Ellen Fox is a single mother, and content with the life she has. Her son won’t leave for college because he thinks she needs him too much, so Ellen and her best friend Unity Leander plan a massive to-do list of activities to prove that they’re living their best life. That way, Cooper can confidently go to college to have his life begin. Along the way, both ladies realize that they were a little too shut in, and that life is best lived with action.

I love how we begin the book with not only Ellen’s friendship with Unity but with Coach Keith Kinnes. It’s a purely platonic friendship between them at that point, which we don’t always see. Of course, that also means there has to be some underlying attraction that the list brings out of them both. Unity also has a lot of friends through the retirement villa where she spends a lot of time with repairs as part of her business. The older people are vibrant and actually more technologically up to date than she is, another facet we don’t usually see. Her friend Dagmar is a hoot and sets up Unity with her grandnephew Thaddeus. Their meet-cute is actually a meet-terrible, as Unity is so anxious she could barely even speak. Both women are really clueless about dating, mostly because their circumstances cut them off from dating since they were teenagers, and after seventeen years, things are very different on the dating scene.

I like the idea of Ellen and Unity checking in with each other, arguing, and coming back together to make up when they’re frustrated with each other. Their friendship had gone through many hardships, and they’re more like sisters than friends. The way they know to hit with their words to support or hurt shows that, and I appreciate the lifelong friendship that they have. They encourage each other as they go through their lists, and stumble their way through experiencing life. As much as they're both frightened of change, and of losing themselves in the process, both women support each other. Not only are they able to keep the parts of the past that made them who they are, they can help each other move forward to really seize what they want.

The Friendship List explores friendship of different kinds as well as romantic love. It's great to see how the two women seriously discuss things, as well as the friendships they have with other women, too. Putting themselves out there and changing things can be scary, but they have a huge support network, and that makes the difference for them to continue to grow.

What a great story about two friends, Ellen and Unity, who help each other, and give each other a boost, to help them each become better people. Susan Mallery created the best friends and brought their story to life in the best way!
Grab this book asap, 5 amazing friendship stars for this one!

Thank you Harlequin and Netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

Ellen is a thirty-four and a single mom to seventeen-year-old son Cooper while Unity is the same age as Ellen and a widow. Her late husband an army man died three years back in the line of duty. It is so difficult for her to overcome the pain and is stuck. For Ellen, her life has always been going to work, taking care of her son and her home. She overhears a conversation between her son and his friend and is disappointed to know that he doesn't want to go to his dream college because he doesn't want to leave his mom alone.

Ellen and Unity are best friends forever and realize that their life is in a rut and come up with a list of things they both want to do and achieve in order to pull their lives back on track. They challenge each other that whoever achieves most items in the list wins.

Susan Mallery is one of my favorite authors and she writes beautiful stories about friendship, relationships, and women supporting and empowering each other.

The characters are well developed and quite relatable. It is an awesome summer read and I will absolutely recommend it.

I was super excited to pick up another of Susan Mallery's books as I enjoyed the last one I read from her and wanted to experience more of her writing. Once again I was immediately sucked into the story of Ellen and Unity, as well as the other characters whose perspectives come in. I will say that I sometimes had a hard time connecting with Unity's personality and story, but Ellen's story always had me invested.

I did not expect as much romance as there was after reading the synopsis, but I ended up loving it. I really enjoyed as the stories progressed and Ellen and Unity grew and transformed in a way. The pace of the writing is fast and the story keeps moving at a pretty good clip. I got a little frustrated at moments with some things, such as Unity's refusal to admit she's in a rut, but overall I really enjoyed the story and loved the characters.

Book #1 for Dewey's Summer Reverse Readathon 2020.

When single mother Ellen Fox overhears her son saying he can’t go to his dream college because she needs him too much, she decides she has to be a better role model and live her best life so he can live his.

Enter Unity Leandre, her best friend.

Unity comnes up with a list to get Ellen taking risks. As the two friends work their way through the list they will learn about life, heartache and how to grab whatever comes at you with both hands.

