A Very Friendly Fiasco: A Friends to Lovers Sweet RomCom

Cider Cove #5

by Elana Johnson, Liz Isaacson

Sometimes the friend zone is breached...

He's her office crush, and she's the colleague he can't stop thinking about. But with HR's no-fraternization policy breathing down their necks, Lizzie and Matt have to get creative if they want to explore what’s brewing between them…


I’ve been stuck in a corporate rut for years, but it’s not all bad—there’s Matt. Smart, funny, drop-dead gorgeous Matt, whose eyes make me forget how much I hate filling out toxic material regulation paperwork.

It’s not like anything can happen between us. ChemTech’s relationship rules are stricter than a chemistry final, and honestly, I don’t think I could survive the embarrassment of submitting a detailed dating log to HR.

But then Matt invites me to dinner and a concert—as friends.

Fake friends, to be exact.

He claims it’s the perfect loophole, and I know I should say no. Except...he’s Matt. And who am I kidding? I want to go out with him more than I want a handful of my favorite chocolate-covered almonds.

Caught between the thrill of potential romance and the fear of corporate consequences, I find myself at a crossroads. Matt’s offer is tempting, leaving me questioning everything I know about risk and reward.

Navigating dinners and concerts and movies as "fake friends" seems harmless enough, but with every glance and shared laugh, every conversation and tender moment, the heat between us turns into a bonfire and the façade of friendship crumbles.

And now I have to Is our connection worth risking my career?

456 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 8, 2025

About the author

3-time USA Today bestselling author Elana Johnson writes adult contemporary beach romance. She is the author of over 130 books across two names, and there's nothing better than sun, sand, and swoon-worthy kisses! Unless it's a sweet-and-sexy cowboy - read those under her pen name of Liz Isaacson. Or an emotional, heartfelt women's fiction novel - read those under her pen name of Jessie Newton.

Learn more at:
www.elanajohnson.com
www.lizisaacson.com
www.authorjessienewton.com

Reviews

[Shonda]

So many laugh out loud moments and fun characters! I love this book!

[DayDreamer8912]

4.5/5
🚨TW: parents’ abandonment/neglect, loss of love one,
🚨CW: mild curses

Read it if you like
📑Dual POV
📑 Dating report
📑Becoming fake friends?
📑 Friends to Lovers
📑 Secret Crush
📑 Animal friends (cats, dogs, goats, etc.)

Favourite Moments
📑 Him surprised her in her room (read then you will know)
📑 Having a non-date time together as fake friends (can’t spoil it)
📑 Helping out with her father’s animal adoption event.
📑 They opened up to each other
📑Her friends and their family teasing them and also helping them too. (can’t spoil it)
📑Their dates and them meeting each other’s family.
📑 His cats hehe…
📑 His nicknames for her.
📑 Halloween party (can’t spoil it)
📑 Christmas eve and Christmas party (can’t spoil it)

Swoony Moments
📑 He cares and loves her.
📑He encouraged her to do what she love
📑He cares for his family.
📑He is good with the children and also animals
📑 He respected her.

Synopsis
Lizzie
She just got promoted a few months ago. She part time job as a model which she is thinking of doing it full time soon.

Matt
Works in the same company as Lizzie. Cares for his family very much and always there for them whenever they need him.

They both had a crush on each other but never had a courage to tell each other. Matt took up the courage to ask her on a date but instead of a real date, he told her that it will be a ‘fake’ friend outing.Why? Because of the company’s policy of writing the whole date report. Will they able to sneak for long? Read A Very Friendly Fiasco to find out!!


Review:
Loving these two they are just so adorable and them sneaking in order to keep out from writing a date report for their company policy (I would do that too, who would want to write a date report word for word no thank you. I would prefer it to be private). And also, they also both are trying their best to find themselves by challenging each other and encourage each other to really do what they really want to do in life along with the help of their family and friends. Love their sweet dates together and also their family time during picnic and at her father’s farm. Not only that, the cats are just so adorable and also the goat and the dogs. Haha....and them getting interrupted by Emma and both of them got tease by her friends, his family and also her father and also they help them to realise their feelings for each other. hehe… so cute. Oh and his pet name for her it just so cuteeeee….and the names of his cats that is related to Chemistry. This book made me smile, laugh, swoon, wanting to tease them along with their friends, and also I really want to spend time with the animals in the farm. It will be so fun. Love it.

