This is domestic women's fiction done right; Lucinda Berry expertly weaves in an out of the lives of 3 different families, tied together by history and an inexplicable tragedy.

We find the families after the 'incident' that left one of their teenage sons dead; one in a coma; and one unable to speak. The perspectives come from each of the 3 mothers and although I could see their flaws, I found myself pulling for all of them. Berry made them human through the grief process.

I was so wrapped up in finding out what happened that night; it was not until after the mystery unraveled did I realize the deep sadness that would continue to follow the lives of the characters. I wished for some resolution that would absolve or give some relief to at least one family.

There was a final twist at the end that I thought was a little too unrealistic and unnecessary, but overall I would highly recommend this story of an extraordinary incident that touched the lives of 3 ordinary families.

Thank you to Netgalley for this preview!

Lindsey, Kendra, and Dani are best friends who grew up in a wealthy southern California town. Their sons follow in their footsteps and become the very best of friends. Practically from birth, the three boys are joined at the hip, until one night, during what was supposed to be an innocent sleepover, one boy is shot and killed, another lies in a coma and the third boy is literally scared speechless.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There were so many layers, not just of the boys and what happened that fateful night, but the story, told through the eyes of the mothers, also relies heavily upon the secrets and lies that families keep. It's a very heavy story that tells of love, loss, and friendship while it also pulls back the layers of what makes these things tick among these three women, sometimes brutally.

The only reason I didn't give it a 5-star rating is that for me, the ending felt a little incomplete and left me wondering if there would be more in a later book, though this seems to almost wrap (not quite) wrap things up.

I love this author and I really enjoyed this book! Lucinda Berry is such a breath of fresh air in the thriller/suspense genre, her plots are always unique and keep you guessing. I was really invested in finding out what happened the night the boys were shot and I really liked the short chapters jumping between Dani, Kendra & Lindsey. The ending was also devastating, which I wasn't really expecting. Another great book by Lucinda Berry, I can't wait for her next one.

Another fantastic and compelling book by Ms. Berry. Heartbreaking story of the journey of three families in the aftermath of an unthinkable tragedy. Lindsay, Kendra, and Dani have been friends since elementary school and years later when they each have sons who become best friends they are thrilled. But when a night of substance abuse and drinking ends in gunfire the boys and their parents lives are forever changed. I have become a huge fan of Ms. Berry’s books and I believe this is her best one yet. This is difficult subject matter that is written about with honesty and compassion and was impossible to put down. Highly recommended.

Whoa, the first chapter grabbed my attention right off the bat. This was my first book to read by Lucinda Berry, and after reading the description, I knew I needed to add this to my TBR.

How the author describes the story about a teenager who dies tragically while connecting his death to family secrets was fascinating. She would drop subtle hints throughout the book that left me wondering what happened until the ending when she made everything clear, and it was not something I saw coming!

I would recommend this book - it was suspenseful and gripping and certainly kept my attention. This novel is expected to be released August 2020.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely LOVED this book! As in, I read it in a day and a half. Families are rocked after a group of life long friends experience a horrible tragedy involving their 3 teenage sons. It is a heavy and hard read for me, being a mother myself, but I couldn't put the book down. From the first page I was captivated and wanted to dive deep into the secrets of each of the families involved. One thing that makes a good thriller/mystery is how the author keeps you guessing. If I can figure out or easily predict whats to come- it becomes boring. However, that is not the case for Lucinda Berry. She would drop little hints here and there, release just enough information to second guess anything I thought or suspected previously. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from Berry!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy in return for my honest opinion and book review!

Unbelievably stirring and compelling straight out of the gates! Such a page turner of a read.

The lives of three best friends -- Kendra, Lindsey, and Dani are disrupted when a tragedy strikes. What takes place is the unraveling of each of their marriages, and the revealing of secrets that were kept hidden for years.

As each woman struggles with their own loss, you are swept up in all the emotion, trauma, and psychological dilemmas that each of them faces.

Difficult to put down. An excellent novel and will be sure to keep the author, Lucinda Berry on my radar. Five star read!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read this book in exchange from my honest review.

This was such an emotional book. The plot is from 3 POVs, which I mixed up at first but eventually managed to keep straight. These women have been friends since grade school. They stayed in the same town, live in the same neighborhood, and even had children around the same time who grew to be best friends as well. With this tight-knit group of friends, there shouldn’t be a lot of secrets. And yet, after a tragic accident, the secrets just keep coming to the surface.
I found myself on the brink of tears multiple times. The author is so skilled at showing how each woman is dealing with the tragedy in their own way but all of them still felt so much pain. I wish that we had learned more about the detective, he seemed interesting, but that is such a minor quibble that did not detract from my enjoyment of this book at all.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Best of Friends by Lucinda Berry.

Kendra, Dani, and Lindsey have been best friends forever. So long in fact that now their three sons, all on the cusp of adulthood, are also best friends. So is beyond understanding when, after a night of hanging out, one turns up dead, one in a coma, and one traumatized.

