Penguin Group Putnam. GP Putnam's Sons

First of all, thank you to penguin group and netgalley for the e-arc of this book. Unfortunately, this one did not do anything but annoy me. I have no issue with stylistic choice of lack of traditional quotation marks but it did not work for me in this case. It seemed like one really long run-on sentence…and the content of that sentence was not much worth reading.

Temi and the un-named wife and husband were pretentious, absurd and annoying. With more of a plot, it might have been amusing and entertaining but the description of the novel has more plot than the actual book. The one good thing this had for it was the length. Short, but not short enough.

extremely well-crafted tense novella. the no quotation marks thing for dialogue drives me up the wall but it's very popular in british literary fiction so i get it (but still, oh my god, please stop it). very quick read but rich with character detail and conflict

To me, this was a solid 3.5 star read. While I can't say that I liked any of the characters in this (there were only 3), and all of the action takes place over the course of one day; this inspection of a friendship and a marriage was fascinating. There was conflict and tension, and a wife caught in the middle of the two most important people in her life. There wasn't a lot of action, but more an examination of simmering feelings and a build-up of resentment. I'm not sure I liked how it ended, but I think it was open to interpretation also. I'm not sure I'd say this was a satisfying read, but it was definitely an interesting one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

I felt as though this book started slow (just the first 20 or so pages), but I’m really glad I powered through. Told through three viewpoints; a wife, a husband, and the wife’s too-close best friend, this is a really interesting take on unreliable narrators, identity, and human relationships. I found myself feeling terribly sad and also annoyed at this woman torn between her husband (who wants to control everything she does) and her best friend (who also wants to control everything she does. I found little nuggets of this story so well thought out and interesting - such as Temi being the only character with a name (maybe because she’s the only one who knows who she is), and the husband constantly lying about his height. I’ve read several people say they didn’t enjoy that “nothing really happened” in this book, but I feel like the tension and power struggles of everyday life are what made it so fun to read and I loved the ending!

Thank you to NetGalley and the author and publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What do you do when you are divided by your best friend and husband?

The writing is beautiful. The story was crafted very well. I love multiple POVs and if this was told from one side - a lot would be missing from it.. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Waiting for the climax!

I will be buying this eventually and cannot wait to reread it!

I can see this easily being turned into to a movie

I want to give you the whole story but this book is making me want to write.

“The Three of Us” by Ore Agbaje-Williams ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Fiction. Location: London suburbs, England. Time: One day in the present.

One day in the lives of 3 intertwined British-Nigerian people. Intertwined because of their shared culture and upbringing, their shared relatives, and their shared relationships. In the middle of it all is The Wife.

Part 1-The Wife: Raised culturally traditional and sheltered, she met The Friend when she was 11. The Friend’s fun, selfish, carefree personality is her opposite. The Wife is a woman caught between her two selves- her quiet, controlled self, and the self she is around The Friend.

Part 2-The Husband: Works hard for a life of upscale simplicity. He wants peace and quiet, a life without complications. Devoted and loving to The Wife, he knows he’s the butt of The Friend’s jokes, and he knows The Wife laughs at those jokes.

Part 3-The Friend: Full of chaos and one-liners, rich and confident, she’s a breaker of traditional cultural customs and practices. She sees herself as The Wife’s savior, and wants her to honor the ‘No marriage no kids’ vow they once made. The Friend sows seeds of doubt like Balthasar in “Romeo and Juliet”, but The Wife sees her as a ride-or-die snarky best friend.

Author Agbaje-Williams asks: What happens when the 2 most important people in your life hate each other? When long-standing tensions come to a breaking point? She tells her story from 3 points of view, letting readers draw their own conclusions. In spare and skillful prose, she shows how all 3 have twisted ideas of each other. How painful fighting for position ends up challenging everyone’s integrity.