This is the 5th book of Cider Cove Sweet Southern Series.

I was gifted complimentary ARC. All opinions are my own. Thank you, Elana Johnson for the ARC!

You can purchase this on Amazon and it is available on KU.

[Raechel Lenore]

4.5 stars

What fun this story was! I've had the pleasure of reading each of the books in this series as they've come out (or before, as arcs), and I can't decide if my favorite is still A Very Merry Mess or now this one - because I really liked A Very Friendly Fiasco!
Both main characters, Lizzie and Matt, were very like-able, and I very much wanted to see them get their happily ever after.Faced with complicated work policies regarding dating coworkers, Matt makes the proposition that Lizzie and he go out as fake friends - trying to skirt around the dating policy as a whole. Of course, the idea does not go as smoothly as he first imagined it would, and they have to decide where to go from there. I won't give many more details - you can read the book to find out more yourself. ;)
I don't normally care much for office romance tropes personally, but I didn't find this one annoying or aggravating at all - even with the drama of the job's dating policies, the workplace environment flowed naturally and never felt too stuffy or overtaking of the plot.
I enjoyed getting to see all the friends who [used to] live at the Big House together; Hillary, Claudia, Emma, Ryanne, and Tahlia. Seeing where the couples were at now was fun, and the teasers for Tahlia's story (coming next!) has me very intrigued. I definitely need to find out more of her upcoming romance story after reading the sneak peak at the end of A Very Friendly Fiasco.
Anyway. It was nice revisiting Cider Cove, and all the characters involved again!
Oh and Matt's cats!! I loved his cats. =^.^= 


I received an ecopy from the author. I was not required to write a positive review, and all thoughts expressed are entirely my own.

[Victoria]

Sooo much fun to read this romcom in the almost completed Cider Cove Sweet Romcoms series. This book featured Matt and Lizzie who were co-workers at a chemical company whose offices were next door to one another. Lizzie had a secret crush on Matt and finally he noticed her but there was a roadblock—the company’s strictly enforced dating policy of having to report every date in detail to HR. In an effort to avoid having to disclose personal matters, Matt asked Lizzie out as a “fake friend”. Most romance readers are familiar with the fake fiance trope but this was a new one to me; Matt acknowledged that he liked her as more than a friend but in order to avoid HR, he wanted them to fake being “just friends” in public. Unfortunately someone ratted them out and they had to decide if the other person was important enough for them to run through the HR gauntlet. I have truly enjoyed this set of books about six single roommates and their lives together at the”Big House” where they love and support one another through the ups and downs of life and, one by one, meet “the one” and fall in love. I love the way the author has created a strong community and draws them closer together while also bringing in their significant others. It always leaves me feeling the “warm fuzzies”. This book can be read and enjoyed as a standalone but I encourage you to start at the series beginning so you can fully appreciate the updates given throughout the books. I received an ARC from the author. All opinions expressed are mine alone.

[Jodi Jensen]

I have been wanting to read A Very Friendly Fiasco by Elena Johnson since I finished book 4 in the Cider Cove Sweet Southern RomComs series. I adore this series, and the teaser in that book made so excited to read Lizzie and Matt’s story. It was the perfect addition to this fabulous series.

Lizzie and Matt are coworkers. Coworkers who have serious crushes on each other. Matt tries to avoid the pages and pages of paperwork required by HR if they decide to date by asking Lizzie to hang out as friends. When someone from work reports seeing them together, Lizzie and Matt need to decide if they want to take their relationship to the next level.

Lizzie was a fabulous heroine. She was smart and confident and so sassy. I loved how she was so into fashion and so into Matt from the very beginning. It was so fun to see Lizzie really come into her own and realize what she wanted out of life. I loved her.

Matt was so swoony. I loved how kind and caring he was to everyone. His character arc was so well done. His self-realization was so real and sweet. I adored how his relationship with Lizzie developed.

I adored Lizzie and her roommates. I loved their antics, especially how they treated Matt when he first started coming to the house. Their sisterhood was so special. I love books that celebrate female friendships, and this book and the whole series do a fabulous job of it.

