11 Sexy friends-to-lovers romance novels with plenty of benefits

Ask any group of romance readers what they hate to find in books and at least a few of them will give you this answer: instalove. And what’s the best way to make sure the book you’ve picked up doesn’t have any dreaded instances of instalove? Well, pick up a highly recommended friends-to-lovers read, of course! With that in mind, here are our top 11 favorite friends-to-lovers reads in romance today:

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Love in Lingerie
Author: Alessandra Torre

Amazon blurb:
I hired her to fix my company, to bring Marks Lingerie back to life. I didn’t expect her to become my friend. I didn’t expect to fall in love with her.

The first rule of business is to never touch your employees. I think there is another rule about not falling for your best friend—a rule against imagining the curves of her body, or the way her breathing would change if I pulled down her panties and unzipped my pants.

Now, I can’t wait any longer. I’m tossing out the rules.

Damn the company.
Damn our friendship.
Damn my fears.

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Present Perfect
Author: Alison G. Bailey

Amazon blurb:
Amanda Kelly spent her entire life trying to control every aspect of it, while striving for perfection. Her obsession with being perfect, along with her feelings of worthlessness, consumed her. The one thing she thought was perfect in her life was the bond she shared with her best friend, Noah.

Everything was going according to her life plan until she woke up one day and realized she had fallen in love with him. The one thing she couldn’t control was the affect he had on her. Noah had the power to give her one hundred lifetimes of happiness, which also gave him the power to completely devastate her. He was the one thing in her life that was perfect, but she couldn't allow herself to have him.

Her life begins to unravel. Events take over and force her to let go of her dreams and desires.

She needs to realize that a person cannot control the events in their life, only their reaction to them...but will it be too late for her to save her relationship with her best friend? Present Perfect is a story of how past events have present consequences and how perfect your present could be if you stopped fighting and just allowed it to happen.

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The 5 Stages of Falling in Love
Author: Rachel Higginson

Amazon blurb:
Elizabeth Carlson is living in the pits of hell- also known as grief.

Her husband of eight years, the father of her four children and the love of her life, died from cancer. Grady’s prognosis was grim, even from the start, but Liz never gave up hope he would survive. How could she, when he was everything to her?

Six months later, she is trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered life and get the kids to school on time. Both seem impossible. Everything seems impossible these days.

When Ben Tyler moves in next door, she is drowning in sorrow and pain, her children are acting out, and the house is falling apart. 

She has no time for curious new friends or unwanted help, but Ben gives her both. And he doesn’t just want to help her with yard work or cleaning the gutters. Ben wants more from Liz. More than she’s capable of ever giving again.

As Liz mourns her dead husband and works her way through the five stages of grief, she finds there’s more of her heart to give than she thought possible. And as new love takes hold, she peels away the guilt and heartache, and discovers there’s more to life than death.

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Priceless
Author: Linda Kage

Amazon blurb:
Three things in my life were fact. I needed Sarah to survive. I needed sex to remain sane. And I could never mix sex with Sarah. I just knew—deep in my marrow—that if I did, I’d somehow lose her. All my deepest darkest secrets would crack open, bleed out, and ruin everything between us. I wouldn’t unleash the shit inside me on my worst enemy, let alone her. So she stayed strictly in the friend zone. People probably thought I never went there with her because of her cerebral palsy, but f*ck them. She knew she was the most important person in my world, and I wasn’t about to risk hurting our relationship just to make my c*ck happy. Until the moment she begged me to take her virginity. Now it’s all about to hit the fan, because how the hell do you resist the one person forbidden to you when she says please?—Brandt Gamble

*Recommended for ages 18 and up due to explicit scenes and language* New Adult Romance, Can (hopefully) also be read as a standalone.

Note: Check out our interview with the lovely and talented Linda Kage here , and our full review of Priceless (which is freakin’ awesome) here.

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The Fix Up
Author: Kendall Ryan

Amazon blurb:
My tempting and very alpha friend Sterling Quinn is someone I consider off-limits.

It's not just that we're friends, he's also cocky, confident, and British, which means he's a walking aphrodisiac.

But lately he's been giving me the look. You know the one. When he thinks I'm not paying attention, and his gaze lingers for too long.

When we start working together, that's when the sexual tension between us gets so thick, I want to hack through it with a machete. I want to make all these deep feelings I've harbored for him disappear, because there's no way this can end well.

The lines between business and pleasure become irrevocably blurred, and I'm stuck between a rock and Sterling's very, very hard place.

Rather than keep a level head about our growing attraction, Sterling wants to go all in, showing me just how explosive we can be together.

But I've been around long enough to know that this British bad boy is more than my heart can handle. I'm not about to be cast aside like yesterday's underwear when he's done having fun.

Sterling’s never been told no, and he's not about to put his ego aside and play by my rules. But I never thought he'd fight so dirty.

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Kaleidoscope
Author: Kristen Ashley

Amazon blurb:
Sexy, gifted, and loyal, PI Jacob Decker is a tall, cool drink of perfection who had Emmanuelle Holmes at "hello." His relationship with Emme's best friend kept them apart for years, but things have changed. Now that a case has brought him to Gnaw Bone, Colorado, the road is wide open for Emme and Deck to explore something hotter and deeper than Emme dreamed possible. So why is she sabotaging the best thing that's ever happened to her?

