Pitoniak has once again managed to craft an absolutely stellar novel. Quite different than their last, Our American Friend takes us into the past life of the Russian-born fictional First Lady. Part soft spy thriller, part gorgeous historical fiction, this book manages to unite these two facets in the best way.

Lara is a great character to follow, it was lovely being alongside her throughout her life. She is brave and flawed and I loved seeing how her choices impacted much larger pieces of history.

We also follow Sofie, the journalist hand-chosen by the First Lady to assist in writing her biography and maybe helping out in other ways as well. Although I loved Lara’s storyline a little bit more, I had no qualms with Sofie and how she tied in to the bigger picture.

Pitoniak is absolutely a new auto-buy author for me!
Thank you to Netgalley, Simon & Schuster, and the author for the chance to read this book for free in exchange for an honest review

I received this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

A little bit spy novel, a little bit political thriller.

Sophie is a journalist who quits her job when Henry Caine is re-elected President. (Henry sounds a bit like our former IMPOTUS). Sophie is surprised when Lara Caine, the First Lady contacts her to write her biography.

Flashback to the 70's when Lara is growing up. Lara was born in the 70's in Russia. Her father was a member of the KGB who was stationed in Paris for a long time. How did she go from Paris to being the wife of a President?

The book goes between the 70's, 2016 and current day.

I enjoyed the book and at times some things seemed like they could be written about the former first lady. There were parts that kinda dragged on but it kept me interested.

An intriguing novel about Sofie who is tasked with writing a biography about the first lady. The story takes place in the present and the past. If you are a fan of politics/history than this is perfect for you! It is slightly reminiscent of Trump and Melania's relationship not 100% but you can see a slight resemblance.

Our American Friend has some very hard to ignore correlations/inspiration borrowed from our most recent sitting president and his wife. The book imagines a world where the president’s wife has so many twists to her own story and tightly guards the secrets from her past so that other’s do not find out. The premise was really intriguing. I thought it was a solid book and a topic I haven’t read much about on my journey to seek out more historical fiction. I would have liked the twists and turns to be tighter or unwound a bit more. I thought the book could have really used an epilogue. I want to know what happens with Sofie, Ben, and Lara next!

Disclaimer: I received the ARC from the publisher through Net Galley. All opinions are my own.

Quite an interesting read! Make you wonder what's happening into days world! What we don't know? Sure that this is on going but most stick head in the sand!

Wow absolutely unputdownable I was drawn right in.A spy thriller characters that will remind you of people in odays government.A delicious gossipy read.Will be recommending.great for book club discussion.#netgalley #simon& schuster

actual rating: 4.5/5

I'll start by saying that as someone who had a Cold War hyperfixation and who loves character driven stories, I knew I'd like this book. And of course, I'm always right. Our American Friend is about Sofie Morse, a journalist who gets the opportunity of a lifetime to write the biography of mysterious First Lady Lara Caine. However as Lara tells Sofie more and more about her life before becoming the First Lady, Sofie realizes she may be getting in over her head with all the secrets being unfolded to her. Basically if Melania Trump had a bit more depth to her than we previously realized.

I enjoyed the structure of the novel where each chapter is interjected with the bits and pieces of the biography Sofie has begun writing. The story is unfolded to us, sort of from Sofie's point of view, where we only know as much as Lara is telling us and it's up to us to fill in the blanks. The jumps from past to present indulge my love of 20th century politics and the presidential power struggles all too familiar to us today. The ending of the book though, left me reeling. Like where's the rest? But, honestly, it adds to the book. We don't know all the intimate details of how the sausage gets made. People with more power and secrets make decisions and how do we find out? We read the newspaper and we know just as much as they want us to.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have to applaud Anna Pitoniak. I've read a few of her books, and she never sticks to the same genre. I think that takes a lot of guts and creativity.

