Struggling to pay the rent, four housemates, Grace, Jasper, Franklin and Aaron think that all of their prayers have been answered when they find a case containing a large sum of money in a skip. Despite their consciences telling them to leave it where it is, they are soon spending their new-found wealth. The arrival of a thug on their doorstep, though, changes everything when he demands his property be returned in a week’s time or consequences will be dealt. When one of the four suddenly finds themselves fighting for their life, the others begin to wonder whether they, too, will suffer the same fate…

What would you do if you found £20,000? Personally, I’d hand it in to the police but our protagonists in Best Friends are in such dire straits that all they can think about is how this unexpected windfall could solve all of their problems. In addition to paying their rent, they soon start to purchase items that they feel will help them in their burgeoning careers, whether it be time at a dance studio or a new guitar. Of course, it was inevitable that the real owner of the case would come looking for his money and this sets in motion a chain of events that will see several of the friends venturing into the seedier side of money-making in order to prevent something terrible happening to them.

I liked the main character, Grace, and felt desperately sorry for her as she tried, to no avail, to fulfil her dreams of becoming a professional dancer. Her early life was beyond traumatic and I willed her to succeed so she could finally live the life she deserved. It was pleasing to see how her housemates tried to protect her even when she stepped completely out of her comfort zone to try to earn back some of the money that they took.

While Best Friends definitely deals with a crime and its consequences, I would not put this in the thriller or crime genres. Instead, it is a great study of how people react in different ways to a situation and how easy it is to get drawn into something unsavoury. The ending is tied up neatly and it is a good lesson in how vital friendships are and how you should always aim high in order to reach your potential.

I was looking forward to reading this book - it sounded just the sort of book I would love. The synopsis and the tag lines on the cover promised a fast paced page-turner.
As I read it I found it to be an interesting plot but sadly the book didn't really keep me gripped. It is the tale of four friends racing against the clock to raise some money, having made a foolish decision. I found the start slow and I wondered where the book was heading. Unfortunately for me, it didn't ever feel full of tension and even as the countdown continued and neared the end it still hadn't cranked up enough. Some parts of the book seemed a little far fetched to be believable, but it is a work of fiction!

The main characters were similar but different and all trying to follow their dreams rather than a conventional route through life. I particularly liked Franklin as his character jumped out of the page as larger than life.
Overall, not my favourite book but it is easy to read and a nice story so I'm sure many readers will enjoy it.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the advance copy in exchange for a fair review.

Carys Jones is one of the best writers of domestic noir writing today and she is back with a spine-tingling new chiller that will have you biting your nails to the elbow: Best Friends!

Grace is a woman who never had anybody – except for her friends. As a six year old, her family had been cruelly wrenched away from her one dreadful day and her twin brother Pete had been killed. She has always been alone – the only family she has had are her three best friends: Jasper, Franklin and Aaron. The bond between the four friends is indestructible, their affection for one another paramount and their love for each other gets stronger by the day. Living in London, money is tight and making ends meet a daily challenge that never gets any easier. When one fateful day they find an abandoned suitcase in a skip, the four friends are flabbergasted when they realise that the suitcase holds the answer to all of their prayers. Yet, little do they realise that their problems are not ending for good, but about to get a hell of a lot more complicated – and dangerously lethal…

When a vengeful thug hammers down their door, angrily demanding that they return his property, the four friends are given a week to come up with the goods or else risk paying the ultimate prize – with their lives! As cracks begin to show in their friendship and the stakes continue the get higher and higher, the four friends who had once been family to one another end up being the deadliest of enemies…

Will any one of them manage to make it through the week alive? Can their friendship ever be repaired? Or have they allowed greed and avarice to destroy everything which they once held dear to their heart?

Carys Jones is one top form again with Best Friends, a heart-pounding thriller that grabs you from the very beginning and keeps you on the edge of your seat until the final nerve-shredding conclusion. Packed with jaw-dropping twists and turns, shocking drama and pulse-racing tension, Best Friends is a sensational story of secrets, relationships and danger which I couldn’t bear to stop reading.

