This is a cute feel-good story about two friends that have faced difficulties in life and now need to learn how to move on. Unity's husband died and she is having a hard time accepting it. Ellen is a single mom of a 17-year-old boy that never dates. At all. And she is terrified now that he is about to leave for college. Both decide to create a list of challenging things they need to do in order to regain control of their lives. And in trying to conquer their lists they discover what they truly like and what it means to be alive.

Ellen and Unity are best friends, but each of them have been living stagnant lives. Ellen, a single mother, got pregnant while in high school and hasn't had a date since. Unity was happily married until three years ago when her husband, Stuart, was killed while serving in the military. She still lives in his house surrounded by pictures of him and still has his clothes in her closet. Her inability to let go and move on with her life even caused her grief support group to kick her out! Realizing that their lives were going nowhere, the two best friends decided to create a bucket list of things they wanted to accomplish over the summer to help them move on with their lives.

Every time I read one of Susan Mallery's books, I am reminded why she is one of my favorite authors. This book has characters to love and some you occasionally want to smack in the head. But it portrays so much about friendship, parenting ups and downs, and dealing with sexual situations with your teen, it is a must-read.

This one is a bit steamy (fanning self), but those sexy scenes go along with the storyline.

Lately I've been on a kick of reading contemporary books that focus more on familial/friendship relationships than romantic relationships. I was eager to read The Friendship List and I'm happy to report that it did not disappoint!

Ellen and Unity are have been BFF"s since high school, both have led different lives, but they are both stuck. Ellen had a baby (Cooper) at a very young age who is now a rising high school senior. She raised Cooper by herself and overhears him commenting that he's afraid to go to college and leave her alone, which spurs Ellen into action. Unity married her high school sweetheart, and was widowed a few years ago. She is still wallowing in a lot of grief, essentially stopped living her life besides work and Ellen. We all process grief in our own way, but she did need a kick in the pants about it.

Ellen and Unity decide on making a list of things they're going to do over the summer to get out of their rut. I loved this idea. While their friendship wasn't perfect (who's is?) they were there for each other and supportive. There were some growing pains throughout the book, but that's what made the book special for me.

While The Friendship List is about Ellen and Unity's friendship, there is a healthy amount of romance. I liked both Keith (Ellen) and Thaddeus (Unity), though I liked Thaddeus a little bit more. He had a lot more situational awareness regarding Unity. Keith was a challenge at times as he was super over protective of his daughter, Lissa. The romances did finalize kind of quickly, but that didn't bother me at all as the romances were just a bonus for me. I was their for the friendship.

A great story about starting over and finding out how to go forward in life.
A story about friendships and family
Loved the two main characters....beautiful bond with each other.
I enjoyed the romance aspect.
I did get a bit teary eyed several times....but, there were also lots of laugh out moments also.
Perfect beach read if you are wanting a feel good chick lit/romance.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book for my honest review.

I have read nearly every Susan Mallery book ever written. She is one of my “Top 5” favorite authors. I love how she arranges a story, and how the sentence lengths are varied. It makes for a fluid read. She writes with the typical formula of a “chic lit” book. Full of love and romance.
“The Friendship List” is about two friends, Ellen and Unity. Ellen is a single mom who got pregnant in high school. After living with her parents, and their relentless rules, until she was able to secure a degree and teaching job, Ellen moved on onto her own with her son Cooper. Raising him for 17 years has left her romantically alone. Between Cooper, her friend Keith, and her best friend/semi-sister Unity, Ellen thought that she had enough.
Unity owns a small handyman business. She was left a widow after her husband, Stewart, died while serving in the military. Unity is stuck living in her past with Stewart. She is afraid to let go and stuck with the rules imposed on her when she was orphaned and forced to live with Ellen’s strict parents. After a series of setbacks, she is forced to see that there are no set of rules to live by, if you truly want to live.
The two friends create a friendship list to complete for the summer. Tattoo’s, skydiving, and other out-of-character activities has the two women growing in a multitude of ways.
The setting of the story is in Washington, and various locations along the western coastal states. This is an area I desperately want to visit, so “seeing” locations such as Seattle, and Santa Monica, through the author’s words was very interesting.
The characters are well developed. Each character has their own set of “baggage” that they must let go of, whether it be Cooper’s feelings toward his absent father, or Unity letting go of the past. Even the minor characters, such as Luca, have an important role in the overall story.
My favorite character is Unity, but I think it is because I feel she had the most growth in the story. She struggled, failed, struggled, and finally triumphs, making for an amazing read. I didn’t have a least favorite character, which is surprising, because there seems to always be that one character that you just don’t click with.
This book was an amazing read, however, a word of caution. If you like more of a chaste romance, or light in the action department, then you probably want to read this book with blinders on. There is also an element of teenage pregnancy, mild alcohol, death, and feelings caused from absent parents.
“The Friendship List” receives a 4-star review, and will be released on August 4, 2020. It can be purchased on Amazon on Kindle for $12.99, paperback for $17.99, or hardcover for $18.99.
I was given an electronic advanced copy of this book, from NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review. My review was not impacted by this.