I really, really wanted to like this one. But I think the author was doing too much. It was a book within a book, but not in the way that made sense, like "The Plot." This was an ambitious project, and I just didn't enjoy it as much as I really wanted.

It also hit too close to home; Lara has a lot of similarities with another First Lady. I'm not sure if I'll ever want to read a book loosely based on certain former presidents or administrations. Not sure if that's just me, but it's not something I want to revisit.
•••
Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

A clever thriller featuring a Trump-like President and his Soviet-born wife whose father was with the KGB. Political intrigues span the Cold War to the present, from Moscow to Paris, D.C. to NYC, with a riveting tale you just can’t put down. Great fun!

4 of 5 Stars

Pub Date 15 Feb 2022
#OurAmericanFriend #NetGalley

Thanks to the author, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for the ARC; opinions are mine.

Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy of the book for review through NetGalley.

Our American Friend is a wonderful spy thriller that takes from the 70s to the fall of the Iron Curtain to the last presidency. Even though the fictional President is Henry Caine it’s impossible to miss the Trump connection.

The book is a fun, fast read and the author ties up ALL the loose ends. Often throughout I found myself thinking no way. By the end I thought, yeah, totally plausible.

When you can read it, I recommend Our American Friend.

3.5 stars for OUR AMERICAN FRIEND by Anna Pitoniak.

Sofie just quit her job as a journalist covering the White House beat. Then, First Lady Lara Caine comes knocking. Caine wants Sofie to write her biography -- a big get for Sofie as Lara is notoriously private to the American public and the media. Everyone wants to know what makes Lara Caine tick. What the world doesn't know is Lara Caine's past is full of secrets. As Sofie researches for the biography and spends more time with the First Lady, she uncovers all the skeletons in Lara Caine's closet and what she finds out will shock the country.

A spy thriller with a First Lady involved? Yes, please! Unfortunately, I felt like it just was based way too much on a previous First Family and also fed into the Russia, Russia, Russia hysteria that fueled the media for four years. I felt like the parallels with our current political scene just made the story clunky and I think I would have enjoyed the book so much more if it deviated away from the very obvious and on the nose parallels and went for a new and fresh take. It just felt like a liberal's fantasy at some points.

That being said, I did enjoy the suspense and the mystery weaved in with some historical fiction elements. I wanted to see how it all ended and that kept me tuned in despite my annoyance that I shared above. I haven't read a lot of historical fiction about the Soviet Union so that was fresh take as we visited Caine's past although it was hard to keep up with the switching timelines.

I will recommend this title in our audience and keep it as a potential contender for our organization's book club in the future. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This started well with a great premise, but then it moved too slowly and I struggled to maintain interest. As other reviewers have noted, this story closely parallels the Trumps, and perhaps just felt too on point in sections - I suspect it will intrigue me more when I revisit it once a bit more time has past. Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book.

This novel surreptitiously feels like a real story of the United States from 2017-2021 and is a delightful indulgence of golden gossip. I'm going to have to buy the tell-all biography of the first lady.

I could not get into this one, was a DNF for me. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for a copy of this audiobook for an honest review.

I’ll be completely honest and say that I had a really hard time getting myself invested in this book. The pacing of the first half of the book was extremely slow and nothing seemed to make sense. It wasn’t until the second half that the story picked up, dots started to connect, and I became hooked.

Sofie Morse is a former reporter tasked with writing the biography of the illusive FLOTUS. Little does Sofie know, she is in for a tale of Soviet spies, betrayal between families, and treason. Lara Caine is not at all who she seems to be. she tells the story of a young Russian girl that will do anything to protect her family and avenge the death of a loved one.

