Spotlight & Giveaway: A Guide to Being Just Friends by Sophie Sullivan

Posted January 17th, 2023 by Sara @HarlequinJunkie in Blog, Spotlight / 27 comments

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Sophie Sullivan to HJ!

Hi Sophie and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, A Guide to Being Just Friends: A Novel!

• Thank you so much for having me here. I love your site.

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

My pleasure. After Hailey and Wes have the most awkward of meet-cutes, they run into each other again. Both wary and both in need of a friend, they decide to skip the drama of relationships and be besties.

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

This is a text conversation between Hailey and Wes where she teases him about his dislike of acronyms.

Hailey
IAU

Wes
Hmmm….It’s not I owe you

Hailey
Which should actually be IOY not IOU

Wes
Agreed. I give up

Hailey
I adore you.

Wes
Damn. You win.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

This book was fun to write. I love the real friendship that develops and deepens between Hailey and Wes. Thinking about different salads was also quite fun and made me try out some new ones. A few songs that made it on my A GUIDE TO BEING JUST FRIENDS playlist include:

Friend’s Don’t by Maddie & Tae
I know she ain’t ready by Luke Combs
ME by Taylor Swift and Brendon Urie
I hope by Gabby Barrett
Hard to Forget by Sam Hunt
Marry Me by Thomas Rhett

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Both of them are pulled by physical features and what I love about that is, once they talk, they complete rub each other the wrong way (ignore the pun) so despite that physical attraction, they are very real with each other and that lays the groundwork for something special.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

Honestly, even when I’m writing the book and I know with absolute certainty that they’ll be okay in the end, I hate writing the black moment. It kills me. It makes me a little moody.

Swallowing past the lump in her throat, she asked, “Just out of curiosity, where do you see this going?”
Wes pulled his hands out of his pockets, a v forming between his brows. “I don’t like that question.”
Hailey’s laugh felt like acid in her throat. “I’m not particularly enjoying this conversation so I guess we’re even.”
He let out a frustrated sound. “Things are great between us. Why do we have to do this?”
“Wes, you got your mom to buy my building because you were worried about my rent. But you’re mad because I love you?”
Shock registered in his expression. “You said it was a slip!” He pointed at her.
“Yeah, as in I shouldn’t have said it out loud.” The buckle of her purse was digging into the spot between her breasts but she only held tighter.
“But you love me?” He sounded…heart broken.
What the actual hell? “I can’t help how I feel.” At least, not to the extent he clearly could.
“Of course you can. We both can.” He closed the distance between them. “We’re a great match. We make each other laugh, we’re attracted to each other, we enjoy each other’s company. Can’t that be enough?”
“You’ll never love me?”
His gaze answered before his mouth. “I don’t want to be in love. I don’t want to get married or have children.”
Her throat went dry. She wanted all of those things. She nodded her head, up and down, up and down, like the movement could absorb the pain of his words.

Readers should read this book….

If they love watching characters slowly tumble into love, if they like to laugh and have a soft spot for found family and finding the forever you were meant to have.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I’m currently working on a new romcom series under my Sophie name. Book one, Love, Naturally, is complete and I’m super excited to dive back into that world. I have new titles releasing under Jody Holford as well and stories I’m currently writing.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: One copy of GUIDE TO BEING JUST FRIENDS by Sophie Sullivan, US Winner only.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What’s your song with a sort of friends to lovers theme? I love Friends Don’t by Maddie & Tae.

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Excerpt from A Guide to Being Just Friends: A Novel:

