Member Reviews

Thanks to #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. This was a fun, light hearted kind of read. Being childfree myself, in many ways it's hard for me to relate to Fallon, she's a mum of one and, until recently, had been deeply embedded in the group of mums of her daughter's school friends. She has recently been feeling dumped by her best friend Beatrice.
She has dreams of opening her own chocolate shop and in the focus on her future plans, the experimenting with recipes and all the work needed to perfect a plan that will merit all it will take to open a shop someday, Fallon has missed several of her daughter's soccer games. This has allowed her to not notice that she has been ghosted by her best friend, Beatrice. Actually, there are a lot of important things Fallon hasn't noticed and now that she does notice them, trying to fix what is broken only makes things worse. It was an entertaining read with some interjections of humour as well as some deeper serious underlying issues that Fallon has ignored, squashed down, or allowed herself to beat herself up over. The stress of everything has Fallon's body rebelling and as she tries to become one with her friends again, her issues and the issues with her mum friends become more glaring and harder to endure. It appears that not only has Beatrice dumped her but so have almost all her other friends. I was maybe not the target audience for this book but I still found it to be a fun lighthearted enjoyable read. #thefriendshipbreakup #Anniecathryn #netgalley #goodreads #litsy #thestorygraph #chicklit #momcom #Tea_sipping_bookworm #kindle #bookqueen #bookstagram

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I love mama drama so I was sold when I saw this book was about moms behaving badly! The Friendship Breakup stars Fallon, a mother of one who is turning 40 soon and family. She has recently been ghosted by her bff Beatrice and she doesn’t know why. Worse, Beatrice has taken all their mutual friends and Fallon is left on her own. She has her daughter, her wonderful husband and her budding artisanal chocolate company, but she misses that companionship. She hosts a last ditch effort Mexican Fiesta to help try to mend things with her friends, but it goes epically wrong. (I actually LOL’d during this scene!)

Fallon takes the loss of these friends extremely hard and her husband convinces her to see a therapist who helps her work out her abandonment issues. Fallon is adopted and has always struggled with this. As part of her treatment, she tries to make new friends and joins a friendship app (that also has dating, like bumble). She makes some new friends and discovers a few secrets.

This book is a great look at adult female friendships and that some mean girls will never grow up. I like that Fallon was able to make new friends and pull tighter to her good friends that she had in other parts of her life. She also strengthened her connected with her husband and he was so supportive of all of her actions. This book was a wonderful debut novel and I’m looking forward to more from Annie!

Thank you to @alcovebooks and @msanniecathryn for my gifted ebook. The Friendship Breakup is out now!

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"Hindsight is twenty-twenty and sometimes there are no answers."

My first five star read of the year! A lovely, coming-of-age honest narrative about female friendships and what happens when life gets in the way. I loved this book and recommending this to everyone I know, wholeheartedly. Fallon is a character that will stay with me for a long time to come!

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The Friendship Breakup by Annie Cathryn is a powerful and insightful book that explores the often-overlooked topic of friendship breakup. The author's writing style is honest and compassionate, and she shares her own experiences with friendship breakup in a way that is relatable and thought-provoking. The book is divided into three parts, each of which covers a different aspect of friendship breakup: recognizing the signs, healing, and moving forward. The chapters are well-structured and easy to follow, with practical tips and exercises to help readers navigate their own friendship breakups. The author also includes stories from others who have experienced friendship breakup, which adds to the book's depth and impact. Overall, The Friendship Breakup is a must-read for anyone who has experienced the loss of a close friend, and it is a valuable resource for anyone looking to heal and move forward from a friendship breakup.

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I just couldn’t get into The Friendship Breakup. I don’t think I’m the right audience for this book.

Our main character Fallon is being ghosted by her “best mom friend” and being excluded from the mom group and doesn’t know why. Does she have a conversation with any of them about this? No, she decides to plan a big tea party…because a party will lure them back in?

I don’t know. The characters were about my age, yet they acted so much younger. And I’m not a parent, so I just can’t relate to so much of Fallon’s thought processes and actions.

And thus, I gave it the old college try but ended up quitting midway.

Thank you to Alcove Press and NetGalley for the review copy.

