Best Friends

Product Information

Deeply appreciative to have been given the opportunity to read this ARC through St. Martin’s Influencer Program in exchange for a review.

In the book the two girls grew up in a surveillance society, and now here it is in the UK in both their lives. Is this unwanted surveillance, or necessary visibility?Literary genres age, much as people do. Postcolonial literature – PoCo to friends – was once an angry young outsider leading the charge against empire. Now, much older and having made some money, PoCo seems to have compromised with the world, depicting chic, transnational lives jetting between humid capital cities and the glamorous locales of New York and London. Invariably educated at Oxbridge and the Ivy League, the characters pursue comfortable careers in politics, the media and, almost always, high finance. After a radical youth, it seems, PoCo has put away the placards and started to indulge capitalism.

Bella seems a bit obsessed with Kate, in that way where you think she'd rather be Kate, so that is a good lesson-learned from the book - to avoid those types of relationships. This won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but it was original and I wasn’t expecting it. This is more of an observation of two women throughout their lives than a mystery and definitely not a thriller. Just keep an open mind! Sawyer (Kendra's son), Jacob (Lindsey's son), and Caleb (Dani's son) have grown just as close as their mothers. They are your typical teenage boys that enjoy playing soccer, video games, and partying however one night proves fatal: Sawyer lays dead, Jacob is in a coma, and Caleb won't speak. Then it all went a bit wrong! The story was told from the three best friends' POV (Lindsey, Kendra and Dani), and it should have been a great way for me to see all of their thoughts and emotions, should have been!the problem was, that the three characters were so similar, that I couldn't tell them or their families apart! Their voices didn't differ at all, and I had to write down the name of each woman, their husband, and their children, and keep referring to it for about the first 30% of the book! That wasn't fun! It was actually really frustrating! Each woman felt like the same character, and none of them felt fully developed. They were also, all fairly unlikeable. They were cruel to each other, and their families, and despite being in such a shit situation, I just couldn't really connect with any of them. I mean, as a parent, this story should have been devastating to me, but it wasn't?! I was invested after it got going, but it wasn't gut wrenching like I thought it would be, and that is 100% down to the way that the characters were written. In terms of the plot, the prologue was gripping and I was 100% engaged, after that the story went downhill. The first half of the book was so messy. I could not get all the characters straight and they all started to blur together, to the point that I had to actually draw up a diagram to discern everyone from each other.

Bailey lets these two characters be real, honest and vulnerable but without unnecessary heartache because that’s not what was building between these two. As we jump 30 years into the future to London, 2019, Zahra and Maryam both still carry the baggage of the incident from their past. And though they've been friends their whole lives, perhaps they'll find that they no longer have enough in common to remain the Best of Friends? ABOUT THIS BOOK: Best friends Lindsey, Kendra, and Dani endure every parent’s nightmare when a tragic accident befalls their teenage boys, leaving one dead, another in a coma, and a third too traumatized to speak.

This really is wonderful. I enjoyed every scene, even though you'll feel uncomfortable at times, sad at others and slightly in love with these well drawn women at other times, this is a book the charm you and inform you about politics and culture.The genre is Women's Fiction, and I pondered the need for this book. This was not a healthy relationship and there is no advice. Leaving me at -- this book was a waste of my precious reading time. I don't see the purpose. There was nothing to like or enjoy. This was more of a domestic drama rather than a mystery in the vein of Big Little Lies. There is nothing wrong with a domestic drama, I just had different expectations going into the book because of the false marketing. If it actually spent some time solving the mystery than highlighting the pointless family drama, then I would have had a better time.

The writing, the characters, the emotional arc, the spiciness and the beauty of the words shared is just amazing making this one of the best friends to lovers books I’ve ever read and one of my all-time favorite romances. The concept of danger, of what could happen to two teenage girls in a conservative, patriarchal dictatorship even when they come from relatively well off families and have a nice school, is what is so enticing about the book when it is good. Their dawning understanding of the peril that they are in, of the danger that is inherent when you are a woman in the world, is captivating. They react to this quite differently. They are drawn to danger and repulsed by it. Zahra, the more prim of the girls, keeps her desires secret. Maryam, from a very wealthy family, is more cavalier and willing to take risks. Others love these books because of the angst and tension of the “will they or won’t they” finally make the move! Some friendships are truly toxic...and some are just forgettable. This one (and this book) unfortunately managed to be both.

I didn’t fully get the intention of what happened at the end (without giving away anything). I couldn’t decide whether the author intended us to question it or if I was just missing something that others understood. The first thing I noticed was the creative chapter titles! Then the unique writing style captured my attention. However, I failed to bond with a single character and, sadly, in the end, didn’t care what happened to them! I also didn't feel that the plot had enough pull to keep me interested. This is definitely a unique book and I know it will find its way into the hands of those who love it; unfortunately, it isn’t for me. The chapters are narrated by the mothers of the children, Dani, Kendra and Lindsey. But it was easy to forget who was narrating. I don’t know where to start with this one. Ultimately, it’s the story of a friendship through different seasons of life.