Apologies for such a late review, What a great book this was, it gripped me from the first page, wouldn highly recommend this book x

Sophie and Naomi have been inseparable best friends for many years. When Sophie's marriage falls apart, Naomi is there to pick up the pieces. 
Sophie is wonderful and charismatic, but even Naomi can admit that behind closed doors, Sophie is a far more difficult. 
As Sophie's life falls apart, Naomi continues to flourish in her own. Sophie cannot handle someone else succeeding as she fails, especially since Sophie knows something about Naomi that no one else knows. 
Neither Sophie nor Naomi were particularly likable, even before we got to the meat of the book. Naomi continually looks past all of Sophie's toxic traits because they're "the best of friends," and they are some seriously toxic traits. 
Sophie is the kind of friend we've all had at one time or another and finally wised up and ignored. She's the girl that wouldn't tell you that you've got TP tucked in your pants until there's a large crowd around to hear her say it. Then when the two of you are alone she'd tell you not to worry about the people who laughed because it's not worth her time. 
It's got many Lifetime worthy moments, especially as Naomi's life becomes better and better. She's flourishing, and Sophie becomes more needy than ever. Similar to watching one of these movies, you nearly constantly want to tell Naomi what a tit she's being. 
Despite the characters being awful, and a particular bit that was changed for publishing (involving a dog) it's a dark thriller with a lot to offer. 
3.5/5
*I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my review.

Naomi and Sophie are the best of friends, they share so many things including a secret that is coming back to haunt them.  This is a friendship that has lasted since university… a toxic and unhealthy friendship at best. The secret that they keep well they both remember what happened very differently. There were so many layers to this book that there was never a dull moment. My heart was in my throat for a large portion of this book and the ending was just phenomenal. The way all the pieces just fell into place and the layers came together so seamlessly was just amazing. 5 star read!

A gripping story of toxic friendship and quite dark in places. It's very character focused, rather than a thriller. Neither of the main characters are particularly likeable and that did make it harder to connect with them but I still found myself gripped and not at all sure how things would pan out.

Here's another book that is advertised as Gone Girl, and then surprisingly is NOT another Gone Girl. This book could've been a lot shorter, it probably would have made the pacing better.

Spoiler Alert:

I cannot find words to express how much I did NOT like this book. I started reading it months ago and set it aside because I was so bored with the chapters of Sophie whining about how she was "protecting" Naomi, a person who right from page one seemed to dislike Sophie.

For starters it could have been a lot shorter if one cut out all of the irrelevant bits. Endless pages of hints to the past and the love hate relationship between Sophie and Naomi. Never understanding for even a moment why these two people ever became "friends" or rather frienemies.

Sophie is described as insecure but her behavior suggests her to be a classic narcissist. and hedonist. She lives only to feed her own desires and cares not one whit how it affects ANYONE around her. She's a tornado that never pauses in its path of destruction. She is guilty of murder but not once does she take responsibility for her impulsive decision. Instead she blames Naomi for being a loud and irresponsible drunk. It's clearly written that she swerved intentionally to kill the young man AFTER looking directly into his eyes. I'm sorry but how exactly is Naomi responsible?

Naomi goes from manipulated victim to a self pitying drunk. She completely lacks any ambition to stand up to Sophie and point out that SHE [Naomi] did NOT kill anyone. As for her "rape" her memory seems to suggest that perhaps it was more the poor decision of young  drunk woman. She admits to herself that she never once told him no. Rohypnol, from everything I've read, renders its victim nearly paralyzed and often unable to remember any of the events during an attack. I wasn't convinced she was raped.

Naomi's unraveling was overdone. I lost any of the sympathy I first felt for her when I thought she was burdened with an unpleasant person she'd known since college and had felt sorry for her. I personally would have bumped her ass to the curb long before.

By the time I was down to an hour and a half left of reading I had begun to scan the paragraphs for important bits just to get to the end. I was absolutely dying with boredom of every single character. When I finally reached the end I uttered an, "OMG!!! Are you kidding me? Geez o pete!" She and Charlie speak briefly before Naomi's final act and I was left wondering if he knew what she was planning and was on board with it. When I realized what she was doing I had already predicted what was in the trunk and knew that it would destroy her when she found out. All of this instead of going to the police and telling them what Sophie had revealed. No court would ever believe Sophie with all her erratic behavior, even Adam would have testified against her. The fact that she knew he'd been killed and then repaired the car and kept it locked up forever after would at the very least gotten her in trouble for disposing of and concealing evidence.

