Cole and Laila Are Just Friends

A Love Story

De: Bethany Turner

Narrado por: Talon David, Andrew Eiden

Cole and Laila have been inseparable since they could crawl. And they've never thought about each other that way. Except for when they have. Rarely. Once in a while, sure. But seriously . . . hardly ever.

Cole Kimball and Laila Olivet have been best friends their entire lives. Cole is the only person (apart from blood relatives) who's seen Laila in her oversized, pink, plastic Sophia Loren glasses. Laila is always the first person to taste test any new dish Cole creates in his family's restaurant . . . even though she has the refined palate of a kindergartener. Most importantly, Cole and Laila are always talking. About everything.

When Cole discovers a betrayal from his recently deceased grandfather that shatters his world, staying in Adelaide Springs, Colorado, is suddenly unfathomable. But Laila loves her life in their small mountain town and can't imagine ever living anywhere else. She loves serving customers who tip her with a dozen fresh eggs. She loves living within walking distance of all her favorite people. And she's very much not okay with the idea of not being able to walk to her very favorite person.

Still, when Cole toys with moving across the country to New York City, she decides to support her best friend—even as she secretly hopes she can convince him to stay home. And not just for his killer chocolate chip pancakes. Because she loves him. As a friend. Just as a friend. Right?

They make a deal: Laila won't beg him to stay, and Cole won't try to convince her to come with him. They have one week in New York before their lives change forever, and all they have to do is enjoy their time together and pretend none of this is happening. But it's tough to ignore the very inconvenient feelings blooming out of nowhere. In both of them. And these potentially friendship-destroying feelings, once out in the open, have absolutely no take-backs.

If When Harry Met Sally had a quippy literary love child with Gilmore Girls' Luke and Lorelai, you'd get Cole and Laila. Just . . . don't tell them that.

Author's Note: Cole and Laila are best friends who slow-burn (like, for nearly forty years, so…SLOW) toward love and yet never see it coming in this low-spice/clean, laugh-out-loud friends-to-lovers rom-com. All it takes is the threat of being separated, a trip to NYC, one night in one bed, a fake blind date for the ages, and a little dancing on a penthouse rooftop for the slow-burn to finally, finally ignite.

©2024 Bethany Turner (P)2024 Thomas Nelson

wonderful

This is a Funny, touching, lovely story. I so loved loved loved all the culture references.

Just friends

Woah, this book was really good! I love the characters development and the relationship between each other, The fake dates, I LOVED THEM!

So sweet and so good

Loved this innocent love story! Such a nice change of pace to have a well written story, great narration, and lovable characters without all the closed door romance

A Slowburn Romance for the PG-rated Crowd

I enjoyed this book. I listed to the audiobook, and the narrators did a fantastic job bringing these characters and their story to life, and it made them feel real. I really liked Cole and Laila's relationship, and their friendship felt as if they really had been friends for a decade.
Once we get into Cole and Laila's romance, I really enjoyed it. They're sweet. You can tell how much they care for each other. Cole bakes and cooks for Laila, and Laila heaps praise on Cole. It's kind of perfect.

We spend a lot of time in flashbacks, where we see the friendship of Laila and Cole created and cemented. It's really nice to be able to get so much backstory for both of our main characters. I do wish that the characterizations were a little deeper, though. Cole is the ever competent man, and Laila is the adorkable girl who's main trait is that she's clumsy. But, they're both very likable characters, and I give many kudos to writing Cole as kind and caring, instead of as a smarmy, smug grump so many other books in this genre are fond of. Cole, being kind, and especially given that he loves to cook, is a breath of fresh air in the genre.

My one real critique of the book would be that "slowburn" is a very apt, perhaps too apt, description of this book. They don't even begin to question their feelings or their physical attraction to each other until we're halfway through the book. The first half is interesting, don't get me wrong. It deals with Cole feeling betrayed and he and Laila going to NYC. However, before the halfway point, there is very little, if any, build up to any romance or even any attraction. It is really only once we cross the halfway point that one of the characters, and basically only as a pure thought experiment, brings up whether not they'd work romantically.

I don't need a book to have sex scenes (this book has none, and is in fact incredibly PG-rated throughout), but the two main characters should feel a little physical attraction to each other. It's the basis of most relationships (in the beginning, at least, and not including asexual people, obvs, etc). The two characters had a lot of emotional connection, whether friendly or romantic, but honestly they had very little physical connection. And perhaps that was a drawback to writing the story so "clean". As I said, it doesn't have any sexual tension, or even mention of it. And not having a sex scene is perfectly fine! However, the author over-corrected. There's near zero mention of any kind of physical attraction at all. Near the end, there are mentions that Cole looks at Laila's legs, but again, it's near the very end of the book and bit late.

*I just went back and read the description again, and saw that this is filed under "Clean and Wholesome Romance". And it definitely is! I didn't realize that, but again, spice is not a must for me. But even being clean and wholesome, you've gotta at least have some sort of physical attraction going! "She smiled, and his stomach turned upside down. Since when did that happen?" -- I wrote that, and even small things like that would've gone a long way, but still stayed clean.

This book had some really great stuff just under the surface. I do wish we spent a lot less time on pop-culture references, and more time on the actual characters. One particularly egregious scene has Laila and Cole walking around NYC, and there will be a paragraph explaining how they arrived at a new spot (either walking or by subway), and then a page and a half of Laila recounting the scene from a movie that used that spot. And then another paragraph of them walking to another street corner, and then another full page giving the synopsis of another movie. It happens 4 or 5 times in a row. I get that Laila really likes Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, but I'm not trying to read the wiki for Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan; I'm trying to read about Laila and Cole.

A lot of the book is almost circular. They think about the relationship, and then they think about those thoughts. And they talk about the relationship, and then they talk about the talk they just had, and they talk about wanting to talk about that talk. Also, Laila's chapters are in first person, and Cole's are in third person. It's not immersion breaking, but it's odd and noticeable.

I say this, but I did read the book in 2 days. The anticipation of the very, very slow slowburn had me on edge. I had to find out if and when they were going to kiss! I had to find out their happy ending. I had to find out what really happened with those contracts that left Cole with nothing. There's a lot here that could have made this book really amazing. I just don't think it was executed to the fullest.

The writing, a love story without out the bad words and inappropriate descriptions. Keep up the great work.

I enjoyed the story line and how they figured out they were made for each other.

so cute

I loved this story. the best friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes. I love how they communicate. I am confused though as to why in Leila's chapters it's in first person but in Cole's chapters it's in 3rd person. that was weird. this is a dual narration.

0/🌶
5/✨️

I kept inventing chores so I could keep listening.

I loved this story—and the performance. (Can Andrew Eiden read everything from now on?) Cole and Laila are tons of fun. The premise of friends to more… who had never even considered being “more” before… was a unique twist on the trope.

Charming story!

I absolutely loved this story and the clever banter laced throughout the book. I laughed and I swooned. I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook!

Meh…

This was a “meh” read for me. I listened to it on audiobook, and I wonder if I would’ve enjoyed it more if I had actually *read* it… The audio version was not great. I think it may have made me dislike the characters more based on the narrators’ voice acting. Bleh.

It’s a clean romance, but the characters did not totally seem realistic to me. And they honestly kind of annoyed me (especially Laila). She was a bit cringe. 😬

I gave it a 3 because there were some cute moments - but mostly because there were some good, nostalgic pop culture references. I think that’s why I stuck it out. And because I WANTED to like it. And because the cover art is good. 😂 Apparently, you can’t judge a book by its cover even when the cover is really pretty!