The Friendship List by Susan Mallery is a book about friendship and new life challenges. I loved the connection and friendship between Ellen and Unity. I loved how they made sure they repaired their relationship after the argument. They challenged each other to renew their reasons for living and enjoying life. There are some funny reactions and scenes. I enjoyed the character of Dagmar, she is so cool!
I did not like the way they were both portrayed as being socially naive. I think the question of "What does that mean?" was vastly over-used. It made them seem less than the intelligent women they had to be to have survived their different heartaches and obstacles in life.
Also, I felt Keith's insistence that his high school-age daughter, Lissa, take birth control pills was so wrong. That should have been her choice, not his requirement.
The friendship theme and making positive life changes were wonderful. I personally felt, the rapid way Ellen turned from a responsible and sensible woman to a sex-crazed person was a bit worrisome. I felt protective of the characters. So, I feel conflicted about my overall evaluation of this book.
Publication Date: August 4, 2020
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

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Straightforward--and at times "fanning myself" steamy--romance.
The friendship list, or actually a list of challenges each woman made for herself to get out of their respective ruts, was a cute backdrop to the story, but overall it wasn't a main plot point. Mostly, this is a story about Ellen and Unity breaking free of their fears about love and moving forward in life and learning how to be strong independent women.
I really appreciated the portrayal of the teens in this story, and the humorous incidents involving them and their parents handling the situations. It is realistic (although Keith's over the top statements regarding his daughter and coming after guys with a gun is pretty silly and honestly very outdated) and refreshing overall.
I liked Ellen's story better than Unity's, mostly because I couldn't identify with Unity's situation and her actions, statements, and decisions made me irritated. Bless her friends for sticking by her even though she acted so bizarrely, because I don't know if I could have been that gracious. In the end, I liked her growth and how she finally matured as a woman rather than remaining stuck.
Let me just give props for the swoony male love interests. *Fans self again* Wooo baby.
Great summer read! (Then you'll be able to say you're fanning yourself due to the heat and not because the book is making you, ahem, overheated)

Ellen Fox is a thirty-four year old teacher who is also a single mom to seventeen year old Cooper. It's only been them their whole lives since his father didn't want anything to do with him. Ellen always thought she was doing a great job raising her son until she overhears him one day saying he can't go away to his dream college because he can't leave his mom because she needs him. This causes Ellen to rethink her whole life with her lifelong, best friend, Unity Leandre. Unity is a thirty-four year old widow who lost her husband, Stuart, three years ago in combat. Ellen and Unity both realize that they are not truly living life and each come up with a list stating all of the things they wanted to do by the end of summer. The one who does the most on their list wins a weekend at the fancy spa paid for by the other!

Ellen is also good friends with Coach Keith Kinne, who coaches Coop in football. Keith is a divorced, single dad of seventeen year old Lissa. When Ellen and Coop go on a three week college visit bus tour with Keith, Lissa, and other high school students, sparks start to fly between Ellen and Keith. At first they are not sure if they want to cross that line, but once they do, Ellen realizes all that she has been missing out on. When Ellen confesses her list to Keith, he is determined to help her cross more items off of it.

