My Sister's Best Friend

by Zoë Tavares Bennett

Vera's life changes forever when her sister's best friend, Aspen, shows up drunk at her doorstep one fateful night.

While Vera’s sister, Layla, likes to dance and party, Vera prefers to read a good book and stay in for the night. Layla and her best friend Aspen are the most popular girls at Hilltop High. Vera never had a boyfriend—she barely even had her first kiss. But when Layla and their parents leave for a dance competition, Aspen shows up drunk at her doorstep and changes everything.

Putting a twist on the familiar trope, My Sister’s Best Friend is a short and sweet, feel good story of first love, queer romance, and coming of age, which reached over 1.4 million views on Wattpad.

Genres: Romance, LGBT

166 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 24, 2023

About the author

Zoë is a writer based in Los Angeles, California. She is the author of the ancient Mediterranean mythology-inspired fantasy series The Realm of Emmeson, the historical novel The Sun of God set in Ancient Rome, and the YA romance novel My Sister’s Best Friend.

Zoë graduated from Williams College with a degree in Classics, specializing in Ancient Greek and Latin. She is a proud Centrista, having studied abroad in Rome at the Intercollegiate Center of Classical Studies. Aside from Greek and Latin, Zoë speaks Portuguese (being half-Portuguese herself), Spanish, and is learning Italian, German, and French. She is currently a graduate student in the Proto-Indo-European program at UCLA, interested in Homeric Greek and the mytho-poetic comparisons with Sanskrit.

For information on new releases and posts, sign up for Zoë’s newsletter on her author website.

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review originally on Biblioboard: This story unfortunately fell flat for me. There wasn't a satisfying amount of depth to the characters, and the main conflict - having to hide the relationship from the sister - didn't have enough time to build meaningful tension. It used the 'nerdy one and popular one fall in love' trope, but both characters being female didn't feel like 'a twist on the trope' given the amount of LGBTQ+ stories with greater depth currently available in YA.
Addition: This story is short and has a happy ending, which may be exactly what some people are looking for! However, in my profession, I would be more likely to recommend other YA LGBTQ+ reads.

[Jules ✌ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute short read. If the author had spent more time building the characters and plot and it would've been better. Wouldn't read again, but it's so short I wouldn't discourage someone else from reading it

[L E · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed this a bit more than I had thought I would. Short, cute and loved the 1st time love that is always so wonderful.