This book was pretty predictable but I still liked it. The characters were all interesting but I feel like all their problems were pretty predictable and everything was pretty paint by numbers as to how it would end.

Had promise but unlikely to appeal to young readers: the main characters were roughly my age and I still found it improbable and not very interesting.

Friedland takes on midlife crises with flair as her four main characters explore love, divorce, premenopause, and the myth of "having it all." A delightfully authentic read full of '90s nostalgia, book clubs will not want to miss out on this title.

this book about 4 friends basing their futures on high school superlatives is a good read. Not everything turns out as planned

I always enjoy books about womem supporting other women. And this book delivers. It is a tribute to female friendship and second chances. As four friend prepare to return to their highschool reunion, their yearbook has listed them as the most likely to win the White House, Cure Cancer, Open a Michelin-Starred restaurant and join the Forbes 400. Life has exactly turned out that way. At the reunion, it is decided to pursue those accalades. It is never too late to make dreams come true. The book takes us through the highs and lows of their marriages divorces, relationship old and new, and so much more. You will relate and sympathize with each of these women.

A great book about second chances and figuring out who you were really meant to be. A bit unbelievable with the character of Sukiyaki, but fun anyway.

Although this wasn't a smart pick for me, this book seems as if will be marketed at younger women (20-30?). High school was painful enough that reliving the drama and interpersonal dynamics again, in great detail, in book form is a step too far for this nearly-a-retiree Librarian. The writing isn't bad but I'm a fan of using fewer words than this. I will admit that I struggled to keep reading so I literally skimmed my way through the entire book after the first chapter.. What should have been a fun story about four old friends turned into a long, overwritten story about how their adult lives turned out nothing like they'd planned. Not a happy novel IMHO.

I have loved all of Friedland's other books, so I knew that I was in for a good story. Four friends from high school look at their lives as their 25th reunion approaches and find them wanting. They reunite, and make a pact to do what they thought they would do in high school. I love novels that look back in time and I love the way that these very real female friendships played out. I would have loved to se Suki appear earlier in the book, but this was a good and satisfying read overall.

Well I'm giving this two stars because I finished it, but I'm not happy that I did.

This book interested me because I heard such great things about The Last Summer at the Golden Hotel, and I'm a sucker for anything with references to the 90's. I started this with high hopes, but they were quickly diminished. To begin, I hated most of the characters. Three out of the four main characters were obnoxious and awful. They were supposed to be "best friends" but they often spoke poorly of each other, and let each other fail. In one instance in particular, a main character (one of the worst IMO) was alerted to an issue with another's (the only redeeming MC out of the group) daughter. Instead of bringing it up to her "best" friend, she snidely thinks about how at least her daughter isn't participating in that kind of (potentially dangerous) behavior. There were also SO MANY side characters-- with 4 alternating storylines, it was hard to keep track of who belonged to who and why, and most of them added nothing to the story. I don't think this would have been as bad if there wasn't so much going on in this book where events were already hard to keep track of. I think this book fell victim to trying to do too much while doing nothing well.

One of my biggest pet peeves in books is when the entire plot is conveniently wrapped up in passing in a rushed ending. The reader has invested themselves in your story and read your book -- why would everything come to completion in a "oh how's it going?" question within the last few pages? Give me something for spending hours reading 368 pages of this book besides a little chatter on the last few pages. Making something a big deal throughout, and then throwing a "hey, by the way this all worked out accordingly" at the reader.is just insulting. What is even the point?

This book almost had me at 3 stars, but there were a few specific things that really irritated me into rage levels. The first was how the bisexual MC was written. It made me very uncomfortable that she was constantly willing to cheat on her partner with whoever and whenever. It just seemed like an extremely damaging stereotype to put onto this character in particular, and it made me feel very icky reading it. I also felt uncomfortable with how the sexual assault story line "resolution' occurred. It was just an all-over mess and it didn't even make much sense. On a less serious note, one of the characters ends up staying at "one of Elon Musk's homes" for a stint. I swear, we must have been hit with mentions of "Elon" (he wasn't even there but you would have thought he had a starring role) on every page of those two chapters. I didn't realize it was possible for a book to name drop, but it was horrendous.

