Better Off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg

BETTER OFF FRIENDS

Author: Elizabeth Eulberg

Publication Date: 02/25/2014

Audience: Young Adult

Genre: Contemporary, Romance

 

For Macallan and Levi, it was friends at first sight. Everyone says guys and girls can’t be just friends, but these two are. They hang out after school, share tons of inside jokes, their families are super close, and Levi even starts dating one of Macallan’s friends. They are platonic and happy that way.

Eventually they realize they’re best friends — which wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t keep getting in each other’s way. Guys won’t ask Macallan out because they think she’s with Levi, and Levi spends too much time joking around with Macallan, and maybe not enough time with his date. They can’t help but wonder . . . are they more than friends or are they better off without making it even more complicated?

From romantic comedy superstar Elizabeth Eulberg comes a fresh, fun examination of a question for the ages: Can guys and girls ever really be just friends? Or are they always one fight away from not speaking again — and one kiss away from true love?

 

Picture and Summary from Goodreads

 

 

REVIEW

 

 

This book was so cutesy and fun to read.  Ive decided that cute and fluffy are how I prefer my contemporary romance reads.  Not that serious issues deter me but real life has enough issues without me reading about them.  Of course Better Off Friends does have a major issue it is centered around...Do Macallan and Levi belong together as more than just friends?  I was really impressed with how well the author stretched out the story and still kept me guessing as to what would happen in the end.

 

The story is told from both Levi and Macallan's POVs with back and forth commentary in between chapters giving off the feeling that they're telling us their story through their eyes while sitting side by side. I thought that was a pretty great idea and really enjoyed it.

 

The only reason this book is a four instead of a five is because of some formatting issues.  I read this on my NOOK and all of the commentary in between chapters was poorly formatted making it hard at first to tell who was talking and what was going on. I eventually figured out how it was supposed to read and was able to look past it until the final chapters when things were coming to a head.  I could tell it was supposed to read like Macallan and Levi were talking over each other in their narratives but it just seemed really sloppy and confusing. I'm hoping it was just my format.

 

Other than some tiny things I really had no issues with this book.  The characters and storyline really had me hooked and invested in the story. It made me wish for a friendship like theirs.

~ Goodreads ~