Such a fun read! Loved this one!

Many thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for my ARC.

Great book. I enjoyed Reading it. The characters and plot were interesting life like and easy to connect with.

A lovely story about three, life-long friends. Sweet, sad, and some sassy seniors whom I love.

Get your copy today at https://bookshop.org/lists/best-fiction-of-2021

Oh my goodness I loved this story! Friendship changes and it has happened to these three friends over the years. These characters have their flaws but they are there for each other.
Many thanks to Lake Union Publishing and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This one wasn't initially easy for me to get into, but I'm glad I gave it a chance. Older protagonists are some of my favorites, and this one centered on a few flawed, but loveable ones. I loved the growth and connection of these characters and couldn't help but root for each of them, even if some of the meddling/boundary pushing was a bit hard to read at times. This was a sweet story with some depth.

The concept of this novel is very unique where the three main characters are in their 70's and 80's. These lovely women meet every week in their New York secret place over wine and bridges. Each of these women are unique with different life circumstances but a bond binds them together.
This story is definitely of love, friendship and forgiveness but also of finding yourself at any age. I loved the concept of this book where the mature women are portrayed as people with the zeal of life and love. The only thing I didn't like is the romance angle thrown in. I don't mind the romance as such but it feels forceful and something added to complicate the life of these women. Gertie, Corinna and Maria will stay with me for a long time and the bridges of love and friendship that binds them. 3.5 Stars

And the Bridge Is Love by David Biro is the story of the friendship between three women in their fifties and sixties. Gertie is choking on her food in a park at the foot of the Verrazzano-Narrows bridge in New York City, when Maria and Corinna rush to save the stranger. This leads the trio to become fast friends. Gertie is a divorcee and parent to an estranged adult daughter. Maria is a widow still in love with her deceased husband. Corinna is devoted to the seniors at the residence where she works. They meet once a week at the same park and watch the boats going out into the world as they develop a supportive friendship, over a period of twenty years. But life changes and the three women find their friendship is fracturing for many reasons. This is relationship fiction at its finest. The author’s words lead the readers to feel as if they know these women and want to spend more time with them. The characters are multi-faceted, flawed and interesting. I look forward to reading more books by David Biro. Highly recommended. Thank you to Lake Union Publishing, NetGalley and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"And the Bridge Is Love" by David Biro is this author's sophomore novel.

Three women meet by chance in the summer of 1991 and form an instant friendship. They agree to meet every Tuesday morning at a hidden enclosure with a view of the Verrazzano Bridge through the great old oaks along New York Bay.

* Gertie: Norwegian, divorcée, former athlete and bullheaded. The oldest of the three.
* Maria: Italian-American, widow, mother, grandmother and chronic meddler.
* Corinna: Book-lover, whiskey drinker, hash smoker and secret keeper. Yep, she's the youngest!

Through the years their lives become entwined. They share memories of cheering Gertie on at the NY Marathon, visiting Coney Island, celebrating the birth of Maria's grandson, mourning the unexpected death of her daughter's husband, and simply shopping or sharing meals together.

Then in 2011 the wind shifts along New York Bay and everything changes!

This story is what I would call a 'Friendship Salad'. It's about hope, love, loss, and forgiveness. It reveals the tougher sides of friendship as you age, learning how to cope with arising differences and rediscovering your place in the mix. True unconditional friendship!

There are happy moments and heartbreaking one's but isn't that the way of life at any age? I appreciate finding a story that focuses on older characters. It's quite refreshing, really!

I recommend this book to those who enjoy reading about friendship, family and everyday life!

Thank you to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and David Biro for a free ARC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review. This book is available now.

Thanks NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and David Biro for an ARC to review.
A journey of friendship, second chances at life and love through story of three friends.
I liked it

This is a book about three friends that meet later in life. They are very different from each other, but become close. Their friendship lasts for a couple of decades. They meet each week at a secret enclosure to watch ships sail under the Verrazzano Bridge and dream about what it would be like. Gertie had been a professional swimmer. Her marriage didn't last and her daughter would not speak to her. Corinna is a book lover that had to deal with some differences that other people pitied her for. She did not talk to her family and had not been in love until now. Maria is a widow and her family is the most important thing to her. She has a daughter and a grandson. She spends her time doing everything she can to help make their lives easier. Gertie is about to turn eighty and the women realize that time is running out for them. Gertie wants to travel the world before it is too late. Corinna wants to focus on the man she has fallen in love with. Marie wants to reconnect Gertie and Corinna with their estranged families as a surprise. Nothing goes as any of them plan or desire. Things are said and feelings are hurt. Their friendship is put to the test. Can they overcome the their problems? Will their friendship survive?