Tense and terrifying, Best Friends is another top-notch grip lit thriller from one of the genre’s most talented writers: Carys Jones.

4☆ A Fab Thriller

Best Friends is a thriller that has a clear message... don't take what isn't yours.... and certainly don't spend I.

Grace, Aaron, Franklin and Jasper all live together and are best friends.
Grace is a ballet dancer, Aaron is in a rock band, Franklin is an out of work Actor and Jasper does freelance work.
The problem is none of them have any money and the rent is due in 3days

On a drunken night out Franklin decides to try his luck at Dumpster Diving!
To the others horror he jumps right in. Only what he pulled out was about to change their lives!

Franklin pulls out a suitcase with
 20 Thousand pounds.
Here lies the answer to all their problems!
Franklin decides to spend it. Aaron pays off 5months rent.
In turn they all go off on a crazed spending spree.
But what they don't know is in the dark Alley where they retrieved the suitcase was a very dangerous person watching.
That person is about to make himself known with dangerous consequences!

What unfolds next is a race against time to get the money back.

Alongside this story main character Grace, is emotionally damaged. She keeps having dreams about her brother Peter who died.
They were very close. As the story develops we get flashbacks of why Grace is so tortured. I kind of guessed right. But it makes for a gripping read.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Best Friends.
This is a classic thriller, don't touch what isn't your or face the consequences!
This isn't necessarily a scary Thriller it's more of a what is going to happen next, don't open that door, kind of Thriller.
What really shines through is the strong friendship between the 4 main characters.
Oh and what I really enjoyed was the crazy schemes Franklin cooks up to make extra cash so funny!

If you are looking for a nice paced, easy to read Thriller, that captures you attention, has great characters, an exciting sideline story, then this book is for you!

I was very excited to dive into this book. The cover had me hooked before I even opened the first page. The tagline is ‘Four friends, a terrible secret, and one week to stay alive.’

The four friends are flatmates and each of them is following their dreams. Living off fresh air and odd jobs. It’s rent time and the foursome don’t have the cash and the stress is overwhelming. They decide to blow off steam and go out for a few drinks. On the way home, they find a briefcase filled with 20K.

The whole plot revolves around the repercussions of their actions. I really liked the characters, they came across as quite young and immature in nature. I expected a much more intense and graphic novel from reading the synopsis. But it is a very tame story, it’s easy going and it has a pleasant pace. Readers who enjoy the suspense of a crime thriller without the gore and violent content will really enjoy Best Friends.

A little tame for my crime fiction tastes but I still really enjoyed the story and especially the writing. I recommend you adding Best Friends to your TBR list and you will enjoy finding out what happens to the four flatmates when the gangster knocks on the door and wants the money back….

A crime thriller with a different pace that hooks you from the start.

A fairy tale for grown-ups.

Grace’s twin brother had died under tragic circumstances and his death was never far from her thoughts. She had been encouraged to take up ballet after his death and had qualified from one of the top ballet schools but, unfortunately, finding permanent employment as a dancer was no easy accomplishment.

This constant search for work was not only Grace’s problem – her flatmates, Aaron, Jasper and Franklin were also gifted performers in music or acting and they shared the daily frustration of searching for work in their professional fields.

Their rent is due and they have no idea how they are going to avoid being evicted when a very drunk Franklin decides to throw himself into a dumpster. He keeps the group laughing and shouting encouragement when suddenly he emerges with a beautiful leather briefcase. On returning to their flat, they are shocked to find lots of clean crisp £20 notes.

Keeping this briefcase will test not just their friendship but impact each of their lives.

Carys Jones has created a gentle and heart-warming story of a group of friends each with his own unique personality and background. Each character is beautifully drawn and the story, although slightly farfetched, is still a perfect book in which to bury one’s head on a wet and cold winter’s day.

