OK before we start - yes, my friend is going to talk to a lawyer about this. Yes, I know any legal advice on here is for amusement only, and unless stated otherwise I will assume no one is a lawyer. Even if they are a lawyer, I’ll assume any advice they give is opinion only and not to be construed as legal advice.
Can you tell I get tired of ‘IANAL’ ? 
Excuse the rant…anyway.
I have a friend who’s renting a house with a roommate in California. Things got pretty awful between them, so she wants out - she is in fact buying a house. Unfortunately they are in the middle of a 2 year lease.
The owner said no problem, just find some tenants to replace them and they can get out of the lease. However, my friend has presented a whole list of viable candidates - people with excellent credit, stable families, good references - but the owner keeps refusing to commit to anyone - she won’t say yes or no, doesn’t return phone calls etc. No one can figure out why she’s doing this.
Meanwhile, my friend needs to close on her new house, and of course wants out of this mess. Does she have any recourse? Is she screwed because of the lease, or (in the unlikely event this went to court), would a judge say something like, “Well…yesss…you did sign a lease - but you have presented a long list of viable tenants and the owner has refused to accept any of them.” Or would it be more like, “You’re screwed. The owner can do whatever she wants - you signed a lease.”
She’s also considering “unofficially” subletting for the rest of the lease (the house is managed through a property management company and they don’t seem to have a problem with that) - but that seems like a whole other can of worms. She’d then be responsible for the tenants, their rent payments etc.
Thanks for any info / perspectives. Mods - I know this borders on IMHO so feel free to move it if necessary.