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Thank you to @netgalley and @alcovepress for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to @dreamscape_media for a free download of the audiobook.

Synopsis:
Fallon Monroe, mother of one, self-help book junkie, and budding chocolatier, has always relied on her mom friends in the Chicago suburbs to get her through the trials of adulthood. So, when her bestie Beatrice inexplicably starts ghosting her and takes all their mutual friends with her, Fallon’s left wondering how everything went so wrong. Pushing down a lifetime of insecurities, Fallon doubles down and decides to win them back. First, she hosts an epic Mexican fiesta that goes epically wrong. Then she joins a friendship app but discovers a disturbing secret about one of her new friends.

Thoughts:
I loved the emphasis on friendships and the roles they play in a woman’s life as she gets older. The characters are complex, and I enjoyed seeing Fallon grow over the course of the book. I was expecting this book to be a little more lighthearted. Some of the storyline felt forced, but not enough that kept me from enjoying the overall story.

4 stars

#books #bookishlife #booklover #readingisfun #iowabookstagrammers #iowabookstagram #netgalley #alcovepress #dreamscapemedia #ltbreaderteam #thefriendshipbreakup #anniecathryn

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Kind of cliche. I didn't expect the moms to be so catty toward one another, and I expected more humor. Parts were relatable; other parts - not so much.

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Fallon Monroe is a mother, a budding chocolatier, a shoe enthusiast, and a person in dire need of friends. It wasn't like that in the beginning. Fallon had a group of mom-friends she could turn to at anytime, and have loads of fun with. Why were they now avoiding her, and cutting her out of their plans?

The story goes on to show Fallon's struggles as she juggles motherhood, her business, her marriage, and her friendships, new and old.

This book wasn't at all what I expected. I was looking for a good light comedy, and I was not prepared for how the story would turn out halfway into the book. It's a good thing, and I don't regret picking this up one bit.

This is one of those books with a lighthearted cover, but has a heavier story within.

I give this 4 stars.

Thank you for the e-arc, Netgalley!

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There was a lot to like about this reading experience, and I definitely wanted to keep reading to get to the bottom of why Fallon’s friends abandoned her. This ultimately fell solidly in the middle for me, as a read I enjoyed but didn’t love. Let’s get into why that is.

What I Liked
I loved this book’s emphasis on the importance of friendship. We see Fallon interacting with a variety of friends from different periods of her life and discussing the roles that friends can play in our lives. It was refreshing to see an acknowledgement that these relationships matter.

Fallon is a complicated protagonist who feels very real. She has dreams and aspirations for her marriage, her life, and her career, but she doesn’t always make the right choices or go about things in the proper way. I enjoyed seeing her learn and grow throughout the course of the book.

The book’s ending felt realistic in a way I appreciated, but I’ll say no more because no spoilers.

What I Didn’t Like
At times, it felt like the book was trying to do a bit too much. There is a lot going on between the friendship breakup, the chocolate business, the marriage, and another storyline I won’t spoil. That is true to life in a way, but became a bit overwhelming at times in a book.

Some of the writing felt a bit labored, with some rather forced metaphor and simile throughout. It was the sort of thing that made me think “I bet this is a debut novel.” That’s not to say the writing is bad, necessarily, just that it sometimes felt a little forced in a way that pulled me out of the story.

Overall, I enjoyed The Friendship Breakup and will definitely be interested to see what this author does next. I recommend this book to fans of stories about female friendship and to moms who are struggling to balance their social lives, dreams, and parenthood.

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What a stunning debut novel by Annie Cathryn! It hits you right between the eyes with real life mama drama that any mother is faced with at any point in their lives as you try to navigate friendships with your mom groups.

I had an immediate connection with Fallon and can feel her pain and confusion that arises from her friend group ghosting her. She is left on the sidelines as the rest of the group plans spa days, lunches, and get togethers that they love to flaunt on social media. Most of us have dealt with a friendship or a group of friends that have suddenly turned on you. You are faced with the unknown of what happened, being left on the outside looking in. A hole being ripped open and dread settling heavily upon yourself, as you come to terms with the adult mean girls.

