Us three, a lovely story of the ups and downs of friendship and all that life throws at you along the way. I loved this book, made me laugh and cry several times, an excellent read I didn’t want to put the book down.
Thanks for letting me read this lovely book.
P.S love how it was written, did anyone start reading it in Nessa’s voice

Us Three is an uplifting, joyous and emotional read of 3 character’s lives and their friendship together, that is just an incredibly impressive book that is well observed on human nature. that I highly recommend. Once started, it is difficult to put down and leave. All in all, Ruth Jones, famed for Gavin and Stacey and her debut – Never Greener, has written outstandingly, again with this second novel.

It has to be said, I was so amazed and excited, that I have this opportunity to review Us Three by Ruth Jones. Thank you so much to Alison Barrow at Transworld Books.

Full Review

I was, as you an see, very excited to see that I had an opportunity to review Us Three by Ruth Jones. She isn’t just an incredibly good script-writer and actor, but also a very good novelist. Us Three takes readers on a well-written, well-observed journey with Catrin Kelly, Lana Lloyd and Judith Harris. The three have a big trip planned of Greek island hopping before parting ways as Catrin wants to study medicine at Cardiff, Judith wants to read economics in London and Lana wants to train to be a musical theatre actor.
The writing is amusing and has a natural flow that you can’t help but be swept along with it from the start.

Characters are given their own chapters, but each are interwoven into each other’s lives and it’s great getting to know them. In amongst the friendships and comaraderie, things in life aren’t always easy, not when Judith’s mum falls terribly unwell, or did she? This is a question readers will find the answer to as the story continues.

When, finally on holiday, the three get into some unplanned situations, some of which are rather unfortunate indeed. There’s also some fun, gorgeous scenery and archetecture and perhaps a bit of romance to stumble into. There are also some unexpected revelations concerning Judith’s family. It’s interesting as they come tumbling out from George.
The relationship that Lana is involved in is one that may make you, like it did me, if it could last or not.
Catrin has exciting news.

The friendship that is captured is absolutely wonderful. The way they look out for each other, practically shines a light on how friendships ought to be. The Three of Us is so heartwarming. There are however some major challenges to overcome as well as utter heartache within one of the families as they’re taken to quite an unexpected dark place. Ruth Jones expertly navigates the shades of light and dark of life. It catches you right there. One moment you can be smiling and the next, feeling a bit more serious. She totally captures you in the book.

Part 2 takes readers into their lives 18 years later and the year is 2005 and part 3 is 12 years on, with the year being 2017. It’s an interesting insight into how Catrin, Lana and Judith are growing up and how their friendships are as time moves on and how certain things change and life’s milestones occur, some happily, others with deep sadness. All the way through I can’t help but root for their friendships to survive the ups and downs. The ups are joyous and the downs are sometimes to the extent of heartbreak in their personal lives. There are also ups and downs within their friendship to each other. The downs are the sort that, if you, like me, have friendships with some people who you’ve known most of your lives, don’t happen. I’m totally invested in these characters lives and it is tremendously easy to do so, even as early as the first few chapters in part 1. The time moving on works incredibly well as the insights are fascinating as the story builds and there is a great desire to keep reading on and finding out more because they are characters with lives to care about. The parts are also, so succinct, being divided like that, that they flow effortlessly from part to part. Each has a realistic feel to it. By the time I finsihed, I am almost speechless. It’s just absolutely, one of the most heartwarming books. The strength of character is each woman is undoubtedly amazing.

All in all, I highly praise and recommend Us Three by Ruth Jones.

A gentle saga exploring life, love, the depths of friendship and the importance of curly wurlies.
Thank you to netgalley and random house for an advance copy of this book

I adored Catrin, Lana and Judith throughout this book. I felt like I was a part of their little crew getting to witness their love, struggles and grief as they grew older together and apart. Definitely recommend for a cosy read with lots of laughs and a fair few tears.

Us Three follows the lives of Catrin, Lana and Judith. Friend since they started primary school. After the finish A Levels and go off to uni their lives go in different directions but they remain friends until n incident at a wedding effectively ends Judith and Lana’s friendship. The story follows them through their lives as they continue to maintain friendships with Catrin while at times barely tolerating each other!
I enjoyed this book. Ruth Jones writing likeable characters even if they are prone to the odd Gavin & Stacey catchphrase!!
Overall worth a read. I’d recommend it

I love novels like this it’s gnarly and about messy relationships and kept me hooked from the beginning.

