There’s no denying that this cover is gorgeous. The colourway and joyous, cheeky energy radiating from it is so inviting and I was excited to see whether the inside matched.

Maggie’s two best friends are both getting married soon but her love life is a disaster. Her friends want Maggie to find a date to their weddings, so she makes it her mission to get back into the dating game. But her college friend Garrett is on hand to point out the flaws in every date she has. Eventually, Maggie realises that Garrett might be the reason she’s struggling to find happiness. When he reveals his feelings for her, she has a decision to make.

My biggest issue with the book was Maggie herself. She is one of my least favourite personalities ever -extremely self-obsessed and obnoxious. Naturally, her friends are happy, excitable brides-to-be and apparently this is awful for Maggie. She’s not happy with her love life so it really sucks to see people she loves happy. I would like to point out that Maggie is in her late 30s. LATE 30s. I don’t think I need to say much more than that…

Her friend Savvy even points out that she’s difficult to be around when asked to do something that she doesn’t want to do. She appears to be incapable of putting her own feelings aside to go along with other people’s wishes. This doesn’t improve at all over the narrative, probably because Maggie is in her late 30s and definitely not a ‘work in progress’. The tone of the writing implies that we are supposed to see her as a sassy, self-assured, mature woman. I cannot emphasise how far off this mark it was.

I think the fact that her friends discussed her love life without her was pretty bad too. Her friends are nowhere near as problematic as Maggie herself but I did think she had a point here. She showed up to meet them and they’d already 'decided’ amongst themselves that she needed to have a date to their weddings.

I thought it was a bit weird that in 2024, we have a character who still thinks that 'online dating is for the desperate and socially awkward’. I guess we could blame the fact that Maggie was young at a time when this opinion wasn’t quite as outdated as it is now but it’s not like she’s been out of the loop on modern trends for years, so this felt quite odd.

A lot of the story was told to us rather than shown. I don’t know whether McCoy was limited to a certain number of pages or words or something but June -apparently a regular confidant of Maggie’s- wasn’t in the book. We never saw these deep conversations about work and her love life that she apparently had with June and it feels like we should have done. I feel that McCoy perhaps did write these scenes and they were deleted, which sucks. Either way, I shouldn’t be able to see any possible part of the editing process.

The Good Ones Are Taken is a rather generic romance, littered with annoyances. As a woman in her late 30s looking for love, Maggie could have been a really unique, interesting romantic heroine, so it’s a real shame she was so irredeemably unlikeable. I really didn’t like very much about the book, so I’m afraid I can’t recommend it to anyone and I won’t be reading any future releases from the author.

Thank you for my earc of this book. Unfortunately I didn’t finish, I just wasn’t invested in the love interests and found myself in no rush to iicj this back up!

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and I loved the characters!!

It was an easy, quick read! I really enjoyed the beautiful friendships.

A great friends to lovers romance!!

Taj McCoy has a formula and she knows it well. One confident woman looking for love and two options. To us the reader I find it's always clear who the protagonist should pick and always wonder why they take so long to see. None the less she writes a good spicy romance with fun characters

***ARC Review***

I’d like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was cute! It give all the good feels and vibes, lovely energy etc.

Only thing I would say is it was a bit anticlimactic in the sense that we knew exactly what the outcome of the book would be and who she’d choose right from the start- it didn’t hook me, per say, because I knew what would happen. I just stayed for the fun vibes!

Maggie is looking for a serious partner who can also be her date to her best friends’ weddings. She’s torn between two guys: Mr (seemingly) Perfect, and her best friend of 19 years.
I would have liked to see more tension and affection between Maggie and Garrett, however I did enjoy reading the romance story. The challenge with a love triangle between one person she’s known forever and one she’s just met is that it is difficult to build the stakes high enough so that it would be believable that Maggie might choose Blake. Unfortunately I felt that this book approached this by spending more time on Maggie herself at the expense of the love interests.
In terms of the other characters, I would have liked to see more affection between Maggie and her friends. I got the sense that these were very secure, happy friendships however almost all we got to see was her friends making fun of her. On the other hand, I did appreciate the portrayal of Maggie’s complex feelings about her friends’ weddings.
The only other comment I have is that Blake tries to pressure Maggie into sex and it’s not really acknowledged how bad that is.
I don’t regret reading ‘The Good Ones are Taken’, although it ended up not being for me. I suspect that it would be a satisfying sequel to Savvy’s book.

