Review: The Friend Zone

The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kristen Peterson is living a good life, she has her own business, she is going to be maid of honour to her BFF Sloan, she's in a serious long-distance relationship with a Marine called Tyler and her dog Stuntman Mike, her only problem is one so very rarely talked about, infertility.

Josh Copeland is a firefighter who has just moved to San Francisco from South Dakota, he's best man to his best friend Brandon who just happens to be engaged to Sloan. He comes from a large family and split up with his last girlfriend because she didn't want children. This is a man who wants his own baseball team of kids one day.

Kristen and Josh bump into each other, literally, when Kristen borrows Brandon's truck to buy some emergencies toiletries from the Aisle of Red and brakes suddenly, Josh hits the back of the truck and they exchange witty barbs, only to be introduced to each other minutes later at Brandon's Family Day at the Fire Station. They both ignore the immediate attraction but then their lives entwine as Josh agrees to help Kristen with some rudimentary carpentry work for her business.

This is a typical chick-lit comedy romance, until it isn't. Amongst the sass and humour and romance there is also the heartbreak of infertility and the mental scars it can leave on young women. This is something I find difficult to write about because I too suffered from the same problem as Kristen. Sometimes I think Abby Jimenez doesn't go far enough in describing what it's like to live with this problem, she glosses over the less savoury aspects and doesn't touch upon the side-effects like anaemia which led to me needing blood transfusions twice and left me too weak to climb the stairs in my home. I think the blurb has got it right, this is a book that will make you laugh and cry - although as already stated I can't be unbiased about some of the issues.

I thought the characters were very relatable and believable, their emotions felt genuine and I loved the sparkling dialogue between Josh and Kristen. Maybe my only criticism is that Kristen's self-sacrifice went on a little too long, Kristen feels she knows better than Josh about his long-term desires and won't listen to him, but otherwise this was a charming, thought-provoking, well-written romance.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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