I can’t resist female friendship stories and the premise of this one really tugged at my heart strings. Four best friends — Melissa, Priya, Tara, and Suki — graduated from high school feeling on top of the world and validated by their yearbook superlatives but fast forward twenty-five years and they’re all not where they’d thought they’d be. I liked that these four women were still in touch, flawed, struggling with real-life stuff, and even not always being the greatest friends to one another. But I did feel that a deeper connection to these characters and stories were missing for me as we jumped from each of their perspectives. As much as I enjoyed the premise, the execution overall left me wanting.

It was fine, I didn't love it, didn't hate it. I didn't find myself drawn to any of the characters and I honestly found the most of the characters quite irritating which made it hard to be invested in the story.

This was a light, nostalgic read! Just having passed my own 30 year reunion, I loved the 4 friends perspectives and dual timelines between 1997 and present day, through reunion planning, execution, and what came after for the group. While I suspended disbelief on a few points, The Most Likely Club worked through very real world issues of self, family, relationships, and career - along with decades long friendships.

3.5 Past Goals Stars
The Most Likely Club looks at what we all do at a particular time in our lives. When we are just on the brink of NEW AGE times, we will focus and ponder on all the achievements we want and hope to accomplish. The certainty of youth can make the belief anything can be within reach.

We have the 25th reunion to have four women who shared their dreams come together and see what has become of those goals...did they make it all happen or did life put them on another course. We get to see how they deal with old desires and how they decide how to proceed.

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Format: Audio

3.5🌟 - it was fine!

Thank you @prhaudio for the complimentary audiobook!

The premise of this book sounded so great! It was serving 90s nostalgia, friendships, and reflection upon life expectations.

The four storylines didn’t feel as even which made it more difficult to feel connected to all the characters. The way certain things were unfolded in the story didn’t feel necessary and almost thrown into the story.

I think it had all the right ingredients to be really good, but something about it was missing to me!

I think there will be a lot of people that enjoy this one, but it won’t be going on my favorites shelf.

I was intrigued by this book because it was a high school reunion for 1997. I thought it would be excited because I graduated in 1998 and I thought I'd be able to relate. However, I didn't really click with the characters and it was difficult to hold my attention. I don't think it's a bad book, I just think it wasn't for me. I'm sure there are many others who will love this book! Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC.

This was such a fun blast from the past! I was in my 20's in the 90's and loved every minute of it especially the grunge music from Seattle. This story is relatable in so many ways and brought back the feelings of wanting to discover my place in this world and the good friends I made along the way. Nostalgic and heartwarming this book will bring on all the good feels.

Looking for a little 90s nostalgia? Grab a copy of The Most Likely Club by @elyssafriedland! If you are a fan of the movie Now and Then and the drama of shows like Desperate Housewives, you will love this book! I loved the glimpses back at the 90s and walking with this group of women in their lives and struggles now. Thank you @getredprbooks and @berkleypub for sending me a copy of this book! This book is on shelves now.

In 1997, grunge is king, Titanic is a blockbuster (and Blockbuster still exists), and Thursday nights are for Friends. In Bellport, Connecticut, four best friends and high school seniors are ready to light the world on fire. Melissa Levin, Priya Chowdhury, Tara Taylor, and Suki Hammer are going places. Their yearbook superlatives confirm it: Most Likely to Win the White House, Cure Cancer, Open a Michelin-Starred Restaurant, and Join the Forbes 400.

Fast forward twenty-five years and nothing has gone according to plan as the women regroup at their dreaded high school reunion. When a forgotten classmate emerges at the reunion with a surprising announcement, the friends dig out the yearbook and rethink their younger selves. Is it too late to make their dreams come true? Fueled by nostalgia and one too many drinks, they form a pact to push through their middle-aged angst to bring their teenage aspirations to fruition, dubbing themselves the “Most Likely Girls.”

Through the ensuing highs and lows, they are reminded of the enduring bonds of friendship, the ways our childhood dreams both sustain and surprise us — and why it’s deeply uncool to peak in high school.

I'm quite annoyed with myself that I didn't set this aside when I was struggling around the halfway mark. The second half of this book completely falls off the rails for me. The resolutions for each of the women fell flat and were uninspiring. There was also a casual drop of a triggering event that was only followed up with a one liner, pages and pages later. Quite unnecessary indeed.

This one had potential but ultimately is not a book I would recommend.

Triggers galore!

For anyone in the mood for a dose of 1990s nostalgia, perhaps this new novel just out September 6 will scratch that itch? When Melissa, Priya, Tara, and Suki graduated in 1997, they thought they would conquer the world. Twenty-five years later, their high school reunion approaches and none of them are where they thought they’d be. They make a pact to go after their old dreams, one way or another. A fun examination of friendship, the transition to adulthood, and the meaning of yearbook superlatives.

