Unfortunately, this book just wasn’t for me. I was easily confused about what was going on with the Juno’s in timeline and characters. I can usually handle unlikable characters, but these left me cold and I didn’t care what happened to any of them. The twist seemed unlikely and I just didn’t enjoy this.

I didn't love this book. It was a quick read, but it didn't give me the mystery or thrill I thought I was going to get from it. I was also expecting a lot more from the book - about its characters, about the plot, etc. I felt very underwhelmed after reading it.

I didn’t love this one. It felt like a book about a toxic friendship and codependency between the two.

Bella and Kate became friends when they were young children. Then Kate moves away suddenly when they're 17 and Bella doesn't hear from her until they run into each other years later and rekindle their friendship. It can't possibly still be as toxic when they're adults as it was decades ago, can it? These two really shouldn't be friends, but they seem to keep their friendship going off and on until their dying day.
Neither character is particularly likable or relatable in my opinion. It was a little difficult to follow along at times, but most chapters were pretty short. Overall, I thought I was getting a thriller, but it was not even close to one, and I'm not really sure what it was about other than following their toxicity for 80 years. No toxic friendship is worth a lifetime, that's for sure.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audio version.

This book was not my best friend. It was the annoying friend that wants all the attention, but has nothing interesting to say.

Unfortunately, most of this book just did not work for me. I listed to the audio book while simultaneously reading the ebook. The audio was definitely better at being able to discern who was speaking. The written book has no quotation marks so figuring out who is speaking takes a little too much work.

The story spans the lives of two friends who have an extremely dysfunctional and toxic relationship. I never completely understood why Bella would continue to feel such longing for Kate’s friendship. Kate was never shown as sympathetic or even supportive of Bella. I could kind of understand how one person could be enamored with another and crave being around them, but after all the stunts Kate pulled throughout their lives, it was hard to believe that Bella would continue to be such a doormat.

Another frustration was that Kate was supposedly somewhat famous, but that wasn’t really explored, it was simply “told” to the reader. I didn’t mind that she was an unlikeable character because I much prefer to feel something for a character – like or dislike. But I had a hard time caring about what happened to any of the characters. I felt like I only knew them on the surface. And what was the deal with Bella’s first husband? I still wonder where he went all those times. It seems that this story had lots of strings tied in knots that were never undone. They were simply dropped, and another piece of string was picked up.

So obviously this book did not work for me, but please remember that this is just my opinion. You may like the book a lot more than I did, but I can’t recommend this one.

Thank you to NetGalley, Minotaur books and Macmillan audio for the advance copy and audio to read/listen to and review.

Features: a toxic friendship, dual 1st & 3rd person POV

Bella and Kate became friends when they were young children. Then Kate moves away suddenly when they're 17 and Bella doesn't hear from her until they run into each other years later and rekindle their friendship. It can't possibly still be as toxic when they're adults as it was decades ago, can it? These two really shouldn't be friends, but they seem to keep their friendship going off and on and on and off until their dying day.

What a ride this was. Neither character is particularly likable or relatable in my opinion. It was a little difficult to follow along at times, but most chapters were pretty short, and it was only took about 2 1/2 hours of my time, so that kept me going. I'm seeing others say there are no quotation marks and it reads like a play in the print form, so I guess that's why it's confusing in the audio version.

Overall, I thought I was getting a thriller, but it was not even close to one, and I'm not really sure what it was about other than following their toxicity for like 80 years. This author's unique writing style just isn't for me.

CW ~ references to sexual assault and rape, infidelity

The narration by Antonia Beamish and Lucy Scott for 5 hours and 15 minutes was good, easy to follow at 2x.

Both of the narrators in this book did a great job. This book is very unique in that its told in lots of conversations between the two characters. There are lots of holes for the reader to fill in, but I liked not knowing what was coming next.

I will give this 1.5 stars because of the audiobook. It was the only thing that helped me get through it, the performances by Antonia Beamish and Lucy Scott were literally the only good thing about this book. I had heard that the book itself contained no quotation marks, which made it nearly impossible for other reviewers to read. The audiobook made the experience much better because I knew when Bella and Kate were speaking and so I could (mostly) follow it a bit better.

It's the story of two women from the time they are six until they are elderly who have a very toxic friendship. There's some gaslighting, lying, sneaking around, manipulation, more lying, more gaslighting, over and over. There are no likable or sympathetic characters except maybe for Bella's daughter, but she's not on the page much.

