REVIEW: Out of the Friend Zone by Stephanie Nicole

Out of the Friend Zone by Stephanie Nicole
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Book Description: 

Chandler lost his wife in a car accident, leaving him to raise his young daughter alone. Brynn left her cheating husband, and moved next door to Chandler with her son. Chandler helps Brynn realize not all men are like her ex, and she helps him by showing it's okay to move on after his wife's death. Starting out as friends, neither one realizes that they need each other, or what is in store for their future together.

*This book contains adult situations and explicit content. 17+*

Final rating: 2.5

I was looking forward to this book, but it didn't live up to expectations.

I saw somewhere that this book has been re-edited. Since I didn't read the previous version, I can't speak about grammar issues (although I didn't notice much of anything). But I did notice something that was changed. Brynn's son was named Barrett. However there were times that Brynn would call him Cole. Another inconsistency was Chandler's best friend Zaiden was referred to as Nate a couple of times. (Let me just say that I really didn't like the name Zaiden) So it was obvious that names have been changed.

As for the story...I had high hopes. The description promised a friends to lovers story and I did get that but everything felt rushed. The description says:

Starting out as friends, neither one realizes that they need each other.

Seeing as Chandler has been in deep mourning for his late wife (2 years people!) and Brynn is just months out of a bad marriage, I just couldn't understand how they jumped into a relationship so quickly. I expected them to actually form a friendship on the pages of the book. For them to get to know each other, feel an attraction but forge the friendship before finally giving in around 50% to a romantic relationship. But it didn’t happen that way. They were dating by 20% and by 50% they were saying I love you. And that was just way too soon for me! At 50%, I was left wondering what was left to tell…they were together, they were talking moving in together and all was good. Then they had a fight and broke up. And that set a precedent for the rest of the book.

This book could have been great. It could have been a great friends-to-lovers story…but everything was so rushed that I didn’t feel the connection between Chandler and Brynn.


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