3.71 AVERAGE

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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
emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A
funny lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
emotional inspiring lighthearted medium-paced
morganthebee's profile picture

morganthebee's review

3.25

Abby Craden did a great job with the narration of Not Just Gal Pals. It’s sweet, low angst, and has cute pets. I enjoyed the small-town fall feel and I liked the premise. I liked Jenny, and the side characters were nice and all. That said, for whatever reason this one just didn’t do it for me. I felt like I got a bit of whiplash at the end with how quicky things turned and then turned again, and I found Blake to be…pretty boring, to be honest. I don’t know. It’s not a bad book and I don’t regret reading it, but it’s not one I’ll pick up again.
rebelspykatie's profile picture

rebelspykatie's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 32%

Boring plot, couldn’t capture my attention at all. 
lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This was honestly a very charming sapphic romance, realistically exceeded my expectations given I basically chose it because the cover looked like the same style as some others I enjoyed 😅. Guaranteed happy ending as required by genre, not super spicy (borderline slow burn, not too many scenes) but enjoyable, and there was some teasing writing working up to those scenes. Characters felt fairly three-dimensional (not the most ever but definitely enough) and lovable, if sometimes very "useless lesbian" 😅. One of the main characters actually reminded me of myself and was giving almost neuro-spicy vibes (which were completely misinterpreted, as you might expect) for whatever that's worth. My least favorite plot point,
the third act breakup, was at least foreseen, and not overly drawn out, thankfully. Not too painful either.
Pacing was good too, felt like the character development was spread nicely thru the duration.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

This book was perfectly adorable. But considering fall and sapphic romances are two of my favorite things, I am not surprised. If that wasn’t enough to make me love it then throwing in mentions of Taylor Swift and Pride and Prejudice definitely did. Low angst and moments of humor. Will seek out this author again in the future. 4.5/5


Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
lighthearted relaxing fast-paced
Diverse cast of characters: No

This was a perfect book for my mood of just wanting to read something low stakes and fluffy and cozy. It nails all of those aspects and the chemistry between the leads is obvious and heart squeezing. 

However. 

The sex is written like the character might be telling it to a friend over a coffee in a shop. It's so rote and bland (basically convebrsational) that I had to knock off the stars I might've given this with good, hot sex scenes.

If u don't care as much about the sex being hot or if ur kinda modest about that sort of thing, this book would be perfect for you. 
adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated