Wow! What a fresh, real and relatable book Friends From Home is. I also found it to be a very binge-able read, reading it in only a day! Love that!

📚 Book Review + Pub Day 📚
Title: Friends From Home
Author: Lauryn Chamberlain
Publisher: Dutton Books
@duttonbooks
Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Jules and Michelle have been best friends since third grade, when Jules and her single-flighty-absent-always looking for a man-mother moved from Cleveland to a very small southern Alabama town where Michelle’s family has lived for many generations. Now is their mid-twenties these childhood friends live worlds and miles apart. Jules lives in NYC pursuing her dream job of becoming a book editor. Michelle is back home in Alabama working at a jewelry boutique and engaged to her college boyfriend.

So, of course Michelle asks Jules to be Maid-of-Honor! And Jules obviously accepts. BUT . . . she quickly realizes that over the years their dreams and beliefs have shifted apart and in the middle of wedding planning they have quite a few squabbles.

When Jules makes a decision for her future that Michelle can not understand it puts their friendship to the ultimate test. Will even they make it to the wedding still as friends?

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A very solid four stars for this debut. It will have you wanting to call up your best friend. It’s very relatable to how people grow and change in different seasons of life. And that maybe the people we love the most aren’t on the same paths at the same time; Or maybe they won’t ever be. And that’s Ok!!! 🛑 Stop reading if you do not want a 🚨 spoiler…

… this book does involve an abortion and disagreement between pro-life and pro-choice. I hate doing spoilers, but I do feel like this may be a trigger for some.

This one is out TODAY 5/18 and I highly recommend you put it on your summer reading list! Thank you @netgalley and to the publisher @duttonbooks for honoring my request to read and review this book. #netgalley #friendsfromhome

Michelle and Jules have been best friends since they were little girls but their lives began to diverge in college. Jules went to school in New York while Michelle stayed in Alabama where she became the. classic sorority girl. Now engaged to an attorney, she's asked Jules to come home from New York, where she's working in publishing to be her maid of honor. We all know now wedding planning can bring out the worst in people - here it highlights the differences in the two women, And lingering resentments. I liked that Chamberlain avoided making either woman a caricature which would have been easy, and worked good nuance into the relationship. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A nice debut about valuing your past and forming a new future,

Thanks to Dutton Publishers and Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. I absolutely loved this book. It was a very easy read and definitely brought up a lot of emotions related to growing up and growing apart. It is tough to figure out how long time friendships fit in your life as you age and change. I found myself invested in the story line and was rooting for the main characters.

Friends from home examines the life of 2 friends that grew up together, Jules left their town to move to New York while Michelle stayed. There were some really good moments in this story but also some that were predictable. Overall good read.

The first few chapters of this book felt like this was going to be a light read with the main character shocked her childhood friend was getting married. Jules/Julie is in New York working in publishing and trying to make her way while Michelle, her friend since age 8, still in Alabama just announced her upcoming wedding. These two friends are on different tracks and the book focus is on friendships and meaning and what happens when the two people seem to want different things in life, or at least at a different pace.

As the book and story develops, there becomes a deeper dive into the meaning of friendships and even touching on love, relationships, and more.

The book will likely appeal more with people in their mid-twenties, particularly women. Yet anyone who reads this book will find themselves giving thoughts to their childhood friends, how their relationship and changed and evolved through the years.

One of the most relatable books I have read in a very long time. Hard to believe that this is a debut novel. Jules and Michelle have been best friends since childhood and thought this would always be the case. As they've grown older they not only live miles apart but worlds apart. When Jules agrees to be the maid of honor at Michelle's wedding it quickly becomes clear how different the two have become. Jules living the twenty-something almost single NYC life and Michelle still home in their small town in Alabama engaged to a lawyer and living the very different life that she always dreamed about. Over the course of the wedding planning their friendship reaches a breaking point that they may not be able to come back from. Hard to believe this is a debut novel!

Random thoughts:
** I thought Chamberlain tackled the topic of friendship changes over time with a great deal of insight and compassion. I think we all grow apart from many of our childhood friends as we find ourselves and our place in life, as we discover who we are and what we believe in.
** However, in trying to capture the ways in which friendships change, I felt that the characters lacked a bit of nuance in their development. Jules' friends fit into two groups - the right leaning, hometown, snooty group or the left leaning, New York, liberal group. They were strongly in one camp or the other and the characters all blended together as a result.
** The characters of Michelle and Jules had a bit more development, but the secondary characters were underdeveloped and not memorable. (honestly......Dana and Ritchie were the same character to me).
** Chamberlain attempts to tackle the topic of abortion, but it felt underdeveloped. I don't want to give any spoilers away on this one, but I felt that this should have warranted more page time and exploration than it did. I do appreciate that the book addressed this issue as not many books currently do, but I was left wanting more.
** The ending left me with too many questions. There were so many loose ends with nearly all of the main relationships featured - Will they have a relationship? What will that relationship look like?

