Between Friends & Lovers: A Novel

This book had me glued to the pages from beginning to end!! There were so many lessons in this book about self love, combatting anxiety, and learning to trust--again or for the first time. I love reading romance books with African American female leads, it allows me to see myself in each chapter. Still, Obuobi managed to create a list of characters that reminded me of myself in various ways!

Between friends and lovers is a constipated book for me. I say this for a very personal perspective because I've been in Jo's position before just from a slightly different standpoint. And to be quite honest, I felt triggered most of the time reading this book lol. Before I share my thoughts, here are the similarities I shared with Jo: Higher education background where I often felt like an imposter in most circles. Love for a best friend that spanned over a decade but not raciprscsted but basically strung along. A partner that came into my life more open, honest and receptive and nearly the polar opposite of best friend. Independent and solely responsible for my life and actions early on in life Between Friends and Lovers dives deep into the wells of love, affection, appreciation, and knowing what self-worth is all about. Malcolm's character is very open, honest and at the same time easy to fall in love with his partner. We have Jo's character on the other hand who is protective closed off and always bury inside of her head about things, especially with how damaged her relationship is with her mother who was never really involved or seem to care about her and how close she is with her best friend and how the spill over from platonic and platonic her feelings about him over the years has affected her and how she sees other relationships in her life. Both Malcolm and Jo are very much , aware of themselves in terms of how they chemistry could blossom, but at the same time our reserved because of how different they are from each other. I quite liked how detailed their relationship is unveiled to the reader as a story progressed. And I felt the pacing of the book all aligned with what a true falling out of love to fall in love story would look like particularly for Jo and her situation. This is my first book by the authors. I'm not sure if the perspectives switch between third and first person is a normal thing that took a little bit to get used to. And personally, I would have preferred it to be just picked between one or the other. We got to know both characters pretty well and to split between the two POV's, didn't add anything to the book. I also liked that this book handles mental health issues and depression with the amount of care that the author does with these topics because too often they are gloss over or handle it very poorly. Particularly when it comes to the African-American community. I don't often see books handling mental health issues for the African-American community as well or as delicately as this book does. Because not every situation is the same but it shows that come from or not and it just anchors the fact that issues affect everyone and then come out of nowhere. There's always factors that lead to it. I don't know if this is a book that is a reread book for me and I think that's only because of the similarities I had with the main character. And how this story just jostled me personally. I didn't enjoy the book and I enjoy the closure sense of closure that we get, Jo and Ezra and I would recommend this book to either romance, readers or other readers who want to read a book has a good mix of humor, romance, self discovery, healing relationships.

Wow. Love. What a beautiful concept. Just as beautiful as resiliency, true friendship, and bravery. All of which I experienced while reading this book. This was a smooth and engaging read. It's not too mushy or annoying. It was humorous and relatable. My favorite part was the acknowledgment of mental health and the importance of seeking and obtaining mental health services. Thank you, S. Obuobi.