Thank you to the author for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

[Sierra]

Reader’s Notes:

-this is part of a series, but could be read as a stand-alone

-this is told mainly from Lizzie & Matt’s points of view (with 3 chapters total told from other characters’ points of view – two of those chapters from the next book’s female main character)

-Lizzie curses in city names (so instead of using a curse word, she says a random city name – they don’t sound at all like the possible curse words they’d be replacing)

-it is mentioned that a character grew up in a broken home (divorced parents who also left their children to take care of themselves)

Review:

This was so much fun to read! I loved getting to know Matt & Lizzie better (and meeting Matt’s cats)! I loved the addition of Matt’s opinionated cats and the trouble they’d cause at times. The names/nicknames given to some of the characters were cute and I enjoyed that Matt & Lizzie’s nerdy knowledge made it into them! I also loved getting to know Matt’s family and seeing where the other Big House’s girls are at in their lives.

I am so excited to find out what will happen for Tahlia’s story (the last one 🫢) with the hints given and the sneak peek at the first chapters of her book!

Summary:

Lizzie has had a crush on her corporate coworker Matt, but he’s given her no indication that he’s ever wanted to be more than friends. Until one day he invites her to join him at a concert in the park as friends. Well, fake friends. Matt says he wants to explore the connection they have without all the HR forms their relationship would entail if they called it dating. And Lizzie is just head over heels enough to accept…

Matt wants to get to know Lizzie on a deeper level with how great their work friendship is, but the future paperwork detailing every moment of their potential dates for HR is not thrilling. So maybe a loophole is his way in without the paperwork hanging over their heads…

[Cathy]

I love this series so much! Each of the girls who have lived in the Big House have gotten a beautiful love story of their own. The stories are as unique as the girls who live there. And they all made me laugh.

This story features Lizzie and Matt. They work at the same company and to even date, they have to fill out long, annoying forms. Which is why Matt suggests that they hang out as fake friends. Even though he's secretly wanted to date Lizzie for a long time.

I loved Lizzie. She wants to know where she stands and the dating as friends thing is just confusing. I loved that she was willing to switch things up so that she and Matt could be together as more than friends.

Matt was a great guy. One thing I really liked about Matt is that he's observant. And he likes to take care of people. That means he noticed what Lizzie's favorites were and he would go out of his way to bring those things to her. I thought that was so sweet.

With this story, we see Thalia worried about managing the Big House on her own. I can't wait to read her story and see what she decides to do!

[Beth]

Matt & Lizzie were sooooo cute!

Seriously, I loved all of the heart eyes and big feelings these two had for each other starting with page one! Matt, especially, was absolutely adorable!

I loved getting to follow Lizzie on her journey to finding herself and the future she wanted. I loved her flirty banter with Matt and her devotion to him and her found family.

Matt was an absolute sweetheart. He reminded me a little bit of Elliott from A Very Merry Mess. He went through a lot of self discovery during this book, which I was so proud of him for. Still, I love how he loves on his family and can always be counted on to show up.

The only qualm I had about this book was the third act "break, not break up". These are not my favorite and while it was written well and made sense for the story...I wasn't a fan.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book as I have the whole series! I am so excited and deeply intrigued to read Tahlia's story next!

[Andrea]

I listened to this book and had to stop after 15 minutes. It was clear from the beginning that the speakers were AI-generated. They sounded like robots. Each word was clearly spaced from the next and there was zero - ZERO - inflection in anything. They'd pronounce a word correctly once and incorrectly in the next sentence. Maybe calling your father "Daddy" when you're an adult doesn't creep you out, but you'd be totally creeped out if a robotic voice did for sure.

I use AI-generated VO every day at my work and it is well done. You can do it well. This is the worst I have ever heard. It reminded me of what people used to think robotic voices sounded like. Ugh.

[Sandra Hartzel]

I had an ARC for this book, but this is my voluntary and honest opinion. Lizzie and her office mate, Matt have a crush on each other, but in order to date, they must fill out lots of paperwork so Matt suggests they see each other as friends and avoid the paperwork, but they are found out and have to fill it out. Lizzie must decide if she enjoys the job enough to stay, and Matt must decide if he wants to be the fixer, or someone else. An engaging story about relationships, personal growth, and the support of friends.

