I wanted to read this book because I well know what it feels like to be ostracized by good friends. It hurts like hell, especially as an adult. Women can be very difficult to be friends with, at any age.
Fallon experiences a lot of personal growth in the book. Initially she did come off as desperate to belong and then actually joined an app to make new friends. I thought if she had laid off the alcohol and kept her nose out of lawsuits and social media she would have been better off.
She does possess really good friends, that don’t live near her, and starts to believe in herself and take better care of her marriage. Fallon learns you don’t need a ton of friends, one or two good ones are sufficient.
She also learned to let people go who no longer worked well in her life.
I learned that lesson as well and am the better for it.
The mudslinging scene was a great one!

I have to say I'm not a big fan of the miscommunication trope, and miscommunication takes a big part in this book.

Fallon has been friends with Beatrice for nearly seven years, since they were both first time mums. Now suddenly Beatrice is ghosting her and not including her in the plans with their group of mom friends. Fallon doesn't know why and tries to win her (and their mom friends) back.

The book was interesting enough to keep reading, but not one of my favorites.

** Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. **

This debut is an absolutely delight!

As moms and dads, we take care of our children and want the best for them and strive to “do it all.” Lunches, carpool, bake sales, music, sports, school events, birthday parties, etc. are part of life and we try to balance with home life and jobs.

Fallon is one of those moms who has a group of friends who do things together with the kids and as moms. One day she realizes she is not being invited to things with the group and her child is also left out. She has no idea why! They have been friends for seven years.

As we all know things behind closed doors are not always what is shown on social media. Fallon wants to maintain these friendships. She routinely sees a therapist to help her cope. She has had some loss in her life, so this is hard for her.

Should she maintain relationships with people who don’t want her in their lives?

Fallon doesn't know what has made her best friend Beatrice distance herself from her. While she tries to get to the bottom of it, she also has to juggle mom life and secrets from her own past. 

First off, can I just say that I love Fallon's job was making chocolate! Fallon was a likable main character and though I sympathised with her situation, I did find that her best friend plotting to leave her out of parties and ignoring her constantly to be a bit repetitive and more teenage behaviour than adult. Aside from this, I did enjoy the many laugh out loud scenes and Annie Cathryn's writing style. I look forward to seeing what she comes out with next.

I received a advanced copy of this book. It took me a while to complete it. I had to keep coming back to it. It was not my favortie, however I am glad to know the main character grew into the person she should have and let the rest of the BS go. There was too much mama drama for the kind of books I normally enjoy. Overall it was a good book.

DNF @ 33%

The only positive thing about this book was that the chapters flew by quickly, but I just didn’t have the patience to read about a 39 year old hot mess of a mom that is desperate to stay friends with her toxic mom friend.

I live my own life by the philosophy that if someone doesn’t want to be friends with me, then I don’t want to be friends with them. Therefore, I could not understand why Fallon would try so hard to kiss Beatrice’s butt when she was being so outwardly rude to her after so many years of friendship. I also hate miscommunication and that’s basically the theme of this entire book.

My main thought was “If I have to read this whole book where she's just going to desperately try and keep this woman as a friend then I'm gonna tap out.” So I did.

However, I think the main contributing factor to my not liking this book is that I'm not a mom nor am I in my late 30s/early 40s so Fallon wasn’t really relatable to me. I really couldn’t understand her motivations and some of the little plot points that were probably supposed to be funny were actually cringey and juvenile.

TL;DR- While this book might appeal to some people, the portion of the book I did read was not for me.

*I received an ARC from Crooked Lane Books/Alcove Press in exchange for my honest opinion.

I received the audio arc of this book and will be reviewing it instead. Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautiful story. Fallon’s character development was written incredibly well. She was able to grow and learn and embrace herself, life and life changes. It’s a good reminder that no matter how old you are, you can always grow as a person when circumstances change. I think this book was written really well too. The characters, the plot and development all worked well together.

This book is full of really important lessons. Sometimes life doesn’t turn out exactly how you expected. Also, not all friendships will last, no matter how long they have been. Not all friendships are meant to be forever and it’s okay. That doesn’t erase the memories made or the joy that was experienced. As you grow, sometimes you grow out of others, and that’s totally fine. It’s a hard lesson to learn but a relief when you learn to accept it.

Fallon is getting ready to turn 40 and life isn't working out the way she had planned. Worse, her best friend has stopped speaking to her, and their other friends have followed suit, and Fallon has no idea why. She struggles to save her friendships with the neighborhood moms and adjust to the big milestone birthday.

This story had a lot of promise but there was just a lot going on. I thought there was at least one or two storylines that could have been taken out and not changed anything in the book. This was a fast read and short chapters, which I always like, so it kept me going. There were times when I was getting frustrated with the not knowing seeming to drag out.

