The premise of this book seemed really intriguing. I am very close with my roommates from college still so I had that in common with Amanda and Sophie. Unfortunately, this book really did not draw me in. It got better towards the second half, but even then the characters were introspective to the point where it was a little much for me. I think someone who might like to read a book that is written in almost diary entries might be interested!

I received this book complimentary from NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

I LOVE the premise but it just didn’t grab me at all. The characters seemed dull to me. I wasn’t interested in them but I’d love to read another book with this premise (two friends making a life together platonically and how that works and what it looks like in reality). I just did not get into the characters. The setting was interesting. The plot was interesting. But I just never connected with the characters. I’d probably try another book by this author.

My Ride or Die is a book about the friendship of two women, Amanda and Sophie friends for ever who take on the world supposedly together. The premise sounded super cute, a strong female friendship, women who'd be there for each other no matter what in a light breezy easy read, but unfortunately that's not what I got. This book ended up being way more serious than I bargained for, and had so many different plot points (careers, fixing up homes, vacationing, etc), it was often hard to follow and several were left hanging.

In the end, this book just didn't work for me, but it just might be a case of my being the wrong reader for this novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and WilliamMorrow and Custom House and Leslie Cohen for the arc.

Two women decide to overhaul their lives and chuck men (well, for the most part) and live together in an updated Sex and the City meets Girls existence--sounds great, right? The premise drew me in but unfortunately for me the characters and the story fell a little short.

The cover is a bit deceptive because I think it looks like so many of the chick lit/romcom covers that are everywhere lately. I was expecting more of a lighthearted, frothy read and this really didn't fit into that box. That doesn't necessarily bother me but I can see others being surprised by the tone. The way the story unfolds means a lot of it is telling not showing which is something I always struggle with. When there are long paragraphs relaying what happened in the past vs. learning about it as it is happening, I find myself caring about those sections less. Sometimes it has to happen to lay a bit of groundwork but for me falling back on this happened too often. Weirdly Amanda & Sophie at times felt interchangeable to me. Unless I was reading about art or law, sometimes I lost track of who that chapter was about. This good thing is this book covers a lot so it does have something for everyone in that it covers careers, strong female friendships, following your heart and finding your passion.

Many thanks to Netgalley & William Morrow for the ARC.

Summary from Goodreads:
Fall in love. Get married. Turn to your female friends to be truly understood. Friends for over a decade, Amanda and Sophie decide it’s time to flip the script. Why not spend their lives with each other and keep men on the side for fun, sex, and occasionally fixing things around the house? Amanda is a lawyer who excels in her professional life but crumbles at the slightest sign of a common cold. Sophie is an aspiring artist who has lived all over the world and doesn’t crumble, period. Together, they’ve been through it all. But when their romantic lives implode at the same time, they decide enough is enough. Enough pretending that traditional relationships work for everyone. Enough fantasizing about an old-fashioned ideal. They decide to form an alliance: They will rely on each other and give men the secondary role that they deserve. And much to their surprise, it actually works. They fix up a run-down brownstone and create the home they’ve always wanted. Soon, they have love and emotional support as well as a wide variety of male “crushes” on the side. But when one of their crushes becomes something more, Amanda and Sophie must reconsider the life they’ve begun to build and how far they’re willing to go to keep it.

I'm not sure how I feel about this book after finishing it. It was a weird read for me. The summary made it sound like a fun, light read and I was excited to read a book where the main plot was centered around female friendship. After reading, it wasn’t what I was expecting. The cover, which looks like your general chick-lit/light fiction cover also made me think that it was going to be a light-hearted funny story, but the book ended up being a more serious read, which isn’t what I was really looking for. If I had known going in that the story was going to be like that, I maybe would have felt differently about the book. The two-person point of view story line didn't really work for me because the two girls were so similar. They had almost the same thoughts and actions, and I was confused at times whose chapter I was reading. The pacing was also a little strange. There were certain events in the book (the house reno) that were somewhat glossed over, where I would have liked some more detail and others where there was a lot of description that wasn’t totally necessary (I didn’t really need to know all the detail about the art world). I did love how the vibe of the book was very reminiscent of Sex and the City. I think that Leslie Cohen is a good writer and I am curious to see what she writes next.

This was a really weird one for me. I requested this book because it sounded like a fun breezy concept, and I loved the idea of centering female friendship in the narrative. What I got was something entirely different than what I expected. I don’t think this book was bad, per se—the writing was solid, it was thoughtful. I think this was more an issue of a dissonance between how this book was marketed and what I actually read. The synopsis says that this is a “hilarious” read about how two friends agree to make a life together and relegate men to a side role, but that complications happen! Yes, this is the general plot, but it feels like Sophie and Amanda make a plan for a life and a home together, and it never really goes anything but sideways. Amanda meets someone, Sophie starts to actualize an art career…and their plan starts to unravel.