[Wendy Droke]

I enjoyed this revisit to Cider Cove and familiar characters and faces. Technically this probably could be read as a stand alone but I think it will make far more sense read in order, certainly the side characters and their relationships with each other will. The character growth in this book was quite well done, as both main characters wrestled with their past and future and how things fit together. I'm quite excited for the next book in this series from the teasers in this book! Read this one soon!

[Tracey Wert]

I just love this group of young women! This is Lizzie‘s story and how her relationship with co-worker Matt develops. They are equals on the job front, but Lizzie questions if they’re on the same level in their personal relationship.

Seeing this friend group adapt and change as their lives mature move forward is bittersweet. They’ve been friends for quite some time and are now pairing off with significant others. The author does a great job of letting us see how each couple is doing. I find the alternative swear words hilarious!!! Great continuation of a really fun series!

[Mary Jane McLeod]

Really Great Series

I'm really enjoying this series and all the characters. Watching this group of sisters by choice change, grow and find love makes you want to become a part of their big family. I absolutely loved Lizzie and Matt's story. These two are so perfect for each other. Of course they have to suffer through a few things to get to their HEA but it all makes for a wonderful read that captivated from the beginning.

[Lynn Hyman]

Realizations

Matt and Lizzie are both successful people as individuals, but what would it be like to be a couple? I love how down to earth they both are, what good friends they have, and how painfully honest they have to be with themselves and each other. The story poses some excellent questions for self-reflection while ending it on a very happy ending for Matt and Lizzie.

[Judith Seale]

Interesting story!

This is a very enjoyable story to read. Matt and Lizzy work together but cannot date because of company rules. Getting to know each other has its problems. Hearing about the lives of the other members of the Big House is so rewarding. Looking forward to the next book in this series.

[Paula Bond]

Oh my, there is just so much that I love about this book! Elana Johnson has a real gift for all-out funny woven expertly with deep heart-touching emotion. It takes a lot to make me laugh out loud while reading, and the dialogue in this book definitely was laugh-out-loudable!

[Abby Huffer]

Loved this one so much! It’s Lizzie’s turn to find love and she’s got a forbidden office romance happening with Matt. I loved them together! I loved how he cared for & just adored her. The chemistry puns were so much fun! Fantastic addition🤎

[Melanie]

This book definitely had great chemistry and cute chem cats! Lizzie and Matt have been dancing around each other for a while. I love the way that the books in this series really shows people growing and learning and building found family along the way! Great read!

[MRS SHARON]

Lizzie & Matty bk5

Awwwww loved it poor Matty being a fixed I can totally empathise with him but well done Lizzie making him look at himself. It's a hard thing to do especially if u don't like what u see.

Love they get their HEA
Hope Talia can too soon 😘

[Marianne]

A fun office romance.. Sweet, romantic, and heartwarming.. I liked it a lot.

[Jocelyn]

Another fun read. Enjoyed the characters and their banter. It was also nice seeing the relationships of the secondary characters. Looking forward to #6

[Teresa]

Funny and entertaining romance while keeping up with the ladies of The Big House. Excellent read.

[Suzanne]

I thoroughly enjoyed Lizzie and Matt's story. I loved how Lizzie challenged Matt, and how he finally figured out who he was and what he wanted. I loved the chemistry swears, too. They were hilarious!

[Michal Sullivan]

I enjoyed this clean rom com about Matt and Lizzie falling in love as they fake date as coworkers.

[Kathy]

I love this series but particularly Lizzie and Matt's story. I love both characters so much. All the characters in the series are so diverse and fun. Pure delight!

[bea]

me enojé mucho con ellos en un punto, pero MATT TE AMO 🫶 (no cambies)

lo mejor de este libro fueron los city-swears y los ELEMENT-SWEARS

okey, solo me queda un libro y SALÍ DE MI READING SLUMP

[Jane Weiler]

Another enjoyable story of the 6 roommates, their relationships and romances. An easy sometimes humorous story you will enjoy reading.

[Lissa]

I absolutely adore Matt & Lizzie's sweet, caring, uncertain, loving, hopeful, swoony happily ever after!!