Almost Just Friends
A Novel
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4.2 • 41 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
USA Today Bestseller
New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis returns to Wildstone with the touching story of finding your place in the world—and the people who make it home.
Piper Manning’s about as tough as they come, she’s had to be. She raised her siblings and they’ve thankfully flown the coop. All she has to do is finish fixing up the lake house her grandparents left her, sell it, and then she’s free.
When a massive storm hits, she runs into a tall, dark and brooding stranger, Camden Reid. There’s a spark there, one that shocks her. Surprising her further, her sister and brother return, each of them holding their own secrets. The smart move would be for Piper to ignore them all but Cam unleashes emotions deep inside of her that she can’t deny, making her yearn for something she doesn’t understand. And her siblings…well, they need each other.
Only when the secrets come out, it changes everything Piper thinks she knows about her family, herself…and Cam. Can she find a way to outrun the demons? The answer is closer than she thinks—just as the new life she craves may have already begun.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Jill Shalvis’ romance poignantly explores the complicated nature of sibling relationships. After their parents died, Piper Manning took on the role of raising her younger brother and sister. Now, she finally can focus on her dream of becoming a physician’s assistant, but then her siblings return home, one just out of rehab and the other pregnant. Luckily, Piper’s new (and handsome) neighbor is there to support her as she grapples with her responsibilities and aspirations. Shalvis excels at depicting the type of human connections that can both heal and break your heart. We appreciated the book’s message: Don’t neglect self-care or ignore your own growth!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Shalvis (The Lemon Sisters) unites two people healing from emotional trauma in this tender contemporary. EMT Piper Manning is reluctantly celebrating her 30th birthday at a bar in her hometown of Wildstone, Calif., when she meets her neighbor's 32-year-old son, Cam Hayes, a DEA agent. The attraction between them ignites during a particularly stormy night, but Piper is reluctant to let anyone get too close to her. After her parents died, she raised her younger siblings, Winnie and Gavin; they've recently moved out and she's ready to live life on her own terms. Cam is also reeling from his younger brother's recent death and not sure how to connect with civilians. Then Piper's siblings come back home, seeking comfort from their sister but reluctant to admit the ways their lives have fallen apart. Piper's relationship with Cam heats up, but she's afraid that coming to rely on him will further hamper her quest for independence. Believable, realistic characters are at the heart of this novel. Shalvis will immediately grab the reader's attention with a strong heroine and caring connection between two wounded souls.
Customer Reviews
Lovely Friends to Lovers story
Almost Just Friends by Jill Shalvis is the fourth book in her engaging Wildstone series. It can be read as a standalone, but I have really enjoyed reading the other books in this series and recommend them as well. At the age of 13, EMT Piper Manning lost her parents and became responsible for her younger brother and sister. On her 30th birthday, she has reached a point in her life where she has decided that she can live her life for herself finally and is making plans to move away and go to school to become a physician’s assistant. You know what they say about best-laid plans because both her brother and sister return home and the secrets they’ve been keeping are going to turn Piper's world on end. Camden Reid, aka Hot Guy, has come to Wildwood to check up on his father Pipers neighbor and to fulfill the obligations he inherited when his younger brother died in a car accident that he feels responsible for. This is a seriously hot friends to lovers story along with an exploration of families and our places in them told with the combination of humour, angst and steam that Jill Shalvis does so well. I received an ARC of this book to read through Edelweiss+ in exchange for a fair review. Publishing Date January 21, 2020 #AlmostJustFriends #JillShalvis #Edelweissplus #ContemporaryRomance #FriendstoLoversTrope #bookstagram #HarperCollnsCanada #WmMorrowPublishers #HarperCollins @HarperCollinsCanada