I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Four friends meet in a college dormitory and develop a lasting connection. Through relationships, jobs, and child rearing. they face obstacles and help each other cope.

Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.

Total honesty here, I downloaded this book on NetGalley after its publication date, started reading it and knew I was going to like so I ordered the paperback. Continued reading from the paperback and wasn't loving it, but determined to finish, I sat down with it and read like 50-60 pages and realized I had only been reading a few pages here and there. Once I got fully immersed in Allie and her friend's stories, I was hooked!

My favorite part of the book was Allie's journal entries at the beginning of each chapter. You can really see how Allie's mindset evolves and you understand why she did/said the thing things she did/said as a young woman, a wife and a mother as she works through her truths.

I marked many quotes in the book, but the one that really resonated with me was this one...quoting from the finished copy, page 280..."A heart can only be broken so many times. At some point, you learn to self-protect. I realize now that the ways I tried to protect myself, to keep Dana from finding out the truth as I knew it-that I wasn't worth it-just pushed him away. And as he stepped back, my truth was confirmed."
"The sad irony is that yes, a deep moat around your heart keeps you safe, but it also keeps you alone."

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the digital copy; Paperback also purchased; all opinions are my own.

Alternating between being told in the present, and the past, The Truth is a Theory is a story of love and heartbreak, and the friendships that last through anything.
Told primarily from the perspective of Allie, we are introduced to her friend group, Megan, Tess, and Zoe, husband Dana, and her friend’s various love interest, as Dana and Allie are going through a separation. Allie’s story begins with her separation, before taking the reader back to when she met Dana, and her friends in college. She recounts their tumultuous journey through college in different towns, of their separation when she graduated and moved to New York for work, while Dana attended law school in Massachusetts. Of their reunion. We feel Zoe’s heartbreak as her boyfriend chooses her friend over her, feel Tess’s jealousy and suspicion that her husband is cheating on her, and her reaction.
The way Karyn Bristol brings this story to life is beautiful, giving the reader the feeling that they are there, on the fringe as the story unravels in real-time. Often stories like this are written to be hyperbole, as if to be deliberately so far-fetched that the reader feels as if there’s no way this many unfortunate events could possibly happen to one friend group. But Bristol walks that fine line between the far-fetched and the believable, staying just this side of believable in the best way. Her characters are well-developed and I really enjoyed the way the story alternated between past and present to give a full understanding of the events as they unfolded.
Overall I enjoyed this book, and it will be a perfect summer beach read.

The Truth is a Theory is an interesting study in perspectives. The story revolves around Allie - her husband has just moved out and she has started journaling as she struggles with what has become of her marriage. Interspersed with her journal entries are flashbacks chronicling the lives of Allie and her three best friends from college. These four women deal with many familiar issues over the course of their lives and relationships. All along the way, Karyn Bristol finds many opportunities to show us that the truth you thought you knew may not be the truth at all. This read started out a bit confusing for me, but once I got a handle on who was who I was invested and wanted to know more about what was going to happen with Allie and her friends. There’s a lot of food for thought in this book and everyone will find something to relate to in these characters.

This book was not a favorite for me as I found the back and forth from one chapter to another a bit confusing and distracting. That said, I was motivated to finish reading it. The book begins with Dana leaving his wife. she journals about it then the story goes back to college days when Allie, Tess, Zoe and Megan meet and become good friends. The story continues going back and forth between the friends and the college years and their current lives.. The story comes to a logical ending and the characters are realistic enough that I wanted them all to have a happy ending.

I give this book 4 of 5 stars for the depth of the characters and using situations many readers can relate toi.


I received an advance copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I found this to be an interesting and thought provoking story. While some parts took a bit of time to figure out, I enjoyed delving into these characters who could almost be my own friends. I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my honest opinion.

The Truth is a Theory recounts the lives of four women who meet as college freshmen. It actually begins 15 years after that when Allie’s husband has left her. The story is told through Allie’s present-day journal entries. Then it flashes back to college days. I found it hard to follow at times.
Everyone’s truth is different based on their life experiences. Things that you believe to be truths actually are half truths until you learn more facts.
This is an excellent book. I don’t think I would consider it a beach read. It is too “deep” for that. But it is a great read.

I had a bit of a hard time with this book deciding whether I liked or couldn't stand each character as the book progressed.

Allie is the main character in this women's fiction book. She was abandoned by her mother as a small child and raised by a closed off father-that is the reason she cannot get close to anyone or so we are told. For reasons I kept waiting to discover, her husband leaves her at the beginning of the book. The remainder of the book meanders back and forth from the past to the present into Allie's college friend's lives and delves into their experiences with date rape and abortion and cheating. Unlikeable main and minor characters and too broad of a focus left me wanting more. I wanted to like it more but I basically had to force myself to finish it.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for a chance to read and review.