I found so much joy in reading this book. The descriptions and details that go into Fallon's chocolate making will leave you reaching for a bonbon or a truffle. Friends will come and go, but true friends will always be around no matter what.

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If a book is focuses around mama drama, I'm here for it!

The Friendship Breakup has mama drama at its core. Fallon is confused and sad to be excluded from her mom friends' latest gatherings and she goes about rectifying the situation in just about every wrong way possible. From failed party attempts to befriending new people and using social media as a "revenge" tactic, Fallon didn't handle her friendship breakup well.

Like so many stories, a little communication would have gone a long way and I felt myself getting increasingly frustrated with Fallon and her pity party. However, as someone who has been through a friendship breakup, I could empathize to a point.

In addition to mama drama, this book did deal with some more serious topics like adoption and infidelity. I particularly liked the adoption storyline and how Fallon's adoption tied into her sense of self worth and abandonment issues.

Overall, this was an entertaining read. I listened to the audio and enjoyed it.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

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Most of my friends have echoed the feeling that it is harder to make friends once you leave the college atmosphere. Some obviously have made lasting connections, but work friends aside, others struggle. I face my own version of it when I struggle to find people in real life whose tastes match to some degree. They also have to have the same free time that I do, which is an even harder challenge.
This book begins with another such woman, who only recently has decided to make a go of her Chocolate dreams. She has spent the earlier part of her daughter's childhood being a stay-at-home mother. She had a close group of women, some of whom she liked more than others. These women have been friends since when their daughters were toddlers, but inexplicably, there has been a cold shoulder recently.
Fallon is unable to figure out what she could have done wrong. She struggles with her emotions as she misses the once-established camaraderie. She has a couple of friends who are not the same as this other group that did everything together (since their schedules matched). She spends the entirety of the book figuring out what the issue is, and once she has a semblance of an idea, she tries other things to move forwards, but not before making some cringeworthy mistakes in desperation. Suburban life is quite cut-throat on the pages.
I think this is a book that will appeal to people who have been in Fallon's spot, making some mistakes but nothing grievous enough for the backlash it wrought. If you are one of those people, this book will hit harder. Otherwise, it is a general story of a mum trying to get a business up and running while keeping her family and herself happy all at the same time.
I liked this take on this topic, some scenes may have been over the top, but for the most part, the story felt believable. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in the premise and find the blurb intriguing.
I received this book as an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading.

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Billed as a "mom-com", I wasn't sure if I as a single childless woman in her 40s would be able to relate. However, I absolutely adored this book which was more about the complexities and frustrations of female friendships than motherhood.

Fallon is turning 40 and finds herself suddenly and inexplicably on the outside of her suburban mom friends group. This is the last thing she needs as she is trying to launch her chocolate company, mother her 7 year old daughter, and keep her marriage together. Oh, and she is also amidst finding out about her own adoption history. Turning to her trusted self-help books, Fallon tries to keep it all together and recapture the friendships she thought would be forever.

A little bit Bad Moms and a whole lot of Mean Girls, The Friendship Breakup tackles a lot of modern adult issues (hello, social media) with humor and some amazingly ridunculous scenes (Dirty Harry the stripper, flying cacti, mudding) which will stay with me for quite some time. I couldn't help but cheer Fallon on to find her way past the sucky "friends" in her life. I laughed. I cried. And, yes, I related.

Thank you to Alcove Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

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📖My Thoughts📖

I think I’ve found a genre that I enjoy even more than a rom-com! This mom-com was fun, relatable, and entertaining! It was like the mom version of Mean Girls. I honestly couldn’t believe how horribly they were acting towards Fallon and felt so bad for her. I wanted to call her myself and tell her I would be honored to be her friend! I loved her relationship with her other friends. They got some good laughs out of me. I loved how this book was a balanced mixture of drama, fun, chaos and realism. It made it easy to follow and even get completely lost in. I love when a book can shut out the outside world for me. Even if just for a short amount of time. If you’re a mom and looking for a good laugh with some snark, add this to your list!
Thank you Netgalley, Annie Cathryn and Alcove Press for the opportunity to read and review this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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this novel was reaching for Class Mom vibes, but didn’t quite get there for me, personally.

