I wish I could like this. I wish I could understand. I wish I could even have a slight amount of sympathy. I have none. Here are self centered people getting what they deserve. What kind of adult has a nemesis? Who spends time caring what other people are wearing? These horrible people. I didn't care a bit about anyone. Except maybe Benilda. The writing isn't bad. But who cares?

I liked the concept of a frenemies type book taking place on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, especially after letting my obsession of Gossip Girl run rampant every few months as I sit to veg and watch the show in its entirety over the course of a month. But, personally, it was really hard to get sucked into the world Gershell and Littefield created in That's What Frenemies Are For.

I was hoping it would feel a little more like Gossip Girl based on the setting, but it really didn't feel like the characters and places they visited were "uppity" enough for the Upper East Side.

Others may enjoy this, for sure. It just wasn't for me.

This was the perfect break from reading all the heavy mystery/thriller novels that I needed! That's What Frenemies Are For is definitely the grown up version of "Mean Girls"... and I loved every minute of it!

Julia Summers has it all: a successful husband, 2 adorable kids who attend the best private school in the city, and a beautiful Fifth Avenue apartment. Julia is an influencer... but her star appears to be fading. Now Julia is on the hunt for the next big thing - the hot, new fad that will put her back on top.

Flame is the new elite fitness craze. Flame is what Julia needs - and Tatum, the naive instructor is her ticket in. But, Julia's big comeback doesn't quite go as planned, and things suddenly get ugly - and quite possibly deadly - Julia just may be in way over her head. Tatum is waiting in the wings for Julia's power to fold - just how much power will Tatum's newfound power hold? Will Julia be forced to rethink everything she knew about her world to reclaim her perfect life - or does she even want it back?

This is a solid well-written read that is "unputdownable". How could you go wrong with the Upper East Side drama. The perfect guilty pleasure read!

*Many thanks to NetGalley & Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC, all opinions are my own.

I think I made it half-way through this book and just could not get into it. The synopsis was a good, which is why I requested it, but the story moved too slowly and was extremely superficial. Not my cuppa.

Julia Summers is a super wealthy mom of two who, with her gorgeous husband who adores her live on the Upper East Side where Julia's motto is the more it costs the better!

Her lifestyle and status make her the envy of the mom's who are beneath her at the very private school her children attend. She can choose to speak to you while other's look on enviously, or she can blow you off...her choice. She is A list and her friends at the school are all A list as well. She is invited to only the premiere events and fundraisers. She has a nanny/housekeeper for the family. Julia lives in a perfect bubble of a world.

But when their Hampton home floods just prior to the summer season and they have to stay in "the city", Julia decides to take on a project. Tatum, who is a mousy, shy spin instructor at Flame, an unknown small gym, intrigues her. She decides to remake her. Sort of as her protégé.

But the naïve protégé may not be exactly who she seems. Soon, Julia finds most of her "cool" friends fawning all over Tatum. Then they begin to distance themselves from her and she sees her status begin to go from A to B to... what is happening? Then Julia's husband is arrested and jailed. Julia is not only ostracized from her group, but she is being replaced by women who were much lower on her grade level. And now her husband is in the news...and not in a good way!

But as in most cases when you hit rock bottom, you begin to realize just who your real friends are, some who you never thought would ever give YOU the time of day. You also begin to see what is really important in your life and the lives of your family. Your priorities begin to change...but you still must watch out for your frenemies.
This was a funny hard to read novel. By that I mean as the reader, you see Julia's mistakes coming and all you want to do is tell her to stop! But you can't, and all you can do is let her make the mistakes...and she does! Then you hope she will learn...

Thank you #NetGalley #BallentineBooks #That'sWhatFrenemiesAreFor #SophieLittlefield #LaurenGershell for the advanced copy.

If you loved When Life Gives You Lululemons, you’ll love this book! They have similar vibes with the same type of rich and privileged women in NYC who are always one-upping each other and living the “frenemies” game big time.

Frenemies tells the story of Julia Summers, living the life of the rich and famous in NYC, who befriends Tatum, a gym spin instructor, only to boost her own reputation and “I know it all” with her friends. Tatum turns the tables on Julia, and man does it get crazy. Julia is desperate to rebuild her reputation but is faced with many challenges within her in family.

