I’ll admit I was a little hesitant about reading yet another book about a toxic female friendship. The fact that it was written by a New York Times best-seller author (The Mitford Murders series and companion Downton Abbey books) who also happens to be the niece of Julian Fellowes trumped my hesitation … and I dug in.

The first thing I noticed was the creative chapter titles! Then the unique writing style captured my attention. However, I failed to bond with a single character and, sadly, in the end, didn’t care what happened to them! I also didn't feel that the plot had enough pull to keep me interested. This is definitely a unique book and I know it will find its way into the hands of those who love it; unfortunately, it isn’t for me.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to experience this author’s writing for the first time. Just because this wasn’t for me, doesn’t mean that there aren’t many others out there who’ll love it.

I was gifted this advance copy and was under no obligation to provide a review.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for my copy of this in exchange for an honest review. Okay so I wouldn't classify this as a mystery/thriller or a psychological suspense novel. I suppose this is for fans of The Push, but similar to that it's maybe a psychological family drama? I would definitely recommend for fans of The Favor.

I did not connect with the characters in this one, I really actually did not like any of the characters in this one. I almost DNF'ed it but I was on a 12-hour bus ride so I ultimately was like what do I have to lose? There's only one related suspenseful part but it's never adequately explained, it's mostly just discussed in veiled comments after the fact and the comments that are made about it only gave me more questions.

I just couldn't get into this book. While I appreciate the subtlety in which she explored toxic friendships, I didn't enjoy the writing style and found the story boring.

I like a unique writing style. And a like a toxic friendship. I’ve had my fair share of those. But The Best Friend was a little to vague for me. I didn’t connect with Bella or Katie and, though their drama had depth, their personal characters were undefined and boring. This is a slow burn, not a thriller, but still a short, quick read. I liked the ending, too, but if you like neat-little-bow endings, this one’s not for you.

The Best Friend by Jessica Fellowes is a poignant tale of two girls who became friends in grade school and carried on their friendship to the bitter end. The tale ebbed and flowed between the on again, off again, friendship. It was an odd telling, often jumping many years at a time. The characters were interesting, but the tale was bland.

The Best Friends has a unique twist about friends reuniting after years apart. Through the years they have had many ups and downs, major issues and reconciliations. The choices each one makes are sometimes hard to understand.
I did think this was going to be more of a suspense thriller from the cover.
This was ok read for me.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This book was a struggle to read. I am not sure if it was due to the formatting on the digital copy or if the print version is the same. There are no quotation marks used when people are speaking and there is a lot of dialog in the book. At times it was confusing to figure out who was actually speaking. I found both of the main characters unlikable. The start of the book makes it seem like this is going to be a book about lasting childhood friendships, however both of these women are horrible. I am not sure why they were ever friends or continued to enter each others lives for their either life. This book is labeled mystery and thriller and at no point in the book did I find it to be either.

Thank you to Netgalley for the digital ARC.

This was an interesting story showing a highly dysfunctional relationship between two friends. I think it was a good in depth look about how emotional abuse can affect a person. It shows highly toxic Kate and her relationship with BFF Bella. It was a slow burn. I don't know that I would consider it a thriller, more of a picture of a seriously messed up friendship. The narrators did a great job and had great emotional depth.

This book was just okay for me. I didn't really connect with the characters and I found them pretty unlikeable. I thought it was a quick read and it held my attention overall.

Sadly this one was a bit slow but also in some cases, difficult to follow along with the dialogue. It just wasn't for me. Thanks netgalley & the publisher for the ARC!

This is the story of Bella and Kate whose friendship begins in early childhood and spans their entire lives. Fellowes provides a character-driven interpretation of a strange, rather unhealthy and, at times, codependent relationship. Other characters come and go in this story but Bella and Kate are always at the forefront. I wasn’t completely enthralled by this but I did find it to be entertaining and definitely original. Fans of Sally Hepworth should find this appealing.

