The Friend Zone Experiment cover art

The Friend Zone Experiment

A Sweet, Second-Chance Friends-to-Lovers Romance from the Author of Spirits Abroad

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The Friend Zone Experiment

By: Zen Cho
Narrated by: Rebecca Yeo
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About this listen

'A witty and heartwarming exploration of friendship and romance. This is a succession style K-drama that is perfect for a beach read.' - Glamour

'The romance buzzes like a live wire' - The New York Times


From the renowned, award-winning author Zen Cho comes a delightfully funny romance about family, class and love in modern London. For fans of the TV show Succession and Crazy Rich Asians.

From the outside, Renee Goh’s life looks perfect. She’s thirty and beautiful, running a glamorous–and successful–fashion company in London, and dating a hot pop star.

Until she’s dumped. Estranged from her family in Singapore, too, happiness soon feels a world away. A chance encounter with her first love, Yap Ket Siong, makes her question what she really wants. Then Renee’s father calls from Singapore and offers her the chance to become the successor of the family business, one of the largest conglomerates in Southeast Asia. Her father’s approval would mean everything - if she can fight off the competition of her unpredictable older brothers.

Just as she’s focusing on her future and a possible move back to Singapore, sparks seriously start to fly with Ket Siong, shaking her resolve to keep him in the friend zone. But he left her heartbroken at university - will either of them dare to share their feelings the second time around? Or will family business mean they can’t bank on each other . . .

Praise for The Friend Zone Experiment:

'Mixes light and dark topics. There’s generational pain and the difficulty of being a woman in a male-dominated industry and culture, but there’s also diasporic joy, the power of female friendships, and above all, hope for Renee and Ket Siong' - My Weekly


'A story so intensely real that you’ll wonder later if it happened to someone you knew.' - Shelley Parker-Chan, author of She Who Became the Sun

‘A lovely, tender romance, beautifully threaded through real world concerns that had me engrossed. I savoured every delicately written moment.’ - Charlotte Stein, author of When Grumpy Met Sunshine

'Reminiscent of classic K-dramas with a touch more reality . . . Easily one of my top reads of the year!' - Simone Soltani, author of Cross the Line

Asian & Pacific Islander Creators Contemporary Family Life Friendship Genre Fiction Multicultural World Literature Singapore Funny Heartfelt Witty Romance

Critic Reviews

Zen Cho’s The Friend Zone Experiment is a witty and heartwarming exploration of friendship and romance. This is a succession style K-drama that is perfect for a beach read . . . Cho’s humour and observations on modern relationships offers a fun and easy read.
A sweet slow-burning romance.
The Friend Zone Experiment mixes light and dark topics. There’s generational pain and the difficulty of being a woman in a male-dominated industry and culture, but there’s also diasporic joy, the power of female friendships, and above all, hope for Renee and Ket Siong
A beautifully soapy second-chance romance set in modern-day London. The romance buzzes like a live wire. Ket Siong’s quiet care gives weight to Renee’s drive, and her quickness lightens the emotional burdens he’s been concealing
Cho is a marvel. Her deft observations go down like a charm, but their emotional power will leave you deeply moved . . . The Friend Zone Experiment is a story so intensely real that you’ll wonder later if it happened to someone you knew (Shelley Parker-Chan, author of She Who Became the Sun)
This book has it all; a touch of glam, romance and a bit of sibling rivalry - all slotted into an vibrant love letter to London! (Lola Jaye, author of The Attic Child)
Renee Goh has joined the ranks of my favourite romance heroines; I was sucked into her story immediately and cheered for her the whole way through. This is a romance that celebrates its tropes while not being afraid to show its teeth, all delivered in Cho's assured and lively authorial voice. I can't wait to see where she takes us next in this genre! (Freya Marske, Sunday Times bestselling author of A Marvellous Light)
A lovely, tender romance, beautifully threaded through real world concerns that had me engrossed. I savored every delicately written moment (Charlotte Stein, author of When Grumpy Met Sunshine)
Reminiscent of classic Kdramas with a touch more reality, Cho perfectly balances a friends-to-lovers romance with familial tensions and business-world intrigue. Easily one of my top reads of the year! (Simone Soltani, author of Cross the Line)
Renee and Ket Siong lose and find each other in an emotionally intense love story set against a dramatic backdrop of corporate greed, class and family. Lovers of Zen Cho’s fabulous fantasy stories will be thrilled by her first contemporary romance (Lily Chu, author of The Stand In)
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