The Best Friend (Jessica Fellowes) is about two women who have been "friends" since the age of six. There were times that years went by without the two seeing each other, but somehow fate kept them meeting up. Sometimes friends, sometimes rivals, there always seems to be an undercurrent in their relationship. What happens when one side is being a friend and the other is always trying to undermine them? I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an early copy to review.

Kate and Bella grew up together as best friends. Their lives went down different paths and sometimes they were there for each other and sometimes they weren't.

Initially this seemed like such a promising thriller. Two best friends, betrayal, and suspense sound like all the riveting elements needed for a gripping read. Unfortunately, I read 30% of this book and never once was invested in anything I was reading. The dialogue is confusing with no quotation marks and the format of the chapters is another layer of complexity. Maybe it all shakes out in the end to make some sense, but there are far too many books I am dying to read for me to keep spinning my wheels on this one. Thank you to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. Moving on to the next!

This story follows Kate and Bella who have been friends since they were babies, but as they grow older and into adults their "friendship" is not as true as they thought. The structure of how the story was written took a little while to adjust to as it was written in a different way than most other novels. Lack of quotations to state who was speaking and the main premise of conversation. It was a quick read that I did enjoy after getting acclimated to it!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher/author for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my review.

This was just kind of okay for me. Not a bad storyline and probably would be considered a good beach read. I didn't find fault with the writing and the character development was good, but slow paced for my liking. I do think it would make pretty good movie...

Gosh, I wanted to love this based on the description, but I just couldn’t connect to it. I am usually a sucker for stories of toxic female friendships. The writing style just ruined this one for me.

Unfortunately the style and pace was not done well and I DNF. While I tried to commit and read the novel entirely, the structure is what throw me off.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. This is the story of Kate and Bella whose friendship begins at age six and lasts throughout their lifetime. Sometimes best friends, other times bitter rivals, this love/hate relationship takes the reader through many live lessons of the two women… escalating is a tragic and shocking event that ultimately tests their friendship. This is my first novel by Fellows and I really enjoyed the way she writes. It is a dark but beautiful tale of love and loss that I highly recommend. I’m looking forward to reading more by this author.









https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59808329

The Best Friend follows a lifetime relationship of two women- Bella, the pushover with a sad home life and Kate, who is beautiful and popular and rich. I say relationship instead of friendship because that is not what it is throughout the book. We follow these two through their lives, trials and tribulations. A toxic example of what it is like to rely on someone who doesn't always have your best interests at heart. The format was different, the book consists almost entirely of conversations, driving a very character-based plot. This was a fast paced read, but some of the information is a bit vague. We sometimes skip decades between chapters, leaving out a lot of character growth. Overall, the ending was a bit of a letdown but an interesting read.

This is a book I'd classify as suspense, and it details the relationships between two women over the course of their lives — starting at age 6 and ending at age 82. Bella and Kate have a complex friendship, full of high and lows, and it's a more than a touch toxic. They start having problems at age 17, when boys come on the scene, and they spend a long time apart before reconnecting briefly in their 30s, and then for an extended period of time in their 40s. This reunion culminates in a grim incident, the details of which won't be uncovered until the very end.

I won't be the first to point out that the lack of quotation marks can be a bit confusing. I sort of like how disorienting this is, but I definitely did have to backtrack a few times to figure out who was saying what. I liked how this story was broken up into sections based on the ages of the women, and I found the narrative fast-paced and interesting.

Overall, I found the story to be a bit flat. Neither character was likable, which is fine in a suspense novel, but I just don't think there was enough depth in any of them. I also found both women to be super petty and shallow, which may have been intentional, but it was difficult to connect with them on any level. This was a super fast read for me (around 2 hours, in one sitting) and I'm glad I read it, but it won't make my favorites list for the year.

Thank you to Jessica Fellowes, St. Martin's Press/Minotaur, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

Deeply appreciative to have been given the opportunity to read this ARC through St. Martin’s Influencer Program in exchange for a review.

Unfortunately, this book didn’t work for me.

I’m not against authors choosing to to write outside conventional formatting norms, but in not using quotation marks or dialogue tags, it was extremely hard to follow the conversations between Bella and Kate. I don’t really enjoy having to reread passages over and over just to get the gist of the plot, but as neither character had a distinctive voice, it was flat and frustrating. Like you’re reading a grocery list.

I also failed to see where all the drama came from to begin with. Honestly, but teenagers, even best friends, move on all the time—especially when they’re of college age, The fact that Bella is still harping on Kate’s “great betrayal” decades later is quite frankly, not relatable. When the true betrayal does happen, sorry Bella, but what did you expect?

