What Happens Between Friends by Beth Andrews (In Shady Grove #2)
Released: August 6, 2013
Contemporary
Harlequin

Reviewed by Mandi

I love the best friends to lovers trope and I also love the Superromance line from Harlequin so I had to try this one. After the first two chapters I started mentally making a list of everyone I was going to force to read this book because it was so darn cute. While the remaining part of the book didn’t quite hold up to the first two chapters, overall it is pretty well done. Except for the end. Oh the end made my heart and head hurt. Let me set it up first.

James works for his family’s construction company in Pennsylvania and has been best friends with Sadie for about twenty years. Now both in their mid-thirties, James is ready to settle down and start a family. He has been in love with Sadie for as long as he can remember, but they’ve always kept the best friend vibe between them, never crossing that line.

Sadie is a free bird. She is always moving around, always trying something new, and never really succeeding at much. Now out of a job and broken up with her boyfriend, she goes back home to work odd jobs, save some money and then move onto whatever comes next. The only thing she knows is that there is no way she is staying permanently in her hometown. But she sure loves to come home and see James.

She knew the moment he spotted her. She never tired of the way his face lit when he saw her, of how, out of all the people she knew and loved, he was the only one who never got frustrated with her lack of planning, her decisions. Never lost his patience with her or tried to change her.

With a whoop of joy, she launched herself at him. His arms came around her, strong and steady. Comfortable. No matter what the circumstances, no matter how she messed up or how fast she was falling, James always caught her before she hit rock bottom.

I’d say about a third into this book is when James admits to Sadie he truly loves her romantically and wants to move forward with a relationship. This confuses and scares Sadie, so for a large portion of this book, their relationship is very strained. But it all worked for me. Yes, Sadie is very flighty, and she dumps a lot of her crap on James, who is basically the most patient man on the planet.

He never could refuse Sadie anything.

It was his cross to bear, his greatest weakness. She was his greatest weakness.

But she also knows her faults and she owns up to them. She isn’t dumb. Also in this story, Sadie’s sister, who is in her early twenties has a crush on James and makes a move. I really liked how that played out too. We feel Charlotte’s pain and desperation as she tries so hard to be the woman James wants. Another key player in this book is Sadie’s mom. At first you are told they don’t have a good relationship and Sadie decides to bunk at James’s house rather than go home. I was expecting a bitchy mom, but what we get is a mom who stands up to her somewhat whiny daughter. There is a scene where Sadie asks for money to fund a trip to California and her mom flat out refuses her. I really like how her mother is portrayed in this one. Another highlight is this author has smart and witty banter throughout this book. I love me some witty banter!

So why the C+ grade  you ask? The end. This end is the most rushed and unresolved end I’ve read in a really long time. The entire book is Sadie being scared not only of being ‘stuck’ in the same town but moving her relationship with James to a romantic one. And I looked down at my kindle and saw I was 99% through this book and Sadie had yet to tell James, ‘okay I love you and I want you.’ WHIMPER. She literally tells him on the last page. We don’t even get an epilogue!  I’m in no way convinced Sadie is ready to settle with James. It felt like the book ended when there should have been another 15-20%. It’s so frustrating and disappointing because this could have been a really good book. We needed more time to see a confident, happy Sadie, and most importantly, time to actually see these two together, not having bad feelings towards one another.

I have high hopes for the next in this series out this December.

Rating: C+

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