The storyline isn't a mystery/thriller as it's described, I suppose if you stretch your imagination there's a tiny bit of mystery surrounding a "shocking event" but that honestly turned out to be a non-issue because it's kind of obvious what is going on.

There are skips in the timeline, things hidden that are brought out later, and it doesn't seem necessary at all. I kept listening because I had hoped that the book would get better, would start to make more sense, but it really doesn't.

This is an overall mess and it's my recommendation to skip it if you can. And if you decide to give it a try, most DEFINITELY GET THE AUDIOBOOK.

2.5 stars
This was a books about a toxic friendship. Skipped around a lot from different ages. Sometimes hard to keep up with time lines.
I didn’t enjoy it Much but I appreciate the arc from NetGalley.
I liked the narrators.

3.5/5 stars

Thank you Macmillan Audio for the advanced listening copy!

Kate and Bella have been friends on and off for their entire lives, starting at age 6. There's something about your oldest friends... especially with Bella being reserved and Kate being more outgoing and daring. Their personalities tend to conflict, resulting in mild chaos and lots of drama.

This book had a very unique set up, which I enjoyed. Two narrators, each taking the role of either Kate or Bella. Much of this book was dialogue between the two, which was unlike other audiobooks I've listened to. I appreciated the extensive timeline of the book, as well, following along Bella and Kate's friendship for much of their lives. Overall, however, it felt like this book was missing something. I struggled to connect with both characters; Kate was a pretty terrible friend overall and Bella was mostly a whiner baby. Their friendship was an accurate testament to the difficult nature of female friendships at times, but didn't make for super entertaining reading. The unique layout, though intriguing, made it so there were a few moments where I had no clue what was going on. This was a lackluster story for me overall.

First off, I want to thank Netgalley for the opportunity to review the audiobook. Second, the narrators did a good job, but I had trouble following the story line other than the toxic relationship between two supposedly best friends. I feel like I was left with a lot of unanswered questions when the book ended. I wont go into them here because I do not want to spoil the plot for anyone interested in reading the book.

An extremely complicated friendship over two friends lives. I wanted to love this and I just didn’t. Some things were implied that shouldn’t have been. They should have just said it straight out. It felt like a lot of half conversations.

I will try this author again because I do feel like her story has promise. It just fell a little off at times.

I enjoyed the narrator very much in the audiobook.

Bella and Kate. A toxic friendship to say the least. It begins when they are very young and follows
throughout their lives into old age.

Their friendship has issues in their late teens when boys/men become a part of their life. They don't see each other for many years and recoonection in their 30s, and then for a longer period of time in their 40s. Something happens that won't be uncovered completely until later in the book.

I honestly didn't like either of these women. I'm all for unlikeable characters, but I need them to have more depth. The audio was good; however, occasionally it seemed a chapter wasn't complete.
That may be intentional.

I really liked the premise of this story, but this one missed the mark for me a bit.

Many thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advance audio in exchange for my honest review.

The Best Friend by Jessica Fellowes just might be my worst book of 2022. I’d heard this one wasn’t good but I guess I just wanted to see for myself just how bad this one was and yes it wasn’t good at all. Based on the cover I thought this would be a thriller but it’s not. It’s genre is womens fiction on NetGalley and thriller on Goodreads but there is no thrill at all. It’s about two best friends, Kate and Bella, and their relationship over the years from age six until they’re elderly. They go through ups and downs and times of not being friends at all. I think this was meant to be a relationship study with some suspense thrown in. Nothing was surprising at all. I didn’t care for either character and there’s no interesting plot. One good thing is that there’s two narrators in the audiobook and Antonia Beamish and Lucy Scott did a fine job. The structure of the chapters was jarring as we would jump from their different ages.
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Thank you to Macmillan Audio via NetGalley for my ALC!

The Best Friend
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Genre: Thriller
Format: Audiobook
Date Published: 9/13/22
Author: Jessica Fellowes
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Narrators: Antonia Beamish and Lucy Scott
Goodreads Rating: 2.82

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Macmillan Audio and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: Bella and Kate. Kate and Bella. From childhood they were bosom friends, Bella sensible and cautious, Kate gregarious and just a little dangerous. Yet in spite of their intimacy, their trust is fragile. Men came into their lives and things changed: a black seed was set in the heart of their relationship. Over decades, acts of both cruelty and love ferment until one shocking event tests them more than ever. Neither will escape unscathed.