Taj McCoy doesn't miss. I love that every time I open one of her books I know I'm getting a good story, I'm going to laugh, and be relaxed the whole way through. That's exactly what happened here.

From the very first page it had me smiling and I felt as if I'd come home. Even more so because this is set in the same world as Savvy Sheldon Feels Good as Hell, and we get to catch up with her and Spencer (they're getting married EEEEEP!!).

The plot is fairly simple, but I think that actually worked in the book's favour because the characters had a chance to shine. I loved Maggie and Garrett, and was rooting for them from the start.

It's kinda obvious by the blurb & little quote on the cover who she ends up with and that's the way it should be!! Garrett always had Maggie's best interests in mind, he knew what she wanted and needed before she even did, he sat through a billion romance movies with her, and most importantly he did NOT hire a chef just to make a tiny soup and salad with only 4 shrimp like SOMEONE we know *cough* Blake *cough*.

The only unrealistic thing is that they waited for 19 years, dating different people and Maggie was completely oblivious for two decades. I'd be a bit more inclined to believe this if nothing happened between them during college, but since it did (even if it didn't go far), you'd think she'd know he's at least a bit into her, right?

Anyway, I loved them as both friends and lovers and also their joint relationship with food. I simply adored the food descriptions, I could never get enough.

I also liked that Maggie was an older-than-average romance novel protagonist, both she and Garrett are almost 40 and ready to settle down, are doing well in their careers etc.

Am I gonna give Blake the time of day and give him a mention? I guessssss. I didn't like him, not just because I was team Garrett, but the way he was acting with Maggie from the start didn't sit right with me and I was right. After he showed his true colours, I was hoping Maggie would ditch him immediately, she didn't. But as long as she made the right choice at the end it's okay.

If you like friends to lovers (done right) then you should definitely read this book. It's so sweet, a bit of a slower burn while they realise their feelings, and there's a great supportive friend group too that's guaranteed to make you laugh with their shenanigans.

I'm so glad we got another book in this world, I'll be getting a physical copy so it can sit pretty next to Savvy and Zora, and I can't wait for whatever book Taj McCoy puts out next.

*Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

This was my first book by this author and it didn’t disappoint! I really enjoyed this story and I loved the characters, their friendships and the writing style. The story itself was realistic and a quick read.
If you’re a fan of the friends to lovers trope I recommend this one to you.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this arc.

"I want someone who wants me. You know what I mean?”

Following a bad break up & not one, but two of Maggie's besties becoming engaged, Maggie is tasked with finding a date to accompany her to the impending nuptials. With her male bestie Garrett volunteering his services to be her plus 1, will Maggie finally realise that Garrett is desperately in love with her?

Plagued by a string of bad dates, Maggie meets a doctor, but will he exceed her expectations & be the man to make her forget about her past & present with Garrett?

I hear so many dire online dating stories IRL, so I always find the online dating trope in books entertaining. Maggie really went through it with these odd characters.

This was an easy read, but a VERY slow burn. Whilst I enjoyed the dynamic between Maggie & Garrett, it felt like it took forever & a day to reach the conclusion.

Surprisingly, despite the return of one of my favourite book characters, Savvy turned me ALL the way OFF in this book (the plot twist didn't help to lessen my view point of her either). I really did not appreciate the way that Maggie was portrayed in this story as being selfish & self-centred. Savvys attacks on Maggie didn't feel substantiated imo.

All in all, it's a fair book, but I think I would have preferred a book from McCoy on an entirely new character. Will I still be purchasing whatever she publishes? Absolutely!

For lovers of friends to lovers, this is one for you.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to @netgalley & dialoguebooks for my ARC.

This was my first Taj McCoy read and I can say that she didn't disappoint at all. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I found this book to be extremely relatable for many reasons and loved the plot/characters. I adore a good friends to lovers plot and could help but to root for these characters.

I definitely would read more from this author!

3.5 stars

I liked this book! I wanted to love it but unfortunately, I wasn't a huge fan of the love triangle. I was hoping to see Maggie and Garrett's romantic relationship develop a bit further than what was in the book. There was too much focus on the other character and I didn't really care about him.