The epilogue only served to make things even worse. Naomi just becomes a wretched woman more guilty than Sophie ever was.

*and I could have done without the chapter of Harley's death and funeral, the only part of this story I could relate to but broke my heart and made me cry

I'm very sorry to the author but I will likely steer clear of future books. I definitely do not recommend this book to anyone.

As always thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me access to this ARC.

A psychological story about a toxic friendship and what it does mentally, emotionally, and physically to not just themselves but to everyone around them. Quite a dark and twisted read disturbing, but recommended reading.

This book looked great when I first saw it but now I am realizing it just wasn’t for me. I think that this will be great for many people but not for me at this time.

I would rate this book 3.5 stars.

This was a really interesting story.

I thought the book had really great friendship themes, which personally is one of my favourite things to read about and I thought it was particularly well done in this story.

This story to me isn't really a mystery, as what was going on seemed pretty evident to me as a reader, but I really enjoyed the character focused story and I really liked the ending.

Definitely recommend checking out, particularly if you like your books to explore toxic friendships.

Her Closest Friend is a creepy psychological thriller about two long term friends haunted by an incident in their shared past.  Despite unlikable characters, a pallid denoument, this was a satisfactory read.

Dark mystery that sucks you into a different place. A nightmare where no one wants to be. Good read. Can’t put it down. Wondering where it’s going to go And which way to turn

I LOVED this book!! It really lived up to the hype and I can't recommend it enough! The cover is so appealing and as the story between the two old friends unravels (albeit it slowly at points) I love the way it shows differnt versions of the same events, and that how two people can remember things differently. It certainly questions "life lomg" friendships and how far you should go for the ones you love, even if it is a completely toxic friendship based on one big secret. 
Definitely a twisted thriller and a must read for anyone who loves a dark and truly disturbing read.

A good story about a toxic friendship and what it does mentally, emotionally, and physically to not just themselves but to everyone around them. Quite a dark and twisted read.

Sophie and Naomi meet at Exeter University and something awful happens, but they are still friends 20 years later.  This sounded like a book I’d really love to read, but instead it was the opposite.  Don’t know who was worse out of the pair of them as they were both irritating beyond endurance.  There was also far too much itching and scratching going on!  If this was a library book I wouldn’t even have finished it.  Wish I hadn’t as I have a dog exactly like Harley.  I think this is one of those books you either love or hate and I sadly fall into the second category.

A great page turner with pace and tension that kept me turning the pages until the end. Thanks to NG and the publisher for the advance copy,

I had high hopes for this book but found myself disliking the characters and so I was unable to really connect with them. The back and forth passive-aggressiveness just put everything over the top, which perhaps was the point, but instead of still being pulled into the book I couldn’t ever really get engaged.

Dark, disturbing story about a toxic friendship going back years.  Two very believable characters and a gripping plot. A good read

An enjoyable book to read, dark in places and the twist at the end I dis not see coming! Naomi and Sophie were very interesting characters, although I feel like there could have been more build up and life injected into the rest of their familys.

I’m sorry but this one was not for me. The main characters are both unlikeable and the plot is dark, disturbing and left a bad taste. I’ve read another book by this other and loved it, so I will watch for future books but this one just missed the mark for me. Thank you publisher and netgalley for this arc in exchange of an honest review.

Sophie and Naomi have been best friends from the day that they met at university. They are now both married with children but their lives are very different. Naomi is happily married, a successful wine blogger and with two lovely girls. Sophie’s husband has just announced he is leaving her for a younger woman, their only son is disturbed and not happy, Sophie does not have a happy life. 
Who is to blame for what is doing wrong in Sophie’s life?Does it all date back to what happened on the night of the accident? Should Naomi share the burden of what happened?
A good read with many twists and turns which kept me wanting to read on to find out how matters would be resolved.
Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.