My Thoughts: This is Fellowes debut novel into the thriller genre. I did the audio but I have seen the reviews on the ebook and Fellowes does not use quotation marks to signify who is speaking, instead she does separate paragraphs, I believe this format would be just as easy to follow and could set Fellowes apart. This novel explores the relationship of two girls and follows them into adulthood, with the toxicity, secrets, and tragic heartbreak. Even though this was dark and disturbing, I believed it work for the storyline. The characters were developed well with depth, secretive, tension, and creatively written. The author’s writing style was unique, suspenseful, and kept me engaged. This releases next week and if you are not a fan of the different writing, I would recommend picking up the audiobook.

Do you ever finish a book and think, what was the point? Because that’s exactly what happened with me here. It follows two women who are childhood best friends and it jumps from different ages in a really fast and strange way. One chapter they’re 14, the next 17 and then the next 31. You don’t spend much time at any particular age range either so I always felt like I was just getting the very tip of the iceberg in terms of who these women are. I’ve seen some reviews that say the print version is hard to follow when people are having a conversation but that wasn’t an issue with the audio version as there were two narrators so it was easy to figure out who was talking. One last thing that made this not work for me was the authors style of revealing important information. She did this weird thing where you feel like you missed something but it had to have been intentional because it was used constantly. You were basically left on your own to piece together so many pretty big events and while I get it and was able to, like just tell me already what’s with the secrecy? I don’t want to feel left in the dark as a reader. Overall this wasn’t the book for me.

A story of two not terribly likable manipulative women who are not good for each other. Bella is quiet, reasonable and cautious in her life. Kate, the polar opposite. In their youngest days, they balanced each other out and on some levels brought out the best of each other. They promised to be friends forever. When one moved away it was devastating to the other. Years later they reconnect and it is not a healthy relationship.
There is little to no trust, lies and manipulations. Bella is so desperate for their friendship she internalizes a lot of what egomaniac Kate does and things go from bad to worse. Without trust can true friendship exist or is it something else? A tough listen for me as neither of the women were terribly likable. They are in fact cruel, unkind, and twisted and no one will be left unscathed by their behavior. This is a dark, haunting story that was well narrated.

Read/Listen If You Like:
❤️ Difficult Friendships
❤️ Stories throughout a character’s life
❤️ Light Suspense

Audiobook Review:
This one just wasn’t it for me. I gave it a 2.5⭐️ rating because I just never could get invested and was hoping for some more suspense but the whole thing was very lackluster for me personally. This one currently is averaging about a 2.8⭐️ rating on Goodreads so I wasn’t alone in that feeling either.

What I liked: honestly it’s hard to pick something out but the narrators did a good job with what they were given as far as a story, that is probably the only reason I didn’t DNF and because I wanted to know if there was going to be a big moment at the end. The other positive was the short chapters, but also in that, there were many that just didn’t belong and could have not been included.

What I didn’t like: it jumped around and in my opinion there was a lot of unnecessary information added that didn’t build the story or the plot. It seemed to randomly ramble without much purpose. It’s being marketed as suspenseful but it wasn’t. I felt no moments of suspense during this one, which was what I was hoping for going in. I just didn’t ever get me onto the edge of my seat wanting more like most suspenseful books give me.

Well, I can tell you one thing, and that's that Bella and Kate make for the two worst best friends in history!

Next, I wanted to thank NetGalley, Minotaur Books, and Jessica Fellowes for granting me an Advanced Listener's Copy of The Best Friend, prior to its publication date of September 13, 2022. I gobbled it up in less than a day and am looking forward to seeing what everyone else thinks of this terribly toxic duo.

Kate and Bella have been Best Friends forever, but they've done a horrible job at staying in each other's lives. Whether it's fighting over a boy, not taking each other's sides after allegations come forward, or simply moving out of each other's frame of existence, they just can't seem to stay together. However, when they are together, they are thicker than thieves, stuck at the hip and conspiring with every coming movement.

They'll always have the secrets that bind them, holding them to their younger days, when certain damning acts took place, like a murder. Reconnecting after all this time, they find a way to grow and live with each other, knowing each other better than anyone else. While I guess critics might title this a drama or even a thriller, I'd be more confident that this is one twisted love story, that I'm happy I wasn't stuck in the middle of.

This book follows the relationship of two girls as they grow up. Kate and Bella are best friends from a young age but their relationship comes to an end when seventeen year old Kate moves away with her family. The young women reconnect as grown ups, and the story shows that despite the years of growing up, their relationship falls into the same patterns as when they were children.

The story was engrossing, and I was able to listen to the audiobook in just a couple of sessions. However, despite being captivating, the story was unsettling, showing the development of two individuals trapped in a toxic friendship.

Recommended reading for those who enjoy books about complex relationships.