The transition from screen writer to novelist is not always seamless, but Ruth Jones manages it. This is a lovely novel about longterm friendships, and the changing nature of relationships. Just brilliant.

Really sorry - although this was a pleasant read, it didn't blow me away. I was expecting more - the write up seemed really encouraging but I just found there wasn't a lot of depth to it. The characters were nice enough but it didn't have enough in it to get me hooked. I did finish the book but can't say I couldn't wait to turn the pages to find out what happened next.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for allowing me to review this in exchange for an honest review, which is what I have given.

What a beautiful Roller Coaster of Emotions this beautifully written book about Friendships, Families,human frailties,Love ,Lies, Hate , Death this is. It will make you laugh, cry unexpectedly & think about all the pitfalls we all go through. I highly recommend it #NetGalley#Instagram#Goodreads#between the covers#fb<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/ef856e6ce35e6d2d729539aa1808a5fb4326a415" width="80" height="80" alt="Reviews Published" title="Reviews Published"/><img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/aa60c7e77cc330186f26ea1f647542df8af8326a" width="80" height="80" alt="Professional Reader" title="Professional Reader"/><img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/11bc11d0026952991f96874534f30a6fb6dbed74" width="80" height="80" alt="25 Book Reviews" title="25 Book Reviews"/>

Catrin, Judith & Lena have been friends since Primary School where they made a pact on a Curley Whirly wrapper to be always there for each other. After their A Levels they go on a pre-Uni trip to the Greek Islands - the last chance before life took them in different directions. The story follows the trio through to their mid fifties. Each gets a chance to tell the reader things from their own point of view. This worked very well- even if I did want to shake Lena & Judith's husband till their teeth rattled!

All in all this was a good light read. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

When I started this book, I plunged right through and go to about 31% before I had to give in to sleep. I initially found it captivating...but then it proved hard to pick it back up and really re-immerse myself in it. There just seemed to be way too much drama and over-the-top happenings, which then either didn't endear me to some of the characters or either made me outright dislike someand lose patience with them. Seems to me like this is a book that would best de devoured in a single setting because coming out of it and then trying to go back in felt very anti-climactic for me

Catlin, Lana and Judith have been friends since they started school and have always been together. After their A Levels, the trio head off to Greece, where things start to change. Can their friendship survive the events of that summer?

Us Three is a real emotional rollercoaster of a story. Given that it starts with a funeral, I was always expecting sadness, but not in the way it actually happened. I cried several times, but I also laughed and smiled. I supported, I pitied, I empathised and I raged with the characters. Their loves, their losses and the plights they suffered all moved me in different ways. There were times when the story dragged a little, where it took a while to get anywhere, but overall it’s a very enjoyable book.

An easy holiday read. I enjoyed the premise of the friends and their life stories. I can’t say the ending was a surprise not it was nicely written and I recognised some of the sayings/ writing as being similar to that in Gavin and Stacey “I’ll be there now ina minute” etc.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the opportunity to review this book.


#netgalley

"Us Three" follows the friendship of three girls from Wales who met at primary school and vow to be best friends for ever - the book spans their lives from their teens, about to embark on their first foreign holiday together, through to their 50s. It takes us on the ups and downs of their lives, the challenges they all face and the impact on their friendship.

As a fifty-something myself, this book hit a cord - I could relate to the era in which they grew up and many of the scenarios felt very close to home. I am sure I am not the only one with longstanding friendships which have endured, despite the fact we are all very different, and the book's exploration of what keeps friends connected felt very real. The characters were engaging and very relatable, and the supporting cast was extremely well drawn. Heartbreaking at times, but heartwarming in equal measure and with plenty of humour, this was a fun read that I thoroughly enjoyed. Ruth Jones is certainly very talented!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a lovely book to read. It had all the emotions going through it. Funny, lighthearted and at times sad. I found myself getting very emotional reading this book. I loved the characters and it made me realise how true to life it was with the way the three friends would argue and fall out with each other and come back together again. The descriptions of their holiday in Greece was particularly readable. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Oh this book had it all. Loveable characters, a heart wrenching rift and twists and turns to keep you on your toes. I really thought I knew where this was going from the epilogue but I was so wrong. I loved following the three protagonists through the decades learning how their lives and loves evolved. Beautifully written. Thank you netgalley for this treasure.