While Ellen is gone for three weeks, Unity meets Thaddeus Roake, great-nephew of one of her elderly clients. Unity is drawn to Thaddeus, but is also reluctant to move past grieving for Stuart. As Unity and Thaddeus spend more time together, Unity is starting to realize that she is also missing out on many things in her life. Just when it looks like she might move past Stuart, panic sets in and Unity withdraws from life.

It will take a lot of soul searching for both Ellen and Unity to understand how they have been actually living their lives and make the changes necessary for them to both be truly happy but in the end, they will both find their happy ending.

I really enjoyed this story. I liked all of the characters, especially the interaction between the teenagers. Some of the things that the adults talked to the teenagers about I was a little skeptical because I know most teenagers do not talk about those topics with most adults but it still made for fun entertainment. Overall this was a fun story about two women finding themselves again.

A summer read for all seasons of life. Universal themes of friendship and family, love and change. Childhood friends Ellen and Unity push one another to embrace new experiences, and relationships, with summer bucket lists.

Best friends Ellen and Unity are stuck in a rut, so they challenge each other to creat and complete items on their bucket lists. On Ellen’s list is convincing her son that she has a life apart from him so that he’ll go to college. Unity needs to figure out how to finally move on after the death of her husband. Both women find themselves in romantic entanglements along their paths to finding themselves. I really wanted to like this book because I love Susan Mallery but I didn’t empathize with any of the characters.

This was such a fun book! I really liked the two main characters, Ellen and Unity. Actually I liked all the characters. Parts of the book made me laugh and the hopeless romantic in me was happy.❤️
Definitely recommend, especially if you need a fun, breezy read.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy

WELL, it was a quick and light read. Wasn’t all what I was expecting. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I was younger. The characters were fun but about half way through it seemed it was all about sex. Who has it, how they have it and who wants to have it. Otherwise a good chick lit and good girlfriend read. Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for THE ARC

I was not impressed by this book. I have read several Susan Mallery novels in the past and have enjoyed them, but this one fell short in my opinion. The two main characters, Ellen and Unity are so naive for being in their mid 30s, it was ridiculous and not even believable. This "innocence" is what ruined it for me, as it made the storyline very cheesy. Ultimately, this is a story of friendship, grief, moving on, and romance. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book other than for a quick summer vacation beach read requiring little thought and attention.

Ellen and Unity have been friends since they were children. Now in their thirties, the feel like they are in a rut so they challenge each other with a list of things to do. ARC from NetGalley.

I loved the premise of this book! Two friends who are both in a slump in their lives. They get into a fight and in the process of reconciling they create "bucket lists of how to improve their lives and take some risks. Unity is stuck afraid to let her deceased husband go & Ellen is preparing to have the son she raised alone go to college until she hears him say he can't leave her because she has no life. Both women work on their lists and start to change their lives. Unity is set up with Thaddeus, a nephew of one of her over 55 friends. Ellen "hooks up" with her good friend and coach at her school. Nothing is easy but they all get their happily ever after!

A feel good summer book! Ellen & Unity, best friends since childhood are in serious ruts. They are both stuck and realize that something has to give, so they each come up with a bucket list of activities to get them unstuck.

A bit predictable, but that’s ok in this type of book. Ellen & Unity are both likable characters who are working hard to make positive change in their lives. It’s about friendship, love & moving on. An easy read to throw in your beach bag.

What a great summer read! Women supporting women to live their best lives. It's sad and funny and all the things that life really is. Perfect to read out in your backyard on a warm day with some iced beverage.

Such a feel good read. This excellent story wraps itself around two close friends and their struggle to find their happiness. There are sad, heart felt places that make the reader hurt for each. Truly a pleasure to read. Add to the top of your TBR list.

This was the perfect beach read! Really enjoyed it and was able to fall into the story rather quickly. Didn’t want this book to end. Definitely recommend it!