Review: You Belong With Me by J.R. Loveless

Scott has been in love with his best friend Craig for years, but watching Craig with his manipulative boyfriend has worn Scott down, and he knows he needs a break from the pain and maybe a change of scenery and perspective. His twin sister, Karen, convinces him to spend a summer in Paris.

Karen is sick and tired of seeing Scott suffer, and she’s not going to stand for it anymore. She confronts Craig and tells him what he’s been missing by spurning Scott’s affection in favor of a jerk who mistreats him.

When Craig unknowingly breaks Scott’s heart, Craig opens his eyes—and his own heart—to the possibility of a future with Scott. He plans to use the time while Scott’s abroad to orchestrate a romantic surprise that will show Scott they belong together. But when he sees Scott with another man at the airport, Craig fears he’s too late.

Scott and Craig have been best friends for over 10 years. They have done everything together including coming out but after they did and Scott realized he had feelings for his best friend, things began to change. Scott has never had the confidence to tell Craig how he truly feels and instead settles on being his BFF and watching Craig go through a crappy relationship with Derek, who totally doesn’t deserve him.

But Scott is done watching and not being the one Craig cares about romantically. When his meddlesome twin sister Karen goes behind his back to their parents and gets Scott the internship to study and analyze political coverage in France the night of their birthday party, he jumps at the chance. After the scene Scott walks in on with Craig and Derek I can’t blame him for running away from his problems.

I have to say the POV of Karen was pointless to me. It took me so far out of the story and every POV she had could have been dealt with from either Craig or Scott’s POV and flowed with the story. I get that she has her own romance with Stanley and Stanley has issues but it made zero sense to have it in this short story.

But back to the boys and to Craig… he is a bit of a douche but he truly loves his BFF but not in that way, or does he? I like that we got Craig’s POV so we knew what he was thinking and that he did question his feelings for Scott before the big birthday blowout. He always considered Scott’s feelings as a friend and after the one and only time he didn’t he felt awful that he hurt Scott so the fact that Craig has a change of heart, wasn’t that hard to buy. And at least he got a morsel of his own medicine.

You Belong with Me was a cute friends to lover’s story with my favorite, unrequited love. I still think Karen’s POV was unnecessary and after the second time it showed up I skimmed the rest, but Scott and Craig were a mess of hormones and feelings that finally found their way to one another.

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