More Than A Friend - Book Review

By Amber Nation

Synopsis

Bentley Jenkins has lived in his older brother, Baylor’s shadow since the day he was born. Never feeling like he could live up to the high standards that was expected of him, he set out to make his own name for himself. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a well-respected one.

Playboy, smooth talker, ladies man; these were just a few of the names that he was directly associated with. He took pride in the fact that he never had to seduce a woman to get her to fall at his feet. Normally, a look, a wink, and a flash of his sexy grin was all it took.
Any woman would jump at the chance to be with him, so much that he’s never heard the word, no.

Until her.

Until the woman who claimed to be infatuated with him for years.

Until the woman he now couldn’t seem to get out of his head no matter how hard he tried…

Placed him in the Friend Zone.

Miriam Armstrong changed his entire perspective on women and for the first time in his life, he found himself wanting to settle down, to be a one woman man. But first, he needed to prove to Miri that the chemistry between them was worth being pursued, and that he wanted to be…More Than a Friend.

Review

Miri met Bentley on her first day of high school after she moved to Cottage Grove. She’s had a crush on him for the past ten years but it’s unrequited because he forgot she existed after that first day. Until he sees her again at his brother’s wedding. Suddenly she’s all he can think about and he’ll do anything to get out of the friend-zone she puts him in. But he has a bad reputation as a manwhore and she deserves more than just being a one-night-stand. For Miri, it’s all or nothing.

MORE THAN A FRIEND is the first book I’ve read from Amber Nation and while I thought the story was pretty solid and written well, it wasn’t able to really hold my attention. While I liked both Miri and Bentley and thought they were good for each other, I was confused as to how they suddenly became best friends after only a few interactions. But the part of the story I most took issue with was how Miri’s cousin, Maisie, was treated. Now, I haven’t read the previous two books in this series, so perhaps I’m missing something important, but she’s effectively bullied throughout the book. At one point a family member implies she’s a whore in front of hundreds of people at a charity event and everyone laughs. I’m sorry, but that didn’t sit well with me at all. MORE THAN A FRIEND is told in dual POVs and does come with a very nice HEA. If you’re after a book about a manwhore who changes his ways for the right woman, this one is for you.