”The people closest to you surprised you in the most disappointing ways.”

Good Company is an up-close-and-personal, introspective look at a group of friends and their lives, choices, and relationships over many years. The story follows Flora, Julian, Margot, and David - two couples who have been friends for decades - and the joys, sorrows, betrayals, challenges, and celebrations they’ve experienced along the way.

”She vacillated between sorrow and fury and seemed incapable of finding some middle ground.”

Like the entire series of Friends condensed into 300 pages, Good Company is heavily character-driven and relies very little on linear plot development. The narrative bobs and weaves, folding over and back in on itself again, jumping from college days to present day, to the early days of their marriages and careers, to what happened 5 years ago. Each chapter presents a collection of memories and how the characters were impacted by those experiences.

”Too often, she looked forward to the end of something—to beginning the remembering—more than the thing itself.”

Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney does an incredible job of bringing her characters to life through deep, thorough character development and backstories. You get to know each of them intimately, for better or for worse. They’re not exactly the most likeable bunch, and some of them make some really poor choices, but Sweeney offsets this to an extent, by offering vulnerable, revealing insights into their inner workings. The dialogue is well-written, engaging, and believable.

”They had drifted because Margot and David’s lives were progressing in a way that made Flora feel resentful, left behind.”

Plot-driven readers may struggle with this one, as well as readers who find non-linear timelines challenging. It was hard for me to follow the constant flashbacks and the jumping around between decades & events. It is a relatively light read, which could be a good thing for those seeking something short & sweet, or could be a bit of a bummer for those who prefer a deep, moving read.

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A huge thank-you to Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, Ecco, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

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I read this in almost one sitting! It's well-written and engaging. Easy to fall into reading about the imperfections of the seemingly perfect characters and the family dynamics.

Would recommend to domestic thriller fans.

Also, check out that beautiful cover!

In Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s follow up to her great debut novel, “The Nest”, she once again tells a captivating, emotional, compelling story of family and love. In GOOD COMPANY, we follow a cast of imperfect but authentic characters navigating marriage, careers changes, growth, and loss. I was enthralled by GOOD COMPANY, eager to be swept up by Julian and Flora, Margot and David. The ending came too soon and left me wanting more time with the characters, more time in their richly detailed world.

NetGalley kindly provided this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A wedding ring is found in the bottom drawer of junk in the garage, after being lost many years ago. Now, 20 years of marriage and friendship are at stake, because of a secret about the past. Are they both strong enough to survive the truth?

We learn about the past and present lives of Flora, Julian, Margot and David, in non-chronological order. Which made me regroup my thoughts along the way. The story includes love, life lessons, family and betrayal. Flora is a likable character with a side of insecurity. And Margot is a little self-absorbed and flaunting.
It's a nice story, but it just wasn't very exciting to me. I would have liked a little more drama for the storyline.

Sometimes you just want a good, easy story to sink into. One that seems both familiar and removed from your real life. A book about the complexities of life…so dramatic that your own life is given a chance to feel boring for a change. Or maybe where the complexities feel a little close to home. That is what Sweeney has created here. A book you can read in one effortless sitting.

Sweeney’s storyline is well executed. She utilizes the characters’ backstories to bring a depth to the plot while also creating an acuity in the characters. Use of inner dialogue also drew me in and allowed me to feel what the characters were feeling in those moments.

While the storyline was well executed, the ending was not. Ambiguous endings work well for many books. But in this case, it felt as though the symphony had reached its crescendo only to then set down its instruments and walk away. The drama and betrayal of this novel had slowly built to a precipice and suddenly was just over. (I mean… who can face betrayal head on only to just shrug your shoulders at it?!) Not realizing I was at the actual end, I tried to turn the page and was left wanting. The fuse had been lit but I was left with no fireworks.

Ultimately, this is not a riveting book. But it was good and entertaining. It’s a book that highlights inner struggles. It’s a book about secrets, betrayal, and lies and deciding how to overcome them. It’s a book about marriage and friendship at its best and worst.

Many thanks to Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, Ecco, and Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Good Company is the story of a family.
Julian, Flora are actors. They struggled along for many years but finally have secure TV jobs. They have a daughter, Ruby.
We meet their best friends, actors groups and learn about their summer stock company called Good Company.
It was a very interesting story with really good characters. I enjoyed the book.

