Follow lifelong best friends Rae, Joel, Mackie, Aaron, Sarah, and Miles as they navigate their late high school and college years, growing together and separately, standing together through the good and the bad, and navigating love and heartbreak.
The series begins with Rae and Aaron’s epic will-they-or-won’t-they best friends to lovers romance.
Friends Like This
No one told me that junior year is when everything would get complicated. At the heart of the complexities? My best friend, Aaron freaking Cooper—more specifically, my relationship with him. Whether I should have a relationship with him that’s more than friendship. Whether I already do.
Everyone else in our lives seems to think there’s something between Aaron and me—that we’re denying it and lying to ourselves—even my boyfriend and his girlfriend.
No matter what we tell them or our friends, it doesn’t change what they see.
But as the lines start to blur between friendship and more, I find myself thinking that everyone else might be right.
Then again, maybe it doesn’t matter. Because I’m not sure it’s a good idea to fall for your best friend. But I’m not sure it’s a choice, either. Which leaves me wondering if Aaron and I have ever been just friends, or if we’ve always been something more. And if we are, is it finally time to risk everything and do something about it?
I have no idea.
And that’s the problem.
Falling Like This
It’s been a week since I kissed Rae after the State Championship game. And we haven’t said a word about it.
Tonight is the first big party of the summer, and I’m going to steal her away, kiss the hell out of her, make her mine.
At least that’s the plan. Until everything comes crashing down.
What happens at the party changes everything for both of us.
Now I’m broken physically, and Rae is broken emotionally. She’s hiding behind fake smiles and the walls she’s so good at putting up—walls I’m determined to tear down. But she makes it clear that won’t be easy.
After a summer from hell, the school year begins with everything up in the air. When we’re forced to face our feelings for each other, will we finally give in? Is she ready for this? Can we find our way to each other after everything that’s happened? Or will we fall apart before we even get started?
Broken Like This
I promised her forever.
But I’m not sure I can keep that promise. At least, not the way I’m supposed to.
I’ll always want forever with her, but not like this.
I’m broken. Falling apart. And I’m taking it all out on her.
I’m too much of a mess for this, and she deserves more than that. More than the way I’ve been. More than me.
I don’t want to do this without her, but I don’t know how to do it with her. There’s so much I have to figure out about myself and my future, and I have to do that on my own.
I have to let her go.
She might hate me, but it’s best for both of us.
I just have to hope by the time I figure things out and am ready for us again, she’ll still want me—want us.
I have to trust that she won’t give up on us, and we can still have the forever we were always meant to have.
Love Like This
Finally.
We had feelings for each other and denied it. We fell for each other and we messed it up.
We’ve grown and changed, but through it all—even the hardest moments—we never gave up on each other. We never gave up on us.
Now I know we never will.
After everything, we have our chance to get it right.
I have no doubt it will be hard. It’ll push our limits and test our love. We both have plenty more learning and growing to do.
But this time, we’re in it together, and no matter what, we’re going to keep building our life together, stronger every day.
This is just the beginning, and I love knowing that wherever the road leads us, his hand will be wrapped around mine for the entire journey.
Because it’s always been us, and it always will be.
Married Like This
A Friends Like This Bonus Novella
“I’m gonna marry you someday.”
It’s been eleven years since he carved our initials under the slide and said those words. Since then we’ve walked through all the ups and downs of our lives together—even when we weren’t a couple. Through the hardest moments, we made it. Sometimes we were battered and bruised, but we did it.
All that was just the beginning.
We’re about to start our life together as husband and wife, and I can’t wait to see what twists and turns come next on the roller coaster of our lives. As long as I’ve got his hand in mine, I know we can make it through together.
Rae Cooper sounds like a good name. I could picture myself being Rae Cooper one day.One day is now. And I can’t wait to marry the love of my life.
Together Like This
This might be a slippery slope.
Joel Wilkinson is many things. Funny, charming, charismatic, the best snuggler in the world. The boy who I share a bed with every single night… even though we’re not dating.
Did I mention we also kiss sometimes?
Yeah, it’s definitely a slippery slope, but it’s one I want to slide down—just slowly.
Because here’s the thing, I’m messy at best. And Joel… isn’t.
One more thing about him? He’s the most loving, patient guy in existence. He gives me everything I need, often before I realize I need it.
But I know I’m not in a place to give him the same. Joel has been my friend since I was five. He’s been my safe place in hard moments, never giving up on me no matter what I do. I can’t lose that.
No matter how strong I seem right now, knowing me, if I rush into this, I will mess it up.
So I’m taking it slow, blurring lines I refuse to cross, and praying that I don’t push him too far and make him walk away before we ever truly get started.
Heartbreak Like This
She told me she was hard to love. I told her that wasn’t true. If only I could make her believe that.
Sarah’s trauma never fully healed, and now it’s back to break her all over again. So, I take her hand, ready to fight side by side with her. Until her pain becomes too much for her to bear, and suddenly I’m fighting for her. Her attention. Her love. Her mental health. Her.
