Just Friends by Tiffany Pitcock

Title: Just Friends
Author: Tiffany Pitcock
Release Date: August 1, 2017
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Pages: 320
Source: ARC provided by Raincoast Books
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Overall: 3 STARS

SUMMARY 

A new spin on the classic smart-girl-and-bad-boy setup, this witty contemporary romance shows how easily a friendship – even one built on an elaborate lie – can become so much more.

Jenny meets Chance for the very first time when she is assigned as his partner in their Junior Oral Communications class. But after they rescue a doomed assignment with one clever lie, the whole school is suddenly convinced that Little-Miss-Really-Likes-Having-A’s and the most scandalous heartbreaker in school have been best friends forever. It’s amazing how quickly a lie can grow—especially when you really, really want it to be the truth.

With Jenny, Chance can live the normal life he’s always kind of wanted. And with Chance, Jenny can have the exciting teen experiences that TV shows and movies have always promised. Through it all, they hold on to the fact that they are “just friends.” But that might be the biggest lie of all.

Debut author Tiffany Pitcock delivers a spot-on depiction of first love and the high school rumor mill in Just Friends, chosen by readers like you for Macmillan's young adult imprint Swoon Reads. 

MY THOUGHTS
I'm a sucker for friends-to-lovers type romances, so when I heard about Tiffany Pitcock's Just Friends, I immediately knew I had to read it! Just Friends was a cute YA contemporary romance, perfect for some light summertime reading. Friendship. Teen angst. Confused feelings. Yes! Give me all the high school drama. Told in alternating point of views, you'll be rooting for Jenny and Chance to be more than just friends from the very beginning.

I loved the easy, effortless banter between Chance and Jenny, how they would make up creative fictional stories about their childhoods and finish each other's sentences. When Chance is with Jenny, he can pretend his life is normal and that his parent's marriage isn't falling apart at home. And for Jenny, hanging out with Chance is a way for her to break out of her usual comfort zone. She's a very sheltered teen, and attending parties and drinking alcohol are first time experiences for her.

Chance is described as a major player, a popular boy with a scandalous reputation, but I wasn't entirely convinced that was true. At least, the Chance we see around Jenny isn't like that at all. He's kind, trustworthy, and really nice, but I didn't imagine him as a big flirt around girls. And Chance's parents constantly argue at home, leaving him tense and uncomfortable, but it always seemed to happen off the pages after he'd already escaped to Jenny's house. We never really got a chance to meet his parents at all.

There is some miscommunication between Jenny and Chance, which I can find frustrating in a book, but in this case, I accepted it because it occurred naturally. It takes courage to put yourself out there, so I could understand why Jenny and Chance were so hesitant to take a risk and change the dynamics of their very close friendship and admit their true feelings. I could see why they felt the fear of rejection, that their feelings may not be reciprocated. (Also, it's a standard trope in these kind of books, so I wasn't too surprised it happened.)

I wasn't struck with all the feels for Just Friends, but it was a very enjoyable read that provided me with a few hours of entertainment! I felt invested in finding out how Jenny and Chance would eventually (finally!) be together. Tiffany Pitcock's debut novel is a very sweet romance story, with two very relatable, utterly ordinary teens experiencing the ups and downs of falling in love in high school.