I really enjoyed reading this book.
I read it over a few days, and couldn't wait till I got free time to read it more.

From the author of The Blondes comes a twisted, darkly humorous story about a woman’s attempted murder, her lost memories, and the old friends who try to put her back together—or finish her off for good.

When Mia Sinclair-Kroner wakes from a coma, all she can remember are the movies she’s known and loved. Her college friends quickly assemble for a weekend party, in an effort to help her remember. But with old friends come old wounds, and it soon becomes clear that Mia’s accident might not have been an accident at all.

Was it Agnes, driven by her unspoken resentments? Or Zoey, who covets everything Mia has? Have the years apart only fanned the extinguished flame between Ethan and Mia, compelling him to violence? Or did Victor, who moved away, return with an agenda? Or was it Martin, the wealthy husband, who put a country estate between Mia and her past?

As old tensions and new suspicions rise, these friends must wade through their film knowledge, shared history, and everything that’s kept them apart in order to figure out which one of them is trying to end things once and for all.

Really enjoyed this story. It had so many layers and complexities to it. Will recommend to others.

Rating 3/5 stars

Like most books I read, I went into this pretty blind. I skimmed the description and then promptly forgot what the book was about.

Essentially, Sleeping with Friends follows a friend group that seems to have grown apart. Mia, who seems to be the glue of the group, has suffered an assault and ends up with amnesia. The rest of the friend group - Agnes, Zoey, Ethan's and Victor - get together to try to help Mia recover her memories and just maybe figure out who hurt Mia and why.

This book was messy! Totally makes sense based on the title. This was one of those reads that makes it hard to root for any of the characters because they all have some little secret. Throw in a rich husband that no one really likes and the tea is piping hot.

Overall, I had a fine time reading this. I definitely wasn't expecting the twists that happened so they kept me reading. It was a silly, messy mystery that was wrapped up nicely.

Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing an ARC! All thoughts and opinions are wholly my own.

This was a hodgepodge of characters trying to figure out how and why their friend with memory loss from a head injury was attacked. Hard to keep,track of them, and just didn’t flow well. The answer was a surprise to me, but the voyage wasn’t great.

I loved the cover art for this book…but that’s about it. I didn’t love the writing, and the story was a bit strange for my liking. Although the synopsis did intrigue me, this book just wasn't for me.
Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC of this book!

I so badly wanted to enjoy this book, and as far as the overall plot was concerned, I mostly did. The writing left so much to be desired though. While I can appreciate sparse prose, this isn’t sparse as much as it is disjointed. Conceptually, this book has a lot of promise, but the characters did things that didn’t make sense and were terribly flat. I didn’t get a sense for why any of these people were friends despite being assured that they were. The movie reference angle was interesting, but it pulled back when I think it should have leaned in and gotten weird with it.

I’m interested to read more of Schultz’s work to see if it’s just this book that didn’t do it for me.

Sleeping with Friends starts with a mysterious, engaging premise, but it quickly devolves into something more like a soap opera with unlikable characters and poorly written descriptions.

Perhaps the most distracting element is that the author relies too often on current pop-culture references to describe everything from what the characters look like to the story's action. Someone reading this a few years from now would be wildly confused. The constant dropping of brand names and movie titles pulls the reader out of the story, making every description feel flat instead of immersive.

Worse, there's hardly any reason to root for any of these characters. And when the "whodunnit" of the mystery is finally revealed, it's rather anti-climactic.

This novel has the bones of a good story, but it lacks in its execution.

Every book can’t be a winner. This is one of those other books. Finally got around to reading it, and I eventually had to give up. Badly written, unsympathetic characters, it’s just not where I want to spend my time.

Thank you Emily Schultz, Thomas & Mercer, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

This book was very confusing in my opinion. The premise sounded good, which is why I requested it, but the execution was not great. The writing was really heavy and difficult to read. I found myself having to reread paragraphs several times because I simply stopped paying attention to what I was reading. There was too much going on, and I found myself not caring and struggling to pick the book back up because I was not having fun with it. There was just too much going on, with flashbacks and then back to present. It could’ve been good but unfortunately it was a bit messy

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for letting me read the ARC of this book! Overall I would say the book was okay. I love the type of "who done it" type of stories. I liked how in this story Mia's memory change and adapted over time. I felt like the prologue was a great hook into the story. Most of the characters were very likeable but the bickering between Zoey and Agnes got old really quick. Overall I gave this story three stars mainly because it felt like there were so many different side stories that were told that weren't necessarily essential to the story. This made the story feel longer than it necessarily should have.

Thank you Netgalley , author & Thomas Mercer publications for providing the ARC in exchange for honest review.

This would be a DNF for me if not for the ARC! I don’t want to write loads of bad review for this book but there was nothing remotely interesting or likable characters in the story .
For a book just over 200 pages it should have been super quick read but it felt like ages and turned out I had only read the first 40pages ! The plot line was jarring and so much pop culture references that I did not get and the ones I understood I couldn’t figure out how it applied to what was happening in the story !

It’s a 1/5 ⭐️ read for me .

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Tbh I really enjoyed Schultz' previous project, but this book did not hit. For this story the original plot was a great idea, a “who done it” with a group of friend who have been drifting away from each other. Who has the motive to injure the spoke of there wheel, Mia?