The Most Likely Club appealed because I love the thought of meeting up for your high school reunion (I still have not gone to any of mine) and using it as a pivoting point for transformation and goal setting. I also really enjoyed each of the characters, and how different they are. They all had struggles that to me seemed realistic.

I am older than the main characters in The Most Likely Club (my second child was born in 1997) but I still enjoyed all the flashbacks to the things that were cool back then. All the nineties references made me smile or cringe.

There were times where I thought that author Elyssa Friedland could have dived deeper into the issues that the women were facing. Overall, this was an enjoyable read!

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing and author Elyssa Friedland for the digital copy for me to read and enjoy. As always, my reviews are voluntary and my opinions are my own.

As a member of the class of 1997, The Most Likely Club seemed like a must-read. The story of four high school friends returning to their Connecticut private school for their twenty-five-year reunion gets you thinking about how the life your predict you'll have and the one you live are two separate things. The Most Likely Club premise makes use of a horribly outdated yearbook feature that hasn't been used for years as it lacks journalistic integrity - the completely subjective, undemocratic list of what one group of students sees in others. The Most Likely to Succeed, to be President, to be so many things.... It is often forgotten that the yearbook is supposed to be an academic publication, so the naive and short-sighted feature of Those Most Likely to... well, it shows how far we've come that schools no longer publish such nonsense.

I liked the intended nostalgia of the story, but the plot is juvenile and the characters were one-dimensional. I didn't like that it seemed that anyone's life was better than they imagined - which is a distinct possibility - people can become better after high school if they don't waste time dwelling so much on what others think. I didn't like that the past weighed so heavily on the characters' present lives. It was more of a YA novel with adult characters, which is fun every once in a while.

I am not sure if this was a wrong time book or just didn’t work at all for me type of book. I was struggling to keep track of the characters and lost interest in the entire fascination w the one woman who Selma to have become rich and disconnected from her friends. I wasn’t able to get beyond 40 percent.

High school, such a long time ago for me and Ms. Friedland has caught what it feels like to maybe never realize your dreams when you were 18. It doesn’t mean that you don’t love your life or what you’ve done; it’s just you thought you’d be elsewhere.

For friends Tara, Suki, Priya and Melissa they were all a part of senior superlatives aka Most Likely…the only one to achieve it was Suki. So the rest of the 3 make a pact to get back to their dreams even if they are a little different.

I really liked that each one of them had their own chapters but I wish we had gotten Suki’s POV earlier in the book.

Each of the women are great and bring something different to the table, which I think readers will be able to identify with throughout the book.

Four high school friends stay close years after they graduate. Melissa, Priya,Tara and Suki have been each other’s support, and as their reunion approaches, all four are facing different dilemmas. Themes of working women having it all, as well as how differently women leaders are treated than their male counterparts give some seriousness to an otherwise enjoyable read. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

"𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦? 𝘞𝘢𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦'𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥?"

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗦𝗧 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘𝗟𝗬 𝗖𝗟𝗨𝗕 follows four friends around their 25th high school reunion as they reflect back on who they thought they'd become and find little has gone as they expected. They band together to form The Most Likely Club and re-examine their lives in an attempt to live up to the superlatives they got in their senior yearbooks.

As a woman in my forties, I really related to the soul-searching that comes with comparing where you thought you'd be versus where you actually are and I loved all of the 90s nostalgia but unfortunately, I didn't connect with the characters and found the ending rushed. It was still an enjoyable read, just not Most Likely To Get Five Stars From Me.

3.5 stars

Thanks to Berkley Publishing for the copy to review.

TW: eating disorders, sexual assault, cancer

“The Most Likely Club” was really not for me. I found all of the main characters to be pretty unlikable and I didn’t sympathize with any of them. Mild spoilers ahead.

Melissa is a divorced mother trying to lose weight before the reunion where she will be faced with her ex-husband and his new wife, but she also thinks her healthy daughter is fat and should be dieting along with her.

Tara is a bisexual woman in her mid-40s still relying on her parents for money and far too willing to cheat on her partner (I questioned many times why she was even in this relationship).

Priya is a doctor and mother to 3 kids who takes on all the parenting responsibilities because her husband is a surgeon and therefore thinks he’s better than her, but when an opportunity comes up for her to address this at the beginning of the book she just doesn’t. She also slept with her teacher while she was in high school IN THE ACTUAL SCHOOL and it wasn’t even relevant to the plot????

