Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Her Best Friend's Secret by Anna Mansell.

I love books about female friendship, especially long term friendships like these. Four friends from school come together after twenty long years. Twenty years of fame, heartbreak, marriage, interesting jobs, and secrets. And when some of those secrets start to intertwine unknowingly into the life of your best friend, what do you do? Is there any recovering from it?

This is as heartwarming as it is juicy, lots of tangles to unravel, lots of loyalties to examine. I was thoroughly invested in the stories of each character, and the author does a great job fleshing them and their unique plights out. Anyone who's held on to long friendships would surely enjoy this read.

Great thriller that kept me turning the pages, a great story with intriguing characters that kept me guessing. Highly recommend to others!

Her Best Friend's Secret is a story of four friends who have drifted apart and get together again in the early 40's to face up to their past and their current problems.
This is a beautiful celebration of friendship and forgiveness.

Twenty years have passed since four women, Emily,Jess, Lolly and Amanda were best friends growing up together in their small town. Over the years they drifted apart, but now Emily, who had moved away back then, has returned.not expecting to do anything more than hide away. A chance meeting with Lolly, and she hears herself agreeing to meet up again. At their reunion, they all realize that their bond is still there despite the years and all that’s passed. This tale of friendship, marriage, lies and of course secrets kept was an enjoyable read. The people you grow up with truly know your heart and have grown with you as you struggle to find your place in this world and by using this premis for her novel Anna Mansell touches your heart with this story. An enjoyable read to take you away from the global,pandemic raging around us all.

It wasa good story with ups and downs . The pace was enjoyable , but also needing more . While I loved the stories of each of the four women in this novel, it was hard to believe that it took at least 20 years for each to find their true selves and “ secret “ . Each woman held on to secrets, denying their true desires, and spent too many years being what others wanted them to be.

The "secret" was never told nor dealt with and wasn't a big part of the story.Emily didn’t have much of a personality. Jess was lacking in her true self as well . Amanda and Lolly were fun and enjoyable characters. Jackson and Kitt were self-centered and seemed like assholes . Would love to have been given more detail on Emily's 16th-century farm cottage to further the story a bit .

Still, it is a beautiful story of friendship and acceptance.
Thanks for the opportunity to read .

This is an emotional story of four friends that made a pact as teenagers to be best friends forever and now 20 plus years later that friendship is put to the test. These women all have taken different paths and they find out that maybe there are reasons that they feel out of touch over the years. Secrets will emerge and test the bond between them. This book is a story of friendship, heartbreak and love. Each of these women are worried that they will be judged and instead find solace in one another and this, atleast for be was very relatable. I hope you live this book as much as I did.

I have mixed feelings about this novel. A third of the way in, I was ready to put it down and move on. At that point, the four women who were supposed to reunite after 20 years had not yet met up, I wasn't connecting with the characters, and it felt like it was dragging along. I decided to give it one more shot yesterday afternoon, and glad I did because suddenly things got interesting, the characters came alive, and I cared about what was going to happen next. A slow start, but a good finish. Thanks NetGalley and publishers for providing an ARC for review.

Really enjoyed this book and the characters. It moved along at a nice pace and there was, plenty of depth to all of the main characters.

At first I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy this book... but as I got further in, I was intrigued by the personalities of the four girls rekindling their friendship.
All the story lines were well done, and I ended up enjoying the book.

Emily, Lolly, Amanda and Jess were the best of friends back in the day having shared some memorable and significant moments with each other. When Emily abruptly moved away it put an end to that. The group's dynamic seemed to change overnight and the remaining three began to grow apart as well.

They're all in their forties now and at different points in their lives. Emily went on to enjoy acting success in America, Lolly became a physical therapist and is married with kids, Amanda who works two jobs is divorced and semi-estranged from her daughter, and Jess has forged a successful career in advertising and continues to enjoy her singleton life. Emily running in to Lolly on her return home is the catalyst that brings the four friends together again. Interestingly, all four are apprehensive about meeting up. After all these years, what could they possibly have in common anymore? However, they all come around when they recall the fondness they had for one another and that maybe they could do with some girl time.

This was my favourite aspect of the novel - their reunion! As soon as they were in the same room it was like all that time and distance didn't matter. Getting reacquainted is a bit awkward at first but that bond they built as teenagers is as strong as ever. Behind the smiles they're all dealing with the demands of life and personal situations that feel too big to take on without the support of the girls. As troubling as their own problems are, one of them holds a big secret that could crush the other friend. Which brings me to the most standout part of the story: each of these women are strong in their own unique way. When they find the other in trouble, they come to each other's aid without hesitation or judgment. I loved that Mansell allowed Emily, Lolly, Amanda and Jess to embrace themselves as they are. I'd say out of all the characters I was most surprised by how much I liked Amanda. I think in my younger days I would've judged her the hardest, and this is the advantage of being older and wiser, I guess, because I'm learning to abide by the motto of to each her own. Don't get me wrong, I liked all of them but Amanda astonished me because she owns every decision she has ever made about her life and owes no one apologies for how she's finding happiness. I was rather fascinated by her.

