
Member Reviews

Fallon Monroe is mystified as to why she is suddenly persona non grata among her friends group--all moms from the same suburban community. The only woman who still wants to be her friend is the one who was caught fooling around with the principal on the school stage. Her ostracization surfaces her insecurities stemming from her adoption as a baby (which she didn't discover until she was 18). As Fallon embarks on a journey of self-discovery, she takes the reader along for the occasionally cringey, often sad, but more often hilarious, ride. Fallon is fortunate to have a supportive husband and a few other friends (unfortunately geographically inconvenient) and a burgeoning career as a chocolatier (even if her frenemies are subtly sabotaging it).
I've been struggling with reading the past several months and THE FRIENDSHIP BREAKUP is one of my few recent reads that I couldn't put down once I started it. As I mentioned, it is occasionally cringey, but only because you immediately care so much about Fallon and want to slap her horrible former friends. #TheFriendshipBreakup #NetGalley

As a mom to four little kids I rely on my friendships with my "mom friends" to keep me sane! I love how relatable this book was to my own situation. I was on my toes the entire time trying to find out how we hurt Beatrice!
Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy of this "mom com." This is definitely something I enjoyed and would be willing to read more of!

Families, friends and emotions are all within the covers of this book. It makes for interesting reading and your own emotions will be there as well. Read this and find out what it is all about. 4 stars
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for this ARC

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Fallon Monroe is hoping her current friend group are friends for life as they raised their children together, but jealousy and marriage problems are tearing apart the friends. Fallon is struggling with the challenges of approaching middle age with young kids and trying to keep everything together. I found parts of this book laugh out loud funny but some of the strain between friends sounded very juvenile. I am glad for the ending that tied up nicely and this was a worthwhile "mom-com" read.

This book is basically everything you could imagine, full of emotions, relatable moments, and eye-opening on the importance of good, healthy friendships.
Throughout the story I found myself comparing my life to Fallon's.
Fallon Monroe, mother of one, self-help book junkie and budding chocolatier, has always relied on her neighborhood friends to get her through the trials of adulthood. So when her bestie Beatrice inexplicably starts ghosting her and takes all their mutual friends with her, Fallon's left wondering how everything went so wrong. Pushing down a lifetime of insecurities, Fallon doubles down and decides to win them back.
Just when she's about to throw in the towel on the whole friendship mess, Fallon reads a recently unearthed letter she'd refused to open decades earlier-and reading it forces her to finally face the deep-seated fears she'd desperately tried to bury. Now, looking at her friendships through fresh eyes, she must decide between hanging on and letting go.
A super fun laugh out loud mom-com. As a mom of a toddler in my early 30s, I can totally relate. There were so many laugh out loud moments, but there were also emotional moments too, a perfect balance which made this book very special to me. What I most like about the book? Fallon grow into a better woman. She had some ups and downs but she is an inspiration. She fought for her marriage, she decided to go into therapy, she discovered some things about her past that she was putting out and faced it quite well, and most importantly how she followed her dream even when her
"friends" didn't encourage her to do it.
Highly recommended.
Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
Thank you @netgalley @alcovepress @crookedlanebooks for the #arc in exchange for a honest review.

Friendships are a subject that i care so much about, is so important for me people very often don't recognize the importance of friendships for a person, and it was very nice to see how they care about friends.

This is the first mom-com Iโve read. I loved the plot and the characters.
Fallon made me want to hit her sometimes but I relate to her. I rarely confront people and sometimes Iโve stick with some friendships because I thought I didnโt deserve better.
I would recommend this book to those who loves drama haha

At first I thought I wasn't jiving with this book because I am not a mom but then I decided this book just wasn't for me. I didn't understand why the main character, Fallon was so adament about trying to keep friendships with these awful ladies. It reminded me of a bad desperate housewives. I also felt that different aspects of the story didn't flow well together.
I do think the book showed that social media can be brutual and cause serious damage to relationships. Also that true friendships stand the test of time and there are relationships that are not meant to last.

