This is a great story to remind you that coming of age doesn’t always have to happen when you are younger. A group of friends can be the grounding that we need.

This story was not as light as I initially expected, but it kept my interest throughout the entire book. I love stories that go back and forth between the past and the present. Great, heart filled story about the power of female friendships.

My first Kletter book. If you love Elin Hildenbrand this one is for you. Perfect friendship fiction and a quick beach read. Would recommend.

A super heartwarming book that was deeper than I expected it to be. I read this one in a sitting or two and had no regrets

The East Coast Girls by Kerry Kletter was a wild ride! The complexity of an old friendship, intermingled with what happened to those four friends one tragic night, will keep readers guessing and will simultaneously break their hearts.

A tale about how life can change and how friends are a special and important part of it! I love reunion/revisiting old favorites in novels. If done right, you get to know who the character is and a glimpse into what made them that way. I loved the four friends and the going home feeling (admist all the drama) East Coast Girls is the ultimate beach read this summer!

Thank you so much to @MIRA & @NetGalley for giving me this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 26 May 2020)

SYNOPSIS | Hannah, Maya, Blue & Renee were childhood friends but their friendship fell apart after a traumatic event when they were 18. Now 12 years later they are reunited in the seaside town that they spent their childhood in to celebrate their thirtieth birthdays.

WHAT I LIKED:
- love a good "X number of years we find out what really happened" trope
- has a realistic focus on friendships, forgiveness & growing up

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- too many flashbacks & took to long to get to the meat of the story
- the characters felt too dysfunctional & I had difficulties actually connecting with them
- the ending felt super rushed
- sadly it was quite a forgettable story

This one was enjoyable! It wasn’t the greatest book I’ve ever read, but it definitely wasn’t the worst! A nice book that left you feeling uplifted. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The book was just okay. It moved really slow and I had to force myself to finish. There is a lot of unnecessary description.

East Coast Girls by Kerry Kletter is a contemporary women’s fiction or chicklit title that also has a little bit of mystery involved in the story. The book is one that changes the point of view between the main characters as it goes along.

The story is one about four childhood best friends, Hannah, Maya, Blue and Renee who come together again after twelve years apart after an incident had occured right before they were to head to college. Hannah, Blue, and Maya had planned a weekend in Montauk where the girls used to gather but since Renee and Blue have not spoken all this time she was to be left out until Maya invites her as a surprise. Of course having them all together again brings back the memories of just what happened as the four face the past.

East Coast Girls sounds like a book that would be right up my alley and one that I should have totally fell in love with. However, when finished with this one I just thought this one was just alright, I didn’t dislike it but I didn’t fall in love either. The story was a slow burner and that is something that often drags a book down for me and Kerry Kletter’s writing style was one that was lyrical and sometimes that works for me and sometimes it doesn’t. I also really didn’t care for one of the characters while just thinking the others were just ok too so in the end this one could only fall into that middle three star rating.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Hannah, Maya, Blue and Renee are childhood BFFs who spent every summer together in Montauk doing what girlfriends do best - hanging out, gossiping, laughing and living it up - until a trauma splintered them apart and changed their lives. Now, 12 years later, they meet back up in Montauk to hopefully put back together what they had and build upon what they have been missing about each other. It doesn't go as planned. This story unfolded in such a complex, beautiful way - at the core is the importance of friendship, trust, and how you evolve in your relationships through age and tragedy. I enjoyed the book very much! The tragic event was not revealed until the end and it did not disappoint.
Thanks to Kerry Kletter, Harlequin/MIRA and NetGalley for the ARC.

This is a story about BFFs and what can happen to their lives after one tragic night shatters their friendship. Maya, Hannah, Blue, and Renee were close childhood friends but after highschool, they became disconnected. For twelve years they have talked on the phone, met up in pairs once or twice, helped each other at times, but have not gotten together as the four friends promised years ago. This is the weekend. They get together for one last weekend at Blue's family's beach house in the Hamptons before it is sold. During this weekend, they will reveal secrets that they have held close for all those years, the secrets of that tragic night that fractured this once close friendship.

