Spotlight & Giveaway: The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez

Posted May 6th, 2019 by in Blog, Spotlight / 39 comments

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Abby Jimenez’s new release: The Friend Zone.

 

Spotlight&Giveaway

 
Kristen Peterson doesn’t do drama, will fight to the death for her friends, and has no room in her life for guys who just don’t get her. She’s also keeping a big secret: facing a medically necessary procedure that will make it impossible for her to have children.
 
Planning her best friend’s wedding is bittersweet for Kristen — especially when she meets the best man, Josh Copeland. He’s funny, sexy, never offended by her mile-wide streak of sarcasm, and always one chicken enchilada ahead of her hangry. Even her dog, Stuntman Mike, adores him. The only catch: Josh wants a big family someday. Kristen knows he’d be better off with someone else, but as their attraction grows, it’s harder and harder to keep him at arm’s length.
 
The Friend Zone will have you laughing one moment and grabbing for tissues the next as it tackles the realities of infertility and loss with wit, heart, and a lot of sass.

 

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from The Friend Zone 

The phone woke me up at 4:23 in the morning. I didn’t recognize the number, but I knew the Vegas area code. I sat up and hit the Answer Call button groggily. “Hello?”
“Hey…it’s me.”
My lips curled up into a smile. Josh. Drunk Josh by the sound of it.
“Tell me Brandon’s not in need of bail money,” I said, rubbing my eyes.
“No. He’s fine,” he slurred. “I managed to keep him out of jail. Best best man ever.”
I cracked up and Josh chuckled with me, a leisurely, tired, intoxicated laugh.
It felt so good to talk to him. I’d missed him so much. I didn’t realize how much until he was on the phone. I wished he were here, in bed with me instead of three hundred miles away.
“I had to go to the business center to call you,” he continued. “I didn’t know your number, so I looked up your website. I’m not sorry I woke you up.”
I scoffed. “Oh, really? And why not? You should feel terrible. I need my beauty sleep.”
“No you don’t. You’re perfect.”
“How come Sober Josh doesn’t have all this swagger, huh?” I teased.
He snorted. “He does. He’s just trying to follow your many rules. Drunk Josh doesn’t live by rules. Drunk Josh does what Drunk Josh wants,” he said, stumbling over the words.
“And what does Drunk Josh want?” I smiled, tapping his name into the search bar on Instagram.
“You.”
I arched an eyebrow. “You’re lucky you’re not here. I’d take advantage of you. You sound too weak to fight me off.”
“I consent.”
I sent him a follow request, laughing at his comment. A second later I got his and approved it.
We got quiet as we looked at each other’s pictures.
“I didn’t know you rock climb,” I said. There was a picture of him hanging off the side of a seriously high cliff face. He had on a harness and helmet, and he looked, as always, so handsome. “And you water-ski.”
I missed him.
The ache ripped through me. I hadn’t seen him in so long, and somehow the separation didn’t lessen how I felt the way it had with Tyler.
Tyler faded. He always faded, even though we’d talk on the phone and Skype and write. But Josh just got brighter. The ache got deeper the longer I went without him.
Hopefully it was the opposite for Josh. I hoped the time away from me had cooled any feelings he might be having, because I didn’t think I could keep my walls up when he got back. I missed him too much, and the time I was going to get with him was too short now.
How was I going to do it when things were over, when I told him after the wedding that I didn’t want to see him anymore? It was going to kill me.
I went back to the photos, and my mood dampened.
There were a lot of pictures of him with his nieces and nephews. Him holding a new baby in a hospital. Giving piggyback rides. One picture had him buried to his neck in sand on a beach somewhere, flanked by two little boys who looked a lot like him, holding red plastic shovels.
“You really love kids, don’t you.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Come to Vegas. Let’s get married.”
I snorted. God, he was fucked up. “And upstage Brandon and Sloan?”
“Come on. Why not?”
“How much have you had to drink?”
Another hiccup. “You’re a unicorn.”
I smirked. Yup. Wasted out of his mind.
He went on. “When you find a unicorn, you marry her. I think about you all the time. Do you ever think about me?”
Always. “Whenever I’m horny.”
He got quiet. It didn’t feel like a comfortable silence. It felt like a disappointed one. At least it was for me. I hated the lies I had to tell.
“Kristen…I think I’m gonna throw up.”
I closed the lid of my laptop. The room went pitch-black again, and I sat there against my headboard in the dark. He wouldn’t remember this call. He was too fucked up.
“Josh?”
It took a long minute until I got a slurred, “Yeah?”
I took a deep breath. “I think about you all the time. I miss you when you’re not with me.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. I do.”
It felt so good to say it out loud. And to say it to him. Even if he was too wasted to retain it, it felt liberating to say just once how I felt.
I spoke low. “When you’re not with me, it feels like I’m hollow. I wonder what you’re doing. Who you’re with. I read your texts a hundred times.” My heart pounded. “I wanted to tell you I missed you back, but I can’t say that stuff to you. But I did miss you. The last two weeks felt like torture.”
He groaned and I heard the dragging of something metallic. Probably a wastebasket.
I sighed. “Josh, don’t black out there. Go back to your room.”
“No. I want to talk to you.” He sounded like he was spitting. He didn’t hear a word I’d said.
We sat in silence for a moment. I wondered if he’d passed out. “Josh?”
“Get Sloan and drive down here tomorrow. Let’s get married. Come on.”
I smiled gently. “I can’t marry you.”
Spitting. “Why? I would be a good husband to you. I would take care of you. I’d be a good dad.”
I moved the phone away from my mouth as a sudden wrenching urge to sob bolted into my throat. I pressed my lips together and forced it back down. “I know you would,” I whispered. “That’s why I can’t.”
More silence.
Then he spoke into my darkness. “I love you.”
My tears spilled down my cheeks and the lump in my throat threatened to suffocate me. “I love you too.”
The line went dead.

Excerpt. ©Abby Jimenez. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

Giveaway: 2 Print ARC’s of THE FRIEND ZONE by Abby Jimenez

 

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and post a comment to this Q: What did you think of the excerpt spotlighted here? Leave a comment with your thoughts on the book…

 
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Meet the Author:

Abby Jimenez is a Food Network champion, motivational speaker, and contemporary romance novelist living in Minnesota. Abby founded Nadia Cakes out of her home kitchen in 2007. The bakery has since gone on to open multiple locations in two states, won numerous Food Network competitions and amassed an international cult following. Abby has since turned her talents to penning novels. She loves a good book, coffee, doglets, and not leaving the house.

Buy: https://www.read-forever.com/titles/abby-jimenez/the-friend-zone/9781538715628/
  
 
 

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39 Responses to “Spotlight & Giveaway: The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez”

  3. Mary Preston

    Kristen has some big decisions to make. Sounds like a great read.

  6. Laura

    The book sounds amazing – I loved the excerpt. Sounds like one that will tug at your heartstrings right from the beginning. Can’t wait to read it!

  12. girlfromwva

    sounds exciting. cant wait to read how it turns out between Josh and Kristin.

  23. Nicole (Nicky) Ortiz

    I liked it!
    Can’t wait to read this
    Thanks for the chance!

  36. flchen1

    It definitely sounds like an emotional read, with some bare honesty from both parties. Thanks for the peek!