JUST FRIENDS (Just Friends #1) by Monica Murphy

JUST FRIENDS
Just Friends #1
by Monica Murphy
Release Date: September 13, 2016
Genre: young adult

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date September 13, 2016

It’s the end of summer. Just before I start senior year with my two best friends in the whole world. Dustin and Emily are everything to me. We’ve been inseparable since middle school, and when we’re together, nothing can go wrong.

But things aren’t always what they seem. Em’s turned into a drunken mess who parties too much. Dustin and I have hooked up a few times—and now he’s ready to take our relationship to the next level. Yet I’m not sure I want things to change. I’m scared if I take it any further with Dustin, our friendship will be ruined forever. Then there’s Ryan. The new guy. He’s hot. He flirts way too much. And Em has totally set her sights on him.

So when my best friend betrays me in the worst possible way, guess who’s there to help me pick up the pieces of my broken heart? Ryan. But he’s so confusing. Annoying. Sweet. Sexy. I want to trust him, yet he makes it so hard. What I really want is for everything to go back to the way it was before.

Before I found out that best friends make the worst kind of enemies.

•••••••

REVIEW: JUST FRIENDS is the first installment in Monica Murphy’s contemporary, young adult JUST FRIENDS romance series focusing on a group of friends whose relationships and friendships spiral out of control as they are about to start their final year of high school.

NOTE: I want to add that the author/publisher have labelled JUST FRIENDS a new adult story line but all of the characters are under 18 years of age, still in high school, and all of the $ex and romance are implied or fade to black,  therefore a label of Young Adult seems more appropriate.

Told from first person point of view (Olivia Hudson) JUST FRIENDS looks at the fall out between high school seniors Olivia, Emily and Dustin when jealousy, betrayal, secrets and lies destroy a life time of friendship when newcomer Ryan Bennett begins to push his way into the threesomes lives. The competition between girls for attention, and the thrill and fear of going ‘all the way’ heighten the insecurities and selfishness when our heroine Olivia refocuses her attention on the new boy in town, while the boy she left behind pines on the sidelines hoping for a second chance.

JUST FRIENDS is a well written but frustrating and aggravating YA story line with ALL of the earmarks that come with the genre: the requisite love triangle or quadrangle, jealousy, envy, mean girls, the popular crowd, selfish attitudes, drinking and drug experimentation, and of course the oblivious, absent or controlling parents. As I have said in a previous article, the three way and sometimes four way love interests are heartbreaking, angst-ridden, gut wrenching and occasionally annoying and condescending. And in many of the cases, the heroine is in love with both man-boys (or more in some cases) and vice-versa. Such is the case with JUST FRIENDS where our leading heroine –Olivia Hudson-falls for Ryan Bennett while still harboring feelings for her best friend Dustin.

Throughout the story we discover that while Olivia spent the summer at her father’s home, her besties Dustin and Em took their relationship to a physical level, not only rocking the trio’s friendship but pushing Olivia towards the new boy in town. Dustin claims to love and want Olivia but Olivia is too hurt to see beyond her best friend’s betrayals. And of course, new boy looks like he is playing the field and begins to pit Emily and Olivia, among others, against one another.

All of the major story line characters are not very likeable-Olivia, Dustin, Emily and Ryan. I could not find one redeeming quality that would make me feel sympathy for the emotional breakdowns or loss of friendship because at every opportunity someone is hooking up with someone else fearing a lifetime of loneliness or missing out on the popular party; back stabbing and social media exposure adds insult to injury as the friendships implode. The one saving grace is Dustin, who at this point is willing to walk away to allow the girl that he loves to figure out who and what she needs. The circle of friends ebbs and flows as relationship histories take center stage with all of the high school drama of battered emotions and destructive friends. And through it all, Olivia claims to be ‘just friends’ whenever the question about her relationships arise.

To be honest, I had stopped reading young adult story lines for the very reasons I listed above as my anxiety level builds with each consecutive story. The drama is over the top, the angst and tears are explosive, the friendships suffer from jealousy and perceived betrayal. Monica Murphy does an amazing job drawing the reader back into the world of teenage, high school drama but I am one of those readers who had enough back in the day –I was totally exhausted before the final cliff hanger.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

New York Times, USA Today and international bestselling author Monica Murphy is a native Californian who lives in the foothills below Yosemite with her husband and three children. She’s a workaholic who loves her job. When she’s not busy writing, she also loves to read and travel with her family. She writes new adult and contemporary romance and is published with Bantam and Avon. She also writes romance as USA Today bestselling author Karen Erickson.

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