The writing just felt clunky and not edited down enough. The different viewpoints are not done in a way that is easy for a reader to understand. I had to go back so many times to try and reread to understand what was happening in a scene. I have multiple notes in my kindle saying , “ when did this person come in the room? “ “where did you come from?” “What the h*ll is going on??”

Also the grumpy old man in me kept thinking through the book, why are there so many movie references? If they became friends while being literary majors, why wouldn’t it be more book centered references? It just felt like a reach and annoyed me. Honestly, giving to story a 1 star.

fun mystery book about friendship and overall character development. i did enjoy it, though the story was very chaotic and hard to follow sometimes. nevertheless i do recommend to those looking for a quick mystery.

thank you to netgalley and the author for sending me the book in exchange for an honest review

Regrettably, this book failed to meet my expectations. One contributing factor was my difficulty in maintaining focus while reading it. However, the most significant issue for me was the lack of authenticity in the characters, making it challenging to invest in the friend circle or feel any sense of concern about their actions or the main mystery.
Another obstacle I encountered while trying to digest the plot was when secondary characters inserted flashbacks into their inner dialogue. This disruption greatly affected the pacing and flow of the story. Despite these obstacles, I persevered with the reading experience due to its brevity and a lingering curiosity about the eventual resolution of the whodunnit aspect. Nevertheless, it was a strenuous task to continue.

3.5 stars

After falling and hitting her head, Mia can't remember much of anything. She knows she's married to Martin, her husband. She knows who her friends are too. But they are things she's learned since awakening from a coma. She has no memory of them. Most of what she remembers are her favorite movies. She regularly confuses scenes from those movies with her actual life pre-accident. 

Determined to help her get her memory back, her old college friends come together to throw a party to help her remember. However, being gathered together again brings up memories for all of them, not just for Mia. And with old memories, come old feelings that aren't always the warm and fuzzy type. As jealousy and resentment fill the spaces between the friends more than nostalgia, so does suspicion. Maybe Mia's accident wasn't an accident after all. Each of the friends had a motive to harm Mia. They already suspected her less-than-doting husband, but now they suspect each other.

A compelling whodunnit filled with twists and movie references, "Sleeping with Friends" by Emily Schultz is more than just a propulsive thriller and suspenseful mystery. It's also a tale of memory and friendship. Old friends are a treasure, and the bonds we have with them are like no other. We share memories and past versions of ourselves. But remembering isn't always fun. Those old friendships aren't always as good as we want to remember them being. It's something Mia's friends discover as they gather at her home. As they reunite to help her remember, old jealousies, resentments, and heartaches from the past resurface. 

If ever a book was a mixed bag of nuts, it's "Sleeping with Friends" by Emily Schultz. It is -- all at once -- a book you can't put down and a book with enough absurdity to make you wish you could. There are a lot of great things about it. It's well written and easy to read with the perfect balance of description and dialogue. The characters are well-developed and believable. Their relationships and interactions with each other are as compelling as the whodunnit aspect of the book. They also create some darkly humorous scenes. (Right or wrong, I couldn't help but chuckle at Agnes, Zoe, Martin, and the racoons.) 

In fact, if the book hadn't required me to suspend disbelief a couple of times, I would have five-star-loved-it. But as is? Eh. It's not that it's a bad book. It's just not the book for me. If a major crime is possibly committed, you call the cops, okay? You don't gather your friends together in the parlor for what amounts to a real-life game of Clue.

The plot sounds interesting: a group of friends get together to help one friend suffering from memory loss.

The story itself didn't grab me. I found the characters - who naturally each have their own problems as well - to be dull. At 37% in I still had no interest in finding out whether Mia had slipped or whether she was pushed.

This book is probably better suited for a reader that doesn't mind a little hard work while reading. I read to be entertained. I wasn't entertained by this story.

I was not a fan of this one. While I enjoy a juicy betrayal story, I felt this one was a little lacking in connecting the dots. I went back and attempted to listen to the audiobook and it did not improve my opinion. The characters seemed a little dull and shallow, although I understand some of them were meant to be keeping with the theme of the book. I just didn't connect with it.

I really wanted to love this, but the movie references kept going over my head and the characters fell a bit flat. I also had such a hard time keeping each character straight and following the storyline. It think this had a good premise, but it definitely wan't the book for me!

Thanks to Netgalley and the author and publisher for an advanced copy of the book to read. All opinions are my own.

Sleeping with Friends is a mystery where Mia has woken up after an attempted murder or accident with no idea what happened. Her friends decide the best thing to do is throw her a “remembering” party. But what if the attempted killer is one of them?

I liked the premise but I really did not like any of the characters. They were all very stereotypical-think a lesbian who is in love with Mia, an ex still in love with her.

Overall, this book fell flat for me.

Sleeping With Friends by Emily Schultz

Murder mystery/whodunnit.

2/5 ⭐️

Imagine waking up from a coma/head trauma with no recollection of what happened or who your friends are. Now imagine being in the same house with those friends while they try to solve the whodunnit of what happened to you.

This book was VERY campy with niche anecdotes with replaying of old movie scenes being the way the main characters memories resurface. I understood very few of these in the way intended because I’ve never studied film.

I stuck with it because I needed to see if my prediction on whodunnit was correct. (It was, for those of you keeping score 😎).

#sleepingwithfriends #netgalley #bookreview #murdermystery