The power of lasting friendship and how far you can go with it is explored in this book. Susan Mallery writes a compelling heartfelt story with characters you¡ll want to root for.

The Friendship List is a novel for people who do, and don't have bucket lists. It's for those who crave change and excitement.

Thanks to Susan Mallery and publisher for my ARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

5 stars

Ellen Fox couldn’t have been more stunned when she overheard her teenage son discussing college. He confides in his friend that he can’t go to his dream college because his single mom needs him at home. This devastates Ellen as she wants him to have the best college experience he can get. She’s convinced the best solution is to show her son that she can take care of herself.

Ellen’s best friend Unity Leandre comes up with the perfect idea. She makes a list of things to challenge Ellen and to break her out of her rut. Unity makes her own list too. Everyone around her thinks she’s too devoted to her late husband. After all, she’s still living in his childhood home.

Both women are quick to discover that there is a whole world out there. They end up finding romance along the way as well.

Susan Mallery writes some of the best women’s fiction and romances. She did a great job of putting these two women in situations that are realistic. I could really feel what they are going through. I could easily see being friends with Ellen and Unity.

The book moves at a nice pace. The characters jump right off the page. This is the type of book I hope will have a sequel so I can catch up with my new friends.

I enjoyed this story. Ellen and Unity are life long friends, each stuck in their own life rut. When Ellen has to face her fears about her son leaving for college, she and Unity, who is still reeling from the loss of her husband, make a list of things to get them out of their comfort zones.

What follows are hard lessons and realizations about life, loss, and love.

I enjoyed this story, even if I thought parts were a bit of a merry-go-round. It was predictable as love stories often are, but a nice, light-hearted read nonetheless.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but what I got was a heartwarming and honest look at friendships and how nobody has to navigate life on their own. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this book.

I thought the differences between Ellen and Unity, friends since childhood, were unique, but also led them to be in the same boat in a small town. Ellen had a teenage pregnancy and ended up a single mom while Unity married her first boyfriend who she subsequently lost at an early age. Both women have become stuck in their ways.

One day, after some particularly challenging news for each of them, they sit down and write out a list of challenges designed to alter the paths their lives are taking. Sort of a bucket list for 30-year-olds.

I really enjoyed the author’s writing style. It was realistic and natural and just flowed. The inner dialogues were as crisp as what the characters said to each other, so there was no lag in the action. There were several times I found myself thinking, “Yep, that’s what I would have said.”

The author also tackled some fairly serious issues (teen pregnancy, single parenting, grief, allowing the past to control the present, aging) with a keen eye but also with a sense of humor. It was serious when it needed to be, but never got preachy.

The secondary characters were just as enjoyable as Ellen and Unity and each of them brought something fun to the story. I could see where the romantic interests for each of the woman were going right away, but the journey with them was enjoyable.

The only thing that stuck out to me, and probably only because I am a teacher by trade, was the college bus trip that Ellen and Keith took to Southern California with the high school students. I did a similar trip when I was in high school, but it was a totally different world then.

There’s no way that only two adults would take the group of teens on a two-week bus trip. And some of the events that happen on the bus trip would absolutely never occur. In fact, there were a few times that the adults were extremely irresponsible, and that bothered me a bit, because their actions didn’t really fit in with the rest of the book.

But I still think it was an excellent read and would highly recommend picking it up. There are some good lessons to be learned along the way.

*** Blog Tour ***

I love the premise of the book. Unity and Ellen are strong women who have survived and who have managed to thrive and build independent, successful lives through their own perseverance. I am still waiting for the book on this theme that remains centered on the women and their path to growth that focuses just on that or on their friendship without necessarily a romance involved. This book is all romance but still a light-hearted, often funny, summer beach read.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2020/08/the-friendship-list.html

Reviewed for NetGalley and a publisher's book blog tour.

Definitely chick lit. But I still enjoyed it.

Ellen and Unity, both in their 30s, are in a rut. Ellen has had sex once. The guy dumped her when she informed him that she was pregnant. Unity, childless, has never gotten over her one and only lover – her military husband who was killed in action. When Ellen overhears her son telling his friend that he can’t go away to college because his mother needs him, Ellen knows she must make a big change in her life. So Ellen and Unity challenge each other with a list of activities that will take them outside of their comfort zones.