Not quite as engaging as I would have liked and I felt adrift with what was happening at times but the characters are interesting and there's humour there

I didn't want to put this one down!
A heart warmer, a tear jerker and one to make you laugh all rolled into one. A well written story of friendship.

A very enjoyable book, with three diverse women as the main characters. I thought the format worked very well. Each chapter highlighted a different character and the book went backwards and forwards so that we learnt the history of everyone and the reasoning behind their actions.

Although it was not without it's sad parts, on the whole this was a feel good book. Easy to read, maybe not a real page turner, but a book you wanted to keep returning to. I found that I cared about the people in it and I cared what happened to them. A sign of a good read.

hank you to Ruth Jones and @TransworldBooks for this advanced copy in return for an honest review. I have to apologise, because although I received this book some time ago, I am somewhat late posting my review. The good news is that Us Three is already available for purchase and you can get a copy here. Description 🔖 Three girls that have been friends since Primary school are in separate right through to their University years. Judith, Catrin and Lana have grown up together and are more like sisters than friends. When they finish school, their friendship is cemented by a once in a lifetime island hopping trip to Greece. Shortly afterwards, life takes a bit of a turn for all three of them and their friendship changes in a way that none of them expected. They made promises to each other in their youth, but childish promises aren’t always easy to keep. General Thoughts 🤔 I’ve been steadily chipping away at this book for a few weeks and although I felt guilty about taking so long to read it, in hindsight I’m kind of glad that I did. It was nice to take this book in in small bite sized chunks and appreciate every few chapters for what they were. This is a book of relationships and human nature and friendships and family; including the good, bad and ugly. The reader is thrown into the lives of Judith, Catrin and Lana across the decades. People come and go in that time, so out of choice and some under devastating circumstances, but it’s real and it’s so very relatable for many. Characters 👫👭👬 Obviously, Judith, Catrin and Lana are the focus of the storyline, but there are many other characters along the way. My favourite character was probably Jack, but I won’t go into too much detail about him here and will leave that for you guys to delve into. Instead, I want to give a little summary of my feelings about the three women. Judith is the serious one in the group. In her younger years I feel like she had no choice but to play this role due to her family life, but I think that she struggled to let go of that in her adult life. Catrin is the peace keeper in the group and I felt bad for her through a lot of the book. Personally I felt like she was the most selfless out of the three, but often wasn’t treated in the same high regard that she treated others. Lana is the wild friend and the party girl. She frustrated me the most out of the three. She was that person that never seemed to grow up. Not in a fun and carefree way, more in a selfish and self-absorbed way. Writing Style ✍🏽 I loved that this book was set in Wales and I think Ruth Jones being Welsh herself was evident in the writing. The Welsh colloquialisms made me smile and laugh at times. My partner is Welsh and I live in South Wales myself, so this struck a chord with me. I really liked that the book was in three parts, spanning different times in the character’s lives. We all change across long periods of time and I felt that the writing did such a good job of reflecting how the women had grown and developed over the years. Conclusion & Scoring 🎖 I thought that this was a lovely light hearted read that gave a highly relatable reflection of female friendships and how they ebb and flow over time. I laughed at parts and I was close to tears at parts. My heart nearly burst with emotion at some points as I thought about my own female friendships. If you’d like to cuddle up as we approach autumn and feel warmth through pages, I’d recommend this book for sure.

Back in 2018 I read and reviewed Ruth Jones’ debut novel, Never Greener and even got myself 5 minutes of fame on the Zoe Ball show on ITV talking about it. I liked the book but had a couple of issues with it so decided to give Us Three a go to see if it was a more rounded read.

Us Three is about three friends; Lana, Judith and Catrin who meet in primary school and promise upon a Curly Wurly wrapper to always be friends. Forever and ever. Nothing will ever break them. Ever. Of course life doesn’t really work like that, and in Us Three Ruth Jones explores female friendship and family through Lana, Judith and Catrin.

Spanning decades from the 1980s to the present day, we first meet Lana, Judith and Catrin when they are about to embark on their first holiday abroad. They’ve eschewed the usual haunts and have decided to island hop around Greece, taking in a trip to Cyprus too to visit the town where Judith’s beloved step father was raised.

Catrin is from a loving Irish family, Lana from a large family where she is the eldest of a number of siblings and Judith is an only child who has a difficult relationship with her complex and emotionally abusive mother. Their holiday is one of the last times the three of them spend quality time together before an event damages their friendship for many years to come.

