Just Between Friends

by Sandra Steffen

Reeling from the discovery of her husband's adultery, Brooke Valentine abandons her seemingly perfect life in Philadelphia to return home to a beautiful town on the coast of New Hampshire, with her daughter, where she is reunited with her childhood friends Sara Kemper and Claudia Reynolds, two women suffering from their own romantic upheaval, and learns to love again. Original.

Genres: Romance

318 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Sandra Steffen is an award-winning, bestselling author of over thirty-seven novels, honored with the RITA Award, National Readers Choice Award, and The Wish Award. She balances writing with family life, having married her high-school sweetheart and raised four sons. Sandra enjoys reading, walking, laughing, connecting with friends, and, above all, writing.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book featured 3 women - friends - each with her own history and relationship problems. Brooke's husband cheated on her....again...and was struggling with the idea of getting a divorce. Sarah had just left an abusive relationship and was working to become independent. Claudia, successful and independent, doesn't usually let men get too close and won't admit that she loves the one she's with.

This was a sweet book that dealt with some serious issues. I absolutely loved the fact that the answer for all three women was not an HEA relationship. The last thing Sarah (the one whose husband hit her) needed was to fall straight into a new relationship. Her struggle, which was probably the most compelling of the three, was to find herself, which she'd lost in her marriage.

Brooke, meanwhile, meets a man and sparks fly, but she can't act on it while she's so unsure about her life and her own marriage. Part of me was thinking, screw him, he cheated, but especially as the story moved on, I knew that was too easy. She had to find her strength on her own before trusting another man.

Claudia's thread was a bit more amusing and not particularly deep, but it was a nice tension breaker. I loved the resolution to this one...no spoilers, but it was a lot of fun.

Even though everything came out ok in the end, this was not the usual HEA which I think of as romantic fantasy. It was more a glimpse of real life.

I recommend this book to those who like slice of life or romance.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a nice read. Not very realistic, because everything was easy, but nice.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. There were so many characters and I felt like I knew them. I felt like I was part of the community. I didn't want it to end.

[Barbara Gard]

ok only

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story with characters fully developed.