A Guide to Being Just Friends: A Novel

by Sophie Sullivan

Overview

Most Anticipated Romance by Goodreads, Buzzfeed, PopSugar, and more!

When Harry Met Sally meets 500 Days of Summer in A Guide to Being Just Friends, a playful and emotional romantic comedy from the author of Ten Rules for Faking It.

"Sophie Sullivan’s writing feels like a warm hug.” —Rachel Lynn Solomon, bestselling author of The Ex Talk

Hailey Sharp has a one-track mind. Get By the Cup salad shop off the ground. Do literally everything possible to make it a success. Repeat. With a head full of entrepreneurial ideas and a bad ex in her rearview, her one and only focus is living life the way she wants to. No distractions.

Wes Jansen never did understand the fuss about relationships. With a string of lackluster first dates and the pain from his parents’ angry divorce following him around, he’d much rather find someone who he likes, but won’t love. Companionship, not passion, is the name of the game.

When Hailey and Wes find each other in a disastrous meet cute that wasn’t even intended for them, they embarrassingly go their separate ways. But when Wes finds Hailey to apologize for his behavior, they strike up a friendship. Because that’s all this can be. Hailey doesn’t want any distractions. Wes doesn’t want to fall in love.

What could possibly go wrong?

"A joyful, swoony romance full of heart and humor!" —Sarah Adams, author of The Cheat Sheet

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250624208
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/17/2023
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	259,037
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

SOPHIE SULLIVAN (she/her) is a Canadian author as well as a cookie-eating, Diet Pepsi-drinking, Disney enthusiast who loves reading and writing romance in almost equal measure. She writes around her day job as a teacher and spends her spare time with her sweet family watching reruns of Friends. She has written Ten Rules for Faking it and How to Love Your Neighbor, and has had plenty of practice writing happily ever after as her alter ego, Jody Holford.

Editorial Reviews

10/24/2022

Sullivan charms in her final Jansen Brothers romance (after How to Love Your Neighbor). Hailey Sharp left Hollywood and a bad relationship to settle in the Southern California town of San Verde, where she opens a salad shop. She soon meets Wesley Jansen, a businessman and New York City transplant who heads the intriguingly named Squishy Cat Industries with his two brothers. After getting off on the wrong foot, Hailey and Wesley strike up a fast friendship—and the commitment-averse pair are each determined that’s all their relationship will ever be. They struggle (unsuccessfully) to fight their growing attraction—right up until Hailey accidentally lets her feelings slip and sends Wes running scared. Their fairly straightforward friends-to-lovers romance is enhanced by a robust supporting cast (which includes the starring couples from the earlier books) and numerous laugh-out-loud moments, including an autocorrect fail that puts a dirty spin on pretzel sticks. It’s a fun, breezy romp. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for A Guide to Being Just Friends:

“Sophie Sullivan crafts a warm, sweet-as-brownies love story in A Guide to Being Just Friends: with found family, a hopeful, determined heroine, a starchy hero, and the risky question ‘What if adding romance to our already-great relationship makes it even better? What if it makes us fall apart?’ this is a slow-burn friends-to-lovers with lots of heart and kindness.” - Sarah Hogle, author of You Deserve Each Other

“Sophie Sullivan has written a love letter to friends, to entrepreneurs, and to found families! A Guide to Being Just Friends is a joyful, swoony romance full of heart and humor! An absolute delight to read!” - Sarah Adams, author of When in Rome and The Cheat Sheet

“Sullivan writes love stories of characters who feel like friends—this wonderfully sweet romance is no exception. This is the perfect friends-to-lovers story, instantly relatable and completely charming.” - Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka, authors of The Roughest Draft

"Sullivan charms...a fun, breezy romp." - Publishers Weekly

"Sullivan creates warm and likable leads...A fun, enjoyably light read for fans of the friends-to-lovers trope." - Kirkus

"A cute AF rom-com...playful and surprisingly emotional." - E! News

"A grumpy/sunshine, friends to lovers romance with all the warm and fuzzies of a journey of two friends bringing out the best in each other—this book was simply delightful." - Natasha is a Book Junkie

