Book Review: Better Off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg

Better Off Friends
Author:  Elizabeth Eulberg
Publisher:  Point, 288 pages
Expected Publication Date: February 25, 2014
*Received ARC from publisher via NetGalley

From Goodreads:
For Macallan and Levi, it was friends at first sight. Everyone says guys and girls can’t be just friends, but these two are. They hang out after school, share tons of inside jokes, their families are super close, and Levi even starts dating one of Macallan’s friends. They are platonic and happy that way.

Eventually they realize they’re best friends — which wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t keep getting in each other’s way. Guys won’t ask Macallan out because they think she’s with Levi, and Levi spends too much time joking around with Macallan, and maybe not enough time with his date. They can’t help but wonder . . . are they more than friends or are they better off without making it even more complicated?

From romantic comedy superstar Elizabeth Eulberg comes a fresh, fun examination of a question for the ages: Can guys and girls ever really be just friends? Or are they always one fight away from not speaking again — and one kiss away from true love?

Review:
Thoroughly enjoyed this When Harry Met Sally type YA novel about Macallan and Levi, who meet in seventh grade when Levi moves from California to Wisconsin.  They bond over a shared love for a British television show and the novel, told in alternating points of view, chronicles five years of their relationship.  It's actually unusual to have a YA novel take place over a five year time period.  By doing that, I felt like I really got to know Macallan and Levi and it was such a pleasure to watch their relationship grow and deepen over time.  I loved how much they truly cared about each other and the fact that they knew each other so well (the complete opposite of insta-love).  Too well, from the perspective of their significant others (at different points in time).  They have such a connection and when they talk, they basically leave everyone else out (unintentionally).  They become part of each other's family and even through their ups and downs, they always know the other one will be there.  I loved their bantering, and I really enjoyed the beginning of each chapter when Macallan and Levi would be talking back and forth from the present as they reminisced about their relationship (although I was confused sometimes about who was talking since it was just dialogue, no he saids or she saids).  That gave me hope that, even when things were not looking so great for them, things would work out.  Their timing was always off when it came to their relationship progressing to the next level and it made me crazy sometimes how they knew each other so well but were also so blind.  Sweet and fun romantic contemporary, I definitely recommend.

Posted by:  Pam