3
Wesley Jansen’s stomach growled. He placed a hand over it as he looked over the financials for Squishy Cat Industries, the corporation he owned with his brothers.
“Food will be here soon,” Everly, his brother Chris’s girlfriend, said with a quiet voice and a knowing smirk.
Chris, his youngest brother, joined them in the boardroom. He had a Cheshire Cat grin on his face and a small, flat box in his hand. They’d been meeting weekly at 96.2 Sun radio station—just one of the businesses under their SCI label—since Wes had joined them on the West Coast. Chris and Noah both had a head start on establishing themselves in their communities, particularly Harlow Beach, where Noah lived. The brothers volunteered at one of the local recreation centers but also attended town halls to meet residents of the neighborhood.
Effecting positive change wasn’t just about money. It was about becoming part of the community and learning about real needs. Things that mattered most to the people who had to live there. Wes needed to catch up in that regard but he was trying to get them sorted in other areas first, such as finding an office space of their own.
Not that anyone minded meeting at the station. Everly worked there as a producer with her best friend, the DJ, and it was his suggestion. Noah’s girlfriend, Grace, was joining them for lunch today.
Jane, the office administrator, popped her head into the room. “I ordered enough for everyone but I’ll bring your salads in here when they arrive?”
Chris nodded, thanked her, then turned back to whispering something in Everly’s ear. It was good to see him so happy. Wes would never let his happiness rely on another person but he was grateful his brothers had found love.
“You ordered salad?” Noah looked up from the notepad he and Grace were studying. “You that cheap?”
Grace smacked his arm. “I could use a salad. I’m pretty sure my blood is part brownie now. Tara has got to stop trying new recipes out on us.”
“Says you. You can never have enough brownies,” Everly said. She pinned her gaze on Noah. “These salads are awesome. You need to try them before you complain.”
“Oh, is this the place you and Stace tried last week?” Grace asked.
Everly nodded. “Delicious.”
“To a girl who eats like a mouse,” Noah grunted.
Everly stuck her tongue out at Noah. “Chris had one too and he loved it.”
“No. He loves you and therefore told you he loved it then snuck out for a steak,” Noah said.
Chris laughed, shook his head when Everly looked at him. “Not true. He’s lying. A man can love his girlfriend and salad. Noah’s just not that evolved.”
All of them laughed. God, it was good to be all together again. When his brothers decided to build their own lives away from their tyrannical father, Wes had hesitated.
He liked his life in New York. He enjoyed routine, knowing when all his favorite restaurants were quiet, which shops catered to locals, and he loved walking through the city. Like his brothers, what he didn’t like was his father’s insistence that what he did for the family business was never enough.
“Have you tried the salad place yet, Wes?” Everly asked. “I know you like your routine of coffee dates at Tara’s but the shop is right next door.”
Looking up from his laptop, he frowned. He’d seen it, obviously, since he lived right up the road from Baked and used one of their back tables like an office. Sure, he’d met a few dates there but no more. Not for a while anyway. “Coffee and work.”
She smiled. Everly was so shy and reserved when he first met her, he’d thought she didn’t like him until Chris explained she had severe social anxiety. Over time, she’d shown more of herself and Wes was thrilled his brother had found someone so special. Someone who grounded him but also appreciated what he brought to her life.
“Dates not going well?” Grace asked. She was different than Everly but every bit as lovely. Both of his brothers were damn lucky men.
“I’m taking a break.” He was in no rush. Not wanting to talk about it, he looked down at his phone.
Wes wanted a consistent, predictable dating life. He wanted to meet a woman who enjoyed an evening out, or in, shared the same interests, and wanted her own life, independent of his.
He wanted the like without the downfall of love. It looked and felt right for his brothers but Wes had worked hard to shield them from the realities of where love could lead. As the oldest, he’d seen and understood the nastiness of their parents’ divorce up close. He’d always been more attuned to tension—his father condescendingly referred to Wes as the “sensitive” child—and when his parents would start, he made it his job to distract them. They’d go play outside, find hiding spots in their enormous home, play video games, or just huddle together in one of their rooms. Wes didn’t want them to feel sick to their stomachs every day like he had in the end.
Looking around the room, listening to them laugh and joke, he realized he’d done it. He’d protected them. They weren’t close with their father but they didn’t seem to remember the fighting or the anger.
“What are you taking a break from?” Noah asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.
Wes’s skin heated like it was on fire when he thought of last week’s disaster. Before he could respond, his brother continued.
“Getting a life?” Noah asked.
Grace smacked his arm again. “Stop it. Be nice.”
Noah grinned, unrepentant. “Honey, you keep doing that, I’m going to start liking it.” He leaned in to kiss her, making her laugh.

From A Guide to Being Just Friends by Sophie Sullivan. Copyright © 2023 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

Book Info:

When Harry Met Sally meets 500 Days of Summer in this playful and emotional romantic comedy from the author of Ten Rules for Faking It, Sophie Sullivan.

Hailey Sharp has a one-track mind. Get By the Cup salad shop off the ground. Do literally everything possible to make it a success. Repeat. With a head full of entrepreneurial ideas and a bad ex in her rearview, her one and only focus is living life the way she wants to. No distractions.

Wes Jansen never did understand the fuss about relationships. With a string of lackluster first dates and the pain from his parents’ angry divorce following him around, he’d much rather find someone who he likes, but won’t love. Companionship, not passion, is the name of the game.

When Hailey and Wes find each other in a disastrous meet cute that wasn’t even intended for them, they embarrassingly go their separate ways. But when Wes finds Hailey to apologize for his behavior, they strike a friendship. Because that’s all this can be. Hailey doesn’t want any distractions. Wes doesn’t want to fall in love.

What could possibly go wrong?
Book Links: Amazon | B&N |

Meet the Author:

SOPHIE SULLIVAN (she/her) is a Canadian author as well as a cookie-eating, Diet Pepsi-drinking, Disney enthusiast who loves reading and writing romance in almost equal measure. She writes around her day job as a teacher and spends her spare time with her sweet family watching reruns of Friends. She has written Ten Rules for Faking it and How to Love Your Neighbor, and has had plenty of practice writing happily ever after as her alter ego, Jody Holford.
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