Book number 32 in my Goodreads Reading Challenge is What It Takes by Sonya Loveday.

‘Gracen Lowell is on the hunt for a man—but not just any man. He has to be ‘the one’. Her only problem is that no one she’s dated has ever measured up to the charming qualities of her best friend.

Slade Owens knows no matter how much he loves Gracen, he’ll never be what she’s looking for. And he dang sure isn’t going to stick around to watch her fall in love with someone else. Slade leaving the Owens’ family farm for an out-of-state job should put enough distance between the two to allow him to move on with his life and Gracen to search for her happily-ever-after.

Gracen knows asking him to stay isn’t fair. Slade thinks leaving her behind is the only thing to do. Inexplicably drawn together, the best friends must decide if they have what it takes to own up to their feelings… before it’s too late.’ (Thanks Amazon!)

Slade and Gracen have been best friends for as long as they can remember.  The only problem was that they’d loved each other for as long as they could remember too, except both were too scared to tell the other for fear of destroying their close friendship.  Everything changes when Slade decides he can no longer move on, nor can he wait or watch Gracen fall in love with someone else, and so decides to leave his home at the Owen’s family ranch to work on a new ranch out of state.

I enjoyed both Slade and Gracen’s characters and their relationship.  The love they both felt for one another, as well as the fear they both felt at acting on that love, was realistic.  I struggled a little though with the idea that as soon as Slade said he was leaving they both felt they could act, having spent years loving each other in secret.  It seemed like a real waste, given that, as a man of his word, they both knew that acting on their love wouldn’t stop him moving away.

The introduction of Clint gave a new element to the story that I wasn’t expecting, and also highlighted a very important issue (that I won’t give away here but is something that everyone should be aware of).

I enjoyed this novel, it’s a good piece of chick lit that I would happily recommend to others.  Published in May 2017 this is a new novel for you all to go out and get your mitts on! Enjoy!

Rating: 📖 📖 📖 📗

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance reading copy, provided in exchange for my honest review.