DebJpole Hello all,
Mutual Feelings is Billy Taylor’s second novel, the first was my very first review on this blog, Just Friends.
Now I feel that I need to make this clear, THIS IS NOT A SEQUEL. I repeat; THIS IS NOT A SEQUEL.
Good now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I can start my review.
Blurb: Will Evans lives an ordinary life working and living alongside his best friend, Ted, inseparable since they were four. That doesn’t change when they both start seeing girls they’re absolutely crazy for. But Will’s situation is a complicated one. He wants something more than a physical relationship, but she’s been hurt before and doesn’t want to open herself up again. Can Will convince her to give him a chance and let their feelings become mutual?
So let’s begin.
“It’s approximately two or three minutes until midnight. Two or three minutes until the New Year. If I’m honest, New Years Eve is just another day for me. I know the year is ending and a new one is beginning and that calls for celebrations, but at the end of the day it is just another day.”
We first meet Will (our narrator) and Ted, from childhood and fast forward to adulthood, we get to know them in the first two chapters. They’ve been best friends since childhood and now colleagues at the same work place and living together in their own bachelor pad. Life couldn’t be better. Until a fateful trip the cinema leads Will to Zac.
To Will, Zac is to him what Kryptonite is to Superman. He thinks she is absolutely beautiful…so much so that he calls it – that she will be the woman he marries.
“When I went to face Zac, she was already watching me. She had this look on her face, just a small smile. She didn’t take her eyes off me. And I looked into her eyes, and for a second, I knew she thought I was the best thing in the world. And for that brief moment, I felt whole. I felt like she loved me.”
Big announcement right?
But Zac is scared, she’s been hurt and cheated on before, the fear of it happening scares her so much that commitment is a big no no. Yet for Will, all he wants is to be her boyfriend. insert sighs and awh’s here
“He will do anything and everything he can to help. I know you two have an unusual…relationship. But all I wish you would do is give it a chance, and give him a chance, and let him be whatever you need him to be whenever you need him to be it. Because he’ll do it. Because he cares about you.”
And so a friends with benefits begins…
“I only wished that things between Zac and me were working out that well…I just think things between us are a tiny bit strange… I just want to be more couple-like, I guess…I don’t think there are many other people on the planet who do what we do. Whatever it is that we’re doing.”
but at the back of Will’s mind there’s only one thing he wants…and that’s Zac.
“It’s only the beginning, so I’m not sure how it is going to go. I just want Zac to be happy. And I feel like I may be helping with that.”
Meanwhile, Ted takes a trip to a museum and meets Autumn…he falls head over heels for her so much so that he also calls it – she will be his wife.
Throughout the book we see a jealousy in Will, not the bad kind just the kind that makes him want more. That makes him want what Ted and Autumn have. He loves Zac but can’t do anything about it let alone tell her.
“It was right then that I realised I loved her…and now I knew I had to be with her. Because I couldn’t imagine life without her…Sometimes it is the simplest things that make you realise you’re in love.”
We follow these two couples throughout the book, the funny and the tough times. Everything is going perfect…almost too perfect and then two events change everything… it changes everything for both couples…in ways none of them could imagine.
I’m not going to spoil it for you because I definitely did not see that happening. But be warned, have tissues at the ready!
This tear-jerking, heart warming and funny novel, makes you smile laugh and cry all at once. I couldn’t stop reading it! Like Just Friends it was addictive and beautifully written. You completely and utterly fell in love with these characters and felt like they were your best friends too.
“…the girl from the cinema who I fell in love with at first sight.”
Yes, August and Ethan make a couple of appearances which I absolutely love and is totally unexpected!! But to be clear, definitely not a sequel!
If Mutual Feelings sounds the perfect book for you then you can purchase it from Amazon now! Just follow the link:
I loved this book and I hope you do too,
Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below!
Keep reading,
D x
