Cole and Laila Are Just Friends: A Love Story

I just finished Cole and Laila are just Friends by Bethany Turner audiobook Narrated by Talon David; Andrew Eiden and here are my musings.


Cole and Laila have the kind of friendship that spans decades. They can be themselves around each other and need stability in their lives. Everything changes when Cole's grandfather dies and leaves the family restaurant that Cole has built from the ground up, to some corporation that already owns it.

Cole cannot believe what has happened and cannot bring himself to now stay in the town he once loved. Laila on the other hand cannot bring herself to leave. When Cole is given the opportunity to interview for a top restaurant in New York, laila wants to support him and offers to go too.

They make one rule, Laila won't beg him to stay and Cole won't try and convince her to move and they give themselves one week to enjoy the time they have left together before it all changes. Problem is that things are starting to change for both of them and trying to tell each other could break apart their once rock solid friendship.

I am going to admit that I have never read a christian romance. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I thought the narrators did a really great job of portraying their budding romance too.

It was really cute. The characters were really well developed and that includes all the side characters too. I loved the friendships and connections that all the people in the friend group had.

The plot was a lot of fun. I love that Cole got to break away from the monotony of the life he had stuffed himself into and the devastation of what his grandfather did gave him the shake up he needed to really step out of his comfort zone and with it, view Laila as something more than just his best friend. It put his whole life under a microscope and it was very well written.

I am not a massive fan of friends to lovers as a trope but I think this one actually worked because they never really had anyone else in their lives that could have been a lover for either of them so it was a pretty natural progression.

I actually thought the ending was the best part. Seeing what actually happened was a really great twist! I highly recommend this book!

4 stars

Thank you to @netgalley and @harpercollins for my gifted copy