This actually comes across mostly like a deadly serious book. Sophie’s sections are a deep dive into the life of someone trying to make a real career as an artist, and they get really in the weeds. Amanda is a stereotypical buttoned up attorney (get it, opposites attract?). The main idea is that both women get the courage to go after what they really want professionally as a result of their arrangement, but their personal lives don’t really get better. Neither character really feels firmly established here, but rather rest on trips e. Sophie’s artsy whimsy and her constant reminders to everyone that she grew up in Brazil feel very overdone at times, and don’t really do anything to help you feel like you understand her. Amanda is still reeling 20 years later, somehow, from her parents’ sudden divorce, and despite ostensibly living alone for years, she becomes unable to function without someone and develops a major anxiety disorder. I didn’t DNF this one, because I was interested to see how it turned out, but I spent most of the read pretty confused as to what the author was trying to do. The pacing is just so strange in this one…it’s like the author just breezed over things like a massive renovation to their house, but spent pages and pages describing the art world. She seems to have lingered over what she was interested in and glossed over everything else.

Nothing about where this goes is really a surprise, the ending feels weird and rushed, and again, I don’t think this was a bad book, but I do think the way that this book is marketed needs a major overhaul. This typical chick lit cover and description as a hilarious romp…none of that comes close to what ended up being a sort of serious, dark read. Maybe if I had known that going in, I would have come out with a different conclusion. Read this book for a study on two women and how they are trying to navigate modern life together. Don’t read it because you’re looking for what the description says.

In Ride or Die, two friends decide to forgo the normal events of life and create an agreement to live and 'be' together for their lifetime. They vow to keep men on the sidelines for flings, but never anything serious. The two girls vacation, buy a house, work on their careers, and date casually. Until one of the girls causal relations turns into something more.

The story line had many different themes I wish it would have expanded on, or just not mentioned. The book went so many places - home fixer upper, vacationing in Cabo, hanging with certain friends, careers - each item was touched on for a few chapters, but then we moved on without any other mention of said friend, or even the guy one of the girls left at the alter in the beginning! Seriously, no remorse, discussion, or even tears over this guy she was going to marry! The two person point of view story line also didn't work for me - the two girls were so similar, with almost the same thoughts and actions, it was very easy to be confused who we were reading about. I also struggled with the idea of committing to each other for a life, when they weren't able to give that commitment to anyone else.

Overall, there were some good qualities. I loved the Sex and the City vibe where they put their friends before their men and the New York City life is what drew me in. However, I felt like it lacked depth, and generally immature. Ride or Die's writing style included mostly dialogue, and not the thoughts and actions I would have preferred. The many plot holes and far fetched ideas were almost enough for me to make this a 'do not finish'.

I liked this book. It was a light read and the characters were likable. It’s the story of two best friends and an agreement they make. I liked the writing and the description of NYC life. It reads like a Sex and the City episode. A great weekend read. .Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC.

I somewhat liked this book but I have to confess to constantly mixing up the two main characters. What were their names even? The author went to pains to describe them as different but it was the way Bess and George were always described in the Nancy Drew novels: Bess was always on a diet and George was a tomboy but those traits were just told to the reader, never actually reflected in the narrative anywhere. And these two women (Sophie and Amanda! That was it!) talk the same and seem to have essentially the same skills and motivations as each other and the same amount of money, too, which is weird because one of them is a lawyer and the other an artist? The story is also mainly dialogue and not a lot of scene setting - also weird since the plot revolves around a house. Anyway, while I'd rather read a book about two DIFFERENT women, I did enjoy the fizzy, "Sex and the City" tone of this book.

Amanda and Sophie are the best of friends, though they could not be any different. Amanda is excelling as a lawyer at a private firm, is a lawyer, but experiences sometimes-crippling bouts of anxiety. Sophie is an aspiring artist who flits from job to job while trying to find the perfect professional setup. After their romantic lives fall apart at the very same time, Amanda and Sophie decide to buy an apartment together and essentially become life partners/spouses - but without the marriage part. Their agreement allows for some short-lived romantic interests with the understanding that their relationship is the true long-term one. And that works...for a while.

I loved the best-friends dynamic between Amanda and Sophie. They are so different from each other, but they obviously balance each other out very nicely. In some ways, their friendship reminds me of mine and my best friend's (though we have never decided to put men to the side and buy a house together). It was interesting to see how their lives changed throughout their arrangement. My one complaint is that there was no real sense of time throughout the book, no way to know how long the agreement or [mild nonspecific spoiler] how long Amanda's romance with Cabo guy lasted.