Treebeard

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

I was drawn to this book by the synopsis and the tag lines on the cover,they brought to mind the brilliant thriller Shallow Grave starring Ewan McGregor and Christopher Eccleston.Maybe I just had high expectations but when I started this book I was anticipating a gripping tale of violence,backstabbing and betrayals.By the end I was just left feeling bitterly disappointed.

Four flatmates,Franklin,Jasper,Aaron and Grace are on their way home from a night out,they can't afford to pay their rent in three days time but they can afford to go out drinking.....very responsible....NOT.Anyway Franklin decides to do a bit of drunken dumpster diving during which he discovers a briefcase which he decides that he is going to keep.After the quartet get home he manages to open the briefcase and finds that it contains cash,a lot of cash,as in twenty thousand pounds worth of case.After a bit of a discussion and a lot of arguing they decide to do what everyone else would probably do,they spend the money.Only a couple of days later,a rather large thug arrives at their door and demands that they return his money plus a added two thousand pounds of you stole my money tax.Now they have seven days to raise a lot of money or something nasty is going to happen to them.Now this is where the story could have become dark and sinister,the friends being stalked,strange occurrences in their flat,one of them being kidnapped,the friends turning on each other,ect,ect,ect.It could have been a intense,gripping thriller,instead there was constant references to Aaron getting aggressive with everyone and everything and Grace constantly whinging and whining about everything,her constant self pity got really irritating at times.

Grace is the main protagonist of this tale and at times we go back into her past and learn about her childhood and the terrible secret that she is so desperate to keep hidden.For a while this part of the story was quite intriguing but once it became obvious what had happened all Grace`s paranoia and anxiety about this so called terrible secret all seemed a bit pointless and blown out of proportion.

The friends where a realistic group of colourful individuals,each one had their own unique personality but I found three out of the four very irritating,the one character I did like was hardly featured in the story.There was a glimpse into the seedier side of night life in London and a couple possible danger scenes but I never felt drawn into the story at any time.Some elements of the story where never explained and it was all wrapped up to neatly and happily ever afterish for my liking.I struggled to finish this book,I eventually ended up reading another book before returning to finish this one.

Thank you to Aria and NetGalley for a copy of this book - all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Best Friends is a great, quick paced read that centers on four friends living in London, all struggling as artists in their various fields, and scraping by to make ends meet. One night out they stumble across £20,000 in a dumpster, which changes their lives - only with consequences that have the potential to bring everything crashing down.

This was a good read - fast paced, entertaining and with terrific, quirky characters. I genuinely loved the complexity and variety in the characters, their background stories, and their very specific personality traits -
the characters themselves very much came alive for me while reading, which I truly love in a book.

That being said, and while I don't want to reveal any spoilers of the story, I will say that I did find myself a bit disappointed that the tension that was initially built up early in the story seemed to fizzle out quickly. Parts of the story itself seemed somewhat implausible, and I was moderately bewildered that this was a group of people who were struggling to get money together to pay their rent, but then somehow were able to pool together a dozen ideas on how to come up with cash super quickly the following week. I think the bones of the story itself were terrific, but this could have been written as a character drama, with no mystery element, and I would have enjoyed it just as much (if not more).

Overall, it was a great, easy piece of entertainment, and I look forward to checking out more work from this author.

Thank you to netgalley, the publisher in the author for the opportunity to read this book in return for my honest opinion.

This book
Looked like a real thriller, I couldn’t wait to get started, I was really disappointed in the story. I felt that it was always leading up to something that just never happened. There was no great mystery, there is no great revelation, it was just kind of a side story without a main arc. It was a pretty quick book to read, I guess that was its saving grace. I felt like the characters were all very likable, and there seem to be a really good story there somewhere but it just didn’t happen. I was disappointed and may or may not read another book by this author.

EXCERPT: In her little flat she was still safe, still amongst friends. She'd kept her secrets well hidden. She would not dishonour Peter by discussing his death. He had been so much more than his tragic end, he'd been a boy full of dreams, adventures. To let his final scandal mark his name would be the ultimate insult to her fallen brother. Besides, Grace flopped back on her bed and stared up at her cracked ceiling, she was certain she couldn't handle the shame of the truth coming out.