A light -- although not unpleasant -- read involving two couples connected to acting and the theater over time. It can best be understood as one character's synopsis of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard -- characters clinging to their past, incapable of moving forward. Unwelcomed change, and the ability or inability to move forward to create a life in light of that change, is the central struggle for each of the main characters. Whether they will be able to successfully negotiate the transition on their own terms is a question left unanswered at the end of the novel, although one suspects that there will be a more or less happy ending in the future.. An entertaining beach read.

3.5 Stars

Thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for an opportunity to review this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early read of this book!

Good Cmpany is the story of a marriage. As one of the characters says – you never know what goes on behind other people’s front doors. In this case, there is Flora and Julian, married for almost twenty years, both actors living in LA, still best friends with fellow actor Margot and her husband David. On the day that their only daughter is graduating from high school. Flora goes looking for a specific photo – it means a lot to their family and she wants to frame it as a gift. She finds it, but she also finds her husband’s lost wedding ring, hidden in an envelope. She does not know what to make of it, and when she confronts him at the end of the day, she discovers that he had a year-long affair in the early days of their marriage. She had always thought her marriage stronger than everyone else’s, something that other people envied, and while she is wrestling with this betrayal, she is also rethinking their entire marriage with this new information.

The book unfolds over the course of a summer – their daughter has gone on a trip to Spain with her boyfriend’s family and they have gone to spend the summer in New England, where their theater company – called Good Company – will be giving their annual summer play. The narrative goes back and forth, past to present, as Flora tries to reinterpret her past how does this change the last twenty years - and starts to decide, how she wants the rest of her life to go. There are a lot of layers here – marriage, motherhood, friendship – it would be an excellent book club title.

Shoot This Into My Netflix Queue: Good Company by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney

For an actress staring down the prospect of an empty nest, Flora Mancini’s inner voice is channeling different takes on one Shakespearean line an awful lot:

To be pissed, or not to be pissed?

To forgive, or not to forgive?

To believe, or not to believe?

To regret, or … screw it, I need a drink.

In Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s followup to “The Nest,” “Good Company,” Flora and Julian seem to have it all — the perfect marriage (Florian!) between two actors, a beautiful, intelligent, not-following-in-their-footsteps daughter, Ruby and best friends in Margot and David, another power couple with hefty career resumes. Once college roomies, Flora and Margot have been lifelong best friends, supporting each other in good times and in bad.

So what does one do when their best friend is found to have been keeping a secret about a husband?

Like her first hit with “The Nest,” D’Aprix Sweeney takes awkward family dynamics head on in “Good Company.” At its center, Flora is the poster child for a midlife crisis, with Ruby headed off to college and a marital secret spilled when a long lost ring is found by accident, for the second time.

And let’s be honest, even without the relationship strife, isn’t an empty nest often the trigger for some long, hard thinking about what that next chapter in a life should contain? Do you want to stay in your home or is it time to downsize? Do you want to stay where you are or does your job let you work from anywhere? Do you even want that job anymore? And can you go back to where you once were?

Flora —and Margot — have a lot to consider over the course of a summer, with next steps suddenly not so concrete. What does love look like when you are suddenly untethered from something that was your constant?

D’Aprix Sweeney engages readers immediately with the central plot twist, making “Good Company” the book you won’t want to put down until you have some answers. No character is perfect, each works to own their flaws, and she crafts their personas in such a way that you find yourself rooting for pretty much every one of them.

And yes — it’s also written to be transformed into a TV series. I mean it — if this doesn’t find its way onto a streaming channel, what a miss that’ll be. There’s the main story, of course, but with a million threads to pull. What’s David’s perspective on his career and the health crisis that derails it? What about Julian’s past? Does Maude write that book? And for that matter, relationship between Flora and her mother? What about Ruby and school? Or Margot and Charles? Does she becomes a judge and he her bailiff? Ah, the POSSIBILITIES. I really need to know these things, Cynthia. It isn’t fair to leave us hanging, you know.

Good Company hits local bookshelves April 6. Don’t miss it.

Good Company was a strange book for me. I felt drawn to the story, which was told in alternating timelines of the past and the present. The past focused more on Margot and David, and on Julian’s small theater company Good Company. The present timeline, which held my attention more than the past, focused more on Julian and Flora and their daughter Ruby who was graduating from high school.

The entire story is a family drama focused on marriage and friendships and secrets and lies. Usually those hold my attention pretty well, but this one was awfully predictable. I mean, I guessed the “big secret” from reading the blurb about the book.

While I did enjoy the story, it was very slow paced and almost repetitive. I didn’t really understand the point of some of the characters in the story, because they really added no extra value. The same for one of the events, I expected it to be so much more involved in the storyline, and it was almost glazed over. So what was the point in adding it?