I realized halfway through that the storyline that I connected with the most was her family situation. I was wanting more dialogue with her husband and was growing tired of the fake women in Julia’s life. She so desperately wanted to be accepted and put on a pedestal by her fake friends, that she wasn’t aware of the breakdown happening around her.

The ending was superb and I applaud Julia’s transformation. And I love Janet so much. And Belinda.

Add this one to your cart asap because your pool days are coming to a close and this one is a perfect companion!!

3 for neutral. Just couldn’t get into this one, likely my mood, but will update if able to at a later date.

Let me start by saying that I usually like chick lit. Especially when it's witty and sharp, so I dove into this one hoping for an entertaining read. I mean, come on, it has the potential. The blurb sounded so promising, so I dove in, and it didn't take long for me to be ready to dive right back out. Don't get me wrong, the book does have its moments. I even chuckled a time or two. But - oh, yes, there's a but - I didn't find a single likable character in the bunch, and I couldn't relate to any of them. It's a whole lot of gossip and one-upsmanship, and a bunch of women who seem to care only about social status. Quite possibly, and most probably, this is just not the book for me. In fact, if you enjoy shows like Desperate Housewives, then you'll probably like this one more than I did. For me, it just felt like an incredibly long book that took a long time to get through.

This is the perfect title for this book! A story of women that know what they want. They wanted it all. Not only the physical possessions and the Manhattan lifestyle, with the summer in the Hamptons. They also wanted the power over their group of friends.

The main focus is on Julia Summers who is really hungry to be the center of attention with her Upper East Side mommy friends. I thought it was a fun, crazy read at the beginning. The author managed to capture the "mean girl" attitude, that let's face it, is more common than not for girls/women. It brought to question, do they (us) really outgrow it? Or if placed into the right environment, may it resurface?

I really enjoyed this book all the way until the end. I did rate it 3.5 stars due to the ending got a little heavy for me. I would hate to spoil it for anyone so I will leave it at that. I was looking for a little more of the witty, snarky writing that I enjoyed so much at the first half of the book. That being said, I glad I read this entertaining book and would defiantly grab up anything this author puts out next!

A dishy, fun, sharp book about the power struggles in the social world of the Upper East Side, this book is like Gossip Girl for forty-somethings. It's the perfect summer read.

I absolutely adored this novel! It does a great job of capturing the wealth in the Upper East Side of NY, and showing how one can quickly get wrapped into keeping up with all of the expectations that come from living in this area. The writing was excellent, witty, and fast-paced resulting in me finishing it in less than two nights!

Fun book ! I enjoyed this story, and the interesting characters. The fast story line kept this moving. I will definitely recommend to my patrons.

Easy, fun read! I’m always drawn to these “rich people behaving badly” type books, and this one did not disappoint. I cannot relate *at all* to the extravagant, New York City lifestyle - but I sure do enjoy reading about it! I enjoyed the various character arcs, and the plot was engaging. I will say, it makes me really want to give spin class another go.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this one. This writing was very good, great characters too.

If you ever feel sad that you weren’t born as a blue blood, I recommend you check out this story. How awful it must be to constantly compare and critique your friends and worry about how you measure up! Julia was a good character but she did make some questionable choices. At times she had a bit too much of a “healthy” ego for me (her need to discover all the latest, greatest and the Pygmalion escapades). Still, though, I continued to root for her. I liked James and their relationship.

The story throws in some twists and surprises. Some I didn’t see coming which is always a treat. Make no mistake, some hard lessons were learned by the conclusions though I’m not sure they would stick had the story continued. Also, the “issue” around James sort of resolved itself too easily and with not much explanation considering its weight in the plot. And then Tatum’s parting words... GAH!

This was a quick and entertaining read. I will definitely check out more by this author. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Random House Publishing for a copy in exchange for a review.

I received That's What Frenemies Are For by Sophie Littlefield and Lauren Gershell as an ARC from NetGalley. This chick-lit novel is about Julia who lives on the Upper East Side with her successful husband and her 2 children. She enjoys being the trendsetter amongst her friends but is starting to feel like her status is slipping. When she is stuck in the city instead of spending the summer in the Hamptons with her friends she sets out to discover something new that will put her back on top with her friends. She discovers a gym called Flame and decides to make it her new project. Things seem to be going well but then her husband is arrested for fraud and everything starts to fall apart. Julia learns what is important in life and discovers who are her real friends. A great read.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm so glad I finished this book as the first half felt a bit slow and by the halfway mark, I didn't care for any of the characters, however, the pace of the story elevated in the second half and you quickly understood the intent of the author's storytelling.

