"The Best of Friends" by Lucinda Berry is an emotionally charged and thought-provoking exploration of friendship, trauma, and the enduring bonds that tie people together. The novel skillfully weaves together the lives of three childhood friends, each grappling with their own demons and shared traumatic experiences. Berry's writing is poignant and evocative, creating a narrative that is both heart-wrenching and ultimately uplifting. The characters are richly developed, and their individual journeys of healing and redemption contribute to the novel's emotional depth. The exploration of mental health and the power of human connection make "The Best of Friends" a compelling and resonant read that lingers in the reader's mind long after the final page.

4.5 stars

The Best of Friends by Lucinda Berry tells the story of three longtime best friends named Lindsey, Kendra, and Dani who are going through a parents worst nightmare: their three teenage sons have been in a terrible accident leaving one dead, another in a coma, and a third too traumatized to speak The premise of this book really caught my attention but the actual story fell flat. It took me far too long to get into this short novel. I kept putting it down and wasn't too interested in picking it back up. I didn't like any of the three FMC's and felt like they were all shallow and passive-aggressive toward each other. I felt like there were too many side characters that everyone got mixed up and jumbled around.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This is a really compelling topic, but overall this novel fell a bit short for me. I had a really hard time differentiating between characters (both the mothers/ friends and the sons). In my opinion, this was because their lack of character development made them feel pretty much the same and I found myself going back to figure out which mom had which son, siblings, etc. This was particularly frustrating, because each chapter has a different narrator. It just made me feel like I was working a bit too hard to follow the story line. Thank you NetGalley and publishers for providing a digital ARC for review.

There were parts of this story that engaged me completely: the thorny dynamic of motherhood, the tangled web of friendship that is simply habit after so many years, the exploration of how vastly different the facade a family upholds for outsiders is from what goes on behind closed doors. As a whole, though, a lot of this story did not work for me. The three female protagonists were indistinguishable from one another and interchangeable, which prevented me from connecting with any of them. There are big issues that crop up, only for them to disappear from the narrative after one mention, never to be resolved. The reveal of what led to the tragedy that begins this story with a bang is a bit of a letdown. There were certainly heart-wrenching, devastating moments in the tale, but overall this story of secrets, lies, and friendship left me dissatisfied.

I was disappointed in Lucinda Berry's writing style and characterizations. The story itself was compelling - three teenage boys have an incident where tragedy occurs and this changes the family dynamics in three family units. However, there was zero to no description of the three moms and I literally couldn't conjur up an image of any of them. I had to put a sticky note at the front of my book which stated the name of each family member in each family unit. I eventually could picture the husbands in two families - there character traits were deeply explored - but had to refer to my notes in order to remember who was married to whom and which child belonged to which family. I never have to do this because usually the characters are fully formed and at least part way through the story I have connected the dots.

I was pulled along in the plot because I wanted to find out the full story of what had happened. I will read more of her books. But I found some of her writing style to be clunky and awkward and would have appreciated some physical descriptions of the characters. And some deeper descriptions of the mothers.

Pretty intense read! Motherhood reads always get to me and I have to say this one got me choked up. I have already suggested this book to my gfs and they love it the same!

I did not finish this one, it was not for me, I couldn't relate to the characters, and just did not care for the story.

Absolutely a page turner! Once I started, I needed to keep reading. And the once I thought I knew what was happening, I found out I was wrong and the twists kept happening until the very end. Read this…. You won’t regret it!

After a horrific event involving their children occurs, three best friends find their relationship close to the breaking point as blame, guilt, and distrust cloud over everything.
The questions of what happened and who is responsible drive the narrative in what is a solid family drama. I found the little twist at the very end pretty unnecessary, but enjoyed the rest.
Thanks to #netgalley and #thomasandmercer for this #arc of #thebestoffriends in exchange for an honest review. This was actually published back in 2020 but was at the bottom of my ARC list and was somehow missed.

If your 🍵 cuppa is more women's fiction / literature than psychologically heavy drama or 🚔 procedural then check this one out!

As many characters and as multi- nuanced as your favorite soap opera (how DOES Ms. Berry herself keep em all straight when penning this labyrinth tome?)

My personal taste tends to grittier crime (think Mo Hayder, and Greg Isles) or more cerebral police procedurals (think Tara French, Riley Sager and Jane Harper) or light, tightly researched full character development with things never completely black and white (think the wonderful Thomas Perry).

Not my favorite Linda Berry, and I have enjoyed 'em all - this one has characters a bit too waspy and high-tea for my more peanut butter and jelly tastes (what can I say, I like playing in traffic and straddling the gritty edge of legality, only in my dream world of course).

Might be just the novel to ring your 🔔; give it a listen (see note below).

Recommendation note - Skip the hard or Kindle version and move on to the Audible version. There are numerous characters in this melodrama, and it's easier to identify the individual characters when they are breathed into life by three talented narrators ...

An intriguing, tense and interesting story that you will follow with interest from the first to the last pages. The book reveals so many layers of the teenage world nowadays and many challenges it poses to society as a whole, and especially to the institution of family and friendship.

Sooo good! One of my faves to read! Definitely would recommend picking this one up if you see it in the store!

A horrifying story about three best friends - love, drugs, alcohol, a gun, and one night where things go terribly wrong. This sorry was heartbreaking and touches on so many complicated topics. I enjoyed reading it and it kept me engaged the entire time. I liked the rotation of the three different points of view and that each character had such a detailed back story in addition to present day.

Thank you for this arc copy of this book. It wasn't; my type of book but others may like it. I did enjoy the cover picture though.

Well-written emotional rollercoaster! This psychological thriller will have you turning the pages until the end. Excellent and heartbreaking!

I can't believe I forgot to give my review.
3 friends grow up together and raise their families together and a tragedy unfolds that would shake up any family and friendship for that matter.

Will their friendship make it through this?

This author always seems to write a fantastic plot and this one was no different, full of tension and suspense and kept me fully engaged

This one was excellent. Secrets abound and I didn't want to put it down because I needed to know what was happening. I will definitely be reading more by this author! Four stars.

Three female best friends live in the same neighborhood. Their sons are all pretty much the same age, 17, and are thick as thieves. They are out one night when suddnely, there are what sounds like gunshots and then emergency vehicles in the neighborhood. . .at the house the boys were at.

It's every parent's worst nightmare. As the story unfolds, it's easy to point fingers and shake your head but do you really know how you'd handle this situation if you were in it? I did like the crime aspect and how it slowly peels away for you to learn piece by painful piece what happened to get to that fateful night.

But really, this felt less mystery and more like a neighborhood drama. I can't even imagine 3 couples who are supposed to be best friends having more secrets from each other than this. As each secret was reveals, THAT definitely started to feel that like took the stage and not the horrible event that took a boy's life. However, the end does wrap up well and I liked the conclusion. It was just a bit more drama than I typically like.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

It was hard to keep track of the characters and also literally nothing happened for 80% of the book. I don't really know what the point was. There was nothing thrilling about it.