Review: They're Strictly Friends

They're Strictly Friends by Chloe Liese
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I felt misled by the blurb for this book (and the title) which made it seem as though the book would all be about the dance between an uptight Englishman and a fiery Frenchwoman as they flirted but never quite got together. Instead, Elodie and Lucas get together quite early on in the novel.

Lucas is about to take over his family business when he receives some bad news from his doctor, news which puts his career and his life plans in jeopardy. Irritatingly, we don't know exactly what this news is for quite a long time. Through mutual friends he has met and flirted with Elodie for some time, but with his diagnosis hanging over him he knows he can never act on the attraction.

When Elodie's career-driven mother gives her a draconian command to marry the son of a rival in order to consolidate a merger between their two businesses Elodie flees Paris to London for her best friend's wedding. When she breaks down in tears Lucas comforts her and offers her a place to stay in London while she gets back on her feet without the support of her parents' money.

Living together and working together Lucas and Elodie become even closer, but will Lucas' diagnosis break them apart forever?

As I say, I thought this book would be all about the unresolved romantic tension between Elodie and Lucas, instead it was all about Lucas suffering from his undisclosed medical condition and pushing Elodie away. Oh, and lots and lots of sex. And more sex. And pushing Elodie away, and refusing to tell anyone what the problem was, and more sex.

I wanted to DNF this book at about 14%, but I recently got a comment from someone who read one of my reviews which queried how I could possibly judge a book after only 16%, Although I stand by that decision I decided to press on with this book right to the bitter end, but having put the book down at about 90% and having to force myself to finish it I 've come to the conclusion that I know quite early on whether I want to read about the characters and whether I like the writing style. In this case, I thought early on that Lucas was a pretentious ass who nevertheless also spoke quite coarsely, and I didn't change my opinion.

I would definitely classify this as women's fiction (which rightly or wrongly I consider to be long-winded and a lot of talk about not very much).

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

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