This one unfortunately didn’t do it for me. I think there were things that could have been good, but it just didn’t work.

I liked the idea of a group of friends coming together at their 20th high school reunion to decide that they were frustrated with where they were and sad they didn’t live up to their Senior Superlatives.

I don’t feel like I really connected with any of the characters. They just didn’t elicit a strong reactions about where they were in their lives and where they wished they were.

I was especially hung up on Melissa and her crazy focus on being thin and her worry about her daughter’s weight. For a book set now, it just felt icky and was one of the things that pulled me out of the book.

Overall fine but nothing amazing.

Melissa, Priya, Tara, & Suki have been friends since eighth grade and are now eagerly awaiting the release of their high school yearbook to see which "superlatives" their class voted for them. Happily, they end up with the Most Likely to Win the White House, Cure Cancer, Open a Michelin-Starred Restaurant, and Join the Forbes 400. Fast forward 25 years and it's time for their high school reunion. None of the women is exactly where they thought they would be. As they begin to look back on what life has thrown at them and what they've accomplished (or not accomplished), they make a pact to move their lives in the directions they started out on. All of this takes about 15% of the book, the rest is the adventures they have and support each other through as they refocus their lives and try to pursue their dreams again.

This book was an enjoyable look at motherhood, career power, relationships, female friendship, the power of women, the need women have for their tribes, the pitfalls women face in our society, and how life doesn't end at 18 (or 25, or 40!). The characters are well-written and believable. The POV switches between the women is clear and makes sense. I'm a sucker for women supporting women so even though these friends had their moments of weakness, in the end it was their friendships with each other that gave them the necessary strength to deal with life's curve balls and thrive.

I definitely recommend this book!

Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

If you went to high school in the 90s this one is a must! This one unlocked countless core memories for me and made me super nostalgic. It follows four friends who are about to attend their 25th HS reunion. Tara, Priya, Suki and Melissa all realize that everything they planned on happening after graduation didn’t exactly work out for them and they all begin to reevaluate their lives. I found myself being able to relate to each woman at various points throughout the book. It probably helped that we’re the same age and the references from the past made me both laugh and cringe a little. While the authors books are always a guaranteed fun read she infuses them with insight too so this isn’t all lightness, definitely full of substance too. I really enjoyed this one and think my fellow elderly millennials just might too

Another delightful read from this author - the story of a group of women from 1997 high school and the pacts they made and what they hoped to achieve. Flash forward 25 years and the goals haven’t quite been achieved. I love this as a women confronting their young desires and wishes - do we just give up or keep trying - the author is an excellent storyteller.

High school friends trying to recreate the mood twenty-five years later. Lots of laughs, brought back memoris including some I'd rather not remember. Enjoy this trip down memory lane.

This was a DNF at 9%. As I read it I found that I did not care about the characters when they were in high school nor as they grew up. It was not what I expected it to be and I wanted more 90's references and more sincerity. This seemed to be a mean girls story and I am not interested in that.

As a lover of the 90s and also cringing with some of the fashion comebacks this book gave me the best of both worlds and a group of high school friends attend their high school reunion only to look back at how far they have come.

This was a great story about high school friends and how what they plan in high school can effect their lives. Four students of the class of 1997 wonder if they will live up to their "Most Likely to" suerlatives. They find their lives going in different directions although they remain good friends. At their twenty fifth reunion they decide to try to finish fulfilling the high school superlatives that have not been achieved. This is a story of conflicts, family, love, and friendship and each of the four friends finds that she can be happy with whatever she can accomplish. I recommend this book and would give it four and a half stars.

After their 25th high school reunion, a group of friends make a pact to live up to their high school superlatives from 1997.

My favorite part of this book were all the 90’s references!! Especially in the beginning while they were preparing for the reunion. I graduated high school in late 90’s so it was a really fun blast to the past. I would have enjoyed more flashbacks! I did not like the characters. They each were annoying in their own ways and none of them seemed very supportive of each other. I would have enjoyed the story more if I had resonated with the characters more.

“Wasnt the perk of getting into one’s forties suppose to be leaving the insecurity behind? Some Instagram post on an inspirational feed she followed had promised that. Maybe that was true only for men. Most of her feed was populated with ads for aging cream.”

Most Likely Club comes out 9/6.

It’s 1997 and best friends Melissa, Priya, Tara, and Suki are in high school with big plans for the future. Fast forward 25 years and not much has gone according to their big plans. These four regroup at their high school reunion and make a pact to reignite their teenage aspirations and bring them to fruition!

This was my first book by Elyssa Friesland and I did enjoy it. I loved the 90’s vibes in this story. The humor and timeline brought me back to my own high school years. If you like rom-coms then this would make a great summer read for you!