I am normally not a fan of chicklit, but I needed some light reading. I laughed over the antics of Ellen and Unity who were both very naïve. I loved the banter between the lifelong friends. I swooned over the perfect fairytale-like men, Keith and Thaddeus. Lots of steamy scenes. I loved the scenes with the teenagers – very realistic. I also loved the secondary characters.

If you enjoyed the movie “The Book Club” with Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen, you will enjoy this book. This is the perfect “feel good” read for the beach/weekend.

An engaging story with the perfect balance of friendship and romance, whimsy and charm, Smiles and sobs. Susan Mallery is a masterful storyteller who always manages to brighten my day. Ellen and Unity have been best friends since they were very young. Ellen is a single mom to a teenage son and has not been out on a date since she got pregnant at 17. Unity lost her husband three years ago and still has not been able to remove his clothing from the closet. When Ellen overhears her son telling a friend he’s not sure he can go off to college because his mom needs him, she knows it’s time to make a change. Unity is on board to help her friend, but of course she doesn’t need to change it’s perfectly normal to spend most of her time socializing with people over twice her age, right? The friends create a list of things to do that will prove that they are more than happy that includes things like: wear a bikini on the beach, get a tattoo, skydive, rock climb, have sex, wear clothes that fit, join the local swim club... At first Ellen and unity are hesitant, only willing to change for others. BUT as they start to venture out of their comfort zones they begin to realize the change is more about them than anyone else.

This book surprised me a bit *in a good way* I wasn’t expecting it to be so romance heavy and steamy. Loved both love stories and the men involved. I also really appreciated that we got the perspectives of not only Ellen and Unity but also Keith and Thaddeus, their love interestss. I do have to admit I enjoyed Ellen and Keith’s story a little bit more. As a single mom I found it more relatable. I also really liked their kids Cooper and Lisa, and the college tour road trip. Unity was harder to connect with, but I really like how her story unfolded. The audiobook was narrated by Tanya Eby Who is one of the absolute best. She did a remarkable job with giving each of these characters their own unique voice and personality. A lovely feel good story!

This book in emojis 💫 👙 🛠 ✏️ 🚌 🏖 🧗‍♀️

*** Big thank you to HQN and Harper Audio for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

Received Robyn Carr's email announcing this book's release.
I could not miss her new book as I enjoy her books!!!

Friends make The Friendship List
Create list of challenges to them out of their comfort zones.
Make pact to make changes over the summer.

"Girl Power Forever."

This is a good summer read
Have a laugh and wait for the next surprise.

Received an ARC for an honest review.

Another great read! Susan Mallery has once again crafted this cast of characters that I find myself completely enthralled with. Unity and Ellen are best friends...almost sisters...and they're in ruts. One is realizing that her son is going to hold himself back to take care of her while the other has been living in her late husband's house, only engaging with the senior community in town. And so they challenge themselves to do things that scare them a little and throw them out of their comfort zone. What follows is a fun, heartwarming story and made me shed a few tears. You know there are going to be growing pains, but watching these two move into a new phase was absolutely lovely. Of course there's love along the way, but it's done so well. And we love an epilogue :)

The Friendship List by Susan Mallery. This is what I would call a beach read. It had romance and strife. Anger and Happiness, Sadness and growth. Ellen Fox (great last name!! 😊) Is a single mom to a teenage son who is a rising high school senior. She was a teenage mother who did everything she had to, to raise her son. Unity has been a widow for three years who can't seem to move on. Both women have been best friends since high school and have that wonderful relationship that I love. They make a list. The list is different things that they can each do to help themselves grow and move forward in their lives, like get a tattoo, have sex with a good looking guy... Well you get the picture. Along the way they realize who they are and what they are capable of. This was a fun, fast read! 3.5⭐

The Friendship List was such a fun read, perfect for the summertime! It gave me feels, I laughed, I teared up, and I'm sad it's over! This was my first book by Susan Mallery and I will absolutely read more of her work in the future.