Over all, 2-1./2 stars, rounded up to 3 because there were aspects I really liked that kept me involved.

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for providing me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Available February 7, 2023.

The Friendship Breakup is exactly what the title indicates, a story about a woman who is suddenly being “ghosted” by someone she thought was her best friend. They are almost 40 years old and lived through the demanding early years of parenthood together. But suddenly Beatrice isn’t talking to Fallon or answering any of her texts, and Fallon doesn’t know why.

I was very irritated with this group of so-called friends. They acted childish and very superficial. Their group is called the Ma Spa Squad! (Ick) Fallon’s more long-term friends (Avery and Mel), who do not live in the same small town as Fallon, were much better people, in my opinion. There were a lot of women to keep track of in the story, but eventually I was able to keep everyone straight.

The story is pretty entertaining, with one disaster after another, so I chucked quite a few times. Underneath, however, are serious themes. Fallon is feeling the physical effects of stress. She has one young daughter and is trying to establish her own small business as a chocolatier, as well as hold her marriage together. This ghosting situation is pretty much the final straw and she does go see a doctor as well as a therapist. I liked Fallon’s personal growth throughout the novel and I was glad she eventually realized she could do better than those former friends.

A couple of quotes I liked:
“People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.”

“Walking away from a relationship that no longer works for either person is freeing.”

I bounced between the audiobook and the ebook for this title, which was very convenient. The audiobook was narrated quite well by Brenda Scott Wlazlo.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook and to Alcove Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Fallon is a wife and mom who is having problems with her best friends. They're suddenly avoiding her, and no one will tell her why. When she has a panic attack during a disastrous party, she starts seeing a therapist, and then decides to join a friendship app to make new friends. But one of her new friends turns out to be one of the linchpins to the issues with her bestie. She needs to reevaluate how she wants to handle her friendships, and life. Oh yeah, and she also has a secret that she has told only two of the people in her life, and she doesn't want to deal with it, but now she's going to deal with it. Oh, and she likes making pretty chocolates.

This. Book. Is. Slow. Holy cow. It takes literally one third of the book to get to the disaster party that makes her start kind of changing into an adult. Then at the halfway point, she finally joins the app to make new friends. But no matter how much happens, she keeps trying to run back to her friends that don't have any interest in being friends anymore. The culmination of all this chaos becomes a literal mud slinging fight. But suddenly, Fallon decided to act like an adult, someone tells her that it's really all their fault rather than hers, and everything gets all happily ever after-y. I'm annoyed at the childish actions of EVERYONE involved. I'm mad at Fallon, I'm mad at the Bestie, I'm mad at the gossip friend that started drama for the whole group and started breaking them all up, and I'm mad at the blame-taker (I don't want to spoil this for someone who ACTUALLY wants to read this.) because that person saw Fallon being hated by her best friends, and STRUGGLING over it, and didn't say anything for months. Also, I'm mad at the author for making that character the "fall guy" and very deus ex machina because of the quick resolution.

This felt like a book that helped the author work out some of her own stuff while trying to create something fun/funny. I stopped SEVERAL times to get past my frustration that the who thing was just awful on top of awful, and no one has a decent adult conversation. Shameful.

Maybe this book just isn't for me. Maybe I didn't read it with enough ability to find humor in the situations, because I think that was what the author was hoping for... but I just was cringing way too much.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley in return for sharing my thoughts on this book. Thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity!

This book was a fun yet emotional read. It's a great book to curl with on a rainy day. I really enjoyed reading it and will look for more books by this author.
I received a complimentary copy from Alcove Press via NetGalley and was not required to write a review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Fallon is a sympathetic yet slightly cringey main character. However, she does ultimately show growth and come around to owning up her mistakes while opening up her eyes to people’s true natures. I have been through the “friendship breakup” many a time before and was choked up during parts. I should have had a “lifetime friendship” based on the book’s stats but it just wasn’t in the cards. So I empathized quite a bit with Fallon feeling hit out of nowhere with pettiness, yet I was encouraging her naive self to just keep moving on from those highly superficial women. The so-called “bad” women were definitely the true friends (and way more fun.) The cathartic “messy” scenes were funny but crazily unrealistic. However, the whispers and the fallouts definitely were all too painfully real.

Overall, I enjoyed this book very much, thanks to the author’s appealing writing style. I was very surprised to see that this is her debut novel. Even if I didn’t always agree with Fallon’s choices or identify with her lifestyle, I enjoyed her journey. My one complaint would be a few too many weaving plots - the adoption was overkill, and I feel there could have been more time spent on the other storylines.

Thank you to NetGalley, Alcove Press, and Annie Cathryn for the advanced copy of The Friendship Breakup. All opinions are my own.