My other issue was the way the characters interacted. Once the “big secret” came to light, I was expecting a lot more to happen to resolve the situation. There was no big blow out, no fight, no couples therapy session… it just kind of was what it was, and the resolve was chopping down a tree. Yes, there is probably some hidden symbolism there knowing what the tree represents, but realistically, would someone be forgiven after chopping down a tree? I doubt it. I mean, this secret supposedly was tearing apart a marriage and friendship, but the tree fixed it all. I mean… what?

Overall, the story was not horrible. I actually enjoyed the writing style and I easily read this book in a day. I just wish it was a little more…. More. I think if the situations would have played out more realistically and felt like a real-world situation and resolve, I would have enjoyed this more. It seemed too fairy tale happy ending to me. 3 stars.

Thank you to the author, Harper Collins, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book.

This novel examines the challenges of a marriage, friendship, and motherhood over the course of several years. I love a good juicy story and the book's premise had me hooked. Overall, the book's hook is what kept me turning the pages. The writing style and the back and forth of the narrative time periods/perspectives was a challenge for me.

A great story with engaging characters and story. It was easy to imagine being part of the community they create.

Special thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: April 6, 2021
After the success of “The Nest”, Cynthia D’Aprix-Sweeney returns with “Good Company”.
Flora Mancini has a seemingly perfect life; with her handsome and talented actor husband, Julian, beautiful and intelligent daughter, Ruby, and a great relationship with her best friend, Margot, Flora feels blessed. But when she discovers her husband’s wedding ring in a well-hidden envelope (a wedding ring he claimed to have lost), she begins to question the stability of her relationship. When confronted, Julian admits to a life-altering event that happened years ago and what’s worse- Margot knew and didn’t say anything about it. Now, everything Flora thought she had is turned on its head, and she needs to decide what’s worth fighting for, and what needs to be let go.
Sweeney has a way of writing character-driven, emotionally-charged family dramas (as was evident in “The Nest”). The plots aren’t full of action or gripping suspense (in fact, not a whole lot happens), the characters and their interactions with each other form the entire plot of the novel. Yet “Company” is still able to draw a reader in, and pull at the heartstrings.
Julian, Margot and Flora are all actors (in stage, screen and voiceover work respectively), and their theatre troupe “Good Company” meets yearly at a piece of property in the country, where they direct and stage their own productions. The wild, creative souls that meet here add flavour to the background of the deeply-rooted emotional connection that our three protagonists share.
The story is told from the perspective of Flora, primarily, with some Margot (and even a little bit of Ruby) thrown in. It takes place both in the past and the present, and although I see why Sweeney chose this method, I found it confusing, as the time frames did not stand out, and it took me a few pages to determine if I was reading about “now” or “then”.
I loved the heartbreaking relationships that D’Aprix-Sweeney explores, and the life-changing consequences that can spurn from a single choice. Fans of “The Nest” will definitely connect with this novel, and even after only her second published novel, it definitely seems that Sweeney has found her niche.

Good Company by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney is a thoughtful novel about marriage, friendships and parenthood. The story looks at the joys and pitfalls of all of the above with a gentle introspective tone.
The book focuses on 2 couples with a long history of friendship and secrets. Flora is an aspiring actress who often just misses the big roles she auditions for in NY theater. Her husband Julian is also an actor and aspiring director, who co-founds Good Company, a theater group which mounts small off-Broadway stage productions and a summer production in Stoneham, upstate NY. The other couple is longtime friend and actress, Margo, and her physician husband David. The story wends its way through the narrative of 25+ years of the entwinement of their lives.
I like Ms. Sweeney’s writing style as she parses the influences that shape these characters and their behaviors. Flora is a people-pleaser who, during her childhood, was deeply affected by her mother’s bitterness and her father’s infidelity. In spite of this, Flora continues to optimistically pursue a mediocre acting career and tends to subjugate her desires to the needs of her husband and daughter. Julian is not particularly perceptive and is very self-absorbed as pursues his goals and passions. The breaking point in this balance is revealed early in the novel. Their marital crisis is fleshed out for the reader in retrospective looks at pivotal times in the characters’ lives. Margot, Flora’s best friend, adds to the Flora/Julian drama in an unexpected way, greatly testing her friendship with Flora.
The narrative flows nicely and reaches an interesting, if not altogether satisfying, conclusion that circles back to the beginning of the book. Along the way, the reader is treated to a glimpse at the inner workings of staging live theater, and the contrast with a Hollywood series’ yeoman-like production style.
While I was not particularly drawn to any of the characters, Flora is the most sympathetic, and the one about which the most is revealed, as she becomes more self-aware and tries to finally take control of her life. Her relationship with18 yr. old daughter Ruby is sweet and sincere. I really like the way the narrative peels away the layers of which marriages are made—the initial hot passion, the disillusionment and tension that occur when careers and outside forces exert pressure on the participants, and finally the comfortable sharing of a mature relationship. This story’s revelations are not always pleasant but illuminate the complexity of any relationship in which people are involved—friendship, parenthood and marriage. Good Company means much more than the name of Julian’s theater group.
This book is a sensitive if bittersweet look at some fairly ordinary people living their lives and loving each other in their own flawed ways. It explores real life with all its messiness, but leaves a sense of hopefulness in the evolution of the characters.
3.5 stars

