I encourage you to read the Author's Note at the end. It was based on my own observations and attempts to help a friend trapped in a cycle of sadness that she couldn't seem to escape from. It wasn't until a beta reader told me I did a good job with the complicated grief that I realized what I'd written had a name.

I wrote The Happy Ever After Playlist after watching a very close friend struggle following the sudden death of her husband. Sloan's grief will feel authentic-because it is. Both books are standalone novels, but The Friend Zone will give The Happy Ever After Playlist so much more depth. Then I'll tell you to stop what you're doing and go read The Friend Zone before you touch this one. On the chance that you're here reading this and you somehow haven't read The Friend Zone or the blurb on this book, I'll sidestep the actual spoiler. It was done because doing it was the whole purpose of writing The Friend Zone in the first place. The *big thing* in The Friend Zone wasn't done to facilitate Kristen and Josh's HEA or to add drama.

They happened before I ever wrote one word of Kristen and Josh's love story. Obviously because Sloan's book was already written, certain *ahem* THINGS in The Friend Zone had to happen-because they already did. Since The Friend Zone came first on the timeline, we led with that as my debut novel. While we were shopping it to publishers, I had the idea to go back in time and write The Friend Zone so we could live through the events that made Sloan who she is in her story.

The Happy Ever After Playlist was actually the first book I ever wrote and the book that got me my literary agent.

The friend zone book abby jimenez