Blurb:
Just friends. Just friends. Just friends.
If they repeat it enough, maybe it’ll be true…
Hazel Camille Bradford knows she’s a lot to take – and frankly, most men aren’t up to the challenge. If her army of pets and taste for the absurd don’t send them running, her lack of filter and tendency to say exactly the wrong thing will. Their loss. Not everyone can handle a Hazel.
Josh Im has known Hazel since college. From the first night they met – when she gracelessly threw up on his shows – to when she sent him an unintelligible email while in a post-surgical haze, Josh has always thought of Hazel more as a spectacle than a peer. But now, ten years later, after a cheating girlfriend has turned his life upside down, going out with Hazel is a breath of fresh air.
Not that Josh and Hazel date. At least, not each other. Because setting each other up on progressively terrible doubt blind dates means there’s nothing between them… right?
Rating: 5/5 stars
Side Notes:
- Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary Romance
- Highly recommend for 15 years and above
- TW: Sexual content, talk of past death of a loved one, cheating, and explicit language
- Romance Tropes: Friends to Lovers
Book Quotes:
- “But at the end of the day”, she says, and puts her hand outside the open window, letting the wind pass through her fingers, “being myself is enough. I’m enough. She’s not saying it to convince me, or even herself; she’s already there.”
- “I learned a very important thing that day: my mom would never try to change for a man, and I wouldn’t, either.”
- “The world seems full of men who are initially infatuated by our eccentricities, but who ultimately expect them to be temporary.”
- “The way Emily describes it: when I meet someone I love, I become an octopus and wind my tentacles around their heart, tighter and tighter until they can’t deny they love me just the same.”
- “He smiles, but it’s not a smile I’ve ever seen before. It’s a dangerous smile; he’s a movie villain, the seductive one, the one who robs you but fucks you real good first.”
- “We both know Hazel is a butterfly. I think you have the power to take the dust from her wings.”
- “I know I’m like Pig-Pen in Charlie Brown, and I have chaos around me, but it’s like he doesn’t even care. He doesn’t need me to change or pretend to be someone else. He’s my person. He’s my best friend.”
- “I saw it and I thought it would make you laugh.” Josh’s eyes soften, and he gives me such an adoring smile, it’s nearly painful. “You look ridiculous in that. I hope you wear it all day.”
- “I realize I should be mortified that Past Hazel was so dramatically inappropriate, but it’s not like I’m that much better now, and regret isn’t really my speed anyway.”
- “I love you too, you know.” His kiss turns into a smile. “Yeah?” “I’ve probably loved you longer.” A trickster grin. “Probably.” I pinch his splendid ass for that and he growls, pressing into me.”
- “I always thought I caught you in . . . a phase. His left eyebrow makes a fancy arch. Apparently you’re just like this.”
- “I can say without question I’ve honestly never known anyone else like you.” “So completely undatable?” “Something like that.”
- “I used to wonder what it felt like to stand in the middle of a cyclone, a tornado, at the epicenter of an earthquake. Once or twice, when Tyler had bruised my feelings without any awareness of it, I would think, These emotions are tiny. Imagine standing right there when the entire Earth rumbles. I wonder whether what’s happening inside me is simply a smaller version of a tropical storm: everything is being blown around and upended.”
- “And honestly, the only way to avoid this conversation is to stand when System of a Down comes on, and pretend I am very, very excited to hear all of their songs that I’m not even sure I know. I close my eyes, and for just fifteen minutes, I try to push out all of these emotions. I dance away the feeling that I’m trying to talk myself into being attracted to Tyler.”
- “Why do they do that?” I asked, watching the shiny body flip through the air before landing with a splash. “I get why they do it when they’re hooked—I’d put up a fight, too. But this seems counterproductive. Like, you’re a fish and people are trying to find you. Hide!” Josh laughed and rested his elbows on the edge of the boat. [..] “I don’t know if anyone has asked the sturgeons directly, but I think it’s to clear their gills? Or maybe avoid predators.” I squinted off into the distance. “Maybe it’s just fun.” Josh grew quiet and I looked over to see him watching me. “I never thought of it that way before.”
- “I loved her in the way we love in high school, sort of intensely, idealistically, and without knowing each other all that well.”
- “Turning, I yell over my shoulder, “Emily, your Korean name is Yujin?” She nods. “His is Jimin.” I look at him like I’m seeing a new person in front of me. The two syllables of his name are like a sensual exhale, something I might say immediately preorgasm when words fail me. “That might be the hottest name I’ve ever heard,”