Review: Better Off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg

Title: Better Off Friends
Author: Elizabeth Eulberg
Series: Stand Alone
Published By: Point (February 25, 2014)
Source: ARC Copy Provided by the Publisher (in exchange for an honest review)
Genre: YA Contemporary
My Rating: 4 Stars!

Book Description:
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?

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I have been a huge fan of When Harry Met Sally since the moment I was old enough to really understand it. My most favorite relationships are those that go from best friends to lovers. There is just something so pure and true about that kind of path in life. Something that is lasting and real to have the person you love more than yourself also be the one you call your best friend is just how it should be in life. It just makes sense in my world because, after all, my best friend also happens to be the one I love and want to spend the rest of my life with. 

Levi and Macallan very much had the whole Harry and Sally feel to me. They were friends first and foremost and everything both good and bad that comes from it. They had their struggles, their disagreements, their weak moments, their strong. The good, the bad, and the ugly. 

One thing I absolutely loved was the conversations between them thrown in between chapters, it reminded me a lot of the interviews in When Harry Met Sally. Seeing them argue and watching their dynamic, it was hard not to be wrapped up in their relationship and you couldn't help but wonder as their story played along, how it all was said and done.   How does this end for them? Friends? Lovers? Or nothing at all?

I have to say, I really loved this. It wasn't perfect by any means but goodness it was hard not loving it and being wrapped up in their story and rooting for them the whole way through. 

I think the author did a wonderful job on making this feel real. You could see Levi and Macallan struggle with their relationship with one another as well as with those they were dating and those in their inner circle. How the rest of the world perceived them and judged them. The stereotype of can a boy and a girl be friends without it turning into something more and what happens to the friendship when it does.

*All thoughts and opinions are my own and were not influenced by the author or publisher. I was not compensated for this review.*