I have a new favorite Jill Shalvis book!!!! I LOVE THE FRIENDSHIP PACT!!! I LOVE IT!!!! As soon as I opened the book, I was lost in the story. There were so many emotions riddling the pages. They made the story a magnificent escape. The storyline gave me hope that people can find happiness in life, even if they struggled growing up.

The author has created so many amazing characters in the Sunrise Cove series. She makes families the center of the story and the small town an importance influence. I can't believe I am envious of the characters, but I am. In this story, characters are linked through an adventure company. Jake and his brother, Riggs own it. April is the receptionist, and her daughter, Tae, is planning the events.

Riggs and Tae will get a second chance to fall in love after a one night stand in high school. But do they want it? Conflicting feelings adds a lot of drama. I loved the drama. To keep themselves safe they create a Friendship Pact. Will friendship be enough? Will friendship cause more problems.

If their own emotional walls aren't enough to keep them apart; everyone wants Riggs to stay away from her. Riggs and Tae aren't the only emotional drama in The Friendship Pact. Tae's mom, April, has struggled since having Tae at age 15. Riggs brother, Jake, is still adapting to loosing his legs. And that is only the beginning.

If you love lots of drama and a lovely happily ever after; The Friendship Pact will not disappoint.

It has always been Tae and her mom, April, against the world. Tae has started her own event planning company and is staying busy. She is doing events for Adrenaline HQ for Jake, who has asked his brother, Riggs, to come back to town to help out. Tae was hurt by Riggs when they were teenagers and has no intention of getting close to him again. However, an event the night they first see each other again something happens that draws them closer together.

Riggs is out of the military and is in town to help is brother and then move back to DC for a job. What he never expected was to see Tae again, or he was going to try to avoid her. Ever since they were seventeen, it has always been her, and they can read each other and see the person they really are even when they're trying to hide. When Tae starts looking for her father, she has questions and Riggs tries to protect her even when he should be staying out of it. Tae is of course hurt when she finds out the truth, but will she be able to forgive Riggs and allow them to have their happily ever after.

Jill Shalvis has the ability to take your emotions, put them in a box shake them up and then tie everything up in a bow with a tissue box and a happy grin at the end. I keep thinking that I can not find another book I love more by this author but every time she releases a new book I swear it just gets better than the last one. I think the best part of the book, besides watching Riggs and Tae fall in love, was Adrenaline HQ and the organizing helping Military Vets, at risk kids, and kids with disabilities. You really get to see all the characters at their best when they are doing an event with AHQ.

My main complaint about this book, yet I understand it at the same time with what happened, is April taking so long to tell her daughter the truth about her father. I know bad things happen and parents don't always think their kids need to know the truth but kids always need to know the truth about their parents. Kids just want to know where they came from, even as an adult. I loved at everything turned out in the end.

Received ARC in exchange for voluntary honest review

First of all, I don’t normally read Romance novels, they just aren’t my thing, but I won this ARC on Goodreads while entering giveaways to help stock my Little Free Library. It was a quick read, light, and somewhat predictable a good escape from the heavier books I read most recently.

Tae and April are as close as a mother and daughter can get. They basically raised each other. There are no secrets between them. Except, when Tae starts asking about her father, April closes off. Tae knows there's something that April is not telling her, and she's bound and determined to figure it out.
Luckily, Tae has help in the form of Riggs Copeland.

Tae and Riggs were friendly in high school. Despite Riggs being a part of the popular group, and Tae being an outsider, they got along really well, but after a brief fling, they parted ways and haven't spoken since.

When Riggs shows up in Sunrise Cove for the summer to help out his brother with his business, Tae and he could easily pick up where they left off, but seeing their situation for what it is (Riggs leaving in a couple of months), they initiate a Friendship Pact. Of course, that doesn't negate the attraction between them. When a secret threatens to upend their tenuous friendship, they both start thinking about what it is they're wanting out of life.

So I have not yet read the first book in the Sunrise Cove series, but like with many of Jill Shalvis's books, you don't have to. I was able to easily read this as a standalone and I really enjoyed it.

There's a dual narration between April and Tae, and if anything I think the mother-daughter dynamic is a super close second to the romance aspect of the story. For me, though, the romance just barely edges forward as the focus of the story.

I really liked the history between Riggs and Tae. It was something that I wish we could have explored more. We got a couple of flashback scenes but I wanted more of these. I just liked seeing the "then" as compared to the "now". I think it made their chemistry that much more dynamic, especially because, at first, it's something they're both trying to suppress which basically makes it burn brighter in my opinion.

I thought that the April and Tae relationship was handled really well by Jill Shalvis. There were definitely moments where I had to remind myself that April was the mother. That's the point though is that as a teenage mother, April and Tae basically grew up together which is also cause for some of the imbalance in their relationship as in the past it felt like Tae was the one taking care of April and not the other way around as it should have been. It doesn't mean their love for each other is not strong, but I could definitely see where some deep-seeded resentments could form from it.

Something that Jill Shalvis has always done really well in her books is making the setting (in this case Sunrise Cove) really stand out. Having the book be about the place as much as it is the people, makes it easy to want to return again and again. Sunrise Cove is this quaint town near Lake Tahoe, you envision this very outdoorsy place and that comes across beautifully in this book. I'm definitely going to pick up the first book sooner rather than later and I'm excited to see where Jill Shalvis takes this series next.

*ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for and honest review.