Julia has a good life, she lives well, has important friends, and has a loving husband and family. She is envied in her social circle. However, she is sensing that her grip on her status is slipping due to some unexpected circumstances and she needs a plan......fast.....to regain her footing. She recognizes an opportunity that will propel her profile but later realizes that her own strategy has been used on her. Her life is upended and she comes to understand who her real friends are and while the truth is painful, she discovers a strength in herself that she did not know she had.

This story is a mash-up between The Housewives of New York and All About Eve. Towards the end of the story, I really appreciated the journey that Julia went through and how she succumbed to the challenges she had to face. You were rooting for her to get there and the Epilogue tied up the story with a nice bow.

I had so much fun reading this book, which follows Manhattan socialite Julia as she desperately tries to hold on to her status in the cutthroat world of private school moms and gala attendees. When Julia meets Tatum, a spin instructor at a burgeoning gym, she takes her under her wing as her new pet project, thinking that if she can turn Tatum into the Next Hottest Thing, she will impress her friends and continue to climb the social ladder as the one who discovered Tatum. But soon, this Pygmalion plan goes awry as Tatum reveals that she has plans of her own, which might just leave Julia in the dust. This was an addictive read. Even though I found myself feeling very annoyed at all the privileged, self-absorbed women with which Julia surrounds herself (and not to mention Julia herself!), it was SO FUN to indulge in that annoyance, to get to roll my eyes at their actions (and, yes, judge them a little), all while Lauren Gershell and Sophie Littlefield expertly and cleverly explore just how toxic the high society world can be. People often talk about unlikeable characters (and particularly unlikeable female characters) as a flaw in books, but I LOVED reading about these unlikeable characters, particularly because the authors do such a wonderful job humanizing our narrator and helping us see the pressure and expectations that can lead one down such a self-serving, manipulative path. Who is the real monster here—the woman who’s using another to gain social capital, or the society that taught her that social capital is the value by which a woman’s worth should be measured? With witty, smart, and engaging prose, and dialogue that sizzles with all that ISN’T said, THAT’S WHAT FRENEMIES ARE FOR is one of the most fun reads I’ve come across this year.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a ARC of this novel. Whenever there is a book set in New York's Upper East Side crowd, I immediately want to read it. This book was seriously funny! It was hilarious, crazy and a bit dramatic (but in a good way). If you're looking for a quick beach read to take on vacation or to get out of a reading slump, then I would definitely suggest it.

Keeping up the lifestyle on the Upper East Side is most important to Julia and her friends. But when Julia’s life starts crashing down around her, she must figure out how to keep up the pretense of her “perfect” life. Her main goal is to discover the next new trend that will make her the envy of all of her friends. Keeping the secret is much more difficult than she anticipated. This is an insightful look at how shallow friendships and lifestyles seem much more important than they really are. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes sad, this book is a great summer read.


Also reviewed on B&N and Kobo under the name IrishEyes430

Many thanks to NetGalley, Ballantine Books, and Sophie Littlefield & Lauren Gershell for the opportunity to read this fun, snarky book - loved it! 4.5 stars for a great escape read into how the other half live.

This is about the elite in Manhattan - those who live in beautiful multi-million dollar apartments, summer in the Hamptons, send their kids to private schools, have the best nannies and go to posh gyms. And status is determined in the schoolyard dropping off those children - where everyone is always looking to one up the next person. Julia is at the top of that heap - until she finds herself not the youngest mom anymore, with extra pounds creeping up, and scrabbling to get back on top. What she needs is to discover the next new "thing." She finds that when she goes to a new gym, Flame, and sees a spin instructor, Tatum, who is struggling to fit in. Julia takes her under her wing, buying her clothes, treating her to a make-over, and setting it up so that Tatum becomes the big "thing." What could go wrong besides everything?

The best part of this book is self-discovery that unfortunately doesn't happen for many until we get older because high school tends to carry on in our lives a long time; even more so now with social media. The lesson that it truly doesn't matter what anyone else thinks is hard earned but oh so sweet!