Review: “Best Friends Don’t Kiss” by Max Monroe

Author: Max Monroe

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥

Tropes: Friends to Lovers, Fake Relationship, Holiday Romance, Billionaire Book Club Hijinks (this is going to become a trope from now onwards)

Release Date: November 28th, 2020

Goodreads | Amazon.in (Available on KU)

Synopsis: Goal: Find a boyfriend, get married, buy a house in the suburbs with a white picket fence, and pop out 2.5 kids.

Deadline: Sixty days.

That’s possible, right?

HAHAHA. *Faints*

I’m kidding. Well, kind of. I mean, I’m not going to attempt a shotgun wedding or try to get knocked up by some guy I met on the internet, but there is no doubt that, this year, home for the holidays takes on a whole new, terrifying meaning.

I have to travel from New York City—my home and safe haven for the last fifteen years—to my tiny hometown in Vermont for Christmas, my baby sister’s wedding, and my high school reunion.

Talk about a trifecta of single-doom.

Throw in Callie Camden—aka my high school class’s version of Regina George—and it’s a recipe for certified disaster.

Especially since my mouth ran away from me when she asked me if I’d be bringing someone to our reunion, and I told her to put me down for two.
Gah. Now I can’t go alone.

But the online dating world is a cesspool of bad manners, speedy hookups, and outright weirdos.

Handsome, single, successful—that’s what I’m looking for.
And it just so happens that my best friend Luke London fits all of the criteria.

The only problem is best friends don’t kiss…

But maybe it doesn’t count if it’s pretend?

Review: You guys know how much I love Max Monroe and how I believe they can truly do no wrong. So it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that they nailed this story and then some. I loved it so much that I stayed up all night to finish it because I was feeling all the feels.

Best Friends Don’t Kiss is a friends to lovers story, as you can tell from the title. But it’s just any ordinary friends, it’s about best friends who have known each other for over 15 years and have never once crossed that line. Ava Lucie and Luke London are truly the most incredible friends ever and I love that despite his feelings for Ava since the day they met, he’s never acted on it. Ava’s feelings for Luke are a little more complicated, but once she lets herself go…well, damn. That girl lets herself go.

“He kisses me in the kind of way I’ve always dreamed of being kissed. Slow and delicate at first, and then spreading like wildfire into something that smokes with passion and heat.”

Before we go any further, I would like to say that I think Luke London has joined the ranks of my favourite Max Monroe heroes. The title is shared by Kline Brooks, Harrison Hughes and Jake Brent, but Luke gets a piece of that too, because he is absolute perfection. I mean, he’s the best friend you could ever have and even though some of Ava’s antic’s piss him off and worry him to no end, he will lay down his life for her no matter what. But let’s be honest, my favourite thing about Luke is that he wants to be an astronaut! It’s not big public knowledge, but I am obsessed with NASA and space and everything in between. So to have a hero that basically does everything I want in a hero? I am so there. Luke London is perfection otherwise also and guys, you truly are in for a treat when you get to meet him.

Ava is such a fun character too! She’s got this quirkiness that is an endearing factor for a lot of Max Monroe’s heroines, but that doesn’t take away from what makes her special. I love that her job is so incredible and that she’s so passionate about art, because to see that side of a character always adds to who they are outside of their friendships and relationships. She’s also got the most entertaining family on the planet. You’ll meet her great-aunts Lily and Poppy fairly early on, but you have no idea what you’re in for. And of course, her mother is just wanting her daughter to be happy and find true love. But her father is so special, with his Christmas obsession and his absolute adoration for Ava.

This was teased A LOT all over Instagram, but #ThatchIsBack. Look, I love Thatch as much as the next person, but he was never my favourite of the Billionaires. But he’s insane. I mean, he is absolutely ridiculous, but also the best kind of friend you can have. If I forgot to mention this before, Luke is a commercial pilot and he flies Thatch and all his insanely handsome billionaire buddies around the world in a private plane. So every time Luke is working, you get pages of Thatch and the boys and it is hella entertaining. All the reasons we loved the Billionaires and their amazing girlfriends/wives/fiancees is literally in this book.

“You are all I can see, Ava,” he whispers and leans forward to press his lips to the corner of my mouth. “Just you.” His lips brush mine. “Always you.” His mouth deepens the kiss, and his tongue begs entrance into my mouth.

It’s a fake relationship situation, but let’s be honest, there’s nothing fake about this relationship. Good god, their chemistry (even though Ava is oblivious for a lot of it) is mindblowing and beautiful. And Luke’s self control is commendable, because the things Ava does and says would make any sane man lose complete control over himself. There’s an insanely hot cookie eating scene, so please brace yourselves for that. I always thought of cookies as messy and crumbly and complicated, but dear lord, Max Monroe has completely changed the way I will ever look at cookies again. And honestly, I am very grateful for that. While there’s a lot less sex then the previous lot of books by Max Monroe, what we do get is yummy. I was constantly hoping for more, because Ava and Luke deserve all that and so much more!

“NASA might have been the dream, but you’re my world. Never forget that.”

I believe this is the perfect way to end an otherwise awfully weird year, so thank you Max Monroe for bringing Luke and Ava into our lives and our hearts. And as a space nerd and a NASA obsessee, I appreciate what you did for and with Luke.

Thanks to Max Monroe and Social Butterfly PR for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.