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The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez is a companion novel to a book I read and reviewed earlier this month: The Happy Ever After Playlist! Chronologically this book takes place first, but I didn’t know that at the time. If you don’t want to be spoiled for a major event that occurs in this book, you’ll need to read them in order. If that’s not important to you, I don’t think it much matters! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ One of the things I think is touching about Abby Jimenez’s books is her author’s notes, where she talks about drawing inspiration from people in her life and the things they are going through. In this case, her best friend’s infertility (with an important note about HEAs). ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Kristen is a small business owner, best friend, daughter, and all around badass grappling with worsening chronic illness. She’s also got a boyfriend overseas, so she’s not looking for a relationship when she meets Josh. Their friendship turned maybe more is complicated by the thing Kristen doesn’t talk about: the likelihood that she’ll never have kids. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ While I rolled my eyes at the “she’s not like other girls” trope, I lived with it because I was super excited to see women’s reproductive health represented in romance! I, along with so many women I know, have been diagnosed with reproductive illnesses and yet they are little understood and rarely discussed. Seeing a MC dealing with uterine fibroids was a breath of fresh air. That said, be sure to check TWs to make sure you’re up for this book, because it deals with several difficult topics. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ TW: chronic illness, grief, infertility, motorcycle accident, death of a partner, OCD ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ID: I’m holding a kindle displaying the ebook cover of The Friend Zone. Trees are visible in the background. via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/CQTUg09L17j/