THE BLURB: Four friends, a terrible secret, and one week to stay alive...

Grace doesn't have a family. That was taken away one dreadful day when she was just six, and her twin brother Peter was killed. Instead she has her best friends and flatmates – Jasper, Franklin and Aaron – and nothing can tear them apart.

Living in London, and trying desperately to make a living, the four friends are rapidly running out of money and hope. So, when they find a discarded suitcase in a skip, they can't believe their eyes when its contents seem to answer all their prayers.

But then there is a knock on their door, and a very disgruntled thug with revenge on his mind, gives them one week to return his belongings, or they will pay with their lives. Soon the fractures in their friendships begin to show, and when one of them ends up fighting for his life, the stakes are raised even higher.

Will any of them get to the end of the week alive, or will the best of friends become the deadliest of enemies...

MY THOUGHTS: I have read another book, First to Fall, by this author some time ago and really liked it. So I was excited when I was approved for an ARC of Best Friends. The promotional blurb sounded appealing to me and I started reading with a sense of anticipation.

We have four friends sharing a very small flat. All very different people, they are bound together by their aspirations, and by the fact that they are all outcasts from their own families. I particularly enjoyed the character of Franklin. He came off the page and out of the book, he was so real.

I had two major problems with the plot, both timing issues. (view spoiler)

I also felt that the ending was a little too 'happy ever after', a little too neat and tidy. 2.5 ☆

I was, overall, disappointed with Best Friends by Carys Jones. Will this stop me from reading her other books? No, because I know what she is capable of.

I know that many other reviewers and readers have enjoyed this book more than I did. You may well also. So, if you enjoyed the excerpt and like the sound of the blurb, please go get a copy of Best Friends and read it. Please let me know what you think of it.

Thank you to Aria via Netgalley for providing a digital copy of Best Friends by Carys Jones for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the 'about' page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...

This is my first read by this author and I’ve already gone and looked to see what else she’s written as I enjoyed this story.

Grace, Jasper, Franklin and Aaron are best of friends living together in London. When they find a suitcase of money they think it’s the end of their problems. However their nightmare starts when someone knocks on their door and gives them a week to return his belongings.

I found this to be an intriguing and fast paced story that I read in a day. I’m looking forward to reading more from this author.

This was a very thought provoking read! With 4 completely different friends finding a bag of a substantial amount of money, and then all the trials they have to go through, once they decide to keep it. It definitely made me think twice about what I would do if I found any money.
I want to to thank NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC copy of this book for my thoughts and opinions, which are completely my own!

Happy Publication Day!!! I am 3/4 through this book and I had to stop my reading to let you know that you MUST add this to your TBR list!! Like bump it up to the number 1 position!! Hopefully without giving too much away, this book is about 4 besties brought together by a common bond. They are put to the test which challenges their friendship bond as well as their own character. One benefit to writing a review 3/4 into the book? No chance that I can let a spoiler slip. :)

Excellent book. Brilliant story and I loved the main characters. I would highly recommend this book.

A difficult book to review, I basically found it to be an easy reading almost adult fairy tale. We'll written with relatively interesting characters but overall a decent yet average read.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the Publishers, Aria, for this review copy given in exchange for an honest review.

For information, this book is based in the UK, set mainly in the London area. It is the story of four friends living together in a flat in London. Grace, Jasper, Aaron and Franklin are all trying to hit the big time in their wannabe careers – Grace is a dancer, Jasper is a writer, Aaron is a musician and Franklin is an actor. Despite many auditions and interviews between them they are not having much success. The rent is due and they have no money to pay it. Losing out on more auditions, they all decide to go out and spend what little money they have on getting drunk. On the way home, they find a briefcase in a rubbish skip. It’s locked but they decide to keep it and take it home. What they didn’t realise was that the contents of the briefcase will change their lives, more so when the owner of the briefcase turns up wanting its contents back.

