I started out not liking this book, but ended up loving it once the full story was laid out. I really liked how the author took real life events and altered them slightly to drive the plot. The character of Lara was fleshed out and nothing that happened to her felt forced. The plot was really well paced.

Reporter Sofie Morse covered the White House beat during President Henry Caine's first term in office, and the President's controversies and outrageous actions have taken a significant toll on her. When Caine gets re-elected, Sofie can't imagine covering his second term and calls it quits. But she gets lured back into the political arena by Lara Caine, the President's mysterious foreign-born wife, who asks Sofie to write her official biography.

Sofie finds it impossible to resist the First Lady's offer and the chance to find out about Lara's previous life spent in Moscow and Paris. As Lara candidly shares sensitive information about her past, Sofie is drawn into a web of never-before-told secrets with far-reaching personal and global ramifications.

Our American Friend is an engrossing tale that unfolds in dramatic political and human detail. The intriguing plot, passionate characters, and similarities between the fictional first couple and former real-life first couple provide ample appeal. But the examination of what motivates the characters and the steady revelation of key events make the novel a page turner from beginning to end.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The story was compelling but not believable.

First Lady Lara Caine is a mystery. The American public doesn't know a lot about her, other than the fact that she's a gorgeous Russian immigrant who grew up in Russia during the Cold War and is now married to a racist, nationalist president. (...Sound familiar?) But political journalist Sofie Morse catches Lara's eye - and unexpectedly, Sofie is invited to the White House to talk to the First Lady. Turns out, Lara wants to share her past - not in the form of a ghostwritten memoir, but in the form of a biography written by Sofie. She'll give Sofie full access to her life, including her mother and sister, and Sofie can write whatever she pleases. Although Sofie doesn't quite understand the catch here, it's an opportunity she can't pass up.

Lara begins to tell Sofie her whole life story, from her mother's childhood as the poorest of the poor orphans forgotten and starving in Stalin's Russia, only to work her way out of that and marry a successful Russian attaché (read: KGB agent) - to her family moving to Paris on assignment from her dad's work and Lara meeting the young love of her life there. Sofie begins to learn stunning secrets about Lara, things that would blow the public's mind if they saw the light of day. And soon enough, you see that Sofie and her husband are hiding out in Croatia for some unknown reason. The plot begins to come together, and you know that Sofie is part of something much bigger than just a biography.

The premise of this book is certainly interesting - perhaps not very timely, but it's intriguing to imagine that another Russian first lady had some secret, salacious past of foreign intelligence and espionage. (Although I can pretty much guarantee that that's not true to life.) Unfortunately, this book just didn't grab me in the way I hoped it would - perhaps because spy and political thrillers are not usually me thing, or perhaps because I just didn't connect to the characters and their emotions enough to help me understand why Lara made certain decisions that she made. Some of the spy stuff seemed a little fanciful, like secret codes that you imagine spies using in the movies but are not even close to how it works in real life, or like kids playing make believe spy games. When it got deep into that subject matter, the book kind of lost me. More than that, Lara makes decisions that completely baffled and angered me. She was a very frustrating character to read, and I often felt no sympathy for her in parts that I was definitely intended to.

Overall, this could be a good read for you if you like political or espionage thrillers - it's a bit slow at parts and I thought the characters could have used more development, but it's a fun play on imagining the hidden backstory of a mysterious Russian public figure. Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the ARC via Netgalley.

Our American Friend is part romance, part historical fiction, and part espionage story. I enjoyed the dual storylines, though each could have benefited from a little editing.

This Cold War Era spy thriller was a twisty and faced paced adventure through the decades (spanning the 1970s to today), and followed American journalist Sofie as she leaves her Washington reporting beat and ends up helping write the First Lady’s biography.

