BOOK REVIEW: The Friends We Keep by Jane Green @JaneGreen @BerkleyPub #TheFriendsWeKeep #BookReview

Friendship, forgiveness, and finding your way in life. In Jane Green’s The Friends We Keep, three best friends are followed over decades, as they lose touch and come back together. This is a story of how best friends are still there for each other, even when they lose their way. This is the kind of book that made its way into my heart, and I won’t soon forget.

About the Book

The Friends We Keep is the warm and wise new novel from Jane Green, New York Times bestselling author of The Sunshine Sisters and The Beach House
 
Evvie, Maggie, and Topher have known each other since university. Their friendship was something they swore would last forever. Now years have passed, the friends have drifted apart, and none of them ever found the lives they wanted – the lives they dreamed of when they were young and everything seemed possible.
 
Evvie starved herself to become a supermodel, but dates all of the wrong men. Maggie married Ben, the boy she fell in love with at university, but things aren’t as perfect as they seem. Topher became a successful actor, but a secret from his past has made it hard for him to find love.
 
By their thirtieth reunion, these old friends have lost touch with each other and with the people they dreamed of becoming. Together again, they have a second chance at happiness… until a dark secret is revealed that changes everything.
 
The Friends We Keep is about how despite disappointments we’ve had or mistakes we’ve made, it’s never too late to find a place to call home.

Reflection

A book reviewer friend of mine said that this story felt like it was told directly to her. I loved that description, and I instantly knew what she meant. The way Jane Green writes makes you feel like the characters are your friends and loved ones. My heart broke with theirs when they lost their way. My heart swelled when their friendships saved them in their loneliest times. What a credit to the way Green writes, to make readers feel that this story is personal for them.

And the things the characters go through—I’ll say that I think most of us will have experienced at least one theme themselves, if not knowing others who did. I did this as a buddy read with Berit at Audio Killed the Bookmark and we discussed how we connected personally with these characters. How would we react in their spot? It was such a great friendship-building moment for Berit and I, and I think this is perfect to read with a book buddy or book club!

The story spans decades, and that is also one of the things that makes this unputdownable. Beginning at university the three friends meet. Evvie is so alone—a famous, beautiful actress but not someone with close friends or family. Her cat-loving, uptight roommate just seems a bit off fit-wise, but when she meets vibrant and fun-loving Maggie the same day, they quickly swap rooms and find themselves to be instant best friends. Soon after, they meet and love Topher, a seemingly asexual male who shies away from physical touch, but is a truly outstanding friend.

As the friends grow up through university, I connected with them so much. Their whole lives are ahead of them, and its hard for them to imagine life ever not being them living with their best friends. And then they transition to adulthood. Each on their own path, we see their lives unfold. They find love. They get their hearts broken. They lose touch. And eventually, they find each other again.

And when they come together, telling eachother the truth about where they’ve come—that seems to be so hard. Sometimes I do think we have the hardest time being honest with those we love the most., and Jane Green really plays with that theme here.

My heart is so connected to these characters. I miss them, but I also felt that their stories are so satisfying. I want more but I also don’t feel like I missed anything. Truly a beautiful book, and I’m excited to share it!

Thank you to Berkley Publishing for my copy. Opinions are my own.