FRIEND (WITH BENEFITS) ZONE had the two most stubborn characters I’ve ever read in a romance book. They are both so willingly oblivious to what everyone else knows but I was happy that they quickly got it together by the 25% mark. Jasmine and Devon have been best friends since they were 10 years old but now they each have feelings for the other and are too afraid to pull the trigger on a relationship. These two danced around each other so much in the beginning, but once they got together I appreciated that they tried to take things slowly as they adjusted to this new step in their relationship. However, the last 10% or so was particularly rough because Jasmine was so resistant to even trying to talk about their issues and act like adults.

I love when an author can challenge my expectations of writing and Laura Brown certainly does this. Because both her characters are deaf/hard of hearing we see dialogue in a new way as it's written here. There are no examples of husky voices, or sexy growls, or the variety of ways to say “he/she said”. Instead we get clues through the characters' hand gestures and signing, by their facial expressions, or the smallness or largeness of their signing. Devon was a wonderful hero and I loved how compassionate he was about other people. He really wants to help those who need it the most and it's an honorable career path to take. He’s also really sweet with Jasmine’s more skittish nature.

The second half of the book had me almost drowning in Jasmine’s pity party and it really brought the book down for me. She goes through some tough things but she also wallows in all her life’s tragedies, bemoans her bad luck, and acts like she’s all alone in this life when that’s not true.