Such a fun and light read! This is my first book by Shalvis and I can’t wait to read more!

Shalvis continues her Sunrise Cove series with The Friendship Pact. It's summer in Tahoe and Tae, working as an event planner, and her mom April, working as a receptionist for an adventure business for wounded vets and at-risk youth are working on a day of fun for the company. But Tae meets someone who puts doubt in her mind about the story she's been told about her father. Now she's trying to find the truth while also confronting someone from her past.

Uuuuggggg. Y'all this wasn't good. It took me ages to finish. I mostly thought it was boring. April felt simultaneously old and young. She's only in her early 40s, but sometimes she felt so much older. Tae felt younger than she was. She's in her late 20s, but she read like she was in her early 20s. The story was also flat. There wasn't really a whole lot to it. I just...really didn't dig this one.

3.75 stars

Thank you to Harper Audio for the advanced listener copy. These opinions are my own.

April had Tae when she was 15 years old. Now that they are both adults and close friends, Tae has questions about her father. And they are both looking for better romantic relationships.

I enjoyed seeing the bond between April and Tae. And I really liked Riggs. If anything, I would have liked to see more of him and less of trying to fit in a romantic interest for April.

Although this is the second in a series, it's absolutely a stand alone. We don't even have overlap with previous characters in the same town in Lake Tahoe. I think this would be better marketed not as part of a series. Additionally, the synopsis isn't really accurate, so I recommend against reading it.

The narration by Andi Arndt was quite well done.

3.5 stars rounded up

The Friendship Pact was such a fun and interesting read, I haven’t read the previous Sunrise Cove book, but I didn’t feel like I had missed out on anything, these are stand-alone, but I am definitely going to buying the first and the next now. If you’re like me once you finish reading this you’re going to want more of Jill Shalvis and Sunrise Cove.

I loved that this story isn’t just romance , it focuses on family, community and friends as much as romance and I loved reading about the relationship between Tae and her mother, April,as much as I did between Tae and Riggs.

I loved the setting of Lake Tahoe, along with the story the setting makes it even more of a lovely summer read and the author does a fabulous job of describing it so much I really want to go.

This a feel-good romantic story about second chances and I loved the authors focus on communication, the emphasis on discussion, being open and how it can heal , fantastic as quite often lack of communication is used as a plot device, I loved the shining light on the importance of good communication (both parents and partners)

I couldn’t help but fall in love with the characters , the writing is excellent and Jill weaves a world you just don’t want to leave, l definitely can’t wait to see what happened in the first book of this series, then I guess I’ll just have to wait patiently for the next.

This book is about second chance romances and the journey of Tae and Riggs. Riggs came back from the military to help his brother run a foundation for wounded veterans and at-risk kids and Tae runs the events for the foundation. They meet again at the end of one of those events.

I loved that Riggs figured out he’s always loved Tae. There is, of course, some push and pull between the two but I really loved the chemistry between Tae and Riggs.

There’s also the relationship between Riggs and his brother and the semi co-dependent relationship of Tae and her mother that get out through their paces in the novel, along with the other secret in the book.

Overall, it’s a fast and cute read. It’s a part of a series but I think it works fine as a standalone. Jill Shalvis doesn’t disappoint in her HEA.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the eARC in exchange for this honest review.