Review: Best Friends with Benefits by Candy Sloane

Posted April 3, 2016 by Elizabeth in Elizabeth B, Reviews / 0 Comments

Review:  Best Friends with Benefits by Candy SloaneBest Friends with Benefits by Candy Sloane
Series: Most Likely To, #1
Published by Entangled Publishing Publication Date: March 14th 2016
Pages: 167
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Find on: Goodreads
three-stars

Valerie Barkin and Alec Rogers survived bullies, awful parents, and seriously shitty social standing the only way best friends canβ€”together. But with the unexpected sexual tension suddenly flaring between them, surviving their ten-year high school reunion might be a different story…
Val hasn’t changed. She still feels like the stringy-haired band geek the popular kids teased, but Alec has definitely changed. He’s now the front man for the Grammy-winning rock band Chronic Disharmony, with the sexual reputation to match. And he’s more than willing to help Val rock the reunion.
And then it happensβ€”a drunken game of Seven Minutes in Heavenβ€”and their fourteen-years-long foreplay comes crashing to the forefront…changing everything.
Seven minutes turns into a weekend of mind-blowing, no-strings-attached sex. But these best friends won't be able to leave their hearts out of it forever, not when the most meaningful benefit could change their relationship for good....

Cocktails and Books received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect our opinion of the book or the content of our review.

I was looking forward to this book, because the premise sounded interesting. Two high school best friends reconnect at their 10 year reunion and discover that there is way more than friendship between them. Ms. Sloan delivered on the premise, but I felt like things could have been a little bit better.

Valerie and Alec both had a tough time in high school. For her it was bullying and for him it was an abusive home life with his best friend, Val, being his refuge. Fast forward 10 years and Valerie is a successful flautist and Alec a rock star, but inside they still carry the wounds for high school. To make things more interesting – this is the first time they have seen each other in person since graduation.

I enjoyed and completely understood how both Al and Val struggled with the idea of being physically attracted to their best friend. Dealing with that in the context of a high school reunion that brings old insecurities and feeling to the surface added some interesting moments too.

What I found frustrating was how hot and cold Val seemed to run with Alec. She seemed to have massive blinders on when it came to how he felt about her and was almost clinical is approaching a physical relationship with him. I didn’t understand how her sense of self-worth could be so low as to not believe he could be attracted to her and love her.

Overall, this was an okay read. It had it’s fun moments and was fairly light.

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I am a full time mom who works part time. I squeeze reading in wherever I can between work, volunteer stuff, and kid activities. I read a little bit of everything, but really enjoy indie authors and Happy- Ever-Afters. I've been reviewing for Cocktails and Books since January 2015.