Title: Blurred Lines
Series: N/A
Author: Lauren Layne
Genre: Romance
Blurb: When Parker Blanton meets Ben Olsen during her freshman year of college, the connection is immediate—and platonic. Six years later, they’re still best friends, sharing an apartment in Portland’s trendy Northwest District as they happily settle into adult life. But when Parker’s boyfriend dumps her out of the blue, she starts to wonder about Ben’s no-strings-attached approach to dating. The trouble is, even with Ben as her wingman, Parker can’t seem to get the hang of casual sex—until she tries it with him.
The arrangement works perfectly . . . at first. The sex is mind-blowing, and their friendship remains as solid as ever, without any of the usual messy romantic entanglements. But when Parker’s ex decides he wants her back, Ben is shocked by a fierce stab of possessiveness. And when Ben starts seeing a girl from work, Parker finds herself plagued by unfamiliar jealousy. With their friendship on the rocks for the first time, Parker and Ben face an alarming truth: Maybe they can’t go back. And maybe, deep down, they never want to.
Thoughts: We all know the story – guy and girl are friends, one of them gets the bright idea that they should have no-strings attached sex and they can still go back to being best friends, only they both have more than just frisky feelings for each other and wind up mad at each other and ruining their friendship. Only to have a sweet, sexy scene and wind up living happily ever after. Hmmm, one would never guess reading that that the friends to lovers troupe is one of my favorites! Which, of course, is why I was quick to pick this one up.
I loved the story, I loved the ‘friends to lovers’ bit (of course), and I loved the whole modern feel to the story. What I didn’t always like was the characters and/or the actions of the characters. I liked them for the most parts, but the did have a few character quirks and immaturity issues that annoyed me a little bit while I was reading. For example, Ben acts like he absolutely can’t live without sex – and Parker criticizes other girls for the same crap she does. While mildly annoying for me, I could shrug it off and still enjoy the story quite a bit – however, I can see how some people might be annoyed to no end by these characters.
Overall, a good friends to lovers story, particularly if this is a troupe you love. Otherwise, it might fall a bit flat.
Rate: B+