Best friends, Ellen and Unity, are both at a point where they need to make some changes. Ellen is a single mom whose son is nervous to go away to college for fear of leaving his mom alone. Unity is grieving over the loss of her husband 3 years earlier and has not brought herself to move on. Ellen and Unity decide they need to make a list to snap them out of their rut.

I loved reading about these two women embarking on this new adventure to change themselves for the better. The items on their list made for an entertaining read!

The Friendship List is a great combination of feels and humor. The story is predictable, but it's the type of book that predictable really isn't a big deal. Susan Mallery mixes the emotion with the humor almost seamlessly, and the story has great pacing and flow. Pacing is usually one of my biggest problems with women's fiction. So often, things get lost in the drama and the pacing slows way down. That isn't a problem with this book at all. It really feels more like chick-lit than women's fiction, which works for me. The characters are well developed and the story is well written and interesting. It's a great way to while away a weekend, and I'd say it would make a good vacation read as well. This is my first read by Susan Mallery, but it won't be my last. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for an entertaining read.

Ms. Mallery delivers a story of two ordinary women who have struggled to find a plateau of moderate success and contentment until the status quo is no longer an option for either woman.  Both women are forced to confront their fears and step out of their comfort zone by creating a list of challenges to force the change.  Their emotionally charged journey full of joy, sadness and love is inspiring and page turning. 
Ellen is very content in her life as a teacher, her only worry is being able to afford the college her very talented son will pick until the day she overhears him ready to throw away all his dreams because he can't leave his mother to drown on her own.  When she descends on her best friend Unity with her tale of woe, 
Unity isn't exactly receptive or supportive. It so happens that Unity is struggling with her own set of challenges Widowed three years she hasn't been able to set aside her pall of grief and her crutches in the local senior community and the grief group have decided to take away her crutch so she can learn to cope and start to live. 
When the dust settles and all is forgiven a list is born of activities that each women creates to challenge themselves into changing the status quo and live a little or even live a little wild. 
While both of their evolution is an inspiring story, Unity has the more difficult journey and her emergence from the dark depression that has her in it's claws will definitely garner both tears and cheers. As each uses the other as inspiration to check off items off their list, Ellen is the first to get a tattoo, the first to kiss and tell and has the first sexual encounter.  Unity wins on the physical activities in their challenge but has a much longer journey on the emotional and sexual front.
Add in a wonderful cast of characters, teenagers and their hormones to throw in a nice wrinkle of two along the way and you have a great story.

Two best friends are stuck in "a rut." Unity, a widow of three years, still lives in her late husband's childhood home. She works as a handyman doing jobs at the local retirement community. Ellen is her only friend who is her age. Ellen, a teacher at the local high school where her son Cooper attends, hasn't been on a date since she found out she was pregnant at 17. Unity & Ellen decide to make a list of things to challenge themselves to shake their lives up over the summer.

I was not prepared for just how awesome this book was going to be! Unity and Ellen's friendship is top notch! AND THE STEAM!! If you can't handle open door steam, then don't grab this book! It was fantastic!! I really enjoyed this book and it easily gets 5 stars!

I was pleased to have the opportunity to read Susan Mallery's new book,The Freindship List. 
Susan Mallery defines the meaning of  freindship. It knows no bloodlines except  faith and a  loyalty to each other's uncrushable freindship.
Ellen and Unity are best freinds since practically birth  and grew up as sisters when Ellen's parents deceased and took her in at a young age. 
After the two best friends review their lives one evening,they realize  they are in a  rut. Ellen and Unity decide they need to make this a summer of challenges and this is where they make up The Freindship List.
They agree they both will not get out of their  same safe  everyday routine environment  if they dont make a change in their lives.
The list becomes challenges they think of out of the blue,writing this list down.Showing  some cleavage in their change of style in clothes because theyve been too comfortable how they wardrobe shows  and loose tee shirts .Skydiving and a possible tattoo is daring as well.They include  sex to a sexless life,even if it is a one night stand. The heated sex is alittle too detailed, I skimmed past through it because I mainly wanted to see the rest of the chapter and going ons with the characters. 
The following is why this Freindship List begins a much needed  growth and moving on experiences  for the two of them :

