I was impressed by the author's ability to make the characters so dislikable yet readable at the same time. I enjoyed the wife's narration more than Temi's and the husband's because she was the most likable character in the story. The husband and Temi were both written in a way where you couldn't agree with either of their thoughts or motivations, but you didn't know whose side you were on if either. The pop culture references throughout the book lightened the tone without taking you out of the story which was nice. Ultimately the ending fell a little flat for me and this won't be a book that will stick with me for time to come, but it was an enjoyable read.

This was such a BRILLIANT read. I'll admit, it took me a while to get into it, however once I was invested in the characters I couldn't put it down. It was such an interesting approach to the character driven novel, one that had me switching allegiance several times throughout the novel because I couldn't quite grapple with whose side I was on. Such a genius idea.

3 stars- The author highlights the complex dynamic of best friend, wife & husband. The book is organized into 3 sections, one told by each of the trio. I enjoyed the best friend's section the most. Thank you netgalley & the publisher for the ARC!

This was a very easy read and a good in between book for me. I enjoyed reading it, however, it lacked in a lot of areas for me personally. I enjoyed reading everyone's viewpoints (the wife, the husband, and the best friend) and definitely enjoyed the writing style and how each part of the book was a different persons viewpoint.. It ended pretty abruptly with no solution to the issues there were between the best friend and husband or between the wife and husband in regards to a family though. The old viewpoints of the parents are ones that need to be addressed in real life as women aren't simply here to marry and procreate. I liked that it outlined that and basically it was a lot about being yourself, for yourself which is great! This was a 2.5 read for me as I just wish the ending was more detailed about what will happen to all three of them and I didn't really love or connect with the best friend much either.

**Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.**

I struggled a little with this because even though I understand it was suppose to be us getting the husband, wife and bffs pov it felt very repetitive restating the same moments over 3 times. I thought it would lead to a big climax and ending but it fell flat throughout and stayed the same level. I will write a full detailed review on good reads and ad the link here.

this was really just an okay read for me. which, was sort of nice because i realized that not every book has to be the best!

just too flat for me personally, but i think this will be a lot of people's new favorite thing.

Genuinely fantastic, in a way that I would not have expected. It is not like anything I’ve read before, and really strikes me as a title that would be a phenomenal read for an English class. First and foremost, this was an excellent observation of the impact of an additional party to a marriage. Secondly, this was such a simple but gripping story that led you trying to decide whose side you were on the entire time. This story leaves you thinking, wondering, trying to piece together the puzzle.

The book reads like a really long text message between friends, as it lacks formal dialogue and dialogue attribution (he/she said). There are so few characters in the book though that you don’t need these attributions, and it allows you to be absorbed into the story. The husband and wife remain unnamed throughout the story, which gives off major Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier) vibes, in that although the story is told from three characters’ perspectives, leaving two unnamed is intentional by the author to have you see who really holds the power.

I found myself wondering ‘What is going to happen? Why am I reading this book?’ I spent the first two thirds of the book wishing there had been a suspenseful teaser, but the lack of a teaser made it hit harder. I found myself GRIPPED, holding my breath, waiting for the big reveal at the end and it was like a cold bucket of water dousing me, leaving me completely unfulfilled when the story just ENDS and I realized that dammit this is a really good book for English class because I have to decide what happened. I have to infer, determine who was in the wrong, and what really happened.

I want to criticize the author for leaving me hanging, but instead I choose to stand and applaud this choice because the joke you don’t stop thinking about is the one with a big setup that you don’t hear the punchline to. Well done, very well done.

Thanks to Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for the ARC and the opportunity to read and review this title.

This book is unlike any other that I've read. It takes place on one long day during which nothing much happens until the very end, told from each perspective of the three people spending the day together (a woman, her husband, and her best friend). The main premise of the book is that the husband can't stand the best friend, who is constantly present in his marriage to the woman. I really liked that each of the characters recounts a different part of the day rather than retelling the whole day from their own perspective. Despite being set on one day, the story also covers years of context leading up to the day, interwoven throughout the current day's events.

The characters are difficult to love, but I feel that adds a welcome tension to the reading experience. The woman is too passive, the best friend is obnoxious, and the husband is boring and status-driven (yet, I found him to be the most relatable). The subtlety of the narrative rests in the things that remain unsaid between each pair of characters. There's both too much intimacy and not enough; a tense mix of overt aggression, passive aggression, and avoidance, secrecy, and lies. These contradictions sucked me in and I couldn't stop reading, waiting to see which of the characters cracked first.

And the ending...I was hoping for a twist, but I was nowhere near in my predictions. The ending makes this book a masterpiece.