I’m not a politics buff but I enjoyed the book, as there was a good dose of personal drama. Sometimes the story got a bit carried away but I was largely able to follow it and impressed with the intricate web the author weaved! The book jumped around a ton, from present day to last year to the 70s back to last year, and it was often tricky to understand where the story landed. Clarification of the year and city at the top of sections (because there were jumps within a chapter) would have been helpful. Once I figured it out though, I enjoyed the twists in the narrative timeline and it kept me on my toes.

The book was noted as being some fictional extension of Melania (and Donald) Trump; I found the connection very lose and, in the times the fictional President Caine was described, it was almost too heavy handed and unnecessary.

Overall I would rate this 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. Not my usual pick but surprisingly a very enjoyable one. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

A really interesting story that unravels in really transfixing way. This book has incredible characterization is too strong females. I honestly thought this is one of the best stories I’ve heard all year.

An enthralling page turner that I couldn’t put down. Lara’s story is so well written, and you can’t help but sympathize with her and root for her. Paris scenes also provide an extreme sense of place. Loved this book, and am recommending it for book club when it comes out! Can’t wait to see what Anna Pitoniak does next! Shared on Goodreads and story graph!

Our American Friend by Anna Pitoniak is a Cold War Era Spy Thriller that takes you on a Journey from 1970s Paris to Moscow to Present Day New York. At the center of it all is Lara Caine, the First Lady of the United States. Her husband, an outrageous and dysfunctional egomaniac, has just been re-elected to his second term in office and things are looking *bleak*. On the other side of town, Sofie Morse quits her job because she can't write another story about Caine, and is about to leave town when the first lady asks her to come in for a meeting. She wants Sofie to write her biography and along the journey some interesting information comes to light and Sofie and Lara become more connected than either could have ever expected.

Here is the thing: I loved this book in concept but in theory it missed the mark for me. I found it to be pretty slow, and somewhat muted. It was an interesting story, but when I finished it I almost felt like nothing happened. I personally enjoy thrillers that smack me over the face and leave me with my jaw dropped. This was like 1/100 of that experience for me.

I was wondering if I felt this way because this is Melania Trump fan fiction and unfortunately the reality of what went down in the Trump WH is crazier than any story I could ever read? Overall, this is well written and I think a lot of readers will really enjoy it. I personally need more punch.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC. Our American Friend is out 2/15/22.

(“I felt helpless,” she said. “Here it is, I thought. This is what the bargain comes down to. This is your destiny, Lara. You will be a part of this, this tragedy. And there is nothing you can do about it. Because you chose this.”)

Sofie, a former White House correspondent, is astonished to be chosen to be the biographer of the mysterious First Lady Lara Caine. As Lara tells her story, Sofie comes to realize that the secrets she’s spilling out could be ruinous – or save the nation instead.

This was an exceedingly odd book. It is very well-written and touches on the interesting theme of what makes a person complicit in a corrupt regime. It provides a portrait of a woman who has been badly burned but is learning to care about her impact on the world again. The relationship between Sofie and Lara is an intriguing one that you must peer between the lines to get at.

But this is unabashedly Melania Trump fanfiction. It takes all that speculation about real-life Melania’s views and translates it to fiction with a First Lady who is secretly against her populist husband. Admittedly, I too am against her populist husband, but it seemed odd that Lara and Henry are written as such thinly veiled versions of their real life counterparts – it feels invasive. But then again I enjoy fanfiction about the Tudor dynasty so perhaps I am on thin ice with that particular criticism.

My personal misgivings aside, there were more general problems with this book. For an espionage mystery, it is strangely lacking in twists and turns – the plot was more or less a straight road lying open to my relatively undiscerning gaze from the begin. The pace is sluggish throughout and I never grew invested in the characters. And, most frustratingly, the ending is almost hand-waved after the complicated schemes set up earlier in the book – almost as if the author herself did not know how to resolve her problem but in the most ham-fisted way.

Ultimately, very well-written, but does not I think accomplish what it set out to do.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

I love the premise of this book. It makes for such an interesting read and the author did such a good job. The story was so well-written and I loved the dimensions to the different characters.