I love the double entendre of the title of David Biro’s second novel, And the Bridge is Love. This character driven novel is about friendship, love and longevity…the longevity of friendship and of one’s life. I loved the idea of a book celebrating older women and their friendship, and to some degree I got what I was looking for.

The three ladies meet by chance at a park overlooking the Verrazzano Bridge. Although they are very different, they find a base of similarity and form a long-term friendship. The fierce, independent women have regrets that impact them daily. As their differences and unspoken wishes come to a head, they find their friendship at risk.

I enjoyed this book with its complicated relationships and hard felt consequences. The three women, their trials and triumphs, and most of all their friendship made And The Bridge is Love a worthy read

This book was an easy and mostly enjoyable read, but I don't think it will stick with me. I didn't find Gertie or Maria to be likeable, but I wonder if a lot of that is lack of character development. I think I would have enjoyed a book centered on Corinna more, as her story was the one I was most invested in - it's a story that would be perfect as a historical fiction novel with a timeline focused on her mother as well. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for access to an early digital review copy!

Sadly, this book fell flat for me. It had the potential to be a heartbreaker. 3 older - end of life, single women - secrets - etc etc - but....i just felt like it was empty. Like there was no heart.

I wanted something more. I wanted the ladies that I see every weekend having breakfast together and laughing so hard they wipe away tears with diner napkins. I want to read about those kinds of friendships.

I think there is a ton of potential and room for growth and I wish there was time for it before publishing but what can you do.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers.

This book felt like a nice light summer read. Humorous and with interesting (and older!) characters. Personally, it isn't the genre I usually go for but I enjoyed it nonetheless and I expect that if you're well versed in similar stories you might get even more enjoyment than I did, so I will definitely be recommending this to some friends!

Sigh. Three women in their 70s, who have been friends for 20 years, find themselves a bit at odds in this novel which could have been better. Corinna, Maria, and Gertie met by chance but became pals who meet weekly on a bench in a NYC park to talk about their lives. It's hard to articulate what was missing here but something was. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC.

And the Bridge Is Love by David Biro. A book about the mastery of the human race. So sad what Hitler and his supporters did to children if they were not up to his standards. How can a father (a physician) want to harm his own child to get mastery of the human race.

This is a story of loyalty and friendship that has latest over 20 years. Three women encounter each other over twenty years ago by chance under a bridge in New York. This bridge becomes their special meeting place for the next two decades of their lives. Sounds like a lovely story of friendship and longevity doesn't it? And it is, but, and there is that "but". I don't know if it is only me, and maybe it is me finding that I am having a hard time connecting to what I read lately. But I simply could not get that connected feeling for any of the characters of this story, and being kind of older myself, (not quite 80, but not 30 anymore either) I was sure I would.
The story starts off alright, a little slow, but we are not reading an action or thriller novel either so that was alright. But as we go along and the three friends start to want different things, some of it just didn't seem realistic to me. I can't see an 80 year old woman suddenly wanting to travel the world, making plans to do so, to me that is not realistic. And what bothered me most was that a man had to be thrown in there to come between the friends. Why does it always have to come down to this? Something a little more original would have been nice.
I am sorry, overall it is a readable story, not horrible, just not as catching as I had hoped. I am sure others will probably love it, as they should. I am not adverse to trying other titles by this author as I see potential here. This just wasn't the one for me.
Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and Net Galley for the free ARC, I am leaving my honest review in return.

Friendship In The End Stages Of Life. This is one of those books that covers an area not usually written of - single women in their 70s. Here, we see an introduction where three women come together at the Verrazzano Bridge in New York City by pure chance, followed by the 'meat' of the story taking place 20 years later, after these women have been best friends since that first day they met. Life has tossed them a few curve balls, but we see them as they are dealing with what they have in this stage of their lives - including a couple of gentlemen interests, various community activities, a kid and a grandkid, and a whole lot of meddling - from every angle. Ultimately both depressing and hopeful at the same time, this is one of those books that anyone who has ever *had* a single grandmother in her 70s will likely see as being all-too realistic, as I do from having had such an experience myself. If you're looking for an action-oriented book... this isn't for you. But if you want a strong character study involving characters in demographics that don't often get to be the primary focus of a story... this is a remarkably good one. Very much recommended.

This is a moving story of friendship, and what makes a family. I liked that the chapters alternated each friend’s point of view.

I enjoyed reading "And the Bridge is Love." I I thought that David Biro did a very nice job of defying these women's personalities and their quirks. I seemed to know them well and understand their loneliness and their grief. The plotting moved along nicely. I am unsure why some readers were not as captivated, but partly that is simply because we all have different taste in books. I enjoy a good narrative with complexity and depth. "And the Bridge is Love" provides that depth.