It took me until about the 30% mark to really get into this book but once I got there I was hooked. The characters were so lively and interesting. The acting world is so different from mine that it was fun to read about it and pretend I was part of it.

Good Company by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney recounts the relationships/lives of two married couples who have remained close friends through adulthood from their 20s to their 40s. Flora & Julian: voice actor/mother and actor/director. Margot & David: TV star and former pediatric surgeon. They all met and married in NYC around the same time and moved to LA about 10 years later for different reasons. Early on, they formed a small theater company. Since then, they have all lived different lives.

The characters are fascinating though they're not always likeable. Sweeney skillfully reveals the story and relationships by going back and forth between present day and past. Sweeney does a wonderful job illustrating how romantic relationships and friendships change over time because of children, life events, and job changes. I liked how Good Company makes you think about your own relationships and forgiveness. I listened to the audiobook which was deftly narrated by the actress, Marin Ireland.

Thank you Ecco / Harper Audio and NetGalley for providing this ebook and audiobook ARC.

I’m judging a 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

“The three of them were logy and irritable from indulgence—days of cheese and baguettes, foie gras nearly every night, the croissants, the chocolate, the wine. Fifteen-year-old Ruby had been in a mood. ‘I’m not being ungrateful. All I said is that the Parisians are pretty sniffy for people who can’t even get air conditioning right.’”

I enjoyed the humor, the pacing, the tone, the dialogue, right from the onset of this novel.

Good Company has strong character building & a sense of realistic family drama. There is a mystery at its center which intrigues the reader throughout. It's also is a lovely ode to the rollercoaster ride that is parenthood - the jealousy when your children seem to prefer others over you, the bittersweetness of your children growing up and living their own lives. I thought it was a well crafted plot with genuine and relatable characters.

The only qualm about this book is that so much of the story hinges on telling backstories and flashbacks. This telling instead of showing aspect of the book inhibited my ability to stay transfixed. Still enjoyable & interesting.

I listened to the audiobook version of Good Company. The narrator did a fabulous job and I throughly enjoyed it.

Thank you to @netgalley @eccobooks and @cynthiadsweeney for my final read of January!

I was immediately invested in Flora and Julian’s relationship from the moment she found his long lost ring and had to know how Margot played a part in the story as well. With changing points of view throughout the narrative, we learn more and more along the way. No matter how much we think we know someone, there’s always a chance we don’t know everything. How do we come to grips with the truth after learning someone’s secrets?

Favorite Quote:
“If forgiveness was an action, maybe atonement was one, too.”

I have been eagerly anticipating another book from Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney since The Nest, and she did not disappoint me with the riveting Good Company. The author puts a new spin on the complexity of friendship, marriage, motherhood, and relationships. The novel starts with a search for an old photo with a disturbing discovery, and that’s where it unravels.

The story is compelling, told from multiple points of view, and focuses on a group of friends in television and theatre on both coasts (New York and Los Angeles) over the years.

Flora and Margot are best friends and roommates, an aspiring singer and actress who meet their future husbands, Julian and David and their lives take different directions. Julian starts his own theatre company in New York called the Good Company and Flora embraces motherhood. Margot becomes a soap opera star, and her husband is a physician. But the four friends meet up again as Julian, Flora (with their daughter Ruby) eventually move to LA to pursue their new acting careers.

The novel explores their struggles and triumphs with flashbacks and insights into these very relatable characters and how their lives are entwined. I highly recommend this entertaining novel, and my thanks to NetGalley for letting me review it.

5 enthusiastic stars for this book-- Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney does it again. Follow the trajectory of two couples, Flora and Julian and also Margot and David as they transition through 20+ years together. The accurate portrayal of life, marriage, careers and parenting's ups and downs left me sinking into the complexities of relationships. Sweeney's writing was reflective, witty and beautiful-- so much so that I'm going to pick up The Nest for a re-read so I can visit her talent again.

I’ve been seeing Good Company a lot lately so I was excited to get this copy from @netgalley and @harpercollins!

This was a character heavy book about a couple and their surrounding friends and family as they navigate through infidelity. The book alternates between present day and the beginning of their relationships really smoothly. Though you really got to dive into each of the characters and their thoughts, the lack of plot here was kind of hard for me. The ending, while vague, made sense to me given the topic. 2.5 ⭐️

I'm not sure where to start here. I never include a synopsis in any of my reviews - because, well - you can find that higher up on the goodreads page lol. I DO however give my honest opinion. While the premise of this book captivated me - and I was very easily hooked - I was left felling like "oh is this all"? I hate to give a review on a book that while it was okay, I didn't connect with it. I finished the last chapter and was left wondering what happened? What happened to the marriage? What happened to the friendship? What does Ruby end up studying (not, that it would matter to the story, but I ended up enjoying her character). This honest review was given in exchange for a digital ARC from Netgalley.

