Title: Best Friends Forever
My
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2
Book Description:
Kat Grant and Alice Campbell have a friendship forged in
shared confidences and long lunches lubricated by expensive wine. Though
they’re very different women—the artsy socialite and the struggling
suburbanite—they’re each other’s rocks. But even rocks crumble under pressure.
Like when Kat’s financier husband, Howard, plunges to his death from the
second-floor balcony of their South Florida mansion.
Howard was a jerk, a drunk, a bully and, police say, a murder victim. The questions begin piling up. Like why Kat has suddenly gone dark: no calls, no texts and no chance her wealthy family will let Alice see her. Why investigators are looking so hard in Alice’s direction. Who stands to get hurt next. And who is the cool liar—the masterful manipulator behind it all.
Howard was a jerk, a drunk, a bully and, police say, a murder victim. The questions begin piling up. Like why Kat has suddenly gone dark: no calls, no texts and no chance her wealthy family will let Alice see her. Why investigators are looking so hard in Alice’s direction. Who stands to get hurt next. And who is the cool liar—the masterful manipulator behind it all.
My musings:
Twisted female friendships usually make the perfect basis
for a thriller, so I was instantly drawn to the premise of Best Friends
Forever. Kat and Alice are polar opposites: Kat, the impulsive and slightly
spoiled socialite from a rich family background, living in a big mansion with
her successful financier husband; and Alice, the introverted brainiac who
approaches life’s problems much like she would solve one of her logic puzzles. As
they say, opposites attract, and somehow the two women’s different personality
traits complement each other, making the friendship work – until one day it
doesn’t, and Alice is left out in the cold, without a word of explanation from
her former best friend.
In her novel, Hunt introduced the concept of “ghosting” to
me, the practice of ending a personal relationship without explanation by
suddenly withdrawing from all communication and freezing them out, despite the
other person’s attempts to reach out or communicate. Strange that I have never
heard that term before (I mentioned in a previous post that I do live under a
rock sometimes), but it is the perfect word for this terrible way to end a
friendship. I felt for Alice as she is initially pondering why her friend won’t
answer her calls, which soon turns into panic as she finds that not only has
Kat frozen her out, but has also implicated her as a potential suspect in a
murder case. Since the reader only has
Alice’s narration to go by, I too was puzzled as to why Kat would leave her
friend in this situation, coming up with all kinds of scenarios that would
explain her behaviour. Some of these proved to be correct. However, as is the
gift of a clever thriller writer, the author managed to throw in an extra twist
at the end I absolutely did not see coming!
There was one point in the book where I thought the author
had created the perfect opportunity to create some extra tension and intrigue
to what had been a slow-burning story of friendship so far, which would justify
its label as “psychological thriller”. Unfortunately this did not fully
materialise, which was perhaps my biggest quibble with the book and left me
feeling slightly let down at the time, as it did not mess with my mind as much
as I had hoped. However, if you are a fan of chick-lit inspired slow-burning mysteries
with that extra twist that leaves you slightly open mouthed with a WTF!?!?! expression
stamped on your face, then this one might be just the book for you. I admit I
had to flick back and re-read an earlier chapter to see what I had missed!
Summary:
Whilst I have to admit that Best Friends Forever was a bit slow for me at times, and didn’t mess with my mind enough to stand out from other very similar books I have read in the past, it provided a quick, entertaining read with a surprise twist at the end faintly reminiscent of The Kind Worth Killing. It was the perfect beach read for a lazy summer afternoon, and I look forward to reading more from this author to see what she will come up with next.
Thank
you to Netgalley and Harlequin Australia for the free electronic copy of this novel and
for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.
If you enjoy mysteries based on female friendships, you may also enjoy:
The Lying Game, by Ruth Ware
The Perfect Stranger, by Megan Miranda
Don't You Cry, by Mary Kubica
Big Little Lies, by Liane Moriarty
Watching Edie, by Camilla Way
Friend Request, by Laura Marshall
Blame, by Nicole Trope
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