What lengths would YOU go to keep your best friend?
Ruth & Gemma meet when their girls are in kindergarten and the foursome become fast (& best) friends. Ruth is an heiress and Gemma is seduced by the benefits from Ruth’s abundant generosity. Over time Gemma feels increasingly in debt to Ruth and the friendship becomes claustrophobic. Ruth becomes embroiled in a scandalous affair with a married man and the friendship fizzles. The current story picks up some years later when Gemma has a scandal of her own and Ruth comes to her aid. Will Gemma be able to resist Ruth's extravagant gifts a second time? The girls are now teenagers and suffering the angst of high school. Social media is huge and reputations rise and fall through the airwaves. Can the girls become (& stay) friends again? What secrets do they hold with explosive potential? It is a harrowing tale with twists and turns and it caught me out at the end.

DID I SAY YOU COULD GO By Melanie Gideon
Thriller fiction
368 pages

In this novel we have two sets of friends Gemma and Ruth, Marly and Bee. Mothers and daughters who just happen to be best friends. Gemma and Ruth met through their daughters school and at first everything was great until Ruth's "help" started to make Gemma question Ruth's authenticity. Ruth is always there when Gemma needs her but once Gemma starts wanting to distance from their friendship Oh No!!!!!! That's when Ruth takes the gloves off and it ain't pretty.

WOW!!!!!!!! This book is insanely amazing!!!!!!!!! This is my first by this author and it was so good!!!!!!! Oh my God I read this book in one day ya'll. Granted I'm a fast reader but that did not factor into it. I couldn't stop reading it. The manipulation and crazy in this book is insanely juicy. I highly recommend this book.

This novel defines the "toxic friendship" genre. The story centers on the relationship between Ruth Thorne, a wealthy divorcee, and her pitiful daughter Marley, an unattractive and unpopular teenager who is wholly dependent on Ruth's approval, and Ruth's "best friend" Gemma who is an emotionally and financially needy widow with an attractive and popular daughter Bee who at one time was Marley's best friend. The twists and turns around increasingly destructive forms of cruelty prompted by feelings of abandonment are painful to watch but you can't turn away. Excellent pacing and character development, and a truly surprising ending, make this book stand out from other psychological domestic thrillers. Highly recommended.

4.0 our of 5.0 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Whew! This story revolves around Ruth, a “toxic friend on steroids” who sets her sights on Gemma and her daughter Bee. Ruth only wants what’s best for her daughter, Marley, and is willing to work very hard to reach her goals. She sees Marley in a terribly skewed light and this will break your heart. Marley is intelligent, sweet, creative, personable, and sincere, all traits that Ruth is not. Gemma and Bee are simply wounded birds for Ruth to cruelly toy with. Gemma has her faults too, she quickly falls under Ruth’s control by accepting her gifts; new car, clothing, fancy dining, and flamboyant vacations.
But when Gemma begins to distance herself in order to build new relationships, some truly evil things begin to happen. This is a quick page-turner, a trap you’ll want to see to the end, a sadistically plotting cast of women, both young and mom-aged.
Sincere thanks to Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is October 1, 2021.

What would you do to keep your "best friend" close? I think that is the basic concept of this book. I can't say for sure because I frequently felt that the story wasn't sure where it was going. It felt very unanchored. Were we dealing with the teens, Bee and Marley? Were we focusing on the adults, Ruth and Gemma? In the end, I feel like we never got to the point of understanding and liking the characters. Their development felt too unfocused. We didn't get to a point of knowing a character enough to be surprised by the changes (twists?). Likewise, the narration was too rambling and too slow as though the author knew they wanted to include certain events but wasn't sure how to get from one to the next. By the time I got to the end of the story, I didn't care.

Ruth and Gemma are two single moms from very different circumstances. Ruth is a divorced heiress whose daughter Marley is smart but unattractive. Gemma is a widow whose daughter Bee is popular and pretty. Their friendship has been strained but when Gemma’s SAT prep business is hit by a scandal, Ruth comes to her defense and they become close once again. The book is the story of the girls’ freshman year at a fancy private school. Gideon weaves an artful tale of deception with many twists and turns told from the viewpoints of the four women. I couldn’t put this down. I highly recommend it.