Amazing!! I was pulled in from the beginning. Character development was on point. The plot moved along and I was unable to put the book down. I wish Flora was stronger but I understand why she wasn't!!

When I finished Good Company, I wasn't sure if I had liked the book or not. I love a book with family drama, and it certainly had its share of that. A woman goes looking through an old file cabinet to find pictures of her graduating daughter, and finds her husband's wedding band that he claims he lost many years before. This leads her to try and find out what else she has missed and what her husband has been lying about. At the same time, her daughter is going through her own dramas and knows nothing about what her father has done. This book made me feel so many emotions, and if I am being honest, I still don't know how I feel about it! But I will definitely will recommend it!

Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney's previous book, The Nest, was my favorite that year because of the thoughtful character development and the engrossing story. Good Company continues that trend with the story of a marriage and life turned upside down. Highly recommend!

I was excited to read this because I loved The Nest. But unfortunately Good Company doesn't hold a candle to The Nest. The author is a great writer and does well with her descriptions (until it becomes too much, as she has the tendency to ramble on.) I kept waiting for the book to really "begin." It felt like the first quarter of the book was all set up and back story. Moreover, about 90% of this book takes place in the past (the origins of the marriages in the book, their histories, etc.) and 90% of this book is exposition. Due to the small amount of dialogue, this book was very slow moving. It was difficult to maintain interest -- I wasn't invested in the character's journeys when all we did with them is look at their pasts -- and I found myself skimming by the end.

A story of life, and love, and friendship and how it is not always what it seems. Flora, Margot, Julian, and David have been friends for decades but as Ruby, Flora and Julian's daughter, graduates from high school an old secret is revealed. Will the relationships survive?

I enjoyed the author’s earlier novel, The Nest, and was looking forward to her latest. This story of two families/friends and their marriages was entertaining. I received both the e-galley and the audiobook and planned to switch back and forth. But, I found the narration so entertaining that I mostly stuck to the audiobook.

This is the second book from the author of The Nest, which my book club had read and which had sparked an interesting discussion. This time, instead of focusing on sibling relationships, author Sweeney takes a look at friendships and marriages - following two couples who are long-time friends. Jumping back and forth in time, we see how friendships and marriages begin and evolve through varying degrees of professional success and personal setbacks and triumphs. This books is more character-driven than plot driven but towards the second half of the book the action picks up across LA, NY City and update New York and I became more interested, finishing the book off in an afternoon. This is one of those books that's enough depth for book clubs but not too heavy for those who enjoy a lighter read.

This book is charming. It takes the reader into the heart of both the New York theater world and the pitfalls of trading that in for LA. It also tickles buried secrets and how they always bubble up when we least expect them. We understand friendship and how that complicates the narrative of marriage. And how our roles in relationships challenges our understanding of self. Well written,

Good Company by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney is novel about the struggles of marriage, friendship, and motherhood, told over the course of several years. Flora and Julian are a happily married couple who have their marriage thrown for a loop when Flora discovers her husband's wedding ring after believing it was lost several years ago.

I was truly looking forward to this novel after loving the author's work in "The Nest." While entertaining, this didn't live up to its predecessor. The flashbacks from past to present were difficult to follow as there were no clear indications as to which time period you were currently reading from and had to decipher it a few paragraphs into each chapter. While I do enjoy a character-driven novel, none of the main characters in this book were very likeable, so it became difficult to bond or empathize with any of them. I did appreciate the way the author depicted the difficulties of marriage, how relationships with your spouse and friends change over time, and how you must put work into the relationships with the people that you care for.

If you enjoy a good character study on how people operate, this book is for you. In the end, however, I did not see much improvement from any of the main cast in anything life had taught them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 3/5 stars.

Flora is a voiceover actor living in L.A. with her actor husband, Julian, and their daughter who is graduating from high school. The inciting incident in this novel occurs when Flora finds Julian’s wedding ring he told her he had lost in a pond years ago. This causes her to begin to question other things about their relationship. They’d moved to L.A. and followed their friend, Margot, a very successful actor. Flora and Julian are lamenting their old life in New York in pursuit of further success in LA. The prose is beautiful, but I found the story to be, at times, meandering in a way that didn’t ultimately pay off. Readers interested in deep dive character studies will appreciate the lengths Sweeney goes to in examining the inner workings of her characters, but I had a hard time connecting with them. Thank you to Ecco and NetGalley for the advanced review copy of this book.