“The Three of Us” by Ore Agbaje-Williams ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Fiction. Location: London suburbs, England. Time: One day in the present.

One day in the lives of 3 intertwined British-Nigerian people. Intertwined because of their shared culture and upbringing, their shared relatives, and their shared relationships. In the middle of it all is The Wife.

Part 1-The Wife: Raised culturally traditional and sheltered, she met The Friend when she was 11. The Friend’s fun, selfish, carefree personality is her opposite. The Wife is a woman caught between her two selves- her quiet, controlled self, and the self she is around The Friend.

Part 2-The Husband: Works hard for a life of upscale simplicity. He wants peace and quiet, a life without complications. Devoted and loving to The Wife, he knows he’s the butt of The Friend’s jokes, and he knows The Wife laughs at those jokes.

Part 3-The Friend: Full of chaos and one-liners, rich and confident, she’s a breaker of traditional cultural customs and practices. She sees herself as The Wife’s savior, and wants her to honor the ‘No marriage no kids’ vow they once made. The Friend sows seeds of doubt like Balthasar in “Romeo and Juliet”, but The Wife sees her as a ride-or-die snarky best friend.

Author Agbaje-Williams asks: What happens when the 2 most important people in your life hate each other? When long-standing tensions come to a breaking point? She tells her story from 3 points of view, letting readers draw their own conclusions. In spare and skillful prose, she shows how all 3 have twisted ideas of each other. How painful fighting for position ends up challenging everyone’s integrity.

Agbaje-Williams has written a no-holds-barred commentary of a book. It’s a quietly powerful look at cultural upbringings, hopes and fears, and what it means to defy them. It’s a tale of manners-because what are we except the stories we tell ourselves? And it’s 4 stars from me!🌵📚💁🏼‍♀️ Thank you NetGalley, GP Putnam’s Sons, and Ore Agbaje-Williams for this early ecopy. Publishes 5/16/2023.

This is a cleverly written book told in three parts from each of the character's perspective - the "wife," the "husband," and the wife's "best friend." I was so caught up in what was going to happen I could not put it down. It is a well-told story about the tension between the married couple and a friend who wants her all to herself. The characters are British-Nigerian and I like the parts about family and expectations of women and success in the Nigerian culture. This is a quick read and a very enjoyable read that captures what it is like in intimate friendships. Definitely worth a read!

Thank you to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for an ARC and I have left this review voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for the advanced copy of The Three of Us.

The Three of Us tells the story of a wife, her husband, and her best friend, and the intermingling of their lives. Each character takes a section of the book to move the story forward from their perspective. The tension continues to build with each shift in narration, leaving the reader to wonder which two people will come out of the story together and who will get left behind.

I loved all of the unspoken dialogue between the characters, and felt that added to the tense mood of the book. The reader was pulled along, continuously wondering how the end would resolve,

I didn't really connect with any of the characters, the storyline was meandering and the ending was disappointingly ambiguous. Just a note, the lack of quotation marks for dialogue made it difficult to remember who was speaking at times.

Thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for an advanced reader copy.

I wanted to like The Three of Us so much, but it just didn't hit the mark for me. I found the 3 various perspectives to be confusing and repetitive. I think we could have benefited greatly from further character development. What I did enjoy was the plot; I found it compelling enough to keep me interested in what happened next.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Group Putnam and the author for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

When we meet this toxic throuple, there is dissension in the ranks. In the red corner, we have the no-nonsense, mercilessly savage childhood bestie. In the blue corner, we have the conventional, workaholic husband. And in the middle, we have the neutral, pacifist wife. The tension is palpable from the first page and allegiances are tested as all three perspectives are revealed over the course of one tumultuous evening.

Reading this felt like watching a riveting chess game. The best friend trying to “save” the wife from becoming the slave to domesticity that their younger selves always vowed to avoid. The husband, fighting for privacy, loyalty and his wholesome American dream. The wife is basically their pawn, unmoored and allowing herself to be manipulated on both ends like putty. I found all of the characters detestable, quite frankly, but I was invested in the outcome of this messy, rich-people drama. What can I say? I love a trashy trainwreck.

Frustratingly, the ending was a stalemate. Just as things were picking up, it stopped dead in its tracks. I am also not a fan of this new trend against quotation marks so admittedly, I was confused at times and had to reread to make sure I was aware of who said what.

I did find the concept intriguing and I would read more from this author in the future. I just wish the ending had left me more satisfied.