Agbaje-Williams has written a no-holds-barred commentary of a book. It’s a quietly powerful look at cultural upbringings, hopes and fears, and what it means to defy them. It’s a tale of manners-because what are we except the stories we tell ourselves? And it’s 4 stars from me!🌵📚💁🏼‍♀️ Thank you NetGalley, GP Putnam’s Sons, and Ore Agbaje-Williams for this early ecopy. Publishes 5/16/2023.

This is a cleverly written book told in three parts from each of the character's perspective - the "wife," the "husband," and the wife's "best friend." I was so caught up in what was going to happen I could not put it down. It is a well-told story about the tension between the married couple and a friend who wants her all to herself. The characters are British-Nigerian and I like the parts about family and expectations of women and success in the Nigerian culture. This is a quick read and a very enjoyable read that captures what it is like in intimate friendships. Definitely worth a read!

Thank you to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for an ARC and I have left this review voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for the advanced copy of The Three of Us.

The Three of Us tells the story of a wife, her husband, and her best friend, and the intermingling of their lives. Each character takes a section of the book to move the story forward from their perspective. The tension continues to build with each shift in narration, leaving the reader to wonder which two people will come out of the story together and who will get left behind.

I loved all of the unspoken dialogue between the characters, and felt that added to the tense mood of the book. The reader was pulled along, continuously wondering how the end would resolve,

I didn't really connect with any of the characters, the storyline was meandering and the ending was disappointingly ambiguous. Just a note, the lack of quotation marks for dialogue made it difficult to remember who was speaking at times.

Thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for an advanced reader copy.

I wanted to like The Three of Us so much, but it just didn't hit the mark for me. I found the 3 various perspectives to be confusing and repetitive. I think we could have benefited greatly from further character development. What I did enjoy was the plot; I found it compelling enough to keep me interested in what happened next.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Group Putnam and the author for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

When we meet this toxic throuple, there is dissension in the ranks. In the red corner, we have the no-nonsense, mercilessly savage childhood bestie. In the blue corner, we have the conventional, workaholic husband. And in the middle, we have the neutral, pacifist wife. The tension is palpable from the first page and allegiances are tested as all three perspectives are revealed over the course of one tumultuous evening.

Reading this felt like watching a riveting chess game. The best friend trying to “save” the wife from becoming the slave to domesticity that their younger selves always vowed to avoid. The husband, fighting for privacy, loyalty and his wholesome American dream. The wife is basically their pawn, unmoored and allowing herself to be manipulated on both ends like putty. I found all of the characters detestable, quite frankly, but I was invested in the outcome of this messy, rich-people drama. What can I say? I love a trashy trainwreck.

Frustratingly, the ending was a stalemate. Just as things were picking up, it stopped dead in its tracks. I am also not a fan of this new trend against quotation marks so admittedly, I was confused at times and had to reread to make sure I was aware of who said what.

I did find the concept intriguing and I would read more from this author in the future. I just wish the ending had left me more satisfied.

I was drawn to the premise of The Three of Us because it reminded me of m favorite kind of play - people stuck in one place letting simmering tensions come to a boil. The titular “three of us” is a woman, her best friend and her husband - who both hate each other and compete for her love and attention.

The ingredients were there and there are moments of brilliance, but it felt too much like a short story that had been expanded in word count only. If it were a play, it’s only Act One and I’m much more interested in Act Two.

The Three of Us follows a husband, an unnamed wife and the wife's best friend and their individual accounts of a single present day and noteworthy days from the past. The husband and the best friend are in total opposition regarding values and behavior. The unnamed wife is clearly attached to both and struggling to play peacekeeper in the middle.

What I really enjoyed was that the three POVs didn't switch out continuously. Each character gets approximately a third of the book and then their POV ends completely. There is no touching back on their thoughts. This allows us to see the same situations from VERY different mindsets and how it drastically changes the event. The best part? You don't find any clarity on the situations from this. Which is pretty realistic if you ask me.