I've already noted how much was randomly thrown into this book, but the kicker for me at the end was the 3-page cancer scare. All in the span of THREE PAGES a MC found something, but then it was (of course) mentioned in passing that oh it's all good, no worries, and her super rich new boyfriend visited her in the hospital, isn't that just great! I was flabbergasted that this was included. Adding something so triggering to then be resolved in such a blasé manner just put the nail in the coffin for me.

I don't think I've felt this heated about a book in a long time. Unfortunately it's put me off even attempting to read LSATGH, which is very disappointing.

This story takes place during the time frame I grew up and brought back a lot of nostalgia. The character development was fairly written and I resonated with the thoughts and regrets of the characters.

I loved this book! As a mother who graduated in the 1980s, it resonated with me - the whole idea of living up to your "superlative" (we didn't have these, but I know enough to know I'm not the same person I was at 18!) and chasing a new dream in middle-age. All the characters were good, but I especially loved Melissa. She was the most like me in her high school persona and her list-loving ways. The character of Suki isn't as well-developed as the rest, just because she's so absent from the storytelling of the book; I feel like she is defined more by what is said about her than by her own chapters.

One problem - in page 672 of 709, there's a comma where a period should be, "It's going. Telling the truth is a lot easier than lying, And I love including..."

4.5! Elysssa Friedland is back with another fun and unique read! 

When Melissa, Tara, Suki and Priya were seniors in HS they counted down to yearbook day to see the highly anticipated superlative page. With big dreams and ambitions they seemed to be going places from becoming the president, to curing cancer, to opening a famous restaurant and joining the Forbes 400. Fast forward 25 years and life is not all what they hoped for and each friend, despite success, is grappling with their career choices and relationships. When they reunite at their 25th reunion they make a pack to finally achieve their high school superlative because it's never too late to be happy. What follows is a nostalgic, relatable and entertaining read that will have you racing through the pages until the very end. 

What I loved:
-The diversity among the friend group
 -The hints of romance sprinkled throughout the story 
- How there were chapters narrated by each of the four friends 
-All the throwback 90s references
-The nostalgia was real (all I want to do is play a game of MASH right now)  
-How Elyssa balanced the millennial talk with current Gen Z references, Tik Tok lingo, present day food/ makeup trends
-The cameo from The Last Summer at the Golden Hotel 
-The Jewish representation 
-How each friend made some small changes in their life in order to find happiness and personal success 
-The emphasis on how uncool it is to peak in high school 
-How this book is relatable for so many people!

Thank you so much Berkley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!! Pub date: 9/20/22

This book took me back to high school. This is a book all adults can relate to, what they thought they would do in high school and what they actually do 25 years after graduation. This is a book of nostalgia. I recommend this book to everyone who likes to reminisce about the “good ole days” and think about what it was like in high school. What were you most likely to become?

This was a serviceable novel. The majority of the plot is about women not being able to "have it all" and the lie that "having it all" is, while still ultimately having to settle for gender inequality even under the best of circumstances. There's not a lot of groundbreaking territory covered and some triggering topics that don't get handled in a great way. Particularly, an eating disorder that is treated as a casual choice. There's also content about sexual assault for those watching out for that trigger.

Being the exact same age as this group of women made me really want to read this one. I love a good piece of friendship fiction, throw in nineties references and I’m in!
That being said, I really didn’t enjoy this as much as I hoped. I wanted a bit more depth from the characters and the story.
If you are looking for a lighter read and enjoy a tight knit group of friends, this may be for you.
Thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for my review copy.