Ellen becomes pregnant at 17 from a  guy that disappears, leaving her to be a single mom to her son, Cooper.
She teaches at the local high school and manages to scrape some savings for his college fund. She knows its almost impossible to afford for him to live in a dorm at a faraway college, but she is determined to meet this dream and goal. Maybe a part time job in the evenings may help, or marry for money or hitting the  lottery.
Cooper however changes the plan..
She overhears him telling his freinds about his responsibilty to her, and  he can't leave his mom to feel alone without him there. He wants to stay in town and attend a community college.
Ellen feeling guilty of this decision, realizes her everyday routine in her life doesn't include dating or changing her every day lifestyle. She is his mom ,she has allowed herself to become a life role for him.
Reality sets in he will be gone to college in a year  .

Unity herself is feeling the same rut, and also afraid to change and move  on forward.
She only knows the life of  having being Stuarts army wife. Moving about,base to base,and finally settled in their own home.
Nothing in the house has been moved ,and after three yrs of his death while on duty, even their bedroom has stayed the same as he last left his place there .  
Its a safe haven for her to smell and touch everything alive  about him  still in it's place .
If only she had had  a child  with him but  he wanted to put off having kids until it was the right time  and sadly, it never became the right time . Now she is a a young thirtyish something widow.
She belongs to a greif support group for three years, and her support team feels she needs to move on, to another support group.
She has  shown no change in her greif and they cant help her anymore. She feels more of a rut! Being kicked out of her support team!
She runs a successful handyman business at a retirement community Silver Pines. She has alot of business and some help and is thinking of extending her business full time with more hired help. She doesn't feel its time yet,or is it ?
Dagmar,her good senior freind living there at Silver Pines , sets her up with her handsome nephew Thaddeus Calling Unity over for dinner, and not letting her nephew know that he too ,is being set up for the unplanned dinner date.
Unity isnt sure she is even ready to talk to another man.At least not datewise.
Stuart is the only man she knew and wanted to keep in her life,even if he is dead..
The first date with Thaddeus in front of his aunt is obvious that she is nervous and not being able to handle it. Thaddeus feels awful she was put in that predicament without being prepared, and he too was not prepared for this so called date.
He has also  lost a  partner ... a marriage that shouldnt had happened,and divorce soon after.
He makes an excuse and leaves the dinner date to make it easy on her.
The two do have future encounters with a romance building up but blocks in between. 

Ellen's own  dateline  follows without a plan. Meanwhile she joins along on a  weeklong field trip with  the head coach of her son Cooper's sports team, Keiths 17 year old daughter Lissa, and some members of the high school sport team.
They are going to Disney and look at colleges by there at the same time.
Keith has always been a good best freind to Ellen, and thats all they have in their relationship or they both thought. 
Ellen grows a slight bond  with Lissa  too.Especially in an uncertain episode that most parents hate the thought that their daughter will encounter.
The result of Ellen stepping in and handling the situation is impressive both for father and daughter. 

Unity and Ellen search for a  growth in themselves and their friendship list is a surprise along the way.They dont need a list to find themselves.
The list I feel is a push to open up challenges they feared in themselves. I was happy to see the epilogue continuiing the story.
The recipes that follow were a treat! Susan's books never disappoint and leave me awaiting for another Freindship book.
Thank you NetGalley and  HarleQuin Books for giving me the opportunity to this book Ive been anticipating.

The Friendship List ended up being just an OK read for me. It's about two best friends who set out to make major changes n their lives and end up finding love along the way. Between the two story lines, Ellen's was my favorite. I always love friends to lovers story lines. Keith was such a great character. Unity's story was less interesting to me.

There is one thing that bothered me about the book. I didn't like the casual way that sex was talked about between the parents and their teens. Don't get me wrong, I believe in open conversations about that topic. I just felt like the parents were treating their kids as if they were adults. It didn't sit right with me.

This is an OK read. One you might like reading while lounging at the beach (if they are even in your area). Give it a try.