This truly is women’s fiction. The writing was good, with some beautiful descriptions, metaphors, and similes. But, I thought this story of young women so focused on having men in their lives to be tedious..in fact, as the book progressed, I found myself skimming more and more, especially for the journal entries.

The truth is a Theory follows Allie and 3 of her girl friends through college and beyond. While you do get the story told from all points of view it is mainly Allies. Her mom left when she was 4 and this has shaped her in every way. And she will have to face her past in order to move forward. But in the past the truth is a theory. Allies friends deal with addiction, miscarriages, rape, cancer, and infidelity. You see how they deal with it and how these 4 friends help and sometimes betray.
My favorite quote from this book is
"Love is an incredible feeling, but it’s one of many, and marriage is the container for them all. Feelings morph, shift, get big, get small, and sometimes with all that feeling you just want to run away. Then you bump into the container wall and you have to turn around and figure it out together.”
There are so many different loves, and while this o e talks of marriage, I believe it to be in friendship as well. A healthy relationship needs to be worked on. It isn't always easy.
I really enjoyed this book.

This is a story about 4 friends that met in college. All have secrets, especially Megan. I felt sorry for her.
This is a wonderful story with s great plot and character development.


4,5 stars ⭐️

I enjoyed this book, it was not far fetched and was totally organic. Poor Megan, she really did have it rough in this story though haha. Ali was completely relatable as a wife and mother. My favorite parts were reading the past, like when they were in college, the story was interesting it did start to drag on a little towards the end, but it wrapped up nicely.

The Truth is a Theory, by Karyn Bristol, is an introspective review of a group of college friends who navigate the 80s/90s together. Allie is the main narrator yet the story alternates between several perspectives. The reader is introduced to her as her beloved husband storms out of their marriage and she is told to figure out what she wants. Allie begins a review of how they got to this place and readers are taken back to freshman year of college where she meets her best friends: Meghan, Zoe and Tess. Through several chapters and different voices their lives are woven together and interconnected in ways the women may not realize.

The book, with some well written prose and descriptions, started off slow and didn't really pick up the pace until about halfway-three quarters through. Allie's journal entries were not just wordy-but didn't come off as "real". The story is interesting enough to follow through but not really dynamic.

I have to say honestly that I had a hard time starting this book. I almost gave up many times but I am very glad I didn’t. Once the story gets started and you begin to know each character’s personality and background, you become engrossed in their lives, their friendships, their problems and insecurities. It was very interesting to learn how the four main characters started, evolved and remained friends as well including their spouses and significant others in the mix. I would recommend this book and if it starts slow for you keep at it!! It is well worth it!!!

This book needed another edit. The journal passages detracted from what could have been a somewhat sympathetic and interesting story of college friends moving into adulthood. A lot of really stretched metaphors and similes as well. (Also, for the character in law school: third year is the easiest and the summer after third year would have been spent studying for the bar...)

Allie Sexton is afraid of the truth and is doing everything to avoid it. Her mother went missing 28 years ago and Allie still isn't ready to figure it out...

This story is about a woman called Allie who is 32-years old. She is the mother of two young children whose solid husband has recently walked out on her for reasons that remain ill-defined throughout the story. Allie’s life has been greatly shaped by her own mother’s abandonment. When Allie was just four years old, her mother left and never came back. Her and her two brothers were raised by an emotionally absent and largely uncommunicative father.

The story moves back and forth between Allie’s college years with her tightknit group of female friends along with her relationship with her high school sweetheart cum husband Dana, and present day, the year 2000-2001 where Allie regularly journals to piece together the path her life has taken. Her friends are still very much in the picture and the story is about their lives as well. There are plenty of secrets and drama as the chapters ping back and forth to cover the lives of the four women and the men they love.

Themes such as long term relationships, marriage, friendship, infidelity, date-rape, and suicide are ambitiously covered, sometimes well, though there is a lot going on at once. The author did a good job of tying up the story for each of the women and not leaving loose ends however, the tidiness of the ending belies the chaotic nature of life. The novel struggles to find a place to settle. Overall, it is a quick and entertaining read, nothing that will leave a lasting impression but a decent choice for a lazy summer day.

BRB Rating: Read It.

Thank you to NetGalley, Karyn Bristol and AuthorBuzz for this ARC.

I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would. When I read the book description, I thought the story would focus more on Allie. The other three women should have been more background characters, and we should've learned more about Allie and Dana.

It was a decent enough story, but I thought it could've been better.