I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The story ran a bit slow for me, and I thought the characters were such flat tropes of characters. The author also designed a lot of conversations on purpose not to show who's speaking, a lot of "You" and "I", it made it quite hard to follow along.

The Best Friend follows Kate and Bella through an intense, toxic friendship that spans through their lifetimes. As children, Bella was more sensible and cautious whereas Kate was a bit more dangerous. Over decades, their friendship ebbs and flows - and a shocking event tests them more than ever.

This book starts with Bella and Kate as children and spans throughout their lifetimes. Looking at the cover I thought that this book would be more of a thriller, but when reading found it to be more of a story of friendship with many highs and lows throughout the years. Towards the end, I actually found myself tearing up! This book is not my usual read, but I did enjoy it. I had both the eBook and ALC and the audio version was really easy to listen to, especially with the frequent back and forth between the two MCs. A quick read and looking forward to seeing what else Jessica Fellowes comes up with!

Two best friends since childhood, Bella and Kate have had one toxic friendship. Bella is the more sensible one, while Kate is reckless.

Their friendship troubles lead to three decades of silence. Someone reaches out on Kate’s behalf as she is an old people’s home. We don’t fully know why their friendship came to a halt until much later in the story.

Their emotional connection is inevitable. Can they let the past go and move forward? What secrets are they sharing? Why is their relationship toxic? Why remain friends?

Overall, this was a decent story.

This book revolves around 2 best friends (ok, so mostly Kate bc she always steals the show), who are honestly both pretty unlikable. Kate is the worst. Bella is a bit codependent and came across as a bit whiney/needy. Kate was strong and charismatic but manipulative as well. Kate had some seriously strong sociopath / narcissist vibes going on.

The scene where a certain something gets exposed and Kate tries to brush it under the rug…made me so angry for Bella.

With friends like Kate, who needs enemies. 🤷🏼‍♀️

With pushovers like Bella….there is always a need for a best “friend.” 👯‍♀️

I had a hard time with this one: I thought I’d love it but I didn’t. Part of it was stylistically it was tedious. I don’t like a lack of quotation marks and really don’t like them when there other parts of the book that don’t follow structure. It makes the book so much physically harder to read.

At any rate. I liked the idea a lot, friendships, darkness, estrangement, enmeshment. I just felt like it was flat. I didn’t care about either of the girls/women and I felt like until pretty far in, they were pretty interchangeable. This is not a good thing when the book hinges so strongly on two personalities!

Two friends - Bella and Kate - we travel with them from when they were girls into adulthood - men being the ones to damage their relationship - couldn’t really get into this one

This book was not really for me. The characters were not likable and even half way in I didn’t really know where the story was going.

This was an interesting novel. For one, it is a short read…It took me just about two hours. I really liked how the author set up the friendship between Bella and Kate. The fast-forward through their early years via their conversations was unique, and it was enough to lay the groundwork for the events to come. I think the author wisely doesn’t answer all of the questions that are posed in the book, leaving the reader to make their own decisions about the actions of both Bella and Kate…and the true nature of their dark, toxic relationship. There is just enough left unsaid, both between the characters and in the book in general, to leave the reader pondering over the meaning of friendship and how far someone will go to protect or save a friend, even over decades of estrangement. I will say that reading their conversations was a bit difficult on my Kindle app, because the author doesn’t have them set up as usual conversations (with quotations, set off from each other, etc.). It actually works in favor of the book, because the reader is forced to read each line carefully to determine which character is saying what. This becomes more important as the story continues. But it was hard to do on a smaller screen. Regardless, I enjoyed this thought-provoking story.

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martins Press/Minotaur Books, and Jessica Fellowes for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was an interesting deep dive into one hell of a toxic female friendship. I found myself loathing the characters and the games they played with each other. I found myself a bit confused with the storyline at times but I will say that you can tell the author is a very talented writer. While this one didnt fully work for me, it may be up your alley. I look forward to reading more from this author in the future!! Grab a copy of this one on September 13th!