I'd previously read Mansell's How to Mend a Broken Heart and admired how she captured her characters' emotions in it. She's done the same thing with Her Best Friend's Secret. It takes a few chapters to set up the pieces but it's thoroughly delightful once it gets underway, even though I knew that Mansell would crush me shortly. And she did. It didn't lessen the blow even when I suspected what was about to come. I was so invested in this story, in these four women, in their friendship. I'm happy to say that Mansell does give each of them their well-deserved and fitting HEA. Female friendships are a tricky thing to write. It's hard to find heroines who feel well-rounded and don't succumb to one stereotype or another. Women are complex and when an author can capture that with sincerity and allow them their strengths and flaws, and celebrate their uniqueness, I'm all for it!

Lovely feel good mystery. Easy to read. Well written and a good plot to suck you in and keep you on the edge of your seat

Her Best Friend’s Secret took me a minute to get straight because it was in the POV of all 4 friends. Once I did, however, this book swallowed me whole and wouldn’t let go until it was suddenly the end.
These girls were the closest of friends but haven’t seen each other in years. When Emily returns with a secret looking for room to breathe. She finds her friends all over again but the secrets they hide could tear everything they know apart.
I don’t want to ruin the story for anyone. I will tell you that Anna Mansell spun a vivid and captivating story of friendship, love, lies, and real life that I truly enjoyed. This is my first Anna Mansell read but after Her Best Friend’s Secret I may have to pick up another one really soon

The first half was slow, was tempted to give up. Glad a stuck with it. Great story about 4 friends coming back together after 20 years, working through their own problems and secrets.

I felt as if I knew these women and had found their diaries. The history they have together was well written and the characters themselves feel like your neighbors. The gossip between them and about them is just what you'd expect from long time friends. The story line was great and the characters fit together so well. You should definitely add this one to your TBR list.

"She was a bottomless pit of emotional need. The more I gave, the more she needed. We were hopelessly entangled."
Naomi and Sophie have known each other since college. One is protecting the other from the truth about a dark night in their youth.
Now, free spirited and needy Sophie's life has gone to pot, while Naomi's life has seemingly gotten better every time Sophie's gets worse. Now, just when she needs her most, Naomi begins to pull away from Sophie.

I wanted to enjoy this tale of toxic friendship more than I did. I am starting to dislike the "startling secret" in thrillers more and more. In this case, the startling secrets took over and the plot was thrown to the wayside. I kept expecting the secrets and the story line to connect once more, but they never did. The end was a bit of a fizzle for me.

*I received a copy of this book from netgalley in exchange for my review.

I enjoyed Her Best Friend's Secret. I loved the storyline and felt you could relate to it. Four women and four different lives and the importance of friendship. Have a read you will not be disappointed.

This is a great exploration of friendship and the bonds which stay in place over the years. Told through the eyes of four women, Twenty years ago, they were inseparable, but as they drifted apart, they lost touch. Reunited now aged around forty, you get to uncover secrets which they have kept hidden.

All four women prove to have their own secrets which they gradually allow to surface. There are several surprising events and at times, you wonder if their friendships will be able to survive. What does become clear is that they are all strong characters in their own right although some of them have issues to work through to rediscover this.

The structure of the book, in short chapters and with alternating viewpoints around the four makes for a very readable and accessible story. There are some emotional moments but at the same time, Amanda's humour, which is so to the point, proves a good contrast. Trust and betrayal, truth and lies are threaded through the four women's stories as they reassess the values they live by. All four are shown to have flaws and unresolved issues to work through. Watching them do this makes for an engrossing read.

In short: Powerful issues threaten topull old ties of friendship apart.
Thanks to the author for a copy of the book.

A nice enough story of 4 childhood friends reunited after many years. Each one with their own good & bad bits of life.
It was easy reading, not particularly exciting or anything but pleasant.

When Emily returns from the US, where she has been an actress, to her hometown in Cornwall she wants to escape everything..... especially the controlling man in her life from whom she is keeping a big secret. When she bumps into Lolly an old school friend it brings back memories of the foursome they had at school and Lily is soon organising a reunion with Amanda and Jess but what secrets are being kept that could destroy lives?

A good story showing how friends who have been apart for 20 years can pick up again even though they are keeping massive secrets and there were plenty of twists and hints to keep your interest

A great book which was easy to read. Perfect book to read in one sitting whether on the beach or on a cold Rainey day snuggled on the sofa

Well written and easy to read. Recommend this book greatly