Suki is a super successful businesswoman who is too good to keep in touch with her friends, isn’t even actually in a lot of the book, and when she does show up she may actually be worse than all the rest of them.

On top of all that, this book is very heavily pushing a “feminist” agenda. I put feminist in quotes only because I question how feminist this book actually comes across despite it’s very obvious intentions. It starts off promising, with each character facing a different standard of women in society (ie. woman in a leadership role, unfair parenting standards, etc.) but it doesn’t pay off in a meaningful way for any of the characters. A lot of the stories are summed up quickly at the end of the book and one of them failed to even really get me on their side.

Not to mention that the whole point of this book, forming a pact to fulfill their high school superlatives, is barely even a plot point in the actual book.
- Suki has already fulfilled her high school superlative and isn’t even part of the pact
- The pact isn’t mentioned until pretty much halfway through the book
- When it is mentioned, one character mentions it and then it’s just kind of decided? No one seems especially enthusiastic about it
- They’re not even trying for the original superlatives, just slightly more ambitious things than what they’re already doing
- Almost all of them were presented with the opportunity they take on as a result of the pact before it’s even mentioned

Possibly the most confusing part to me though, was just how many high school reunions they’ve already had. There’s mention of a 10th, 15th, and 20th reunion before the 25th that occurs in “The Most Likely Club”. Not only does this totally demolish the stakes and make parts of the book pretty unbelievable, but it also makes no sense. How is the school having a reunion for every class every 5 years? Who is paying for this? Does that mean there’s a reunion pretty much every weekend? I could get on board with every class having a 25th reunion because it’s a big milestone and each class gets only one, but when every 5 years is marked how would there be a 10th at the same time as a 15th, 20th, and 25th?

Overall, I would not recommend “The Most Likely Club”. The characters were unlikable and the big issues it tried to address were largely poorly handled.

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you were a teen in the 90s like me, your curiosity and desire to journey down memory lane will no doubt lead you to seek out Elyssa Friedland’s latest nostalgia filled novel, The Most Likely Club.

Mostly set in present day, we are initially introduced to our main characters as high school seniors in 1997, anxiously awaiting the release of their final yearbook. As it turns out, high school superlatives are kind of a big deal in the town of Bellport Connecticut, along with the likes of George Clooney, Princess Diana, and The Spice Girls, but I digress.

Luckily, the superlatives assigned to each of the girls is one of matched distinction. The overachieving Melissa Levin wins Most Likely to Win the White House. The super smart Priya Chowdury gets Most Likely to Cure Cancer. Foodie Tara Taylor snags Most Likely to Open a Michelin-Starred Restaurant. And rounding out the friends is Suki Hammer, who is bestowed the honor of Most Likely to Join the Forbes 400.

25 years later and those same naive girls are now jaded women with an uncomfortable high school reunion looming. Instead of it being an opportunity to flaunt fulfilled expectations, each of them can’t help but reflect upon all that could have been. This is how they make the pact to jumpstart their lives, as if vowing to make those “clueless “ high school dreams real is enough to make it a reality.

Despite its sprinkled nods to 90s guilty pleasure, this is ultimately a novel about female friendship and middle aged malarkey. In short, you’re never too old to chase your dreams, or perhaps, redefine what those dreams might be in the first place. It’s cliche to say it, but some of the shiniest stars in high school burn out before too long. The Most Likely Club serves as reminder to not take the goals you set for yourself years ago too seriously in the present, especially if you were obsessed with things like The Backstreet Boys and Y2K when you made them. 😉

The Most Likely Club by Elyssa Friedland is a fun book that looks back on who we were in high school and who we’ve become. Did we become what our school superlative said we’d be? Are we still best friends with the same people from high school? As their high-school reunion is upon them, four best friends have time to reflect how they got or didn’t get to where they currently are.

The best friends come back together and relearn who they are through the eyes of their friends. Secrets come out about the women, their kids, their spouses, and lives in general. Friedland is great at creating realistic dialogue and peppering the novel with humorous banter.

Some scenes had me laughing out loud, while others made me stop and think about which of my life goals I’ve met and which I’m still struggling with.

This is a good book to throw in your beach bag, you’ll laugh and totally reminisce through the nineties.

I LOVED this story about four high school friends from vastly different backgrounds who all had big dreams and then find out later in life that it REALLY is hard for women to do it all/be it all. Each of the women have their own different struggles, one is a CEO, one is a Doctor/wife/mother struggling to juggle it all, one is divorced, one is a struggling business owner. Great on audio and my new favorite from this author! The theme of female friendship and women supporting women was done to perfection in this book! Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!