The Friend Zone is the 2019 debut novel of New York Times best-selling author Abby Jimenez. Following its publication, the novel appeared on many lists of “best romances.” As the first book in a trilogy of contemporary romances that feature the same characters and settings, the novel is followed by The Happy Ever Playlist and Life’s Too Short.

Jimenez has written another trilogy of romances that feature a different cast of characters and settings: Part of Your World, Yours Truly, and Just for The Summer. Several of Jimenez’s novels have been optioned for film.

This study guide refers to the 2019 Hachette paperback edition of the novel.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide discuss infertility.

Plot Summary

Josh Copeland and Kristen Peterson meet when Josh rear-ends Kristen’s truck after she brakes suddenly. He immediately notices that she is attractive, sarcastic, and feisty. They both move on with their day, only to meet again at the fire station. Josh is a firefighter who has just transferred from a station in South Dakota to one in California, where his best friend Brandon also works. He will be the best man in Brandon’s wedding, and Kristen will be the maid of honor for his fiancée, Sloan. Kristen does not want to tell Brandon about the car accident because she had been driving his truck, so she makes Josh keep it a secret, and they pretend to have never met before.

Kristen owns an online business that sells clothing and accessories for tiny dogs, or “doglets,” as she calls them. Over breakfast, Kristen tells them she needs to hire a new carpenter to build sets of miniature stairs for her business, which produces products for tiny dogs. Josh is interested in the job when he learns how well it pays. He begins to come to Kristen’s house regularly and uses her garage as a workspace to build the sets of stairs. They chat together over lunch breaks, discussing issues like Josh’s recent breakup with his girlfriend, Celeste, and Kristen’s long-distance relationship with her Marine boyfriend, Tyler.

When Kristen mentions that someone recently tried to break into her house, Josh insists on spending the night in the guest room until Tyler returns. Because she is attracted to Josh, Kristen knows that this arrangement might be a bad idea, but she does feel safer when he is there. They enjoy being roommates and soon become close friends. Although they are both developing feelings for each other, they try not to let their growing attraction show.

After a party with Brandon and Sloan, Josh and Kristen stop to get tacos. They are driving Sloan’s old car, which refuses to start when they try to leave the taco stand, so they wait for a tow truck together. Their mutual attraction is now undeniable, and they are both tempted to let the boundaries of their friendship blur a little. When the tow truck driver gives them a ride, Kristen has to sit on Josh’s lap in the cramped truck, and the tension builds even more.

When they are walking back to Kristen’s house later that night, Kristen gets a voicemail from Tyler, who has decided to reenlist in the Marines and won’t be coming back after all. Kristen previously told him that if he reenlisted, their relationship would be over, so with this voicemail, he is effectively breaking up with her. She rushes to tell Josh, and with no further obstacles, they sleep together for the first time.

After this major turning point in their relationship, Kristen becomes more emotionally distant from Josh. She tells him that they can have sex but not a relationship, and she will not tell him why. Josh is confused and hurt, but he decides to be patient and give Kristen some space, hoping that she will change her mind.

Over the next few weeks, they work out an arrangement in which they act as friends most of the time and only touch each other when they are having sex. They are secretly in love with each other, but Josh believes that Kristen only wants to be friends with benefits, while Kristen resists entering into a relationship with Josh because she knows that he wants children, and her health condition will prevent her from getting pregnant.

Josh meets Kristen’s mom, Evelyn, a cold and ambitious woman who does not hesitate to describe how Kristen has disappointed her. Hearing this, Josh understands that Kristen’s childhood has made her the strong and independent person she has become.

Tyler surprises Josh and Kristen by showing up at her house to apologize for the mistake of reenlisting. He takes Kristen out to dinner to talk and proposes to her at the end of the night. Kristen wants time to think about the proposal. While she doesn’t love Tyler the way she loves Josh, she believes that marrying Josh is not an option.

Kristen turns Tyler down but still won’t allow Josh to get closer. This pattern persists until the weekend of Brandon’s and Sloan’s bachelor and bachelorette parties, when Kristen and Josh admit that they love each other. After the parties, Kristen is still adamant that they can’t be together, which confuses and frustrates Josh. He pushes her to explain, and she finally tells him that she has uterine fibroids and will be getting a hysterectomy, which will prevent her from having children. Josh is shocked at first, but he quickly realizes that he wants Kristen more than he wants children. He now feels terrible for talking so much about wanting kids without knowing Kristen’s situation.

While he and Kristen are talking, Josh is called to respond to an accident. He is horrified to see Brandon, who was hit by a drunk driver while on his motorcycle and is now seriously injured. After surgery, Brandon is on life support for a while, and Josh and Kristen take turns supporting Sloan while she spends all of her time at the hospital. Eventually, they decide to remove Brandon from life support, and he passes away.

After Brandon’s funeral, Josh and Kristen do not see or speak to each other for a while. Kristen is spending all of her time caring for Sloan. Eventually, Sloan angrily tells Kristen that she is being stupid about Josh and should not waste a single second of time that could be spent with the person she loves. She tells Kristen to go home and not come back unless she is with Josh.

When Kristen gets home, she sees that Josh has been there and has left flowers, as well as a binder of research showing that he is prepared to go through her fertility journey with her. He has researched IVF, surrogacy, and adoption and is willing to try any method that Kristen feels comfortable with to have children. He has even approached his sisters about being possible surrogates. He pleads with her to let him help her. She agrees, and they decide to get married. Soon afterward, Kristen goes to the doctor because of an episode in which she became hypoglycemic and almost fainted. She and Josh are shocked when the doctor tells her that she is pregnant.

The Epilogue is set two years later and is narrated by Josh. He and Kristen now have a son named Oliver, whom they are taking to stay with Kristen’s mom so that they can go out for Kristen’s birthday. Evelyn is still harsh toward Kristen but loves her grandson. Kristen has had a hysterectomy and now feels much better without the cramping, anemia, and bleeding that came with her uterine fibroids. Josh knows that she is still thinking about trying for another baby via surrogacy, but he suggests that they take a break to enjoy what they have.