Review: Blurred Lines by Lauren Layne (Love, Unexpectedly #1)
Blurred Lines is the first novel in the Lauren Layne-penned Love, Unexpectedly series and is a friends to lovers romance about best friends Parker Blanton and Benjamin Olsen. Parker and Ben met in their freshman year of college and became fast friends. Later, they would become roommates and two years after they graduate, they're still sharing a home. They've proven to everyone around them that a man and a woman can indeed be the best of friends without having secret romantic feelings.
Things are simple between Ben and Parker and it's been that way for six years. Ben dates and sleeps with whichever woman catches his fancy and Parker remains secure in her relationship with her boyfriend, whom she met when they were sophomores. Everything is as it has always been. Then Parker finds herself unexpectedly dumped and while her heart does hurt for a short while, what she misses more than having her boyfriend by her side is sex--the fun, hassle-free kind.
Maybe what Parker needs isn't a commitment from a guy but to be just like her best friend when it comes to casual sex. There's a reason Parker has never really been into that kind of thing and was in a relationship for as long as she was. She wants to have no-strings-attached sex and the solution to her dilemma could very well be her best friend. But can a friendship even as strong as theirs really remain uncomplicated when sex and evolving feelings come into play?
Friends to lovers stories are my favorite in the romance genre and this particular story between Parer and Ben brought with it the interesting twist of neither Parker nor Ben really having any sort of interest in the other, sexually or romantically, up until they not only blur the lines but cross them. I liked these two as friends and as lovers they were potent. Everything remains light and their friendship is stronger than ever, but its obvious that they're beginning to develop feelings or bring to life long denied ones.
The story itself was skipping along rather merrily until Parker's ex makes it known that he wants her back. To be clear, it's not the ex I wasn't too thrilled with; it was Parker. She made the choice that she did and her treatment of Ben was just so disheartening. Did she really think things could go back to the way they were? And even as she would push him away, he was the one she automatically reached out to when she needed something, knowing full well that he could never say no to her. Argh! So frustrating!
I loved Ben. The man would do anything for Parker, even she had already treated him rather shabbily, he proved how much she meant to him by being there for her. Whatever affection I had for Parker for most of the book dissipated when she make her choice between Ben and her ex-boyfriend. She also acted selfishly, laying claim over Ben even when she no longer had any right to. Taking all things into consideration, and because Blurred Lines still left me with a smile on my face, it gets four stars. ♥
Date Read: 16 May 2016
Learn more about Lauren Layne.
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