It isn't easy to catch Deck off guard, but Emme does just that when she walks back into his life after nine long years. The curvy brunette had her charms back in the day, but now she's a bona fide knockout . . . and she wants to rekindle their friendship. Deck, however, wants more. Emme's always been the one; she excites Deck's body and mind like no other woman can.

But a dark chapter from Emme's past overshadows their future together. Now only Deck can help her turn the page-if she'll let him . . .

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​The Boy Who Sneaks in My Bedroom Window
Author: Kirsty Moseley

Amazon blurb:
Amber Walker and her older brother, Jake, have an abusive father. One night her brother's best friend, Liam, sees her crying and climbs through her bedroom window to comfort her. That one action sparks a love/hate relationship that spans over the next eight years.

Liam is now a confident, flirty player who has never had a girlfriend before. Amber is still emotionally scarred from the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father. Together they make an unlikely pair.

Their relationship has always been a rocky one, but what happens when Amber starts to view her brother's best friend a little differently? 
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And how will her brother, who has always been a little overprotective, react when he finds out that the pair are growing closer? Find out in The Boy Who Sneaks In My Bedroom Window.

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Blurred Lines
Author: Lauren Layne

Amazon blurb:
When Parker Blanton meets Ben Olsen during her freshman year of college, the connection is immediate—and platonic. Six years later, they’re still best friends, sharing an apartment in Portland’s trendy Northwest District as they happily settle into adult life. But when Parker’s boyfriend dumps her out of the blue, she starts to wonder about Ben’s no-strings-attached approach to dating. The trouble is, even with Ben as her wingman, Parker can’t seem to get the hang of casual sex—until she tries it with him.

The arrangement works perfectly . . . at first. The sex is mind-blowing, and their friendship remains as solid as ever, without any of the usual messy romantic entanglements. But when Parker’s ex decides he wants her back, Ben is shocked by a fierce stab of possessiveness.

And when Ben starts seeing a girl from work, Parker finds herself plagued by unfamiliar jealousy. With their friendship on the rocks for the first time, Parker and Ben face an alarming truth: Maybe they can’t go back. And maybe, deep down, they never want to.

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Right in Front of You
Author: Lacey Silks

Amazon blurb:
Carter Clark

I had it all figured out: a gorgeous girlfriend, a baby on the way, and a firefighter career I always dreamed of. Life was perfect... until piece by piece, it all fell apart, and I lost my will to live.

Molly Fowler, my best friend from grade school, had saved my life countless times. She helped me heal, physically and emotionally. At my side when I needed her, she guided me to be a better man, while she herself was hurting.

But I was too blind to see what was right in front of me. I was too blind to see that we needed each other. I was too blind to see how deeply she was scarred.

Molly Fowler 

Life is peachy, isn't it? Well, maybe to those outside looking in. But not for me. I'd wanted to leave Hope Bay since the moment I understood that my family dynamics were... unique. 

I left as soon as I could, but an unknown force kept pulling me back to Hope Bay. A force that would save countless lives. A force by the name of Carter Clark. 

But I was too blind to see what was right in front of me. I was too weak to trust in his friendship. Above all, I was too blind to see the danger still waiting for me from a man I'd never thought I'd see again. 

Note: Right in Front of You is a standalone novel that follows Carter and Molly's story from Yours and Mine. Contains spoilers to Yours and Mine. Intended for mature audience only and contain triggers.

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Full Package
Author: Lauren Blakely

Amazon blurb:
I've been told I have quite a gift.

Hey, I don't just mean in my pants. I've got a big brain too, and a huge heart of gold. And I like to use all my gifts to the fullest, the package included. Life is smooth sailing....

Until I find myself stuck between a rock and a sexy roommate, which makes for one very hard...place.

Because scoring an apartment in this city is harder than finding true love. So even if I have to shack up with my buddy's smoking hot and incredibly amazing little sister, a man's got to do what a man's got to do.

I can resist Josie. 

I'm disciplined, I'm focused, and I keep my hands to myself, even in the mere five-hundred square feet we share. Until the one night she insists on sliding under the covers with me. It'll help her sleep after what happened that day, she says.

Spoiler—neither one of us sleeps. 

Did I mention she's also one of my best friends? That she's brilliant, beautiful and a total firecracker? Guess that makes her the full package too.

What's a man stuck in a hard place to do?

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Truly, Madly, Whiskey
Author: Melissa Foster

Amazon blurb:
Eight months is a long damn time to have the hots for a woman who keeps a guy at arm's length. But Crystal Moon is no ordinary woman. She's a sinfully sexy, sass-mouthed badass, and the subject of Bear Whiskey's midnight fantasies. She's also one of his closest friends.

Just when Crystal thinks she has her life under control, scorching-hot, possessive, aggressive, and fiercely loyal Bear pushes all her sexual buttons, relentless in his pursuit to make her his.

The more Bear pushes, the hotter their passion burns, unearthing memories for Crystal that are best kept buried. But there's no stopping the collision of her past and present, catapulting the two lovers down an emotionally charged road that has them questioning all they thought they knew.

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