As the oldest of three sisters, Poppy Kasper doesn’t remember a time when she wasn’t the glue holding her siblings—and their lives—together. So moving across the country to Cashmere Cove, the hometown of her new boyfriend, is completely out of character. Add in the fact that said boyfriend is leaving for a months-long pro-golf tour, and it’s enough to make Poppy question her sanity. But it’s fine. Everything’s fine. She can still be a good sister from a distance, and she’ll keep the spark in her relationship alive with calls, texts, and old fashioned love notes. See? Fine.

Quiet and serious Mack Bradley is used to playing second fiddle to his famous younger brother, especially since his own reputation was ruined nearly a decade ago. He’s made his peace with his circumstances, but when his brother begs him to show his new girlfriend the Cashmere Cove ropes, and then ups the ante with an even bigger request to stand in as her pen pal, Mack finds himself thrown into the path of the effervescent Poppy Kasper. She’s his foil in every way…she also makes him feel things he’s never felt before.

A summer of pranks, late-night swims, and stargazing finds Poppy and Mack forging an unlikely friendship—one built on laughter and pushing each other to see life in a different light. But when Poppy’s relationship with Mack’s brother unravels, will she leave town? Or is there another reason for her to stay?

After all, friends don’t fall in love…do they?

Two things worth noting:

1. I don’t like friends-to-lovers romance.
2. I am VERY stingy with 5-star reviews (only about 10% of the books I read get five stars).

This friends-to-lovers earned all five of those stars. It was everything it promised to be: funny, steamy without being explicit, and (most importantly for me) a romance involving brothers that didn’t include anything inappropriate or cringy.

I planned on reading this book over the four-day holiday weekend, but I basically read it in one day. I loved the contrast between Poppy and Mack, but they were also so similar. Dobrinska did a beautiful job developing their relationship from strangers to friends to more — I wanted to root for them through the whole book, and her excellent handling of the brothers-like-the-same-girl trope made it possible to root for them without feeling creepy.

I believe this is Dobrinska’s first rom-com, and I’m so glad there are two more coming because she belongs in this genre. If you like Jennifer Peel or Becky Monson books, you need to try this one!

Rated PG for mentions of alcohol and some innuendo. Get your copy here!

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