I'm so very torn on how I feel about Friends Don't Fall in Love - I think my final rating is 3 because of how I feel about the characters and their behavior.

First of all - I LOVE friends to lovers/second chance and while I felt like this book fell into those tropes, it didn't feel like it was very well done with those tropes. It was a very short lived friends with benefits trope, that didn't feel very well done either.

Lorelai and Craig are longtime friends, previous one night stand, both deeply involved in the music industry. They are both pining for each other, but because we cannot be adults, they refuse to own up to their feelings or even tell the other how they feel. Lorelai has been gutted in the country music industry because of her speaking out against guns & now she's trying to come back.

I loved the advocating against school shootings and violence. I loved the music side of the story, but the characters made me angry reading the book. Both Craig and Lorelai felt toxic because they had very little confidence in themselves - while the whole world is screaming their praises and telling them how much they love them.

it literally takes until 90-ish% before the characters even admit to themselves how they feel about the other and 93-95% before they admit to the other person.

Honestly - I deducted 2 stars because the characters were so hard to read :(

I have other books of Erin Hahn to read and I will give her more chances.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.