The story is told over the course of a day from 3 different perspectives and how each person is dealing with the same situation. Reading the book description I was intrigued by the idea and had high hopes for the book overall; unfortunately, that didn’t quite pan out.

As much I wanted to enjoy this book, I just didn’t. For starters I found the fact that dialogue was just lumped into each paragraph as if it wasn’t dialogue, super annoying. I also couldn’t understand why we only get to learn one character’s name. I found the characters to be overly annoying and not very likable. My biggest gripe with this book was the ending, or shall I say lack thereof. I’ve read books with ambiguous endings intended to make the reader wonder, but this didn’t even feel like an ending. It felt more like the author simply forgot to finish writing the book.

Had the style of writing been different and the book had an ending, there is no doubt in my mind I would’ve truly loved this book

Thank you Penguin Group Putnam and #NetGally for providing me with an ARC for my honest review

This really lacked on so many levels for me. This is about 3 people; a husband, his wife and her best friend. It's told from all 3 aspects. However, it seems to just repeat the same events in different perspectives. When it gets closer to the end, it starts becoming interesting (for once) but then the story just ends abruptly. Like no actual closure or excitement. It's like the book ended and the author didn't get a chance to finish the story. I didn't like any of it. A good ending would've saved the rest of the mediocre storyline for me, but that didn't happen. Lacked depth, no true character development and the ending was flat with no true "ending" just felt like the story stopped mid-sentence.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publishers to read and review. All statements above are my own true opinions after fully reading this book.

Ahh I really liked this book! It kinda started off a little bit slower in the beginning, but once it picked up I was hooked!

The Three Of Us was much different than I expected it to be, but I am happy to say that I liked it. It’s the story of a wife, her best friend, and the wife’s best friend- who is basically the the third person in the marriage of the couple in the book.

I liked the three perspectives and how it was sectioned off into 3 parts- one for each character. I felt it was interesting and well written. It was definitely different than what I usually read, but the writing was solid and the pacing, the characters, and the story itself were well done.

Many thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for the ARC.

I struggled with this book. The lack of punctuation, paragraphs, and chapters made a lot of the text difficult to follow and daunting. It was hard to tell which character was narrating at different points throughout the book. The song made it really hard for me to resonate with the characters and care about the story line.

This book was so bittersweet- not the premise/what it was about, but i mean, how i’m RATING it is so bittersweet. I LOVED the cover, i loved the title. The story i felt definitely, definitely had potential, but it’s just not quite there yet- but that is ok!
I know it’s an uncorrected proof, so i’m not sure how much more will be added to the story (if anything)- i know the editing/grammatical aspect needs attention, but the story itself i felt had potential. There were a few parts that had me legitimately laughing out loud-like, cackling. I just feel overall like this book was a bit underdeveloped. I enjoyed reading it, I enjoyed what it was about, but i’m really hoping for the final revisions the grammar, editing, and even some of the structure/body gets some attention. Plus, i hope some more is added to it- the end was a major cliffhanger- which, if there’s going to be a sequel is a great idea! If not, there wasn’t any closure :(
All in all, structure-wise (due to the lack of the editing) it felt like i was reading a long email versus a book. It wasn’t too long (100ish pages or so?), and the conversations within the story rarely had quotes around it so it was a bit hard to read in that, it was tough to figure out who was talking and when. But this is an unedited version; there’s plenty of time for corrective work and structure focus! I definitely enjoyed the storyline, and to be honest when it comes out as a final version, i’d really like to re-read it and see what changed, if anything, and how it came to be in completion! I’m really looking forward to the final version!

i first want to thank netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC! my rating for this book would be around a 2.5 but i couldn't bring myself to round up to a 3. i think the story could've been interesting, but it lost steam for me at the end. one of the issues i had was the difficulty differentiating between who was talking and what was being said. there were no quotation marks used in the book, so i often had to go back and re-read parts to figure out who was speaking. the second issue i had were the long chapters. i like that each part of the book is broken up by one of the character's pov but i think it would've been great to have chapters within the parts and not just long parts. lastly, none of the characters were likable. i'm not sure if that was the point of the book, but i wish there was one redeeming likable character i could root for.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for letting me read a digital ARC of The Three of Us.

The premise of the novel is different and unconventional. There are only three chapters, from the point of view of the Wife, the Husband, and the wife's best friend and third wheel in their marriage, Temi. The entire novel takes place within less than a 24 hour period and mostly inside Wife and Husband's home. We get Wife's point of view first, giving background on her and Temi's friendship, how she met Husband, and how she sees her life now. Chapter Two changes to Husband, and we get his version of their first meeting, their life together, and his opinion of Temi. Lastly, we get Temi's side of this three-sided relationship, how she feels about Wife and her life decisions, and what she wants to happen.