This story had me experiencing a myriad of emotions. I was not prepared for some of them and found myself sobbing at one point. This is not a story of angst, this is a realistic story of events that were realistic and at times relatable. Kerry Kletter writes with heart and emotion. These women are all dealing with the fallout of an event that changed all their lives forever. They were all flawed, hiding true feelings and stumbling through life. This is a story about women, their friendships, how they can hurt one another and how they can heal them as well. It is a well-written story with wonderfully developed characters that I grew to care about. I recommend this story, but it is one that I wished I had read in the summer with the sun shining to offset the tragic event and fallout that these women had to deal with.

I really struggled with this book for two main reasons: I could not accept that these women used to be best friends and the entire story line dealing with Henry. Oh how I wish it had been left out. The women don't seem to really know each other. How could they be so close if they were so oblivious to each other? Ms. Kletter does attempt to set up the foundation of the relationships but it doesn't seem to stick. Maya is incredibly dense and self-centered. Hannah is so focused on Henry that she has no life to the point of feeling guilty for going away for a weekend. Is the book seriously saying that in twelve years she has not had a vacation or get away or anything? And that no one, including these three supposed best friends stepped in to do anything about that? I enjoy a good flawed character, but these made me grind my teeth. I also didn't like how the historical timeline was disclosed. Between bouncing back and forth in time and between people, it felt incredibly dragged out.

East Coast Girls by Kerry Kletter is a light summer read that wants very badly to be deep.

I found myself rolling my eyes at the long, overly descriptive sentences and metaphors/symbolism laid out and then unnecessarily awkwardly explained in the next sentence. As well, the sense of time in the book was completely off with every single character (even minor love interests to the main characters) focused on who they were 12 years before to an unrealistic extent.

There were some sweet moments related to the complexities of female friendship, but overall it was a painful, albeit easy read. I most likely would have not finished if not for an ultimately overhyped plot reveal that I held out for and that didn’t arrive until way too late in the book.

Kerry Kletter is an obvious powerhouse voice and EAST COAST GIRLS was a fantastic book about lies and friendship, especially the complexities of female friendship among women with vastly different personalities. This was a page turner!

|#partner|Thank you to @_mira_books_ @harlequinbooks @netgalley & @kkletter for the free book! This book is available now.
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🌟BOOK REVIEW🌟
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▪️MY THOUGHTS
✔️This book takes you on a journey between friends through their secrets and lies. It’s everything I enjoy in books! Right from the beginning you realize there’s an event that happened that changes all these ladies lives. That left me curious throughout the book. I had a few guesses and although I wasn’t far off I still was surprised how it played out. The book also had me in tears! Which if you know me I love!! It was also told from each characters perspective which is just what you want when reading a book with this type of storyline. The book also touched upon many serious things like death, absent families, adultery and violence. Overall this was a well written story about friendships and how one decision can change everything.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This book wasn’t really my kind of book. It was ok, a bit slow moving and I have different feelings about each of the main characters. Just wasn’t for me.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

I'll preface this by saying I read and LOVED Kerry Kletter's first book a few years ago, and still think about it all the time 2+ years later. So as soon as I saw her name pop up on Netgalley, I immediately requested this one. I didn't enjoy this one as much- it had such a different tone than her first book , so I think I was just expecting something completely different than what it was, based on that. East Coast Girls read more like Women's Fiction, which is so opposite of her previous book. I had a tough time connecting with these characters (and found one particularly unlikable), but the writing itself was beautiful and the story emotional.

A story about friendships and the need to move on and forgive. The one aspect I disliked most was that the characters had not moved on past the one traumatic incident…though they cared and supported each other. I enjoyed that the secrets were revealed as you read through the pages.

There are some heavy issues covered in the book. As part of a group of college girlfriends that remain close 36 years after graduation, I could identify that each character came into the relationship with their own baggage. So this book reminded me of the precious relationship I share with my girlfriends.

I do think the ending came about too quickly and should have been developed better to make it a more pleasurable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and MIRA for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.