The Friends We Keep by Jane Green

A special thank you to Edelweiss and Penguin Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Evvie, Maggie, and Topher have been best friends since Uni. The three were inseparable, always looked out for one another, and swore they would be friends forever. Years later, they have parted ways. As the years continue to pass, they drift further and further apart, yet none of them are living the life they envisioned. When they were young they had so many hopes and dreams, and they seemed to be on track to make them all come true.

Evvie starved herself to become a supermodel but derailed her successful career after sleeping with a married man.

Maggie married Ben—the boy she fell for at university—never imagining the impact of his drinking and the heartbreak it would bring.

Topher became a successful actor but the shame of a childhood trauma made him incapable of any form of intimacy, even with those he loved.

Their thirtieth reunion brings the friends together and by being together, they have a second chance at happiness. But a long-held secret surfaces and changes everything.

Green's novel is about how disappointments and mistakes shape your life, but ultimately don't define you, and that it is never too late to find the place you call home. She explores many relationships: friendships, marriages, infatuations, and between a parent and child.

I loved the settings, London and New York City. Green couldn't have picked more dynamic and vibrant cities, each unique and historical in their own ways. What I ultimately struggled with was the barrage of problems that afflicted the characters: drug use, verbal and physical abuse, infidelity, alcoholism, as well as fat shaming and homophobia. I really felt like less was more and it became trite at times.

The writing could have been more direct. For example, Maggie's doorbell rings and instead of Maggie just answering the door, the narrative goes sideways first speculating who might be at the door, and then segued into a whole to a whole backstory about a neighbour and a hedgerow problem. That's not to say that the neighbour part didn't play into the story further along, but it seemed to get too much attention at such a pivotal moment in the story.

JANE GREEN is a New York Times bestselling author. She has written nineteen novels, one cookbook, and various short stories. Green is published in over 25 languages and over ten million books in print worldwide.

She resides in Westport, Connecticut with her husband, a small menagerie of animals, and (too) many children.