Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. What is your overall opinion of Just Friends as a debut romance novel? Was there anything about it that surprised or disappointed you?

2. Haley Pham, the author of Just Friends, is a social media influencer-turned-writer. What impact does her influencer background have on the construction of the novel?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Blair’s grief is central to both her character arc and the narrative’s development as a whole. Consider a time you experienced grief and compare and contrast your experience with Blair’s. How did grief influence or change you as a person?

2. Blair and Declan both have ambitious dreams that become sidelined for different reasons. Have you ever strived towards a goal but failed to achieve it? What did you learn from that failure? Did you try again, like Blair with her writing?

3. Blair represses her emotions as she wrestles with grief over Lottie’s death and the loss of Declan. Have you ever encountered emotional repression, either within yourself or someone in your life? How did you deal with it?

4. Blair and Declan both feel heavy pressure to provide for their families. Consider an obligation you’ve felt for your family. What did that situation feel like, and how did you handle it?

5. Blair’s friends Faye and Roshi struggle to help Blair cope with her grief at first. Have you ever struggled to comfort a friend during their time of struggle? How did you engage with them, and what did the experience teach you?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. Consider how the setting of Seabrook, a fictitious small-town set in Orange County, California, informs the plotlines and character arcs within the text. How does Pham address the income inequality that is increasingly present in Orange County?

2. How does social media play a role in the novel’s plot? How does it appear throughout the narrative? What commentary about social media does Pham make?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. The beach plays an important role in Blair and Declan’s relationship. How is it described? What is its significance in the text?

2. Examine how family ties are portrayed in the text. How does the novel explore family as both a source of potential support or limitation for individuals?

3. Blair and Declan both face grief and grow from it. How do their reactions to their pain differ, and how do they serve as foils for each other? What does the novel suggest about the nature of grief?

4. The novel is split between the present-day timeline and flashbacks. How do these dual narratives influence one another in terms of plot, characterization, and/or the illumination of key themes and ideas?

5. Just Friends is a contemporary romance novel. How does the novel utilize, or subvert, common tropes and techniques associated with the genre?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. If you were to adapt this novel into a romantic comedy television series, similar to Virgin River, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, or The Summer I Turned Pretty, who would you cast in the main roles? Why?

2. Make a playlist of music with songs that reminds you of each of the main characters (Blair, Declan, Lottie, Blair’s Mother). Share the reasoning behind your choices.