{"id":43470,"date":"2019-06-12T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T12:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=43470"},"modified":"2021-04-06T06:54:47","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T10:54:47","slug":"arc-review-the-friend-zone-by-abby-jimenez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=43470","title":{"rendered":"ARC Review: The Friend Zone (The Friend Zone, #1) by Abby Jimenez"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Paperback\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Audio<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Review<\/b><\/h4>\n

5 stars!<\/b><\/p>\n

OMG. What did I just read?<\/p>\n

    \n
  • A fantastically fun friends-to-lovers romance that had me laughing out loud?<\/li>\n
  • A chemistry-filled love story between a fabulously snarky and sarcastic heroine and a smart-talking, witty, sweetheart hero who is absolutely irresistible?<\/li>\n
  • A heartaching story of a woman\u2019s battle with infertility?<\/li>\n
  • A gutwrenching, angsty drama that had me in tears more than once?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Yes! To all of the above.<\/p>\n

    This stunning debut novel from Abby Jimenez captivated me from start to finish, and I felt everything<\/i>. What an amazing story!<\/p>\n

    Kristen is my favourite type of heroine \u2013 smart, snarky, sarcastic and completely filterless. She is very matter-of-fact, especially when dealing with her near-debilitating health issues, and is dealing with the realities of an upcoming surgery that will mean that she is not able to have children. On top of all of that, she is preparing for her long-distance boyfriend to return home and move in with her for the first time, is helping to plan the wedding of her best friend in the world, and if her life isn\u2019t complicated enough, it becomes even more so when she meets the best man, Josh.<\/p>\n

    Josh is new to town and is working as a firefighter\/paramedic alongside his best friend, Brandon. When he meets Kristen he is immediately attracted to her, and when he unexpectedly ends up doing some part time work at her house, it pushes the two of them all up in each other\u2019s lives, and the friendship that unfolds is absolutely fantastic. They laugh and banter, they tease and joke, they have everything in common, and it\u2019s all just so easy<\/i> for them. They become each other\u2019s person<\/i>, every moment between them is pure gold, and their chemistry just sizzles off the page. But due to Kristen\u2019s relationship, they keep things strictly in the friend-zone.<\/p>\n

    She was like a unicorn. A mythical creature. An honest, no-drama woman who didn\u2019t bullshit and drank beer and cussed and didn\u2019t care about what people thought of her. She was a unicorn, tucked in the body of an attractive woman with a great ass.
    \nAnd I couldn\u2019t have her.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    When their attraction becomes too hard to ignore, they finally reach a point where they can act on it, but there is another huge issue standing in their way \u2013 Josh is from a big family with dreams of having one of his own one day. That\u2019s not something Kristen can have with him, and she refuses to stand in the way of his dream. And OMG, it hurt!<\/p>\n

    \u201cDo you think discussing my deficiencies as a woman with a man that I\u2019m half in love with is something I want to put myself through?\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Kristen\u2019s battle was so incredibly heartbreaking and my chest actually hurt while I was reading this book. I could understand her decisions, her frustrations, and her heartache, and I was floored by her resilience in the face of such devastation. Did I agree with all of her decisions? No, and the story did become really angsty and there were times I wanted to just shake her, but I\u2019m not in her position and it\u2019s hard to judge what you would do in such a difficult situation, and her perspective on the whole thing is really well written. It becomes especially hard as her and Josh as their world is completely upended and they are left floundering in more ways than one. And there went my heart again, and I sobbed for all that they were going through.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWhy won\u2019t you let me love you?\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Through the whole story, Josh just shines. He is a man in love who is fighting hard for his girl, and I loved his patience, understanding and acceptance of Kristen through it all.<\/p>\n

    I\u2019d found my person.
    \nShe was the foundation. She was the thing that all other things are built on. Everything was secondary to being with her. It didn\u2019t matter where I worked or if I liked my job, where I lived or how many kids I had. My happiness, my sanity, my well-being \u2013 it all started with her \u2026 I wanted everything. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    The romance is just beautiful. It\u2019s easy, natural, fun and playful, and though this book isn\u2019t particularly steamy, you can feel their passion for each other. I fell in mad love with both of these characters and their amazing love story.<\/p>\n

    I cannot believe that this is a debut novel. The writing is crisp, witty and so freaking emotive! This book took me on a wildly emotional ride, and I laughed and cried and felt so<\/i> much. It was hard to read in some places and I actually had to put my kindle down just to take a breath and try to deal with the emotion of it all, but it ends beautifully in a really great place, and with stories coming for (at least one of) the amazing side characters, I am so freaking excited to see what Abby Jimenez has in store for us next!<\/p>\n

    5 stars<\/p>\n

    An Advanced Reader Copy was generously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.<\/i><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The Friend Zone<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

     <\/p>\n

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    About the Author<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
    \"\"<\/div>\n
    Abby Jimenez is a Food Network champion, motivational speaker, and contemporary romance novelist living in Minnesota. Abby founded Nadia Cakes out of her home kitchen in 2007. The bakery has since gone on to open multiple locations in two states, won numerous Food Network competitions and amassed an international cult following. Abby has since turned her talents to penning novels. She loves a good book, coffee, doglets, and not leaving the house.<\/div>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Buy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback\u00a0 |\u00a0 Audio Review 5 stars! OMG. What did I just read? A fantastically fun friends-to-lovers romance that had me laughing out loud? A chemistry-filled love story between a fabulously snarky […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,49,25,65,9,124,29],"tags":[1006,59,48],"class_list":["post-43470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-feeeeeeels","category-friends-to-lovers","category-lol-funny","category-romance","category-sobfest","category-steamy","tag-abby-jimenez","tag-arc","tag-review"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/The-Friend-Zone.jpg?fit=200%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-bj8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}