The tagline “Four friends, a terrible secret, and one week to stay alive...” couldn’t have sounded more intriguing so I just knew I had to read this one. The book started off well and got my attention from the first page. It is written from a third person perspective and whilst the story is in the present day it does focus on all the characters, although Grace is concentrated on quite a lot with flashbacks to her past. She had a twin brother, Peter, who died when she was six years old and the storyline seems to suggest that she is so close to her friends in a way to replace her little brother which she obviously had such a close bond with.

The storyline flowed well and was well written. If you are reading it thinking it is a crime or psychological thriller then I think you might be out of luck. I didn’t really feel it was either really. There is some suspense and danger in the story but it mainly came across as a story of friendship and questions how far would you really go for your best friends. You also ask yourself the question what would you have done if it was you. As the story goes on you do wonder how on earth they are ever going to get out of their situation, and as they get drawn deeper into things they don’t want to be doing the story becomes much darker.

For me, there were some parts of the story that seemed a bit strange – I’m not sure Grace’s past needed to be drawn upon as much as it did, and I would have liked to have known more about the briefcase’s owner. But….on the whole, it was a really enjoyable story, it had me hooked to the very last page and I just couldn’t put it down!

Sometimes a book just speaks to you, and that was exactly the case when I first saw Best Friends mentioned. I was immediately intrigued by the blurb and decided to give this psychological thriller a go. Four friends, a big secret and only one week to find their way out of trouble? Sounds like a perfect recipe for an entertaining and suspenseful ride to me. Best Friends starts out fast-paced and strong and has without doubt a very interesting premise. The main characters and four friends all have their own personalities and the dynamics between them works quite well. Both the situation they suddenly find themselves in and the mystery around Grace's past adds a whole lot of suspense to the mix... Although the main focus is on the 'problem' they will have to deal with. While there is quite some action involved, there is a lot of focus on the characters as well, so fans of character-driven psychological thrillers will enjoy this element of Best Friends. As far as the plot goes... To be honest, I'm not sure everything is all that believable. Especially as things start to escalate, I started wondering about the credibility of it all; both the situation they are in and the 'solutions' they are trying to find. I also felt the ending wrapped things up a little too nicely... But all in all this is without doubt still a fast-paced and entertaining psychological thriller read.

I really liked this book, but I wouldn't label it a mystery or thriller really. It is a good character study, and general fiction about struggling artists making ends meet. There is an element of danger, but the mystery is never really solved. The mysterious money and man are just left as mysterious and better off not asked about. We never get a concrete answer for why the money was left and by who, just that the guy is a bad guy. That being said, this was still a really great book, just not a great mystery. The characters are a makeshift family of aspiring artists, dancers, actors etc, and they work just like a family to solve their problems. One of them is more prone to indulge, another is the tough leader, another the guy who handles the money. Each are interesting, and bring something unique to solve the problem. I liked that there was a positive description of sex work, and that a character found he might have a talent and interest in web cam work because of their problems. By the end, you really feel that the characters have grown as people and grown closer together.

Well written, enjoyable psychological thriller. A 'keep on reading even though I am tired' kind of book. Guessed some but not all of the ending. Look forward to future books by this author.

I would like to thank Aria and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Best Friends’ by Carys Jones in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
Four friends share a flat in London: Grace whose twin brother Peter died fifteen years ago and has a dark family secret, Franklin, Aaron and Jasper.
On their way home from a night out, Franklin jumps into a rubbish skip and finds a briefcase which he insists on taking back with them. When opened they find it stuffed with notes to the value of £20,000. As they’re running out of money they reluctantly decide to use some to pay the rent and divide the rest between themselves which they spend on luxuries they couldn’t otherwise afford. Their problems begin a couple of days later when a thug knocks on their door wanting his money back within a week.
This is the second novel written by Carys Jones that I’ve read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Although it starts with what seems a simple story the plot becomes gripping as the characters think of ways to get the money together. This novel is compelling reading, the tension builds and it’s impossible to stop until the end is reached.