Thank you to HarperCollins/NetGalley for the eARC. This is my honest review.

Flora and Julian are both aspiring actors who met in New York City, fell in love and are seemingly the perfect couple. Everything changes for Flora when she finds the wedding ring that her husband had lost years ago hidden in an envelope in their house. Flora must now question everything she thought she knew about her friends, her family and her marriage. She has to uncover some ugly truths to find out what really happened all those years ago and decide whether or not she is willing to forgive the people closest to her.

The writing was good and this book had a lot of heartfelt drama that kept me captivated throughout the entire story.

Thanks to HarperCollins for an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Married couple Julian and Flora both finally have stable careers and stable lives, and their only daughter Ruby is graduating from high school. Flora's old friend Margot is riding high as the star of a medical TV drama, and Julian too is a successful actor. Then Flora finds Julian's hidden wedding ring that he claimed to have lost years ago during a summer that Flora remembers fondly. The true story of that happy summer looms like a threat over their previously settled and contented lives.

Meanwhile, Margot may be about to fall prey to Hollywood's disinclination to keep older women in starring roles.

Julian, Flora, and Margot are California transplants from New York City, where they were happy amateur actors in a theater troupe named Good Company. The past looms large in the novel—the pull of a simpler time, in which pressures were few and creativity and satisfaction ran high even if paychecks did not. Raising Ruby has been Flora's priority, but Flora has found an income stream doing voiceover work.

The discovery of Julian's ring sets off a ripple effect in the lives of all of the characters, and bonds of family and friendship are tested. Like young Ruby, everyone will need to figure out who they are and what they need, and find a path forward.

This book was quite enjoyable, even though not my typical genre. The family dynamic was such a huge part of the story and so well described, it was as if I was part of the family. I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next.
Flora and Julian struggled for years to keep their little family afloat and happy. One small discovery turns their world upside down. Will they be able to rebuild the happiness they've worked so hard for all these years?
I wasn't incredibly surprised by the ending, but it definitely tied up loose ends nicely.
This was definitely not my favorite book this year, but it certainly is not my least favorite either.

I found this one to be disappointing and I am bummed because I loved The Nest. Overly lengthy descriptions made it hard for me to enjoy.

When your first at bat is a grand slam home run-as Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney hit with her debut novel The Nest-simmering below the accolades, best seller's lists and awards is the inevitable question "can she do it again?" Most will give Miss Sweeney a resounding "yes" with her sophomore novel Good Company, but some may see it as the ugly stepsister to her "Cinderella" predecessor. Part of this is because of Good Company's plot and subject matter. Stories about cheating spouses are the proverbial dime a dozen, especially in Hollywood where having an affair is not only accepted but expected. So while Good Company lacks some of the suspense of The Nest, the writing is superb. Words cascade off the pages of Good Company like a waterfall-powerful and unrelenting. Good Company is a cautionary tale about marriage and how we truly never know what goes on behind someone else's closed door. While the characters in Good Company are a rare breed-most are Broadway or TV stars-they have the same problems as everyone else. There's a certain comfort in this, and it's perhaps the best thing about Good Company- realizing that no one, not even the rich and famous, have it all good all the time.

I seem to be in the minority here, but I was very underwhelmed by The Nest. I did like the author's writing style, and wanted to give her another try.
I'm very glad that I did.
I love a good multi-POV, multi-timeline, drama-filled soap opera of a book, and this did not disappoint. I actually really liked the flashbacks and thought that the characters were great and VERY well-developed. The ending was open-ended and very satisfying for me. I could see this being a TV show that I would quickly become obsessed with.
If I had to change one thing, I would have liked to hear more from Ruby.
I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco for the ARC!