There is a lot going on in this book and it spans a big old chunk of time and for the most part it works. There’s first love, infidelity, religion, infertility, alcohol dependency, homosexuality, death, mental illness, coercive behaviour and emotional abuse to name just some of the issues addressed. It’s just that I’m not sure that you can cover all of that and do everything justice. It felt a little too ‘on the surface’ for me and there were certain issues which needed more exploration than a few lines.

I think that there is a better book in here that is screaming to get out. I don’t mean that to sound cruel but at times it felt a little clunky at the expense of the character development. One character in particular was very similar to a character in Never Greener for example which felt a little jarring especially as I loved the characterisation in her first book.

I appreciate that this sounds like I hated the book, I really didn’t! It’s an enjoyable book which really does shine a light on female friendships and how complex they can be. Catrin becomes caught firmly in the middle between Judith and Lana and I thought that this was written particularly well, with decades of resentment seeping from the pages. I really like a book which spans decades and despite my comment on characterisation above I did grow to love these three women. I wanted to know what would happen and there were a few moments where I was more than emotionally affected by the turns that their lives would take.

It’s a solid read and one which I think many people will enjoy. It is an escapist read, I read it whilst on holiday and it was the perfect book to lounge around with, and is one of those books you can get lost in.

I really enjoyed this read - a good old story. Of family, of friendship, of relationships. Much of it was a reflection of my life with close friends growing up in the same era that I'm still friendly with. So much familiarity from the 80s and throughout. Lovely relationships and always one friend (Catrin) holding everything together. The three friends ended up having such different lives, reflecting their completely different personalities, but the pull of home and familiarity is always there. I suppose this book is categorised as "chick lit" but to me it's more, it's a real good story.

Ruth Jones has written a book based on friendship and I found it so relatable which is probably why I found it such a joy to read. With all the silly conversations you have with your friends, the banter and the little jokes. It all was brought to life so well in this book. The three friends were all so different from each other and it was so sad to read about their friendship deteriorating but it all was very realistic. The book was written from each of the three main characters perspectives so you understood the reasons for their decisions and behaviour. The book follows them from about age twelve until they are in their fifties so as a reader you live through their ups and downs in life alongside them. Of course in true Ruth Jones style I really could hear the welsh accents so clearly in my head because of the way she writes. Father O’Leary, even though he had a very small part in this book, really made me laugh! What a character! Though every person in this book was a delight to read about.

This is a tale of love, loss, loyalty and true friendship. An uplifting but also very moving story that I just did not want to end. I felt like all three of the girls became friends of mine by the end of the story. As Nessa would say…”I’m not going to lie to you…that was immense. Crackin!”

Loved it, loved it, loved it. Ruth’s second book although my first from her and she didn’t disappoint. The characters were easy to follow and very realistic. Following the lives of 3 childhood friends into adulthood each chapter is written from the perspective of the different characters. Easy to follow and know who she is writing about as the heading gives the name of the character. Thanks Ruth Jones and NetGalley.

I am a huge fan of Ruth Jones’ television writing and so obviously very excited to read this book. Unfortunately it just didn’t work for me. I was quickly bored by all three girls/women and thought the stories around them seemed contrived. The characters were well drawn but not like real people. I never got caught up and involved the way I love to do in a saga such as this. I’m sure Ruth Jones does have a wonderful book in her head waiting to be written but this wasn’t it.
On a positive note it was a very easy read so ideal for holidays or long journeys.

Lana, Judith and Catrin have been friends every since they made a pledge over a Curly Wurly wrapper in the school playground when they were eight years old, but years later, after a trip to the Greek Islands to celebrate the end of their A levels, that pledge is tested, and inevitably broken.

Right from the first page I was gripped by the character led story of friendship, deceit and heartache. You felt like you were sitting behind them, overhearing their conversations rather than reading them on the page. I liked how I absolutely loved some characters, wasn’t sure on others, and one in particular (Patricia) I hated with a vengeance!!!

This is a really wonderful story of the highs and lows of friendship, and I couldn’t put it down evening finding myself still reading it at 4am as I was desperate to know what happened to the group of friends.

I read Ruth Jones’ first book, Never Greener, and I loved that, so I knew that this book wasn’t going to disappoint, and it didn’t!