Ruin the Friendship by Elle Rivers is a first-person POV about Maisie’s love life. She finds out only days before her wedding that her fiancé, Rob, is a bit of a piece of shit after her best friend Nate films Rob at his bachelor party saying some unkind things about Maisie that are hurtful enough she calls off the wedding.
Maisie is devastated that her ten-year relationship has ended, and Nate convinces her to go on her honeymoon cruise, and he goes with her. It should also be mentioned that Maisie has a HUGE phobia of water and swimming, but her POS ex, Rob, asked for a cruise anyway for the honeymoon.
It’s painfully obvious to the reader (or at least to me) that Nate is helplessly in love with Maisie but doesn’t want to mess with their friendship. Maisie is completely oblivious to Nate’s feelings and instead thinks he has some sort of phobia against touching other people since he jerks away anytime they accidentally touch. The longer they are on the cruise together, the more Maisie realizes her feelings for Nate were more than just friends.
It’s an incredibly slow burn; however, Maisie has a bunch of issues she needs to work through, which she is conveniently helped with by a therapist she makes friends with on the cruise. She manages to get past some of her issues at least partially in the span of a week, which is at least somewhat more realistic than being magically cured of her issues.
I enjoyed the book overall; the FMC could be frustrating, but was still somewhat realistic for someone who was essentially in an emotionally abusive relationship and had a major phobia. There is a good amount of spice near the end of the book.
It’s a decent contemporary romance. I’d give it 3.5 to 4 stars
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