Just Friends - Softcover

Sisman, Robyn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0770428703 ISBN 13: 9780770428709

Publisher: Seal Books, 2002

Synopsis

Makes a perfect Valentine’s day gift for that perfect someone — or yourself!

A delightfully breezy read in the school of The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing and Bridget Jones's Diary.

Freya, a British art dealer living in Manhattan thinks her live-in lawyer boyfriend, Michael, is about to propose. But when she shows up for their romantic dinner in a thousand-dollar dress and a new hairstyle, he takes her hand, looks deeply into her eyes, and asks if they can be ... just friends.

Stunned and desperate, Freya arrives at long-time buddy Jack's Village apartment where she has decided to bunk temporarily. But it isn't long before tensions grow between the two old friends. Freya's caustic treatment of Jack's luscious new girlfriend, Candy, is not welcome. Nor are Jack's calls to Michael on Freya's behalf, or the personal ads that he secretly places.

And to top it all, Freya needs a date — and fast — for the wedding of her younger sister, who has nabbed the most eligible bachelor in London. Suddenly, Jack, in all his sexy, blond gorgeousness, is starting to look more and more like wedding — if not exactly marriage — material.

From New York to London, and all the urban hot spots and dating disaster zones in between, Just Friends is a delightful, devilishly clever look at the enduring quest to find the perfect match.

About this title

Review:

As the blurb and the book jacket make clear, for a man and woman to be "just friends" is as likely as pigs flying. However, Freya and Jack, the chief characters of Robyn Sisman's story Just Friends, have managed this unlikely feat for over 10 years--until they are forced to act as a couple. Although Sisman sets up a scenario that seems obvious to the reader but, in an age-old tradition, is hidden from the characters, the anticipation of the romance still titillates.

After a schlep through the trials of Freya's life--all mounting up to the failure she will appear when she arrives at her step-sister's wedding without a handsome hunk (read also intelligent, witty, rich, charming etc...)--the reader is rewarded with a page-turning story line. Sisman makes a geographical leap that matches the emotional gymnastics of Freya's heart, transferring the story from crowded and cosmopolitan New York to rurally idyllic Cornwall. Thankfully, the events in Cornwall act more as a scene setter for the resolution of the plot than as the final act itself: if Sisman had succumbed to a pastoral scene of true love, rather than an urban one of human confusion, our faith in her characters would have been destroyed. Here she ruminates on the nature of true love:

What was the secret of true love between a man and a woman, she wondered? Sex, certainly; romance, ideally; domestic stability, probably. Anything else? She shrugged: whatever it was, she hadn't found it yet.

Sisman's novel shines in its keenness for honesty of character--each and every one is laid out with all their faults. Though slow at times, Just Friends has its moments, with the pace quickening when necessary. Perhaps, as Sisman hopes for with love, this is just a reflection of real life. --Olivia Dickinson

Review:

"Refreshing . . . From the opening gun, Sisman delivers pleasant prose, clever repartee, and insight into the differences between men and women. . . . A pleasure to read."
-The Boston Globe

"Just Friends is just bliss. Witty, warm, and wise,
it's as good as an old movie for romantics."
-The Times (London)

About this edition

• Publisher: Seal Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0770428703
• ISBN 13: 9780770428709
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 592