Toxic friendships are fine as a plot line, but I really look for characters you can connect with. Bella and Kate, however, are just blah at best, a doormat and selfish at worst.

I think I went in to the book expecting a conventional thriller and this was just too far away from that. I don’t think I would seek out more of this author’s style.

I love a good toxic female friendship book but this book was lacking something besides quotation marks. The characters were boring and did not keep my attention.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the copy of The Best Friend. I loved the beginning of this book. The writing was lyrical and how the book was sectioned off by the ages of Bella and Kate added to the intrigue of wondering what was going to happen. As the chapters got longer, the lack of quotation marks, it got harder to know who was saying what. Bella was a boring character. I wish we had learned more about her life as a painter. Kate was manipulative and self-centered. Neither one was easy to like or care about, so the story didn’t really grab me, although the ending was good.

The lack of quotation marks was SUPER confusing. The allusions and vague fleshing out of events was even more confusing. I enjoyed the exploration of a toxic friendship but this one ultimately fell short for me.

“The Best Friend” was an okay story. Bella and Kate became best friends as young girls. However, by the time they were teenagers, there was a clear power imbalance favoring Kate. And Kate’s behavior was not really that of a “best friend.” When they were seventeen, Kate and her family moved away and she ceased all contact with Bella. Their paths would cross multiple times over the years, and the friendship would be rekindled before something happened to cause a breakdown. Traumatic events in their forties would separate them for over thirty years. Their reunion in old age is out of necessity, and their lives have taken very divergent paths in the intervening decades.

I finished this book 2 days ago and I'm having trouble fleshing out a review. I didn't hate the book. I didn't love the book. Because I received an ARC I couldn't tell if no quotation marks around the spoken parts was intentional or not. Either way I was able to tell who was speaking but at the beginning it took me a second. The beginning chapters was interesting because it jumped in years to show pieces of Bella and Kate's life in those important ages.

Bella and Kate. The story is told from Bella's POV which was a bit unfortunate as I found her quite dull. Kate was self centered and selfish. Even with the gaps in time in their friendship, it seemed that one once was near the other, they couldn't be apart. And while that may seem beautiful, in their case, it was toxic. Almost symbiotic.

I can't say that I disliked the book because I kept reading wanting to know more of their relationship. But I didn't love it and I can say it was missing something. I don't know what though.

I normally love to read thrillers focused on toxic friendship and female rivalry but this book truly gave me headaches! I was expecting to like it more!

Telling the story by two girls’ friendship’s evolvement chronologically was a great idea and I had no problem with both Bella and Kate’s characterizations ! I didn’t adore them but I didn’t dislike them either. There were worst characterizations at the thrillers I recently read.

My problem is about unconventional storytelling style. I respect the author’s choice not to use quotes for trying something new. But at some parts I couldn’t differentiate the characters’ lines. I reread a few times to interpret what the author meant and finding out who’s talking.

Normally I don’t have much problem but slow burn mysteries but the writing style already made me lost my patience so I struggled to read the rest. When I reached the last chapter, I felt like I ran 50K marathon, feeling exhausted!

I’m still giving solid stars for some intriguing parts about the toxic friendship between heroines and author’s efforts to try something unique. I still want to read her future works. But I didn’t like this book as much as I expected.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. It follows the lives of two women from childhood into their eighties. I feel the writing could have been better and at times that the reader was to interpret where the story was going.

This was a unique read that I ended up enjoying, though I felt that the author makes you work a bit to figure out what is really happening from breadcrumbs she leaves. The story centers on Bella and Kate who have a decades old friendship, starting from when they were 6 and going into their 80s. The book is told chronologically by their ages, and alternates between conversations (almost like a play) and traditional chapters.

The ups and downs of the friendship made sense to me, and though the author didn’t provide deep characterization of either protagonist, I felt like I learned who they were through the dynamics between them. Others had said they found both to be unlikable, but I didn’t, really- they were just people and all people have flaws. The chapters with the conversations were somewhat confusing because there are no quotes and the author doesn’t call out who is talking- you have to follow it along based on what they said and check that you’re right when one says the other’s name. I didn’t really mind that you were left to your own devices to piece together the big events that happened throughout the book, but I do wish those conversation chapters were more clear.

I didn’t fully get the intention of what happened at the end (without giving away anything). I couldn’t decide whether the author intended us to question it or if I was just missing something that others understood.

Overall, I liked the book and felt that there was just something about it that worked. I started this review intending to rate it 3 stars but ended thinking I’ll go with 4. This isn’t my typical read but the unique style made it stand out. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really didn’t find these two best friends especially likable. It certainly is a book that a younger demographic might enjoy more than I did. Perhaps, my cynicism impacted my enjoyment.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.