Did I Say You Could Go by Melanie Gideon
Published: August 3, 2021
Simon & Schuster
I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

Melanie Gideon is the bestselling author of the novels Valley of the Moon and Wife 22, as well as the memoir The Slippery Year: A Meditation on Happily Ever After. Her books have been translated into thirty-one languages. Wife 22 is currently in development with Gidden Media. She has written for The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Times (London), the Daily Mail (London), and other publications. She was born and raised in Rhode Island and now lives in the Bay Area. 

“It’s time to start telling the truth.”

It all started when Ruth hosted a meet and greet for her daughter, Marley, kindergarten class. Single mom Gemma and her outgoing daughter Bee were just what Ruth and Marley needed. Ruth is wealthy, divorced, and looking forward to someone who needs her. Gemma is a widow and a struggling single mom. So when the ultra-rich Ruth starts financing her life, she is taken. At what point does friendship become toxic?

W O W . This book was impossible to put down. The plot is deliciously devious, wickedly fresh, and absolutely captivating.

The character build-up was so intense and so well done, we are in the author's clutches until the very end.

As the story unfolds and gets more and more twisted, it becomes impossible to find a good place to pause. Things happen at such a subtle yet rapid pace. The situations are terrifying, authentic, and clearly well researched.

I found this story very unique. The relationships were so genuine and powerful. The subtle ways things shift from normal to dangerous were so well played that you do not see it coming. But when the dust finally settles- you definitely feel as though you’ve been punched in the stomach.

The power dynamic between the two mothers, the daughters, and everyone in between was so complicated and so thoroughly curated that your heart will explode. Everything about this book is a win.

Absolutely incredible okay on emotion. We are putty in Melanie’s hands from page one.

Ruth is a wealthy divorcee who is looking for a fresh start together with her shy daughter, Marley. At a school meet and greet Ruth and Marley are introduced to single mother, Gemma, and her daughter, Bee. These four become fast friends and soon Gemma is joining Ruth on lavish vacations and fancy restaurants. As a single parent, Gemma is barely able to make ends meet so she really enjoys this royal treatment at first. But Gemma has a nagging feeling that there will be payback for all of these freebees in the future. What are Ruth’s motives for the red carpet treatment? Will Gemma ever be able to return the favors?

Overall, I thought this book was good. The story flowed well, had plenty of drama, and held my attention throughout. And the final twist was the perfect ending!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This review will be posted to my Instagram Blog (@coffee.break.book.reviews) on July 30, 2021.

Wow, this novel is such a twisty rollercoaster! I had never read a book where all its characters did so many bad things to each other. The adults where worse than the mean teenagers. It was a very fun read and a bit disturbing. The author is definitely making a point to what can happen to people when they are raised by toxic parents. This is an extreme story of possessiveness, selfishness,  and codependency. Although this is a work of fiction,  it is something that could definitely happen in real life which makes it even more disturbing.  This was a quick fun read for fans of domestic and psychological thrillers.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with this ARC in return for my honest review.

Thank you Net Galley for providing me a copy of Did I Say You Could Go. I have never read anything by this author before so it was my first by her. I thought this one was pretty good. It had a ton of twists which I like when it comes to a book. I dont like spoilers and feeling I already know what is going to happen half way through the book. Definitely a page turner for sure! Only downfall about this one is that it had a lot of POV's which I don't like in books a lot so that was kinda sucky and disappointing and made some parts confusing. But overall pretty good book!

I was really looking forward to this one, but it's too slow paced for me. I did like the twist at the end, though. As others have stated, I also did not see it coming. I felt the characters were a little underdeveloped, but otherwise this was an okay book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read an ARC of this book!

This is a VERY slow burn book. That being said, it was worth it. I did feel like nothing was happening for the first half of the book, but really it was just setting the scene for everything to fall into place for the reveal. There are little clues throughout that story that don't click until the scheme is revealed. This was a wonderfully crafted thriller and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the genre!

Loved this page-turner!! I enjoyed the multiple POVs and the theme of friendship. This was an extremely quick read for me and I can't wait to recommend this to my friends!

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for advance copy.