Praise for Sophie Sullivan:

“A lovely, endearing romance that made me yearn for a little beach house to fix up. Sophie Sullivan’s writing feels like a warm hug.” —Rachel Lynn Solomon, bestselling author of The Ex Talk

"[An] enemies-to-lovers trajectory with just the right amount of novelty and sweetness." - Kirkus

"Will definitely enchant you." -Buzzfeed

"The remodeling descriptions are vivid and lovely, and the romance offers terrific dialogue and chemistry. This thoroughly enjoyable read will please fans of Sara Desai's novels." —Booklist

"A wholesome, slow-burn romance that will warm your heart and offer a glimpse into social anxiety disorder. This is a Hallmark movie in book form." - Helen Hoang, USA Today bestselling author of The Kiss Quotient and The Bride Test

“Impossible to read without smiling—escapist romantic comedy at its heartwarming best.” – New York Times Bestselling author Lauren Layne

“A funny, sweet rom com from a fresh, sparkling new voice. Everly’s social anxiety was instantly relatable, and I was rooting for her every inch of the way to her happily-ever-after.” – Andie J. Christopher, USA Today Bestselling author of Not The Girl You Marry

"Readers will be charmed." -Publishers Weekly

"Intricate details about home renovations jostle for space with matters of the heart in this lighthearted romance." -Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

10/01/2022

Following How To Love Your Neighbor, Sullivan concludes her "Jansen Brothers" trilogy with a friends-to-lovers romance featuring Wes (the eldest Jansen) and salad-shop owner Hailey, in an updated When Harry Met Sally. After a barista writes Hailey's name incorrectly, and Wes thinks his blind date is blatantly avoiding him, an awkward meet-cute morphs into a tentative friendship when the two keep meeting. The titular guide is a pact between the two to emphasize their single status—Wes has sworn off romance after his parent's disastrous divorce, and Hailey is freshly out of an emotionally unfulfilling relationship—until both develop feelings and debate whether to potentially compromise their friendship. While Sullivan skips the theatrics when pushing her leads apart, her writing is missing that quintessential spark connoisseurs of romance may crave. VERDICT A cozy, contemporary romance wrapping up an otherwise average trilogy. Recommended for libraries with an extensive romance collection or those already invested in the series.—Rachel Alexander

Library Journal

2022-10-27
Can men and women ever be friends? A restaurant owner and a businessman put the immortal question from When Harry Met Sally to the test.

After getting dumped by her self-involved actor boyfriend, Hailey Sharp throws herself into work. She uses her experience working for food services trucks on film sets to open her own brick-and-mortar salad shop, By the Cup. She’s looking to run a successful business, not fall in love. Enter Wes Jansen. After a botched meet-cute where he thinks she’s the blind date who stood him up, he confides in Hailey that he’s over the dating-app scene. His parents’ acrimonious divorce soured him on love, and he’d much rather focus on the company he owns with his brothers, which has the goal of helping small businesses grow. Hailey agrees with his philosophy, and the two of them decide to be just friends. Of course, as Wes helps Hailey with her business and she joins in on his family celebrations, friendship starts to look a whole lot like falling in love. All of their friends, including Wes’ brothers, can tell they’re perfect for each other, but Wes doesn’t want to damage their friendship—and Hailey doesn’t want to lose herself to another man who can’t commit. But when their attraction to each other becomes too strong to ignore, they’ll have to decide if love is worth being vulnerable. In the third and final installment of her Jansen Brothers series, Sullivan creates warm and likable leads. Hailey is strong and relatable as a woman attempting to restart her life after derailing it for an unworthy man, and Wes, while pricklier, is loyal and supportive of all his friends, especially Hailey. Although their journey to true love encounters quite a few obstacles, it’s still an entertaining trek to discover their happily-ever-after.

A fun, enjoyably light read for fans of the friends-to-lovers trope.

Kirkus Reviews