And the ending? I clearly have a type and this ending falls into that category. The husband and the best friend, Temi, continue to up the ante in a fight for the wife's affection and attention. This is the type of abrupt ending that leaves you thinking. I believe a lot of the gold in this one is written between the lines and give me all the books where I can sit there theorizing after I finish.

The story of a husband, his wife and her best friend, told in their 3 POVs. The story is told over the course of one long day. It deals with their relationship issues, the friends and husbands animosity and jealousy and their previous close relationship before her marriage. The friend wants life to go on, as it had been before, footloose, and fancy free without responsibility. The husband wants the wife to be a “good wife and mother“, someone he can rely on to be calm and responsible. The wife is struggling between her two relationships., between her duty to be a good wife and have a baby she’s not sure she wants or to be a good friend. This was a really strange book and I had a hard time finishing it and was glad it was short. Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital copy.

Poorly written with little to no character development, this book deserves no starts. Do not spend your money buying this

This was a quick read, but it wasn't necessarily a good one. "The Three of Us" shows us a day in a marriage, told by the husband, the wife, and the wife's best friend. It doesn't really make any of them likeable characters, and I was so annoyed by the end that I wanted it to end. But when it did-- it was a disappointing ending. At least it was a quick read.

During the course of one day, the feelings between a husband and wife and the wife's best friend, who spends too much time with them, is exposed.

I received a digital advance copy of The Three of Us by Ore Agbaje-Williams via NetGalley. The Three of Us is scheduled for release on May 16, 2023.

The Three of Us takes place over one day in the relationship between the wife, the husband, and the best friend. The wife and best friend have known each other since school, and have long planned their lives of independence. Then the wife met the husband and they got married. Now the three are together in a web of relationships that require constant renegotiation.

This day is told to us in three sections. First we hear from the wife, then the husband, and finally the best friend. They tell us the events of the day, as well as remembering moments from their shared past that led up to this day. As you might expect with three different narrators, we get three different interpretations of the events, as well as three very different views of the relationships between the trios. The events of the day are not all that dramatic, but the subtext laying under the conversations the three have are. For me, the layers of the relationships and the varying views of those relationships was the strength of this novel.

We don’t learn much about the three characters outside of this triangle. While I understood this focus, it did mean the characters felt less than complete. I also found the best friend’s narrative to be a bit repetitive and one dimensional, as we didn’t see any sides of her other than her friendship with the wife. In the end, the best friend could have been the most interesting character if she had been more fully explored.

Overall, The Three of Us is an in-depth look at the relationships between a wife, a husband, and a best friend that explores the subtext that is often overlooked in the interest of getting along.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Three of Us stars an unnamed wife, husband, and her best-friend Temi. This short novel occurs over the course of one day and is told from each of their perspectives.

The wife seems caught in the middle between her husband and bestie, who don’t like each other. The husband wants to have a child, and the friend wants her to be independent and live for herself.

This was a quick read. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters.

Thank you to the author, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my opinions.

This book is told from three points of view. The wife, her husband, and her best friend, Temi. The whole book takes place over the course of one day. Temi and the husband hate each other, and the husband hates how his wife acts when she is around Temi. Temi has never approved of her best friend's marriage and has made it clearly obvious to her best friend (and her husband) that she feels that way. She thinks that the two of them should have stayed single, un-wed, and childless and had adventures together throughout their whole life. Temi and the wife had made a pact when they young adolescents to have that kind of life, but when the wife (no...I don't think the author ever actually gives her a name in the book) becomes an adult, starts dating her now-husband, and wants to have a traditional life as a housewife, Temi cannot handle it. And the feelings of the three of them comes to a head after an afternoon/evening of a few too many bottles of wine.

Getting the same story from 3 different POVs was kind of boring as it felt like I was literally hearing the same story three times. I wasn't a fan of any of the characters. And nothing really interesting happens until right towards the end of the book. However, it abruptly ends which is a definite disappointment and left me wondering if the author just didn't know how to finish the book.