"๐ ๐ธ๐ช๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ด๐ข๐ช๐ฅ, '๐ ๐ค๐ข๐ง๐ง๐ฆ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ, ๐ ๐ข๐ฎ.' ๐ ๐ง๐ถ๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐ด๐ถ๐ฃ๐ด๐ค๐ณ๐ช๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐บ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ."
This book... brought a lot of feelings out for me.
Friendships have always been something that I've struggled with, and I've had my fair share of friendship breakups. I have personal experience with people who are supposed to be friends who have just stopped talking to me although.
And now that I'm a mom, I'm experiencing a whole new phase of friendship changes. I've had to do a lot of work to be okay with all of this, and still struggle with it at times.
Making more time for me and Matt, and doing things for myself has also been things I've been working on lately. So, this whole book was like reading about my own life, just a few years in the future.
Thank you Annie, @alcovepress and @netgalley for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!
THE FRIENDSHIP BREAKUP is available now! โค
.
.
.
.
#bookstagram #booksta #books #booksbooksbooks #avidreader #ilovereading #thetwistedlibrarian #professionalbookworm #thefriendshipbreakup #anniecathryn #whatsnikkireading #book10of2023 #kindleebook #arc #advancedreadercopy #alcovepress #netgalley #womensfiction

This was the kind of book that will make you laugh, then cry, then laugh some more. I loved it! I adored Fallon and reading her journey through adulting.

Fallon Monroe is a 40-year-old soccer mom with a great husband, an adorable seven-year-old, the hot flashes of menopause, and a chocolate business sheโs trying to get off the ground. Aside from spending extra time in the freezer aisle at the grocery store trying to cool off, she does okay. Not great, like those moms who can be full makeup and clean clothes at school drop-off, but okay. Until her friends cut her off.
They had been a solid group of friends. Well, they were still a solid group of friends. Fallon just wasnโt invited to hang out with them anymore. Her former best friend Beatrice stopped answering her texts and taking her calls, and Fallon doesnโt know why. So Fallon decides to win her back.
She decides to try a tea party, but the plans for that fizzle out. But her plans for the Mexican Fiesta are strong, with plenty of margaritas and tacos for everyone. There is a mariachi band, there is a piรฑata filled with tequila, there is broken glass on the dance floor, flying cactus, and an ambulance. When Fallon wakes up in the hospital, having passed out at the party, she is told that she is overly stressed and needs to take better care of herself.
While trying to get her chocolate business going is difficult, Fallon thinks that itโs her friend ship problems that are causing her the most aggravation. She decides to go the the therapist that helped her and her husband back when they were having some problems, and she ends up taking a look at all her relationships and how her thoughts about her friendships are taking a toll on her mental health. As she realizes what she wants in a friend and what she doesnโt, she learns how to be a friend to herself first.
The Friendship Breakup is a sweet reminder of how much female friends matter in modern life. Itโs told with warmth and lots of humor, with good friendships and toxic friendships and one hairy, clumsy male stripper with a knack for showing up at the wrong time. Itโs smart and encouraging and gives female friends the story line that usually goes to romantic relationships.
I think weโve all heard that friends come for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Weโve all been hurt by those we thought were friends but who turned their backs on us when we needed them. The Friendship Breakup is a study of friendship, the ones that last and the ones that donโt, and the feelings that come with the new ones, the old ones, the toxic ones, and the ones we depend on for our sanity. This one is a chocolate covered treat, but there is substance under that candy coating too.
Egalleys for The Friendship Breakup were provided by Alcove Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.

If you love a little mama drama, check out ๐ง๐๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ก๐๐ฆ๐๐๐ฃ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐๐จ๐ฃ, which reminded me of some of my favorite mom-coms like the ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ด๐ด ๐๐ฐ๐ฎ series and ๐๐จ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ๐ข ๐๐ณ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ช๐ด ๐๐ง๐ณ๐ข๐ช๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ. There need to be more books that focus on female friendships, and this one will make you laugh out loud, tug at your heartstrings and leave you craving chocolate. Congrats to the lovely Annie Cathryn on her delightful debut!
Thanks to Alcove Press for the copy to review.

This mom-com debut novel is about almost 40 year old Fallon, a suburban mom and wife trying to start her own chocolate business, whose local best friend Beatrice suddenly gives her the cold shoulder and taking their other friends with her. Fallon keeps trying to figure out what happened and win her friend back, while also turning to older friends and trying to make new friends, all while also juggling her marriage, daughter, and attempt to get her career going.
I loved this book's focus on friendship among adult women, which I think is such an important part of life, but one that is often given short shrift in fiction. I was rooting for Fallon the whole time, though I definitely wanted her to either confront Beatrice more directly, or kick her to curb sooner, because who needs a friend that acts like that? And it was a quick engaging book, such that I read the whole thing in one day!

