Maryse's Book Blog

Following my heart, one book at a time...

friends to lovers

Reader Recommendations – Friends to lovers romance books

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Many requests for this list and oh boy do we have recommendations!!!

Nothing better than that slow burn. That… true-to-life angst and pining, OR surprise realization, that you have fallen deeply in love with the love of your life. And he just happens to be your very best friend.

Tracie: I just finished “Bad at Love: A Standalone Friends-to-Lovers Romance” by Karina Halle and would love to know if you have a list of other books or recommendations of books where they start as “just friends” first?? read more

Reader Question – The book where they knew each other as children and he ends up in organized crime…

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Dallas needs our book help! This one sounds a bit like past reader questions in this trope, however due to the subject matter, it could be just that this is a frequent issue/twist in this genre…

She asks:

Hi Maryse,

I am trying to find a book (possibly a series) where there is a girl who falls in love with a guy whom she trusts.

I remember they met when she was a pre-teen or maybe even younger in a park. She always used to meet him in a park to start with. I think she grew up to do something in Arts or Marketing. read more

Book Review – Release by Aly Martinez

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Release: A Standalone Friends-to-Lovers Romance

Another fantastic love story by one of my favorite authors ever, ’cause boy can she deliver, when it comes to angst, backstory and super-steam as well as romance. Though… not without working for it first. 😉

This one came highly recommended by our crew shortly after its release <— see what I did there? Supposedly there was a twist and I am ALL for those!! Delightful (or not-so-delightful) book surprises are so fun to experience and freak out over. read more

Book Review – Regretting You by Colleen Hoover

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Regretting You

OH WOW!! 🤩 This one stole my heart. Yep! Still has that signature Colleen Hoover storytelling by way of her beautiful words and introspection and her relatable characters with real life issues. It’s why we love her so.

Kim: Regretting You, it was very relatable which I think is one of Coho’s great talents. She is always a sure thing for me.

But also signature Colleen ’cause it had quite the twist that, yet again – I didn’t see coming until it slapped me right on the face! And it does so early on, too, so you get to live it as they do. read more

Reader Question – The book about the childhood friends to adult lovers that would go to a beach hut…

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Kirra needs our book help! Short and sweet and just a bit of detail but maybe enough to spark your memory (it’s a book in a series, and she mentions who the next book is about, too)

She asks:

Hey Maryse,

I read a book about a couple that meet as kids and you read about them growing up together- eventually dating.

I don’t want to spoil the book but I remember they had a spot they would frequent together (a beach hut) and that the heroines sister has a book  as well.

I think this books was the 3rd or 4th book in the series. read more

Reader Question – The book about the friends-with-benefits (and she’s getting attached), after another guy insulted her weight…

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Elise needs our book help and she’s sent us plenty of info to work with, but no spoilers in it, ’cause she only read the first chapter and wants to find it again. 🙂

She asks:

So sometime in the last few months I know I read the first chapter (I think it was a prologue set 8 years in the past but that could be wrong) of a book but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. I generally remember the following:

Guy and girl were childhood friends;

Guy became fit/attractive sometime in late adolenscence or early adulthood; read more