Lisa Reviews: Elizabeth Eulberg's - "Better off Friends"

*I would like to thank Point, as well as Netgalley, for allowing me to review Better Off Friends.*

Macallan has recently lost her mother and is now trying to grow up and become a woman with only the help of her dad and uncle. When she is asked to come to the guidance councilor’s office at the beginning of the first day of school, Macallan assumes that she is getting an “I’m sorry your mom died” speech. But to her surprise, she is asked to give the new guy, Levi, a tour of the school and show him to his first period class.

Levi had just moved from California. He was dressed in a button up shirt, cargo shorts, and a pair of flip flops. He was trying to go for the cool/hot/mysterious new guy look, which the girls in his old school would swoon over, but he completely missed the target. Macallan dragged him down the hallways, dropped him at the door of his first period class, and didn’t give him a second look.

When Macallan saw Levi sitting by himself at lunch on that first day of school, she knew the right thing to do was to ask if he would sit with her and her friends; so she did. She had no idea just how quickly and easily she and Levi would click. But when he quoted her favorite British comedy show, she knew it was their destiny to become best friends.

Since that lunch period, the two were inseparable. They spent more and more time together and soon became best friends. But having a guy friend isn’t as easy as you would think, especially when everyone always assumed Levi and Macallan were dating.

Throughout Better Off Friends, Levi and Macallan were dating and seeing other people while still staying great friends. But neither Levi nor Macallan could explain the weird feeling they got in the pit of their stomach when they saw the other with someone else.

The two won’t find out until both of their hearts have been broken and they only have each other to lean on.

Better Off Friends was the perfect book to transition from deep winter reading, to light and fun spring reading.

The story is told from both Levi and Macallan’s perspectives and I feel like this was the best way to go when it comes to a book like Better Off Friends. I like seeing and knowing both sides of the friendship/relationship. I LOVE knowing what each of them is thinking, experiencing, and feeling.

I’ve read many books where a boy and a girl were ‘best friends’ and started to fall in love. But what makes Better Off Friends different is that we get to witness this friendship develop, grow, and change over the years. We get to see the struggle and hardships the friendship has gone through and overcome, as well as just how this boy and girl become so close. And only towards the end of the book do the two confess their feelings towards one another.

If you’re looking for a good first spring/summer book to read, Better Off Friends is the book for you. It doesn’t have too much lovey-dovey stuff, but real and true feelings. No insta-love.

I’ll have to pick up the rest of Elizabeth Eulberg’s books!