What happened that night? Who was responsible? And how will this affect the friendships that have withstood the test of time.

I feel like this almost could have been a really quick stage script rather than an entire novel. There were a lot of chapters that seemed ancillary and "space fillers" in order to get to the main story. There was very little about the story that was believable, especially the idea of these moms even trying to maintain a relationship after what their boys had gone through. The premise was interesting, and the story was readable, but overall, this didn't quite hit home.

Secrets abound in Lucinda Berry's upcoming thriller, The Best of Friends.

So many secrets, in fact, that my head is spiraling a bit -- and not in a good way. Aye, aye, aye . . .

Kendra, Dani, and Lindsey, best friends since childhood and mothers to three teenage boys, experience a tragedy that is every parent's worst nightmare. After a hard night of partying, a terrible accident involving the young boys occurs. In a matter of moments, one boy is dead, another is in a coma, and the third is unable to communicate, having withdrawn inside himself.

It's a horrible nightmare -- one that I, personally, cannot contemplate too deeply as a mother of two young boys. And I would be remiss if I did not forewarn readers that the subject matter of this novel is very disturbing at times and may make for a difficult read, particularly for those who are parents.

So, what happened that night? Well . . . you will have to read the novel to find out.

The Best of Friends opens with a prologue that is dramatic and intense. The reader is immediately inserted into the panic that Kendra experiences the night of the accident, feels her fear. One is very quickly absorbed into the narrative --

-- and then it all, unfortunately, turns into one big mess.

And all the messiness, my friends, is a result of the writing.

First off, Berry’s writing is simple and pedestrian. The novel does not require much thought from the reader, as Berry's writing style lacks any sort of real nuance or complexity.

Secondly, the novel is in serious need of character development and voice distinction. The story is told from the points of view of the three mothers, through alternating chapters, and in all honesty, I struggled to keep the characters' names straight and to remember whose viewpoint I was reading. Juggling three viewpoints and voices should not be this tough to do. But in this case, it is tricky because Kendra, Dani, and Lindsey are basically the same woman, just in triplicate.

Thirdly, -- and related to the above-mentioned problem -- in what I believe is a misguided attempt by Berry to write the novel in a fashion similar to Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies, she initially withholds too much information about the women and their lives from the reader. Berry takes her time . . . WAY too much time . . . and s-l-o-w-l-y unfurls the defining details of the characters, their lives, their hidden scandals and secrets. But she doesn’t reveal enough to the reader in the very beginning so that a clear mental image of the three women can be formed in one’s mind. It is extremely difficult to fully connect to the story and the characters because of this.

And lastly, I feel like Berry throws random, out-of-the blue, jarring facts about the characters into the narrative . . . only to then, very oddly, never mention them again. It's as if she wanted to desperately up the shock factor and the scandal, and then forgot to fully weave all of the dangling loose ends fully into the story. For example, almost 3/4 of the way into the book, Berry slips in the fact that one of the women has an eating disorder -- but then that's it. The reader never learns anything else about said eating disorder. AT ALL. Umm . . . really?!?! An eating disorder is not something that should be haphazardly tossed into a narrative, only to then be instantly forgotten.

There is also an allusion to a character maybe, possibly, having a drinking problem . . . but I have no clue as to whether it was ever fully clarified in the story. And at the very end of the novel, a reference is made regarding an event that happened during the women's junior year of high school. But for the life of me, I don't believe we ever find out what actually transpired. I've even skimmed back through the novel and searched, in an attempt to find an earlier reference to that particular night that I may have read and then misplaced in my mind. I have found nothing and am still left scratching my head about it. (If anyone finds another reference or an explanation of the event, will you please let me know?)

And after all that . . . after wading through the novel’s extremely messy and disorganized narrative . . . the big reveal of the who and the how and the why of the tragic accident involving the three teenage boys is a bit of a letdown. It is so anti-climactic, in fact, that I was even taken aback while reading it, not having realized and being surprised that I had, indeed, arrived at the grand finale.

Sigh. ‘Tis disappointing, I know.

The Best of Friends earns two stars from me, as my interest was held well enough that I was inclined to at least see it through to the end. But unfortunately, I am unable to recommend it.


I received an Advanced Readers Copy from #NetGalley and #ThomasandMercer in exchange for an honest review. All opinions included herein are my own.

The start of The Best of Friends created a great setting for a thriller or mystery. As the book went on, I felt it was very heavy in the drama of the families and less about getting to the bottom of the crime. I believe if you go in thinking it is in the Fiction genre you will get more out of this as the story is very unique. It feels like you are looking in on the lives of normal people with normal family struggles with an unfortunate crime at the center. I wish there was a little more character development at the beginning. Since there are so many characters all in the same situation with similar family dynamics I found I would confuse many of the characters or would have to start each chapter listing unique attributes of the focused character and her family just to keep everything straight. The ending felt a little rushed and didn't satisfy me as a mystery or thriller but was very unique and different from any other book I've read. I'd recommend it if you are looking for a family drama.