Another great read from Ruth Jones.

Us Three tells the story of three best friends Catrin, Judith and Lana. Through teenage years to midlife - births, deaths and marriages - the trio have been through it all together.

I really enjoyed this book and found it hard to put down at times. Will definitely be recommending to friends.

Thanks for Net Galley for the opportunity to read this, in exchange for an honest review.

Three friends Lana, Judith and Catrin grow up together. Their lives always connected even when they fall out.

Trouble starts while they are at university. The promise in primary school to all stay friends forever becomes hard to keep. Another heart warming story from Ruth Jones.

I instantly knew that I would love this book, having read Ruth Jones previous book last year.

The story was split up into three character perspectives of Cat, Jude and Lana. I found I was instantly able to click with the characters, and I found them to be very relatable. Following them through their teens, into adult hood was a great touch. It meant you felt like you were going on the journey with them. The way that the other characters were weaved in was great too and everyone felt really fleshed out.

The plot was really gripping, at parts I was able to guess what would happen, but in others there were definitely shock twists in the story. Everything wrapped up really nicely, and Ruth Jones did a really good job of taking you on this wirlwind journey through their life. The touches of it being set in Wales, felt really relevant to Ruth as an author.

Overall, a gripping fun read!

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this exceptional book

my first book by ruth jones and it wont be my last...

3 little girls make a pact, friends forever...

the lives and loves of those three girls over the years and what a ride it is...each is hoping for some sort of success but before all that they have a island hoping adventure over in greece before their results come through and university and life get in the way...

i laughed out loud and i cried over this book...you will find that in a certain chapter...but how their lives are lived is human and basic and at best.. friends for life whatever life throws at you..but each of them have good and bad times ahead...

brilliantly written and it could be about anyone of us who has friends that are for life...cant wait for the next book off this author

Love, love , love this. As a Welshie living Down Under, I drank in the dialect, the backdrop and the beautiful Welsh voice running through this novel. The underlying friendship of the three girls will resonate with many and the characters are believable with relatable lives. Their struggles and celebrations are the same as so many others.
Take three young girls who have been friends since forever and watch them grow. Laugh with them in their good times and you will shed a tear at moments along the way. The book opens with a funeral, but prepare yourself, for it is not for who you first thought. Set against a backdrop of Wales, Greece and London, this book was one I didn’t want to put down.
Thank you Ruth and thank you #netgalley. This book is ‘tidy’.

Another fantastic book from Ruth. I loved her first book and this one was just as good. She writes so well and the characters are always easy to get to know. I loved this one and hope she writes more

This was such a heart-warming book! Yes there were traumas but there was also a lot of celebration and love - ups and downs. It was great to read and it felt like a lifetime was captured in just a few pages.


I fell in love with the characters as we follow them from their playground pact to their adult lives and as we became entwined in all their adventures along the way. Brilliant personalities shone through for Lana, Judith and Catrin and their extended families as they grew.


This is such a brilliant book - great amounts of humour (especially Welsh humour!) to counteract the painful parts.

A great story of women and friendship, starting with them as children and following through to them having grown up children of their own. I enjoy Ruth Jones’ writing style and found myself invested in each of the characters.

This was a lovely story of three friends over the years spanning from their teens to their 50's. This is my first book by Ruth Jones and it didn't disappoint. There was some funny moments and even heartbreaking moments. Very realistic to what life is like and what can happen over time It has actually made me reach out to my Welsh uni housemates this morning to check in on them. The story is mainly based in Wales and made me miss my time living in Wales. I am keen to seek out Ruth's first book.

Thank you to NetGalley & publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for a honest review.

I should start by saying that this isn't a genre I normally enjoy and could be part of my issue with this book.

I just found it an OK read. It's about 3 childhood friends and their life experiences. Supposedly, it's got shocks and secrets and yes, there were secrets, but, I just found the whole thing underwhelming.

It's an easy read and for those into this sort of thing, I hope you enjoy it. Just not one for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to preview.