What happens when the person you love gets lost in a downward spiral? You stand strong and keep fighting for them, even when they don’t know how to fight for themselves.
At least, that’s what I’m going to do. Because I’ve never loved someone the way I love Sarah. I’ve never been loved by anyone the way she loves me. And I am never giving up on her, just like I’m never giving up on us.
We’re going to have our happy ending, even if we have to go through hell to get there.
Family Like This
I had a plan:
Live my life.
Find my person.
Build a future together.
Then Amelia Davis walked into my life and I went from never the same girl twice to absolutely gone for her. But before we could make it official, we became three.
Now we’re trying to navigate becoming parents before being a couple, and I’m trying to stay in control and keep my anxiety from taking over.
Amelia is the girl of my dreams, but between pregnancy and the trauma of her past, it’s a constant fight to get her to trust me, let me in, and believe in the future I know we can have.
I knew when I found love I’d do anything to keep it safe and make it last. Though I’m learning that’s harder than I thought it would be, there’s nothing that will stop me from giving Amelia the love she deserves and building a beautiful family with her and our baby—not even the walls surrounding Amelia’s bruised heart.
Future Like This
I’m a mess.
I kept it together alone for years, pulling every thread tight to keep from unraveling. Now here I am, a mess of tangled strings on the floor, trying to sort myself out and put myself back together.
Not just for me. For my baby and for the man I love. For the relationship I have with him.
I’ve spent too long being the strong one. Being vulnerable doesn’t come easily to me. But as I stare into the deep green eyes of the man whose heart I’m breaking every time I don’t let him in, I know I have to let my walls down.
I need to let him in and let my hurt out so I can heal and grow stronger. So I can be the best version of myself, mom to our daughter, and partner to Miles.
No matter how broken I am, I’ll do whatever it takes to fix things, so I can finally have the future I’ve always dreamed of—the future I finally believe I deserve—with the love of my life and our daughter.
Nothing Like This
From the time I was sixteen years old, Hyla Montgomery has been my dream, but our story has never been easy. Filled with heartache, fraught with drama, it’s been a fight from the start.
We’ve fallen apart, come back together, held on to each other, and let go. It’s never been an easy path, it’s always been muddy and overgrown with thorns that have cut us and twists and turns that have tried to break us.
Somehow we survived. But is survival enough to give us a forever together?
When Hyla presents me with my dream—the future we dreamed together—the past crashes into the present and I have to decide if we’re ready to live the life we dreamed together or if it was all a pipe dream that was never meant to be.
Trust Like This
Mackenzie Montoya is the love of my life.
After all we’ve been through, life has finally led us back together, and I’ve never been happier.
But happiness is fleeting, and despite all we’ve been through, we both have things to learn. Now that we’re finally a couple, we have to face the things both of us would rather ignore or risk losing each other for good.
Not an option.
I know this is where I’m meant to be, building a life with her.
No matter what comes our way, I will fight with everything inside me for our happily ever after, because after all we’ve been through, we deserve that and so much more.
After a tumultuous love story, follow Mackenzie and Hyla as they fight for their love, grow together, and find their way to their happily ever after.
Always Like This
Twenty years.
In the blink of an eye, we went from little kids running around the backyard to having kids of our own. Now we’re entering the next chapter of our lives.
Mackenzie and Hyla are married. Miles and Amelia just moved into their forever home. Sarah and Joel are building a beautiful life with Sadie. And Aaron and I are continuing to grow in life and love together.
But if I’ve learned anything, it’s that life never stops. It ebbs and flows, and despite all we’ve been through, we still have more to face in the next chapter of our lives as we love and lose, grieve and grow, and lean on each other—like we always have. Like we always will. I love knowing that whatever life brings, we’ll always be in it together.
Follow Rae, Aaron, Sarah, Joel, Miles, and Mackenzie (and Amelia and Hyla) as they embark on a new chapter of their lives and follow the winding road to their ultimate happily ever after.
Extra Like This
A Friends Like This Bonus Chapter Collection
Deleted scenes, bonus chapters, alternate POVs, and more.
This collection of bonus chapters from all eleven books in the Friends Like This series features more sweet, swoony, emotional, heart wrenching, and steamy moments, plus all the fun friendship banter you love from your favorite besties.
Originally only available as downloadable bonus content, now all the bonus chapters are available in this paperback collection.
Fall in love, swoon, and ride a few more little emotional roller coasters with the characters from the Friends Like This series.
This is not standalone content. Be sure you have read each book before reading the subsequent bonus material.
This collection features:
- Friends Like This bonus chapters
- Falling Like This deleted scenes
- Broken Like This bonus/deleted scenes
- Love Like This bonus chapter
- Christmas Like This
- Romance Novel Fantasy (Aaron & Rae NSFW)
- Together Like This flashback chapters
- Promise Like This (Heartbreak Like This bonus chapters)
- Family Like This bonus chapters
- Future Like This bonus chapters
- Nothing Like This bonus chapters
- Trust Like This bonus chapters
- Always Like This bonus chapters
Bethany Monaco Smith 