Book Review | The Friend Situation – Lyra Parish (Billionaire Situation Series, Book Two)

The Friend Situation
By: Lyra Parish

Book Series: Billionaire Situation
Book # In Series: 2 of 6
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Trope(s): Billionaire, Fake Dating, RomCom, Friends To Lovers
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: February 27th, 2025
My Rating: ✮✮✮
My Reading Format: kindleunlimited

Synopsis:

After the charming billionaire and I successfully play matchmaker, he asks me to be his fake fiancée. Saying yes might be the biggest slip-up of my life, but what are friends for?

Weston Calloway is the last man I imagined meeting after one of my boring breakups. But there he was, in a dive bar, drinking cheap whiskey, looking like my next favorite mistake. Instead of hooking up, we become secret friends.

When his jealous ex stirs up unnecessary drama, Weston asks me to go public with our friendship, but things quickly escalate and we lose control of the situation. Now, we’re roommates, and I’m wearing a diamond ring that he slipped on my finger.

This game may be fun, but we agreed to one unbreakable rule—no falling in love.

Easy, right? It should be.

The Friend Situation is a billionaire, fake dating rom-com with a happily ever after! It’s a stand-alone with open-door scenes. Included: a rich AF, respectful hero who falls first and hard but isn’t afraid to call his bestie mine.

honey-script.light

The Friend Situation is the second book in Lyra Parish’s Billionaire Situation Series. This novel is told from both Weston and Carlee’s points of view. You may recognize Weston if you’ve read the first book, The Wife Situation. Weston is Easton’s identical twin brother. And his story is the one I’ve been waiting to read.

Weston is in the middle of a messy divorce, with a psycho ex, so starting a relationship with his sister-in-laws best friend is probably not the smartest move a man should be making. Sometimes the attraction is to strong to deny.

Carlee is miserable at her job, misses her newly married best friend, her relationship status is a no go, and she is contemplating on pulling the plug where her blog, LuxLeaks, is concerned. She’d be a total mess if it wasn’t for the her newly acclaimed best friend Weston and their random conversations. So what happens when the attraction builds and it’s something they aren’t able to walk away from….. Will it destroy the friendship they so carefully built or will they ride off into the sunset and live their happily ever after together?

My Thoughts:

Let me first start off by saying I really enjoyed the first book in the Billionaire Situation Series, The Wife Situation, by Lyra Parish. I really enjoyed Weston’s character in the first novel and was really excited to dive into The Friend Situation and get inside this man’s head! I was enamored by him in the first book, which prompted me to dive into this one, even though I don’t really care for the “Hero is a Billionaire” trope. I mean, I did enjoy the first book. Which typically means the same will go for the second book…. Right.

Before we dive into the negatives, let’s spruce this review up with a few positive mentions. The first being the connection between Carlee and Weston. I really enjoyed how these two characters leaned on one another through hard times. As friends, they weren’t afraid to tell each other their truths. There was nothing these two couldn’t say because they trusted one another with their words. I loved their friendship and their bond from the start. Which brings me to the main reason I was intrigued by this book. I was looking forward to witnessing these two fall madly and deeply in love with one another. I also loved the twin moments between Weston and Easton. Easton was definitely enjoying the hilarious torture he inflicted on Weston and Carlee during their…. Extracurricular activities…. That was the one moment that had me darn near on the floor with laughter.

Sadly, Carlee and Weston’s romance wasn’t the heart pumping epic endeavor that I had imagined in my head. There were moments in this novel that were great, and then there were moments when i literally wanted to shake Carlee awake! Like come on woman, this man is pouring his heart out to you and you are so obviously blinded by your mistrust in relationships, you’re going to let a good thing pass by if you don’t let the past go…. It was a bit frustrating, to say the least.

I also felt like Carlee’s career type interest was a bit lacking. She loved her blog and her pseudonym LuxLeaks but I would have loved to see more of this brought to life. I would have loved to see her writing as LuxLeaks again and posting all the celebrity gossip. That was her element, and I’m sad the element wasn’t a more vivid element to this novel. Now that I think about it, I feel Carlee was given to many internal battles to fight in this novel and maybe that’s why I had a hard time understanding her and connecting with her on an emotional level.

I do have to say, Weston was a riot. I loved the fact that he never wavered where Carlee is concerned. He never pressured her, and let her set the pace of a relationship. It was heartwarming to see a man be so gentle and thoughtful when it comes to a woman who’s been burned time and time again. I really enjoyed seeing Weston in this element. Which leaves me to my 3 star rating. When I first finished the novel I had pen to paper with a two star next to the title. And in all honesty, that two star damn near killed me because of my love for Lyra Parish’s writing. But as I thought more on it, I found I had a few positives to counteract the negatives of this novel. So I decided, for Weston’s sake, to add a star and give The Friend Situation a three star rating. This just goes to show, you’re not going to love every novel you read. And most importantly, you can have a favorite author and not vibe with a story they write. And this book was just that….. I do have to say, I’m intrigued for what’s to comes within this series. Hopefully they spark my interest. We shall see.

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