I absolutely adored Elyssa’s latest novel The Most Likely Club. Four friends that have been friends for years are gearing up for their high school reunion. Back in the day, all friends had their lives planned out, however nothing has gone according to plan, but each friend still has found success on the outside.

I absolutely loved the premise of this book and the flashbacks of the 90s as I’m about the same age as the character. I also found that deep down even the popular girls have insecurities. I found myself identifying with one of the sub-characters Cameron as I was similar to her in high school.

This was definitely another smash hit for Friedland! .

Received an ARC from Netgalley for an honest opinion.
I wanted to read this one because I really liked Last Summer at the Golden Hotel. This book was all over the place and I just really didn't like it, it was hard to follow who is doing what and who was in whose past and it was just I didn't like it. If you like books that you need to keep notes so you can keep up, then this book is for you, otherwise give it a pass.

I think I just found a future book club selection with The Most Likely Club👏👏👏. I adored this book. The writing was excellent and so were the characters. Any book that involves friendship is one I often gravitate towards. Not all of them work for me, but I loved this book. It was heartwarming, easy to read, and had many laugh out loud moments. I highly recommend this book to others. I’m hoping to catch up on this authors backlist books, as I’m not a BIG fan!

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing.

I didn't know what I was expecting but I'm ever so glad I had no expectations! This book was a delight and I really enjoyed Friedland's handling of the relationships between the four women. The only thing that puzzled me was that Priya, Melissa, and Tara were all written in third person while Suki was in first. The book covers a lot of ground about friendship, relationships, trauma, and different kinds of love. Highly recommend.

Such an alluring and lighthearted read about divine sisterhood of longtime friendship, relationships, marriages, life choices, second chances, transitioning, adapting.

Four best high school girlfriends :intelligent and also popular. They are actually remaining friends since eight grade, dying to know their superlatives at the yearbook. Four of them couldn’t be different from each other and they actually find a way to fit in and complete each other.

Melanie; dating with Josh, never expecting a future with him because she has big plans to accomplish, she’s competitive, ambitious, a the world is her oyster.

Half Japanese, daughter of former model, mentioned as one of the people is most likely to join Forbes 400.

Priya, overworked, cautious, and brilliant aims to graduate from Harvard, mentioned as the person probably find the cure of cancer.

Most bold, relentless one of the group is Tara, liking to take much risks, creating food art, mentioned as most like to open Michelin starred restaurant.

But when we move forward to see their middle age lives, only Suki seemed like the accomplisher of her dreams with her special app called MakeApp help you exact same make up with the celebrity you choose.
The other still struggle with their life plans.

Melanie, divorced from Josh, being replaced with a younger yoga teacher, working at local radio station, raising her teenage daughter who keeps her own secret, dealing with bullies at school. Melanie checks dating apps, suffering from loneliness.

Priya graduated from Harvard as she’s planned but she became physiatrist instead of being oncologist, dealing with morons who get into motorcycle accidents and old ladies who pull muscles in water aerobics. Her marriage, raising kids and demanding job take her entire time and now she’s offered a promotion. Her colleagues think she’s offered because of diversity policy of the hospital and her husband thinks she’s already so much on her plate.

And Tara, who has been sexually assaulted by her famous chef, losing her reputation and chance to open her restaurant, sharing a place with her special partner Rachel, teaching rich kids how to cook. But now one of her competitors open a place close to her with the same concept. Maybe she has to give a try to turn back to restaurant jungle to take a chance.

At the reunion, girls minus Suki who is so busy to attend, calling them via FaceTime, decide to take risks and fight for second chances. Tara will return to restaurant business. Priya will accept the promotion against her husband’s wishes. Melanie will run for a mayor.

Will they catch second chances or fight against new obo life will throw their way.

Overall: even though I had a little hard time to engage with both characters, it was still interesting, gripping friendship- women’s fiction- second chances novel. I love author’s brilliant story telling skills and her realistic approach to the day lives. As a GenX, it’s easier for me to resonate with characters’ predicaments.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.