I was drawn to the premise of The Three of Us because it reminded me of m favorite kind of play - people stuck in one place letting simmering tensions come to a boil. The titular “three of us” is a woman, her best friend and her husband - who both hate each other and compete for her love and attention.

The ingredients were there and there are moments of brilliance, but it felt too much like a short story that had been expanded in word count only. If it were a play, it’s only Act One and I’m much more interested in Act Two.

The Three of Us follows a husband, an unnamed wife and the wife's best friend and their individual accounts of a single present day and noteworthy days from the past. The husband and the best friend are in total opposition regarding values and behavior. The unnamed wife is clearly attached to both and struggling to play peacekeeper in the middle.

What I really enjoyed was that the three POVs didn't switch out continuously. Each character gets approximately a third of the book and then their POV ends completely. There is no touching back on their thoughts. This allows us to see the same situations from VERY different mindsets and how it drastically changes the event. The best part? You don't find any clarity on the situations from this. Which is pretty realistic if you ask me.

And the ending? I clearly have a type and this ending falls into that category. The husband and the best friend, Temi, continue to up the ante in a fight for the wife's affection and attention. This is the type of abrupt ending that leaves you thinking. I believe a lot of the gold in this one is written between the lines and give me all the books where I can sit there theorizing after I finish.

The story of a husband, his wife and her best friend, told in their 3 POVs. The story is told over the course of one long day. It deals with their relationship issues, the friends and husbands animosity and jealousy and their previous close relationship before her marriage. The friend wants life to go on, as it had been before, footloose, and fancy free without responsibility. The husband wants the wife to be a “good wife and mother“, someone he can rely on to be calm and responsible. The wife is struggling between her two relationships., between her duty to be a good wife and have a baby she’s not sure she wants or to be a good friend. This was a really strange book and I had a hard time finishing it and was glad it was short. Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital copy.

Poorly written with little to no character development, this book deserves no starts. Do not spend your money buying this

This was a quick read, but it wasn't necessarily a good one. "The Three of Us" shows us a day in a marriage, told by the husband, the wife, and the wife's best friend. It doesn't really make any of them likeable characters, and I was so annoyed by the end that I wanted it to end. But when it did-- it was a disappointing ending. At least it was a quick read.

During the course of one day, the feelings between a husband and wife and the wife's best friend, who spends too much time with them, is exposed.

I received a digital advance copy of The Three of Us by Ore Agbaje-Williams via NetGalley. The Three of Us is scheduled for release on May 16, 2023.

The Three of Us takes place over one day in the relationship between the wife, the husband, and the best friend. The wife and best friend have known each other since school, and have long planned their lives of independence. Then the wife met the husband and they got married. Now the three are together in a web of relationships that require constant renegotiation.

This day is told to us in three sections. First we hear from the wife, then the husband, and finally the best friend. They tell us the events of the day, as well as remembering moments from their shared past that led up to this day. As you might expect with three different narrators, we get three different interpretations of the events, as well as three very different views of the relationships between the trios. The events of the day are not all that dramatic, but the subtext laying under the conversations the three have are. For me, the layers of the relationships and the varying views of those relationships was the strength of this novel.

We don’t learn much about the three characters outside of this triangle. While I understood this focus, it did mean the characters felt less than complete. I also found the best friend’s narrative to be a bit repetitive and one dimensional, as we didn’t see any sides of her other than her friendship with the wife. In the end, the best friend could have been the most interesting character if she had been more fully explored.

Overall, The Three of Us is an in-depth look at the relationships between a wife, a husband, and a best friend that explores the subtext that is often overlooked in the interest of getting along.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Three of Us stars an unnamed wife, husband, and her best-friend Temi. This short novel occurs over the course of one day and is told from each of their perspectives.

The wife seems caught in the middle between her husband and bestie, who don’t like each other. The husband wants to have a child, and the friend wants her to be independent and live for herself.

This was a quick read. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters.

Thank you to the author, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my opinions.

This book is told from three points of view. The wife, her husband, and her best friend, Temi. The whole book takes place over the course of one day. Temi and the husband hate each other, and the husband hates how his wife acts when she is around Temi. Temi has never approved of her best friend's marriage and has made it clearly obvious to her best friend (and her husband) that she feels that way. She thinks that the two of them should have stayed single, un-wed, and childless and had adventures together throughout their whole life. Temi and the wife had made a pact when they young adolescents to have that kind of life, but when the wife (no...I don't think the author ever actually gives her a name in the book) becomes an adult, starts dating her now-husband, and wants to have a traditional life as a housewife, Temi cannot handle it. And the feelings of the three of them comes to a head after an afternoon/evening of a few too many bottles of wine.