Wow! The end was worth it. Two moms of two girls now attending the same school. Ruth and Gemma becomes fast friends. Ruth can and will help her friend Gemma by any means necessary. Then the two have a falling out, with each being involved in separate scandals. They come back together as though the friendship never lapsed. Now Gemma forms a relationship with a man which makes Ruth jealous and Ruth don't do jealously well. Recommend 4 stars

This book brings four emotionally struggling women together with a plot that centers around two single moms and their teenage daughters. Throughout the narrative, each character is involved in different scandals which put them at the center of negative public attention. In addition, these main characters have very volatile relationships with each other. Through each public struggle, they end up finding their way back to one another for support.

This book reads as a fast-paced domestic thriller with a YA feel. The narrative is told through the POVs of Ruth, Gemma, Marley, and Bee. Each of these characters have their faults and can be considered unreliable narrators. The friendships are so unhealthy, it’s hard to tell who is in control and who is being manipulative. These unstable relationships bring several plot twists. Just when you think things are not going to get uglier, they do. I really enjoyed the final twist and did not see it coming. I found the ending morally wrong, yet satisfying. Overall, the characters felt realistic and the narrative was mostly believable, making this an enjoyable read

Thank you to Melanie Gideon, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

Both single moms, Ruth and Gemma become fast friends when their daughters start kindergarten at a private Bay-area school. Ruth can be clingy and demanding, but Gemma finds it hard not to be seduced by her generosity, Ruth is rich, while Gemma struggles. By the time the girls start high school, the women had drifted apart, but Ruth helps Gemma with back-to-back crises, and they’re immediately inseparable again.

However, their daughters struggle to maintain their friendship. Ruth’s daughter, Marley, is slightly overweight and shy, while Gemma’s daughter, Bee, is desperate to be popular. Bee and Marley are both nostalgic for their childhood friendship but it isn’t enough for them to overcome the cruel social atmosphere of high school.

This page-turning, suspense novel explores friendship among women, and the worst manifestations of it. What lengths will Ruth go to to make sure Gemma remains in her thrall? #DidISayYouCouldGo #NetGalley

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for providing a NetGalley ARC, I really enjoyed this mix of character and plot driven thriller (a great combination). I found it a twisty narrative that earned its dark twists. The themes on motherhood, adolescents, and female relationships mixed with manipulation that could have felt overly basic or trite were instead grounded in an honest reflection on the darker sides of women's lives, I respected and appreciated how the author found this balance and did not alienate me as a reader. The only limitation for me were the sections from the teen daughter's POV, that felt a bit off track with the tone and direction of the book for me or perhaps it is more that I wasn't sure that the book needed that perspective, though I did understand and appreciate those chapters more as the plot unfolded. Overall, a book that could be read as superficial here actually has a lot of layers that are relevant to today's image/social media driven lives, feelings of disconnection and envy, and the ever present confusion of women's lives in today's world. I think this would be a fun and engaging book club discussion book.

Ruth and her daughter Marley were BFFs with Gemma and her daughter Bee. But it was never an equal playing field - Ruth always gave Gemma gifts and financial help, but Gemma worried that all those gifts had lots of strings attached. After a break in their friendship, a scandal at Gemma's test prep company brings Ruth back into her orbit. But Ruth's not about to let Gemma go again - and she will fight to keep her close.

I read a lot of book about unlikeable characters, but I have to say these are some of the most unlikeable ones. Ruth was hard to read about because she was just so obsessive and toxic, always looking for ways to cut down her daughter and further ingratiate herself with Gemma. Bee and Marley also had their own teenage drama - lots of misunderstandings and cyber bullying. There's not really anyone to root for in this story. I did find some of the twists at the end to be very shocking, so I'll give the author credit there, but this book was just a little too unpleasant for me to recommend highly.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for providing a NetGalley ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Whoa! This is one addictive domestic thriller. I started this last evening and stayed up until 4 am reading it, literally unable to put it down until I was finished. Was it a bit far fetched? Did I guess the big reveal...yes and yes. And you know what? It didn't matter one iota because these pages turned themselves and this book sucked me right in.

Don't expect your typical thriller with this one...it's much more than that and so much better too. This is mean girls beyond belief and to have your own mother be that mean girl is unbelievable. There isn't one single character in this book that has any redeeming qualities yet it was like a car crash and I couldn't look away. This was horrible in all the right ways and I loved every word. All. The. Stars.

This is like if "A Simple Favor" and "Big Little Lies" had a book baby. I thought it was dark, intricate, and wonderfully paced.