When I first started reading this book there were so many characters to keep track of and several narrators, so it took me nearly a third of the book to get into the flow of the storyline. Once I figured out who was connected, I found this to be a suspenseful and dramatic novel, though I found all of the characters unlikable. As a result, I was emotionally disconnected from the story. I found myself revising my predictions after each new detail was revealed, and while I did predict the ending (both twists), the way it all came together was well-crafted.
3.5 stars, rounded up.
Advanced readers copy provided courtesy of #NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Best of Friends: Lucinda Berry

Release Date: Aug. 18th, 2020

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

4.5 stars

Cinematic, intense, and sharp; an emotionally devastating novel.

What a brilliantly heavy book. Wow. The Best of Friends will be a page turner till the very end!
Since childhood, Kelsey, Lindsey, and Dani have been inseparable. As they grew older, they remained closely in touch, moving near to one another with their husbands; even having children around the same time. Their sons: Sawyer, Jacob and Caleb also became best friends. Life was pretty normal and good for everyone. Until it wasn’t. One night, one boy is killed, one boy injured, and one boy is riddled silent with anxiety and PTSD. As they each work with the detective to get to the bottom of the one horrible night, things start to spin out of control. Secrets in each family come out as it becomes impossible to hide under the pressure of the situation.
Lucinda Berry does a great job of giving the reader just enough fuel to keep going but not enough to fully spoil the twist and turns at the end of the novel. Overall, she was a clear and fluid writer who was able to weave the stories of each mother seamlessly. I loved her writing and she did a fantastic job of keeping me on the edge of my seat till the last page! I would have liked to see a little more of how the end played out, but I did love the cyclical nature of it.

Along with posting on Net Galley, I will be posting my review to Goodreads, Amazon (when it becomes available), my Instagram (which has over a two thousand book review followers) and my blog. Please find the link to my blog post below. I am very grateful for the opportunity to review such a raw and all-encompassing thriller. All opinions and thoughts are my own. Thank you very much.

Link to Blog Post: https://ifyoucanreadthisdotblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/28/the-best-of-friends-lucinda-berry/
Link to Instagram Post: https://www.instagram.com/ifyoucan_read_this/
Link to Goodreads Post: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/112342382-chanel-johnson

Respectfully
Chanel Johnson

I did, in fact, read this in one sitting (as the description suggested might happen).

The Best of Friends is a phenomenal book. The tension among friends and between spouses; the mystery behind the cataclysmic "incident"; and well-developed, rich characters make this a book to remember. I always enjoy stories told through multiple points of view, but this novel took it to the next level: each main character had her own voice, distinct personality,and unique flaws/insecurities.

One constructive offering, and one question that I will not include in reviews posted to Goodreads, my blog, or retailers:
--I think the opening could be stronger. Mistaking fireworks for gun shots missed the mark for me. With so many psychological thrillers out there, some readers (including myself) will only make it through the first few pages before moving on to a new title. The rest of the book is so stellar that the opening should grip readers in similar form.
--What happened to the girls on their prom night? The thing they didn't talk about, even then? Did I miss it, or was it intentionally left open-ended?

I look forward to reading more from Lucinda Berry!

Really enjoyed this book. 3 friends. Lindsay, Dani and Kendra. 3 friends. Jacob, Sawyer and Caleb.

Kendra and Paul hear gunshots one night while watching TV. The lives of Kendra and her friends change forever when 1 of their sons is dead, one is brain dead and one is traumatized.

The chapters in the book go from friend to friend. What happened that night? We also get to see inside each of these women's marriages and families. I found all of the characters to be believable and real. It's a page turner, I kept wanting to read one more chapter.

Recommended.

Satisfying, suspenseful and complicated. People are not always as they seen and a reminder that we tend to keep our deepest secrets from the people who know is best. Would make a great movie in the right hands!!!

Best friends Lindsey, Kendra, and Dani endure every parent’s nightmare when a tragic accident befalls their teenage boys, leaving one dead, another in a coma, and a third too traumatized to speak.Huge thanks to the publishers for my copy ❤️

I found it difficult to get into this book. Mainly because of the volume or characters it was difficult to follow. I am glad I persevered and enjoyed the story and the ending. It is though provoking as a parent and look forward to reading more by this author

This book wasted no time. I was hooked from the first line and it never slowed down. 3 life long friends and a gun, what can go wrong??? One kid is dead, one is in a coma and the other won't talk. What happened? This story is about three families attempts to find out. Lindsey, Dani and Kendra each have their own issues going on and I found myself rooting for each of them as their story unfolded. There's so much love and heartbreak. Lucinda Berry is an amazing author. You won't be able to put down this gripping page-turner.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer, author Lucinda Berry, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm sure this is a great book, but I did not finish it. While the subject matter is heartbreaking, I couldn't get into the characters at all. I got about 30% in, so maybe it gets better after that.