Overall, I felt like this book needed a bit more editing to further the character and plot development. This book has a great deal of potential, but in the end it fell a bit short for me.

This is a recognizable story - and many people - most especially women, will relate. This is about shared history and long time friendships.

It's women's fiction that pulls at the heartstrings a bit too much for my liking.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

This was a thoughtful story about friendship, obligation, and growing up. You have two girls who grew up together and were thick as thieves - Michelle's Thelma to Julie's Louise. The story opens with Michelle's engagement - which Julie finds out about on social media. Julie left their small Alabama hometown to pursue her dreams in NYC- and she grapples with coming into her own while still holding on to this piece of her childhood.. I thought this was very relatable - 25 years old is a funny time in adulthood. It reads a little younger than I was expecting, but I am an older millennial. A solid debut.

Friends from Home is an excellent book that tackles the issues that come up in long term friendships. The amazing aspect about this book is that everyone can relate. Every person has had a life long friendship, that started when they were in elementary school. When one of them leaves to conquer the world, and the other stays at home or closer to home. Do these friendships just disappear. Or do they grow, tear, mend, and continue on. Different but not any less special and meaningful.

Lauryn Chamberlain did a terrific job of developing the main characters Jules and Michelle. Friends since elementary school, they were inseparable until Jules decides to move out of Alabama and go to New York for college. This is where their lives diverge. Michelle is a sorority girl to a T, and Jules is more laid back and wants to have a solid career in publishing. When Michelle gets engaged, to the love of her life, her everything. Jules feels shocked, that she is not more excited about her friends future wedding. What does this say about Jules and where her owl life is heading. Their lives are as different as can be, but their past history keeps them as best, best friends. Michelle asks Jules to be her Maid of Honor, and the roller coaster of friendship begins. Navigating lifelong friendships can be tricky ground. Especially when one decides to move away. Can their friendship survive?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, from the moment I sat down. I highly recommend it to anyone who has been the friend left behind or the friend that tried a new life, something different from how they grew up. Thank you to Dutton Books for giving me the chance to review this fantastic book.

This is a fast read about old friends living very different lives. Michelle and Jules have been since Jules bumped into Michelle on her first day at her new school in Alabama. Jules practically became a meber of Michelle's family. They did everything together until Jules went away to college and then mpved to NY to work in publishing. Although they remained BFFs, their lives diverged. They grew into people with different attitudes and goals. When Jules learns about Michelle's engagement, she isn't sure how she feels about it. When she is asked to be maid of honor, the distance and cost of the wedding events widen the gulf between them. This book explores the idea that people are tied to their friends from home even as they grow apart and the mixed feelings that come along with it.

This is a novel that deals with relevant issues for young women. Although the plot is slight, Julie and her friend Michelle, must deal with the issues of female friendship when one gets married, and the issue of abortion and choice, which remain significant in our world, especially in some parts of our country.

How do friends navigate major relationship changes? How can friendship transcend deep differences?

I admire the author for tackling these issues and I’m certain that reading groups will want to follow up with discussions.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

Great debut!!! Friends From Home is an extremely relatable novel that I finished in one sitting! This novel follows Jules as she is asked to be the maid-of-honor in her best friend Michelle’s wedding. The women have been friends for almost 20 years, but have been traveling different paths since high school graduation. Jules has found her home and career in fast-paced NYC all the while Michelle has been content to stay in their small hometown in Alabama. The two seem like worlds apart now, but they share so much history together. The question that remains is are they ladies friends out of habit or are they truly the best of friends!?!

As soon as I finished this book I called my lifelong best friend who lives clear across the country and told her she absolutely needs to pre-order this book!! Anyone who has had a childhood best friend that has endured the high school and the college years will most definitely relate to this novel! Friendships evolve and reinvent themselves throughout different ages and stages which can sometimes be a tricky thing to figure out. I really enjoyed reading Jules and Michelle’s journey and felt Lauryn Chamberlain did a great job with creating characters you feel like you know in real life! Friends For Home is a great novel to put on your summer read list and while your at it buy a copy for your best friend too!!

Is a long history enough to sustain a friendship? As girls become women this question presents itself to many of us. Lauren Chamberlain explores it wisely.