Regardless, I cannot wait to read more of Taj McCoy's books!

I personally found Maggie unlikeable and the plot too shallow for me to enjoy this read. I’ll avoid spoiling it (even though it’s predictable once the characters are established) but there was a lot of nothing in this just to lay the groundwork for the ending we all knew was coming lol

I enjoyed the banter here a lot. Between Maggie and her friends, and her and Garrett. I'm always a sucker for good banter and supportive friend groups. Maggie and her girlfriends and a fun and hilarious bunch! Now I must say the entire love triangle premise was interesting as I don’t think I’ve read one quite like this in adult rom. BUT, I wanted and needed to see more of this chemistry we’ve been told Garrett and Maggie has. Yes he’s sweet to her, knows her fave foods etc etc but I didn’t feel any tension or anything between them? Especially since we only get Maggie’s pov. I wish we could’ve gotten in G’s head a bit but given the love triangle situation I got why we couldn’t so I wanted her to maybe observe some things, question his actions at the very least so we have her going hmmn what’s up with that lil gesture does he maybe like like me?, but she never does.

She only considered that G has feelings for her after her friends tell her that. Now I can be pretty clueless when someone likes me if they not obvious and actually coming out and saying it to my face lol but yeah I needed some more showing here.

Also as much as I loved all the yummy food everybody be eating in this book I have to admit at times some of the descriptions of clothes etc was a bit excessive. And distracted from the story itself.

ALSO Maggie giiirl all this hemming and hawing about what to do, who to choose made no sense to me come to the end. Cuz how you still tryna decide after Blake tries to pressure you to let him in your apartment (no means noo), he grabs our wrist annnnd punches Garrett??? Like there should have not still be anything to decide at that point. >.> That man shoulda been goooone!! I don’t give a damn if he apologized. And her getting mad at G for being at her apt when Blake drops her off ummm you told G he could come to get the USB hence why he was there??? So I really didn't get her reaction there at all. *face palm*

Sorry not sorry to Blake but it was a no from meeee. Team Garrett for the win!!

In spite of Maggie frustrating the heck out of me several times I did find the ending at the wedding location really sweet. (I just craved all the juicy tension between two friends who have known each other so loong and there's the potential for more).

I was not really a fan for this novel. I was thinking there will be more depth in it at times but I was not a fan. I did not finish it which is unlikely lovely because usually I would finish the book.

2.5 stars
I really wanted to love this book but somehow it just didn’t work for me. It was slow moving and the story just didn’t really slow. I strongly disliked the heroine, her selfishness got on my nerves. And I also didn’t feel any chemistry between the hero and heroine, at all. I’m not really a big fan of friends to lovers trope so maybe it’s just me.

I however, loved the girl friend group. They were my favorite part of the book.

Overall, it was an okay read.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

Taj McCoy is one of my auto-read authors. Overall, this was a funny rom-com with a friends to lover's trope. Thank you for giving me access to an ARC.
I must say, with being a fan of the author's other works, Maggie' story unfortunately missed the mark for me. Even still, I did appreciate reading from the perspective of an older main character and the world building continued from other books.
Unfortunately, in relation to the world building, Savvy, felt like a whole different character at times in comparison to in her own book, I also felt like the romantic interest was clear from from the start, which was fine as it was friends-to-lovers but I wish this dynamic was explored in another way instead of the whole dating apps and dating someone else. The other romantic interest almost felt like it was just thrown in and I kept waiting for something to happen until it finally did but when it did it felt slightly lacking as at times the pacing was rather slow. I also wasn't a fan of the ending as I felt like it contradicted Maggie's character and what we learnt about her liking to stand out.

This is my first time reading this authors work and I had some very high expectations. But unfortunately they weren’t met. I’m never a fan of this kind of trope, but I’ve heard/great reviews for her other work. I had to DNF this one at about 15%.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'The Good Ones Are Taken' by Taj McCoy.

This is my third Taj McCoy novel and I adored the cameos in this novel! My qualm this time was that I loved the characters but I didn't love the story by McCoy. I don't know if it's due to the fact this usual plot isn't my cup of tea or something else but it wasn't for me.