Getting the same story from 3 different POVs was kind of boring as it felt like I was literally hearing the same story three times. I wasn't a fan of any of the characters. And nothing really interesting happens until right towards the end of the book. However, it abruptly ends which is a definite disappointment and left me wondering if the author just didn't know how to finish the book.

Ugh I can't believe I actually read this whole book. The concept seemed interesting - 3 people: a woman, her best friend, and her husband, tell a story of one night each from their own perspective. The husband and best friend hate each other. The wife is "stuck in the middle".

This is honestly one of the worst things I have ever read. The writing style is blah. There are no quotation marks to denote speech/dialogue, and based on how it is written it is confusing. I thought of DNF'ing at 10%, but it was a "short" book (sub 300 pages), so surely I could make it through? What a SLOG! The husband is boring. The friend is a bitch. Also, how 3 people can drink 5 bottles of wine and 1 bottle of whisky in an evening without DYING is flabbergasting.

If you are thinking of reading this - just - don't. Reading the back of the Cheerios box would have more plot, character development, and pizzazz than this.a

This novel is a quick read about a married couple and the wife’s best friend, Temi. Temi is a free spirit and cares only about herself and her own desires. She has one friend whose husband she hates and he hates her. Temi doesn’t want to lose her friend and spends a good bit of her time interfering with the marriage.
This book takes place in one day and is told from the perspective of each person.

Not sure where to start… maybe that I DNF at about 50%. The concept was intriguing, but about half way into the husbands point of view I just felt like I wasn’t getting anything new and grew very bored with the story. Also, the way it was written without quotations for the speakers is difficult for me to follow.

A husband, and a wife, and a best friend- what could happen? This book takes place over the course of one highly charged, tense day.

The Three of Us by Ore Agbaje-Williams

The wife has it all. A big house in a nice neighborhood, a ride-or-die snarky best friend, Temi, with whom to laugh about facile men, and a devoted husband who loves her above all else—even his distaste for Temi.

On a seemingly normal day, Temi comes over to spend a lazy afternoon with the wife: drinking wine, eating snacks, and laughing caustically about the husband’s shortcomings. But when the husband comes home and a series of confessions are made, the wife’s two confidantes are suddenly forced to jockey for their positions, throwing everyone’s integrity into question—and their long-drawn-out territorial dance, carefully constructed over years, into utter chaos.

Told in three taut, mesmerizing parts—the wife, the husband, the best friend—over the course of one day, The Three of Us is a subversively comical, wildly astute, and painfully compulsive triptych of domestic life that explores cultural truths, what it means to defy them, and the fine line between compromise and betrayal when it comes to ourselves and the people we’re meant to love.

Out on May 16.

Thank you NetGalley and PG Putnam for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Three of Us follows a tense and chaotic day in the life of a wife, her husband, and her best friend, Temi. It is told in three parts; one POV of each character offering their thoughts on each other and their lives, especially the bitterness between Temi and the husband.

The idea of this book is interesting and the cover is effective. I enjoy character- and relationship-study stories. And I even enjoy unlikeable characters. I think they're interesting when they're done well. And as far as unlikeable characters go, Temi is pretty interesting and written well. Despite her flaws (of which there are many, and that is the point), I still enjoyed reading about her. Her POV was my favorite part of the book, followed very closely by the husband's. The husband's portion was really engaging. I love how Ore Agbaje-Williams uses particular language to signal how he feels like an outsider in his wife and friend's relationship. The time jumps were also very nicely done.

However, I wish the entire book was written from Temi's POV. Each portion says many of the same things just in different ways, and very little is learned from chapter to chapter. Likewise, when the feelings of all the characters are laid out so explicitly, it gave very little for me to look forward to as a reader. There is no process of uncovering new things about the characters because everything is handed to the reader. I wasn't very excited to finish the book because I felt like everything was redundant and over-analyzed. I would be curious to see this book written just from Temi's perspective. Having her narrate the entire day would give the reader a lot more to sink their teeth into and think about.

Given that she is such an unreliable narrator, the reader would have to spend much more time putting the pieces of this relationship together based on what Temi is saying. Her perspective is so on the nose and confident that even from her short section, I was beginning to wonder what was true. The issue with this book is not the plot. I like the plot. I think the book's primary weakness is giving too much away. Let Temi tell us the story and let the audience leave this book wondering what is fabricated and what is factual about these three.

2 stars.