As you may have guessed, we are never told Wife and Husband's names. No matter the point of view, they are referred to as the wife/my wife and the husband/my husband. This is definitely unexpected and unconventional, but it seems to work well within the writing, which completely grabbed me right away. I finished this in record time. Although there wasn't a lot going on except talking, reminiscing, and drinking, it was still an engrossing story and I could hardly wait to find out what the twist would be at the end. The relationships between the three of them slowly unravels as you proceed through each point of view, learning just a little bit more every time.

The characters are, at times, likeable, sometimes empathetic, possibly loathsome, but above all you understand them. You understand that they've each made decisions that they thought were the right ones, that maybe other people didn't agree with, and that's just how life is. We all understand how that goes.

The only thing that truly detracted from this being a five star rating was the lack of quotation marks for any type of dialogue. For the most part, each person's chapter was a monologue of current and past events, memories of conversations...and it was sometimes difficult to figure out where the dialogue stopped and the internal monologue started back up.

All in all, this was an intriguing story, different from anything I think I've ever read before. I truly commend the author for a job well done!

Thank you, NetGalley, and the Publisher, for the early copy of this book in exchange for a 100% honest review and thoughts.

This book is not for everyone, and it was definitely not for me. This book follows a husband, wife, and the wife's best friend named Temi. It focuses on their lives and how their relationships with each other. Personally, I found this book quite easy to read through since nothing of consequence or importance seemed to happen. I expected more when reading the description, but it just seemed like the main character could not choose between her relationship with her best friend and her husband. Again not much happened, and I personally found the dialogue extremely hard to follow due to the format. Thankfully nothing really profound was said. This book was definitely not for me.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC of THE THREE OF US by Ore Agbaje-Williams.

"Being yourself, I say, being true to yourself, and then of course being honest and upfront is absolutely key to any relationship. Without that, what are we? Anything built on a lie or secrets isn't going to last....My friend's husband has his brow creased in confusion. Yes, he says slowly, shocked by his own agreement with me. I nod at him and turn back to my friend and put my hand over hers on the table. That's why I think you should tell him." p272-3

This is a story in which not much happens because everything has already happened and is already happening. The reading experience mirrors the overlapping experiences and emotions of the three main characters: a Nigerian house wife living in London (I *cannot* find her name in my digital copy right now, but I think Agbaje-Williams may have intended this), her equally name-challenged husband, and Temi, her best friend. On one side, Husband is traditional, works a traditional job, has traditional wants and desires for himself, his life, and of course his wife (whom he never refers to as anything else...my wife). On the other, Temi has little use for relationships and even her history with Wife is jarringly transactional. She is preoccupied with potential--her own, Wife's, men's general lack of it, in her estimation--and she prizes above all independence -- intellectual, emotional, sexual... reproductive. And between them both thinking always what is best for everyone is Wife. Poor woman.

Throughout the book, the husband and Temi increasingly vie and compete for the attention and loyalty of the wife, who I came to think of eventually merely as, "that poor woman." These conflicts create a great deal of the tension and the entirety of the storyline that carries this book forward to its conclusion (which is unfortunately a little weak due to a complete lack of denouement, I'm afraid).

But I think the real story here is in the subtext. If you ask me, Agbaje-Williams designed Husband to represent that old undeniable patriarchy, and Temi to represent an old screechy kind of feminism that throws as many people under the bus as it tries to help. And Wife? She's stuck in the middle.

Poor woman.

One of the best things about this book is the experimental form. From big to small, Agbaje-Williams made beautiful choices to support the narrative she built. Three sections, each from a different third of this rather odd love triangle, each written in a well-developed style for the speak. In all sections, no speech indicators. No quotation marks, line or paragraph breaks, very few dialogue tags. As though to reinforce the overlapping nature of these characters voices, sections, lives.

I loved this book. Looking forward to ordering a copy of this one.

Rating 4.5 stars rounded up
Finished August 2022
Recommended for fans of contemporary fiction, women's fiction, romance, love triangles; readers looking for diverse voices and stories; readers interested in feminism

I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read in exchange for a honest review via NetGalley and the publishers.

I’ll be honest a book with minimal plot and heavy character development is not my go to. The author had some stylistic choices that aren’t a preference of mine as well (no chapters, quotations for dialogue)

I do love a multiple perspective piece and this book hits that! Overall I was hoping for more content to the story but appreciate the dynamic of a struggling friendship and struggling marriage and each wanting to claim the woman they know/knew. Very quick read!

A fast read however I found some of the characters to be unlikeable but I think that was partially the point