This book was so much fun to read and relatable! As a SAHM I was instantly connected with Fallon. I look back in time when I was part of a "mommies group", not available to me now that I relocated to rural Maine, and I too experienced many similar petty cliques with people I didn't jive with.
Additionally, I genuinely adored Fallon's true friends and the journey that she experienced to discover herself.

๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐
3.5 โญ
๐ง๐ฟ๐ถ๐ด๐ด๐ฒ๐ฟ๐: infertility, toxic friendship
I had mixed feelings until I could give this book a rating.
This book shows how hard it is for adults to make friends, how messy parenting can be, but also how hard it is to maintain your relationship with your partner. These are the issues Fallon is going through.
At first, Fallon tried her best to repair a friendship she had with the other mothers in the town, friends who didn't even bother to include her. Although at the beginning I was tired of how much she tries and doesn't notice that those "friends" don't care much about Fallon, and that they are more for gossip, but eventually I came to like her.
Eventually, Fallon finds her happy ending in another town, with the friends who really stood by her and with her family - husband and child.
It's not a book for everyone, maybe that's why I didn't like it so much, but maybe those who went through it, understand Fallon better than I did.
Thank you Annie Cathryn, Alcove Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

The Friendship Breakup is a refreshing take on what itโs like to be a mom in suburbia and is aptly referred to as a โmom-com!โ Itโs highly entertaining while addressing topics
Such as family and friendships as well as betrayal and breakups.
I can relate to Fallon as Iโve had a few friendship breakups in my adult life and while they were not fun, it was a reminder that some friends are in your life for a reason, some for a season and some for a lifetime.
This is the heartfelt, life changing story that will have you thinking about the characters long after youโve turned the last page. I have this story 3.5 stars rounded up.

The Friendship BreakUp follows Fallon. A suburban, stay at home soccer mom who is trying to create her dream job of owning a chocolate store. Add in a mean girls cast and the chaos of life and the scene is set to show that reality is never as perfect as you see on social media.
This books is an emotional story with twists of heartbreak, crazy antics and self reflection. Making and keeping adult friends is hard.
I have experienced friendship break ups. Iโd be willing to say that a friendship breakup is equivalent to a significant other breakup because you are mourning the person who you would be eating your feelings and helping you feel better if it were a partner.

Wow, I did not like this at all. Aside from the lackluster writing, the first 70% of the story was bland as can be with the last 30% being over the top. I truly did not understand why Fallon even wanted to be friends with these women who clearly wanted nothing to do with her. They seem like incredibly shallow women that arenโt worth fighting for. Every single character in this book is overdramatic, petty, and childish. I just canโt see how Fallon claims to be so close to these women when they donโt even talk honestly about their lives, and canโt communicate when things get rough. There is also some misogyny that goes unchecked that I certainly could have done without. Iโm usually all about suburban mommy drama books, but this one was just way too ridiculous to get on board with.

I always enjoy when a book makes me laugh out loud. This is a fun read even if it's full of drama. Friendships can be hard and this story highlights the ups and downs of friendships and how some friendships may only be for a season. This is definitely a "mom-com" as we follow Fallon's story as it touches on her marriage, her parenting, her friendships, her career, and how her past impacts her relationships.
It's a witty and funny read with a bit of heart too!
3.5 stars

Is there a genre within a genre that you love?
If โmom-comโ is a thing, I am here for it.
The Friendship Breakup is a mom-com about Fallon, a mom of one, trying to launch a chocolate business from her home while simultaneously being iced out by her mom crew in the neighborhood. Fallon is vulnerable and flawed and so real in her not-so-glamorous persona. Once I got past my irritation at her getting her daughter to a soccer game late (grrr), I found myself totally loving and rooting for Fallon. She was caught in a calamity of catastrophes that had me smiling and giggling. I applauded her strength and her resilience. And I loved the look into adult friendships as it all felt very realistic and honest. And entertaining. Always entertaining. Life is stressful and this book was so perfect for me to get lost in.