Just Friends (The Friends)

by Monica Murphy

[Cocktails and Books]

This review was originally posted on Cocktails and Books

JUST FRIENDS was one of those books I couldn't wait to start reading. Monica Murphy has created some of my favorite angsty New Adult characters and I was anxious to see what she did to the high school set. Unfortunately, this one did live up to the hype I created for it.

Olivia, Emily and Dustin are best friends. Olivia and Dustin "messed around" with each other before Olivia left to spend the summer with her father. Neither of them told Emily about their extracurricular activities. When Olivia returns home she discovers a hard partying Emily has become friends with the popular crowd and Dustin acting weird. And then there's the new guy, Ryan, Emily's been hanging with.

I get these are teenagers and they are going to be full of high drama, but this group was over the top. I didn't like Em, Olivia, Ryan or Dustin. The sleeping with one another and swapping back and forth was a bit too much for me. I though Olivia, Em and Dustin were supposed to be best friend? Even if Olivia never said anything about Dustin before she left, why wouldn't Dustin have some kind of loyalty to her and not jump into bed with someone she knew? That drove me nuts. Then there was Ryan. I couldn't figure out what his game was or what kind of redeeming qualities he might have that would make me think that maybe he was right for Olivia.

I wish I could have liked this one more. I think if just one of the main characters was more likable I could have tolerated it more. Unfortunately, at the end of the book (which does have a cliffhanger ending) I couldn't think anything more than they all deserved what they got.