This book was very different from what I was expecting- in a good way.

Lara is the First Lady, the Russian former model wife to a boastful, businessman President (sound familiar?) She hires journalist Sofie to write her biography. She's always been very secretive about her past, but Sofie is very surprised by her childhood in Moscow and Paris- and her revealing honesty. So, begins a thriller wrapped in a historical fiction wrapped in a literary fiction book.

This book was very less political than I'd feared. It is clearly anti-Trump, but it is also pro-alternate universe Melania Trump and pro American clandestine services. I loved this reimagining of what Melania's backstory could have been and how the author weaved this into an action-packed story that took you to Moscow, Paris, NYC, Washington DC, and Croatia. I really liked how the characters trusted but also used each other. Life in Russia was devastating, Paris in the 1980's was so interesting, and a peak into the obligations of a First Lady made this a very compulsive read. All in all, this book was a real find and I hope others will be open minded to it also. This one had flavors of The Ex-Pats and The Secrets We Kept and I feel like it would be a good fit for fans of Kate Quinn or Beatriz Williams.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review. Please go read this book.

This political thriller is a mix of historical fiction and present fiction. White House Correspondent, Sophie, quit her job in the hopes of stepping away from politics when she gets an unexpected offer. The First Lady, Lara Cain, requests that Sophie write her official biography. Sophie is incredibly intrigued as the former model turned First Lady has always been a mystery. For many months, Sophie gets a glimpse intro FLOTUS's life as the daughter of an undercover KGB officer. There are some obvious similarities between the Trumps and the Cains of this book! Overall, good read. I felt that there were some slow moments and the different periods were a little confusing at times. Thank you, NetGalley

What a great story!! So much to unpack- politics, journalist, first lady, Paris, Russian spys, Cold War and so much more. You might want to compare some characters to a real life political family in the US, or maybe not! This historical fiction, spy thriller had a few slow parts, but once you get to the middle , it is a all engaging read! This is a must read and if you're lucky , make sure you have a friend reading it too. There is so much to discuss!
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for this advanced copy.

Once I realized who this was based on, it was a DNF for me. I’m not sure what the author’s aim was here, and I do feel bad I requested this before knowing it was loosely based on a Trump, but I just don’t have the mental or emotional bandwidth for anything to do with any member of that family. The less attention we give them, the better.

I loved this book, it is everything I need in a Historical Fiction. It is my first one in a while and I can't explain enough why I feel this is a must read!

One of the main characters is clearly based on the previous First Lady. (The book doesn't pretend like this is factual, it's clearly fictional.). If you can get past that premise, then this is a good Cold War spy novel that leaves you wondering what is going on until the end.

Mysterious, enticing, and creative…. I really enjoyed this story! Yes, the First Lady character is essentially Melania Trump, though the character appears to have more depth than the muse. I enjoyed the mystery element, of not knowing exactly what happened between the main protagonists but knowing that SOMETHING happened, big enough to force one of them out of the country. It was a bit slow in the middle, but the end picked up and delivered a satisfying payout. Great!

READ this book for what it is - a beautiful, slow-burn book that picks up tremendously in the second half and takes you for a wild ride. Is it an alt-reality of the last administration? It doesn't really matter, because this book is amazing.

Pitoniak has put together part character-study, part introspective, and part spy thriller. Get past the first half of building up to the meat of the story, and you won't be disappointed in the second half as it hurls you around twists and turns. The writing is excellent and I ended up staying up late to finish!

5 stars and I would highly recommend to any book club as it gives so much to discuss!!

Thank you for my copy of this book!

What I liked: the writing was excellent. I really enjoyed the historical storytelling during the interviews and the back and forth between times.

What didn't work for me: I guess I just didn't really need a fictional retelling of Melania Trump. The KGB storyline felt far fetched, and maybe an almost too soon-ness with the storyline.

It was a quick read!