REVIEW: The Friendship Pact by Jill Shalvis

In The Friendship Pact by Jill Shalvis, Tae Holmes is working with an adventure company that works with wounded warriors and athletes with disabilities. It’s also run by Jake, the brother of Riggs. What no one knows is that Riggs and Tae had a brief fling in high school, and she’s hoping to keep it that way. Then she finds out that Riggs is actually now working with Jake, and keeping away from him is going to be harder than she thought, especially when Jake pushes them to work together.

They soon discover that the sparks are still there. Not wanting to truly get involved again, they come up with a friendship pact. As Tae goes on a quest to find out the truth about her father, Riggs is determined to support her, and they soon find the rules of the friendship pact starting to crumble.

One of the things that bothered me the most in this book was how dependent Tae and her mother were on each other. They were so dependent on each other that April kept the truth about Tae’s father a secret from Tae her whole life, fearing that the truth would cause her to lose her daughter. I felt she should have had more faith in the strength of their relationship, instead of the constant lies. I also wasn’t crazy about how her father went along with April’s plans instead of taking it upon himself to reveal the truth to Tae. His reasoning for staying away was weak, especially once the danger to April and Tae had passed. Ultimately, I feel like both parents failed Tae, which did make me feel bad for her, but it didn’t make me like her any better.

I enjoyed the storyline of Riggs and his brother Jake, as they tried to mend their strained relationship. They had a bumpy ride, but through all the ups and downs, it’s always clear that they cared about one another.

This is the second book in the Sunrise Cove series. If you haven’t read the first book, don’t worry, because this works as a standalone. You can jump into the series with this book and not feel like you’re missing anything.

Having read both books in the series, I will say I preferred the first book over this one, mainly because I found Tae to be irritating at times, along with the whole mother-daughter co-dependence issue. That being said, it was still a good book and fans of this author will enjoy it.

Book Info:

Publication: June 14, 2022 | William Morrow | Sunrise Cove #2

Alone in the world, Tae Holmes and her mother April pretty much raised each other, but as Tae starts asking questions about the father she’s never met, April, for the first time in her life, goes silent. To make matters worse, Tae is dangerously close to broke and just manages to avoid financial meltdown when she lands a shiny new contract with an adventure company for athletes with disabilities and wounded warriors.

Her first big fundraiser event falls flat, but what starts out as a terrible, horrible, no-good night turns into something else entirely when Tae finds herself face-to-face with Riggs Copeland. She hasn’t seen the former Marine since their brief fling in high school, and while still intensely drawn to him, she likes her past burned and buried, thank you very much. Hence their friendship pact.

But when April oddly refuses to help Tae track down her father, it’s Riggs who unexpectedly comes to her aid. On a hunt to unlock the past, the two of them find themselves on a wild ride and learn a shocking truth, while also reluctantly bonding in a way neither had seen coming. Now Tae must decide whether she’s going to choose love … or walk away from her own happiness.