This is the second book written by this author. After reading the first book, Never Greener, and absolutely loving it, I just knew I had to read this one! Us Three focusses on the lives of three women – Lana, Judith and Catrin. They have all know each other since primary school and have been best friends ever since. The book begins in present day at a funeral, and leaves you hanging on all the way through the book to find out whose funeral it was. The story then takes us back over 30 years before when the women are 18 years old, setting out on a trip of a lifetime following finishing their A Levels. That trip turns out to be a major turning point in their lives and the story continues to move on through the years following the paths that each woman took.

I loved this book and was completely and utterly captivated by it. The main characters were all wonderful in their own ways, with each having their good points and bad. The first part of the book showed what close friends they were, always there for each other and sharing life’s ups and downs. But then, things change, the girls grow up and they follow different paths, with different loves and dreams. The whole story, but the second part in particular, is heart-warming, heart breaking and emotional. It made me remember my own friends who I’ve loved and lost, and wishing that we had all made more of an effort when it mattered.

I won’t say anything more about the storyline for fear of spoiling a wonderful read. The author does a fabulous job of producing a story which makes you laugh and cry (in equal doses!) throughout the book! The characters are so likeable and you can easily relate to so many of them in one way or another (with the exception of one maybe, and even she redeems herself eventually!) I don’t know why I would even question the quality of the writing within this book with the author’s past TV scriptwriting successes!! The setting, mainly in Wales, was great and the accents reminded me so much of Gavin & Stacey (I did try so hard not to mention them!), with Father O’Leary in particular, who just gave me visions of him being Nessa in Priest’s robes!!

The author says at the end of the book that she feels Catrin, Judith and Lana have become old friends. Well, I know exactly what she means as I felt exactly the same! I’ve shared their tears, smiles, laughs and grief as they’ve gone through the years. The storyline flowed impeccably, grabbing me at the very first page. There was no putting this book down once I’d started it and I was genuinely sad to finish it. Filled with plenty of drama, lots of love and just enough laughter to stop the tears from flowing for a few minutes, I would definitely put this book up there in my favourite reads of the year!! Is there nothing this author can’t do?!! Fab, fab, fab…highly recommended!

Childhood friends Catrin Kelly, Judith Harris and Lana Lloyd grew up together in the Welsh town of Coed Celyn, swearing an oath on a Curly Wurly wrapper to be friends forever. Us Three follows their lives from 1986, when they are eighteen - about to head off on their Big Trip, Greek island-hopping for a month - to pretty much the present day, with no shortage of drama and conflict along the way.

I like Ruth Jones's TV work, but I haven't read her previous novel, Never Greener. I'll need to remedy that soon, because I really enjoyed Us Three. The characters were really engaging - Judith, whose life is blighted by her manipulative, narcissistic mother; agent of chaos Lana, an aspiring actress and singer who doesn't make the wisest decisions; and doctor-to-be Catrin, who's about to fall in love for the first time. It doesn't hurt that they're the same age as me - I too was 18 in 1986, although sadly I never went island-hopping.

There's plenty of humour, with some dialogue which could be straight out of Gavin and Stacey (and characters like Father O'Leary would have fitted right in!) and some genuinely emotional scenes too.

A really enjoyable read - recommended.

I enjoyed Ruth Jones previous novel Never Greener and was delighted to receive an arc of Us Three. The story though of three childhood friends who go onto lead different lives never really got going. Written with warmth, the characters lacked depth and the ending was abrupt. A pleasing read on a rainy afternoon.

Thanks to @penguinukbooks and @netgalley for letting me read an advance copy of Us Three by Ruth Jones.

Like everyone else, I love Gavin and Stacey so I was quite looking forward to picking up her second novel. It's about Catrin, Lana and Judith, best friends growing up in 70s and 80s Wales, and their life over the decades. I have to say I wasn't too impressed by the writing, it kinda felt like she was overusing adjectives for the sake of it, and sometimes the commentary really seemed to come from an omniscient narrator rather than being from the perspective of the character it purported to be from... If that makes sense. But I really liked the story - it was absorbing and entertaining, and it was fun being with the characters for a while and reading about their lives! Two faves: all the descriptions about their Greek island hopping trip after school, which made me realise how much I enjoy reading about travelling in fiction, and Gareth - who is the ultimate book boyfriend. 3.5 🌟