace being a new couple.

I have read a few books by Camilla Isley before and this was my favorite of all of them! I loved Jace and Lori together and the way that he treated her. The third-act breakup was a little silly with Jace assuming he saw something on her porch instead of trusting his two best friends. I did like how Jace held out on a physical relationship and wanted to make sure that Lori knew he was the one for her. The trash talking bridesmaids brought some drama, but Jace made it clear who he was interested in.

this book was just... fine. it was a short and easy read, so i finished it, but if it had been maybe 50 pages longer, i probably would've caved and dnf'd it. the main character was very much a pick-me, "i'm not like other girls" girl, which is just such a tired trope. it's 2024, not 2004. i honestly found both aiden and jace to be more compelling than lori, and they were most of the reason why i followed through and read the book. i just found it so hard to believe that someone would be so emotionally unaware and immature to think they've been in love with their best friend for so long and not even try to get over him? i don't know. if it hadn't been a dual pov, i probably would've given up without jace's inner monologue to get me through. that being said, the book did have several redeeming qualities other than the few (major) issues i had with it. jace, aiden and lori had great chemistry and i loved their friendship, both lori and jace were really funny and their chemistry was insanely good, especially toward the end of the book. for all that the end felt very rushed, the idea of a secret wedding at their best friend's wedding (not to mention getting married about 0.5 seconds after getting together) didn't bother me as much as it would have in a different book, since they had been best friends for so long and knew each other so intimately. overall, i would definitely recommend this to someone looking for a silly, goofy, easy-to-read romance novel.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It’s the story of three friends whose friendship started in college, through med school, residencies and finally continues into their shared medical practice. What you realize at the start is the female doctor crushes on one of the male doctors. To make him jealous after she receives his wedding invitation, she fake dates the other one only to realize he has always been interested in her. The book is a cute, funny light read. My problem is with the characters. This is a group of late twenty- early thirty professionals who act very immature in both their behavior and approach to life. The mature one of the bunch is the financed one. He actually demonstrates maturity, insight into life and true caring for his friends. Unfortunately as cute as Lori is with her cats, chickens and books, I didn’t find her realistic. There are lots of great, fun books by this author. This just wasn’t one of them for me.

Thank you to Net Galley and publishes for the opportunity to preview.