Fallon, the main character, is stressed that her best friend is ghosting her, and she wants to find out why and win her back.

In the beginning of the book Fallon is a caricature of a frazzled mother who is always jonesing for another coffee, talking about shoes, and needing a drink. On the surface, a 39-year-old mother in the Chicago suburbs who has a 7-year-old daughter seems relatable, but Fallon and her neighborhood friends seem immature and shallow, unlike the intelligent, competent, and supportive women I know in the same age-range. The mothers in the novel felt like negative stereotypes of suburban mothers.

By the middle, I was more interested in Fallon’s story (but, unfortunately, excessive lengthy similes sprinkle the novel and continue to distract), and Fallon gains some depth in her character.

I appreciate Fallon’s journey in therapy that leads her to ask more questions about her own adoption, and well as Fallon sharing her experience with infertility. Also, Fallon is almost 40 and starting her own business as a chocolatier. She gains confidence in herself as she grows her business. Fallon also puts herself out there to find new friends.

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Fallon Monroe is mystified as to why she is suddenly persona non grata among her friends group--all moms from the same suburban community. The only woman who still wants to be her friend is the one who was caught fooling around with the principal on the school stage. Her ostracization surfaces her insecurities stemming from her adoption as a baby (which she didn't discover until she was 18). As Fallon embarks on a journey of self-discovery, she takes the reader along for the occasionally cringey, often sad, but more often hilarious, ride. Fallon is fortunate to have a supportive husband and a few other friends (unfortunately geographically inconvenient) and a burgeoning career as a chocolatier (even if her frenemies are subtly sabotaging it).

I've been struggling with reading the past several months and THE FRIENDSHIP BREAKUP is one of my few recent reads that I couldn't put down once I started it. As I mentioned, it is occasionally cringey, but only because you immediately care so much about Fallon and want to slap her horrible former friends. #TheFriendshipBreakup #NetGalley

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As a mom to four little kids I rely on my friendships with my "mom friends" to keep me sane! I love how relatable this book was to my own situation. I was on my toes the entire time trying to find out how we hurt Beatrice!

Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy of this "mom com." This is definitely something I enjoyed and would be willing to read more of!

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Families, friends and emotions are all within the covers of this book. It makes for interesting reading and your own emotions will be there as well. Read this and find out what it is all about. 4 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for this ARC

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People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Fallon Monroe is hoping her current friend group are friends for life as they raised their children together, but jealousy and marriage problems are tearing apart the friends. Fallon is struggling with the challenges of approaching middle age with young kids and trying to keep everything together. I found parts of this book laugh out loud funny but some of the strain between friends sounded very juvenile. I am glad for the ending that tied up nicely and this was a worthwhile "mom-com" read.

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This book is basically everything you could imagine, full of emotions, relatable moments, and eye-opening on the importance of good, healthy friendships.
Throughout the story I found myself comparing my life to Fallon's.

Fallon Monroe, mother of one, self-help book junkie and budding chocolatier, has always relied on her neighborhood friends to get her through the trials of adulthood. So when her bestie Beatrice inexplicably starts ghosting her and takes all their mutual friends with her, Fallon's left wondering how everything went so wrong. Pushing down a lifetime of insecurities, Fallon doubles down and decides to win them back.

Just when she's about to throw in the towel on the whole friendship mess, Fallon reads a recently unearthed letter she'd refused to open decades earlier-and reading it forces her to finally face the deep-seated fears she'd desperately tried to bury. Now, looking at her friendships through fresh eyes, she must decide between hanging on and letting go.

A super fun laugh out loud mom-com. As a mom of a toddler in my early 30s, I can totally relate. There were so many laugh out loud moments, but there were also emotional moments too, a perfect balance which made this book very special to me. What I most like about the book? Fallon grow into a better woman. She had some ups and downs but she is an inspiration. She fought for her marriage, she decided to go into therapy, she discovered some things about her past that she was putting out and faced it quite well, and most importantly how she followed her dream even when her
"friends" didn't encourage her to do it.

Highly recommended.

Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Thank you @netgalley @alcovepress @crookedlanebooks for the #arc in exchange for a honest review.

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