Many thanks to Berkley and getreadprbooks for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This review will be posted to my Instagram Blog (@coffee.break.book.reviews) in the near future.

This was a fun story about four best friends attending their 30th high school reunion. The characters were definitely flawed, but relatable, and I was rooting for each of them to follow their dreams/paths in life. I enjoyed hearing from Priya, Tara, and Melissa in their own voices. That being said, I wish we heard from Suki much earlier than we did. She had her own story to tell and leaving her to the last few chapters felt rushed. I do wish the author had used another wealthy celebrity to "name drop". Elon Musk has had his share of negative publicity and using his likeness seems out of step with the rest of the story.. Being close in age to the protagonists, I felt like I was reading about my friends. I also really appreciate that the author included a character who childless by choice. Of course I loved all of the 90s nostalgia mixed in with the trends from today. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a feel good story. Overall, a very enjoyable read.

I read Last Summer at the Golden Hotel, the author's previous book and enjoyed it even more than expected, so I was happy to get the opportunity to read this one. My conclusion is that I'd read anything Elyssa Friedland writes because she's so astute about characters and so darned funny in a quirky way. It's almost not overt, but more subtle and that lets the reader appreciate her humor. Yes, it is chick lit, but chick lit done well is a heck of a lot of fun!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. It's uplifting, cute, and timely!

The summary sounded interesting, but it way too predictable. And the delivery was a bit random and jumped around, making it hard to follow. I never really engaged with the storyline or characters, making it impossible for me to truly care about the outcome.

Do we become what we dream and plan? This is the premise of this gathering of longtime friends. A likeable and interesting story. While not my favorite of tropes still entertaining.

I adored Elyssa Friedland’s last book (The Last Summer at the Golden Hotel), so when I saw this new one, I knew I needed to read it. But then I saw all the 90s references and I was a completely desperate to get my hands on it as soon as possible. And it did not disappoint!

Tara, Melissa, Suki, and Priya graduated high school in 1997. It’s now time for their reunion and the four women are all still close while living their own lives. The reunion brings back all their superlatives, and how little most of them have actually achieved.

This book was funny! I was constantly cracking up at all the inner thoughts and snide comments. And the 90s references were top-notch! Though I’m younger than our four MC’s, I did grow up in the 90s watching Friends and VH1. Titanic was my favorite movie. And I’m still a Spice Girls fan. So a book about this 90s was just so much fun.

But even more importantly, it was feminist, it was standing up for yourself, it was about making and reaching new goals - at any age.

It was a treat and I’m excited for the rest of the world to read it!

On the eve of their 25th high school reunion, Priya, Melissa, and Tara can’t help but feel like they never met up to their high school superlatives. Spurred on by the success of their friend and most likely champ, Suki, and a billionaire philanthropist also in their class, the friends make a pact to go for their latent dreams. Are they too old? Too steeped in their average lives? What happens next is a story of friendship, resilience, letting go, and motivation.

I enjoyed this story, the characters, and their journeys. It was a good summer read. Not too breezy, not too deep.

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

A group of high school friends get together for a reunion in their 40s and contemplate how they thought life would be and compared their current lives to their younger dreams.

A fun beach read about four high school friends who want to aspire to their yearbook superlative and how they ban together as adults to achieve their dreams while overcoming everyday and family obstacles.

The Most Likely Club
by Elyssa Friedland
Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
Berkely Books
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. At their milestone high school reunion, a group of friends make a pact to finally achieve their high school superlatives one way or another, in the lively new novel from the acclaimed author of Last Summer at the Golden Hotel.
I really wanted to like this book. Maybe it's a good book... but not for me. The writing isn't bad but I'm a fan of using fewer words than this writer. I will admit that I struggled to keep reading so I literally skimmed my way through the entire book after the first chapter. What should have been a fun story about four old friends turned into a long, overwritten story about how their adult lives turned out nothing like they'd planned.
3 stars
I will not be recommending this one.

3.5 stars. Four women who've been friends since high school are invited home for their 25th reunion. They each earned great superlatives in their senior yearbook, but most of them have not lived up to their teenage potential. The story is told in alternating perspectives from three of them (and then, suddenly, the fourth), as they reckon with their lives and make some decisions, good and bad.

I realized when I started reading that the four friends graduated from high school the same year as me. So I was very aware of Friedland's pop culture references that were off by a year or more (a 1997 time capsule somehow contains movie posters, CDs, and books from items that didn't exist until later in the '90s). (Granted, I'm reading an ARC, so they may have fact-checked and corrected some of this by now, but it feels sloppy to include a 1998 movie and a 2003 book, both of which I was able to verify with a 30-second Google search.)

This book had potential, and I enjoyed it overall, but I found several of the characters irritating, petty, and/or self-destructive, in a way that doesn't get resolved by the abrupt ending.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.