With a little patience, you will find this story to be fantastic and fully worth the wait. The twist, turns, and surprises will leave you on the edge of your seat. It’s all “too perfect to be a coincidence”

Sofie Morse, a White House correspondent, quits her job as she is tired of covering the dysfunction of Washington and the increasingly outrageous behavior of the President. She unexpectedly get a call from the office of the First Lady Lara Caine's office asking for Sofie to come in for a private meeting with the First Lady. Sofie is very curious about this request. The world doesn't know much about Lara other than the facts that she was born in Soviet Russia and was raised in Paris. She worked as a model before moving to American and marrying the President.

Lara asks Sofie to write her official biography and Sofie agrees. She begins to spend a lot of time at the White House and develops a bond with Lara. The First Lady is very open about her background including talking about her father's work as an undercover KGB officer in Paris. Sofie spends a large amount of time with Lara until one day, she stops hearing from Lara. She is uncertain why this has happened and is advised to leave the country.

This was an interesting book that I recommend reading.

Our American Friend tells of White House correspondent Sofie Morris and how First Lady Lara Caine befriends her to know of the First Lady's past. What is so important about where the First Lady is from? Who were her parents, and why does it matter? Travel the memories of First Lady Lara Caine as she tells of her mysterious past to Sofie Morse and brings Sofie from New York to Croatia. What are the secrets that can make a journalist go on the run? The stories of the Cold War and the secrets that it carries. Read Our American Friend by Anna Pitoniak now to find out.
Bridget Veltman

I liked the idea of this book - a writer digging deep into the past of the President's wife. It had some similarities to Trump and Melania (in my opinion) - where Trump was the self-centered President and Lara is his foreign-born wife. I like that she had a story to tell and had her own way to share it to the world. However, it was extremely slow and I found myself flipping through quickly. It was also hard to follow along with because I couldn't tell when it flipped to the past or present. I barely finished... and the idea I would recommend, but wouldn't waste my time on this book!

Thanks to NetGalley and Simone & Schuster for an ARC of this book.

After a strong start, Our American Friend ended up being a 3 ½ star book for me.

There are so many things to like about this book. It’s an unusual mash-up of political intrigue, Cold War spies, mystery, and alternate history. For the most part, it works. It held my attention; I wanted to know what was going on and how it ended, although it never kept me up at night.

I also liked the characters. The author has a talent for writing relatable characters that you can feel for and understand, even when you don’t agree with them. She also writes time and place well; I got a strong sense of things like living with the grinding poverty in late 1980’s Russia and the difference in mood between the White House and Lara’s Connecticut house.

But there were also big problems with this book. I love a good dual- or even triple-timeline, but there were just too many jumps in time throughout the book and they were not handled smoothly. Usually the only signal that you were going to time travel (and often switch to a different person’s story) was a black dot centered between paragraphs. It was too often abrupt and jarring.

Also, there were multiple storylines involving several characters and none of these stories unfolded in a linear fashion. While this is okay in some books, it was extremely confusing when added to the choppy jumps in time.

I think Our American Friend is a good story that would’ve been better served by a more traditional narrative structure and an editor with a firmer hand. I give it 3 ½ stars and recommend it, but only to those who are very comfortable with sudden shifts in time and who are good at keeping several competing stories straight at one time.

Thank you, NetGalley, for this ARC. The review below contains my own opinions and is unbiased.

This book definitely has a compelling hook that makes you want to read it. And once I started, I found it hard to put down. It was clear from the start that something big had happened to Sofie as a result of her work with First Lady Lara, and in reading to find that answer, the author took us on both Sofie's journey and on Lara's journey from Russia to Paris to the White House. I loved the character development of Lara and Irina, and the immersion into the Cold War and spy tradecraft. The dual timelines weren't as clearly delineated as I've experienced with other books, so it did require some thoughtful reading to keep track of where/when we were in the story. I also felt like we could have learned a bit more about Sofie and spent more time on the tensions of being a journalist.

I didn't enjoy how closely the plot rode the narrative of the *actual* Trump presidency. I think I would have enjoyed the book more had it taken the Trump presidency as inspiration, but created a truly new scenario and set of characters. Just too close, too soon.