Reviews - Between Friends & Lovers

1.67k reviews for:

Between Friends & Lovers

Shirlene Obuobi

3.98 AVERAGE

ashtonebemis's review

3.25

challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

kaflegal's review

4.5

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

romancereadinglist's review against another edition

4.0

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I am so glad I read this book. The love-triangle setup is not especially beloved, but I think this does something interesting with it. Although I didn’t agree with all the authors choices, I appreciated her boldness and intentionality in making them. She’s written publicly about how Ezra (the longtime BFF who the FMC has been secretly in love with) would be the hero in other romance books, and that was the point / something she was trying to explore. I also really liked the complexity and prickliness of Jo as a female lead. Some of the things she does seem blunt to the point of cruel, but as she says at a certain point in the book, this is a tactic she has chosen: “You can tell a lot about a person by how they react to someone’s truth. Talk to them straight, without all the social niceties, and they’ll let you know sooner rather than later if they’re someone you can trust.”

Ultimately, the book didn’t hit me deeply in the feels, despite loving aspects of it and really admiring Obuobi’s writing. I think this was largely because the two male main characters felt overly broad to me: Mal was too good to be true and Ezra was too much of a douchey rich boy. I also never really understood Jo’s deep love for Ezra given his aforementioned doucheyness. But, this is still absolutely a book worth reading and I will definitely read more by this author (who as well as being a super-talented writer, is also a doctor and cartoonist!).

Content Warnings

sagalessa99's review

5.0

Super cute! Mal was a top tier man! Black love ON TOP!
- “Jo, I am trying to tell you that you are scaring the hoes.”

sally_j's review against another edition

4.25

emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

honeybun_06's review

4.5

emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

torivintage's review

4.0

emotional funny reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

kylah1's review

4.0

hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

tiannareadsbooks's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

cherish_the_chapter's review

5.0

hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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