It was alright. A little too much indecision for me.

3.5 Stars

Tropes: best friend to more, secret (dating app) identity

Content: very little kissing but lots of noticing ( )

Lexi and Trevor are in love with each other, but, being shy and wary, neither will speak up. So, they live in a duplex owned by his parents, they ride to work together, they work in the same office, writing for a newspaper, they ride home together, they spend much of their free time together, and they keep this one huge secret together. Well, readers will know from the beginning how it will end, but goodness, the journey there is a long and somewhat tedious one! Eventually, one will speak up, and all I can say is, it took too long to get there. It is a sweet romance, and the beginning of a series. It just didn’t have a lot of substance. Maybe the next novel will be better. I was intrigued enough by the premise of this one to give the author another try. ( )

I probably would have had a much higher tolerance for this story if I hadn't listened to it via audiobook on a roadtrip when I had no option to speed-read my way through the frustrating parts. Instead I found myself screaming at the main male character on more than one occasion.

It had sort of a sweet start, and Lexi and Trevor clearly had a solid base of friendship and care to build a relationship on. From then it devolved with a meddling mother set on getting Trevor back together with his high school girlfriend, and Trevor caring way more about being polite so as not to hurt his ex's feelings even when she's stomping on all kinds of personal boundaries despite how many times he's said "no" (spoiler, she clearly knew what she was doing and was doing it in front of Lexi on purpose, and he did not owe her niceness in the name of "not hurting her feelings" when he was actively hurting Lexi's feelings) and they're going on actual dates the small town knows all about and not caring at all about actually hurting Lexi's feelings and changing plans to include his ex or bailing on her to help his ex move or.... All the while, he supposedly is "just friends" with Lexi because of how (in his mind) how horribly she rejected him the times he tried to step out of the friend zone despite the fact that those occasions were (1) an awkward fail/panicked kiss in their adolescence and (2) him asking her out once in college when she wasn't single. BOTH TIMES were followed by him utterly shutting down their friendship and telling her it was a mistake and that he didn't have feelings for her. Honestly, I thought he was a better boyfriend before he was supposedly trying to get her to date him.

All that said: As much as he had rewritten history to be the one who'd been rejected in their past and I thought he was an idiot for not seeing Lexi was in love with him, I absolutely believed Lexi had every reason to believe that if she expressed interest in him that their friendship would be over and that she wasn't willing to risk it. All evidence pointed to him only being interested in experimenting in high school but then definitely not interested in her (and he FLAUNTED HIS DISINTEREST, having his first kiss in front of her a mere couple of weeks later). And the college incident.... I mean, Lexi could have broken up with her boyfriend on the spot to give Trevor a chance and Trevor wouldn't have given her a chance because he'd already left and then blocked her calls for months. Exactly how was that supposed to go? So, as much as it made Trevor a jerk, I definitely thought the author did a good job writing a friends-to-lovers story in which the stakes for the girl in making a move and being wrong were realistically and demonstrably high. That's not always a believable part of this trope.

If I had been in a position to skim over Trevor's internal monologue or his rants about his relationship status to his guy friends, I might have thought the book was a relatively fluffy but okay way to spend a couple hours. ( )

Friendshipped is the first in what I am thinking will end up being a really fun series by Savannah Scott. This was a friends to more story that centers around Lexi and Trevor. That is definitely my favorite romance trope and this one was done well. The story was told from first person point of view of both characters and alternated by chapters. It was complete with fun banter, meddling family and friends, and online dating mishaps. It was apparent just how well the two characters knew each other and how deep their friendship was. Readers met some of the characters in this book whose stories come later in the series and I am looking forward to them. My only complaint was that I found the story to be a bit slow at times throughout the book. If you are looking for a fun, clean, lighthearted romance I would definitely recommend this book. I enjoyed listening to the story because both narrators did a fantastic job.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for an audio copy of this book. All opinions expressed are entirely my own. ( )

Loved this book! This is the first book I’ve read by Savannah Scott and I adored it. I can’t wait to read the other books in the series. When I saw the audiobook version was available through NetGalley, I jumped at the chance to listen to it. I was not disappointed. The dual narration was perfect and I loved both the male and female narrators. It’s a hilarious, sweet, romantic romcom that was so enjoyable to listen to.

This friends to lovers trope has a bit of a second chance romance too. Lexi and Trevor are both adorable, but you want to slap them both upside the head because they are both in love with one another but don’t want to ruin their best friends status they’ve had since childhood. After college, they both moved home to the small Ohio town they grew up in. They both live next door to each other in a duplex and work at the same office. They even commute together. But, underneath it all is this building tension and longing for each other. Both worry though that the other doesn’t feel the same way. All of this comes to a head when Lexi is talked into creating an online profile for a dating app to support her friend and an old high school flame of Trevor’s comes back to town.

Trevor agonizes over each date Lexi goes on and lucky for him they all seem to go badly, very badly. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the crazy things that happen on her dates. With each one though, Trevor realizes he’s dodged a bullet and that the next one could be Mr. Right. He comes up with a plan to try to win Lexi’s heart, even though his past attempts have led to disappointment. He hopes this one last shot will finally win him her heart.

Definitely recommend this to romcom and sweet romance fans. It’s a must read! I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to read Savannah’s books! So excited to read the rest of the series. I received an advanced complimentary audiobook from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own and I was not required to provide a positive review. ( )