I would like to thank Netgalley, Alcove Press and Annie Cathryn for the E ARC of this book. Publication date 7th February 2023.
This is a story of how one lady faces the dilemma of what to do when the friendships you thought would last a life time are no longer there.
Fallon is a Mum who as well as running the home, is trying to start her own business as a chocolatier. She has a good set of friends or she thought she did until her best friend Beatrice ghosts her and the group follow suit. Fallon has now idea why this is happening and decides to do all she can to win her friends back – but are they really worth having back?
As Fallon makes decisions, she learns things about herself and really what she wants in life. I loved that she still kept in touch with her college room mate Avery and that she was always there for her. Fallon’s husband was always supportive and he realises just how much she does to help him and their little girl.
I liked Fallon as a character and could relate to her decisions about her friends. I didn’t care for her Mom Friends, too cliquey and not really strong enough to stand up for themselves with Beatrice.

I really enjoyed this women’s fiction novel. It effortlessly explored the topic of female friendships in adulthood and how they evolve during the different stages of a person’s life. The main character, Fallon, was very likable and had a lot going on in her life that was causing some anxiety and panic attacks. She saw a sudden change in her friendships with other mothers in her community and suddenly found herself being excluded from get-together without any explanation. I thought her exploration into the complexities of these friendships and her journey into determining if these friendships were worth saving to be insightful. She really seemed to find, with the help from her therapist, the reason she held these friendships so close and also found ways to really take a closer look at them to see what value they were or weren’t bringing to her life. Her friendships with Avery and Mel were wonderful and it was great being able to see that side of her.

Her further exploration into her marriage, motherhood, adoption, and her start-up business really brought a lot to the story and provided opportunities for a lot of character growth. There were situations that Fallon found herself in that provided readers with laugh out loud moments and also times of reflection and understanding. This was a great read for me and I really enjoyed having the audiobook version for this one!

Fallon is married, has an adorable daughter and a great group of mom friends. Everything is perfect, until she notices her best friend Beatrice is ignoring her, and so is the whole Ma-Squad. So she tries to find out why that is.

I found it quite difficult to relate to Fallon. I know what it's like to lose touch with friends but I thought that both Fallon and the other moms were behaving childishly. I found none of them to be very likeable but then again I'm not a white suburban mom, so I can't really relate to their problems. I guess I'm just not in the main target group for this kind of book. I'm sure others will enjoy it more, as it was both funny, while also showing more serious topics, like the struggle of motherhood and the loss of friendship.

Thank you to the author, Alcove Press and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I found this debut novel a very mixed bag - on the one hand, I found the protagonist deeply relatable in terms of her issues and questions around friendship. Her thoughts, desires and vulnerabilities are those that many of us also experience. Once the story revealed more of the protagonist's backstory, this became even more understandable. and I loved the judgement-free and positive portrayal of therapy/couples therapy - although I found the way the adoption sub-plot was dealt with disturbing. And on the other hand, the protagonist lives a life that oozes privilege: cis straight white upper middle-class, very comfortable financially (100 pairs of shoes, really?), US stay-at-home mom living in a wealthy, boring suburb. Not to mention the ingrained cultural/sexual biases that are communicated as the normal status quo - sorry, this was not my cup of tea at all. Okay, I don't live in the USA, so maybe this rubbed me the wrong way - but I kind of hoped we were past these types of characters.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐮𝐩
𝐁𝐲 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐲𝐧
𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐫: 𝐀𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝟐.𝟕.𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 𝒞𝑜𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒮𝑜𝑜𝓃!

Thank you @msanniecathryn and @alcovepress for the gifted ebook and @dreamscape_media for the complimentary audiobook.

I was lucky enough to participate in the cover reveal for this book, and now I had so much fun listening to it.

Fallon is so relatable because she’s a wife, a mom, an upstart business owner, and about to turn forty. But what resounded with me the most was that she was losing friends, and she wasn’t sure why- 𝘐’𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦!

Annie Cathryn did a great job displaying the truth of how rumors, gossiping, and petty jealousy can destroy friendships, or maybe it brings to light the toxicity that exists within a circle of friends. Though Fallon struggled and was caught in the mire and misunderstandings, there were some very humorous moments. The narrative also wove in a subplot about Fallon’s own adoption discovery that adds depth and insight to her character.

Overall a fun, heartfelt story about how messy female friendships can be. Oh, and be prepared to want a sweet treat seeing that Fallon’s business launch is chocolates.

I loved this book! Will be checking more out from this author and will be recommending it to friends!!!

Fallon is being ghosted by her best friend and by extension, the entire friend group and doesn't know what to do with herself. After some soul searching, she ends up with a better support system and moves forward.

This book was out of my regular wheelhouse and I would class it more literary fiction than I usually read. I was charmed to see that the main character had previously had relationships with her spouse but was generally in a good place. All of the drama came from outside the home. I didn't see why she was fighting so hard to keep these friends but to each their own.

Thank you to Netgalley, Alcove Press, and Annie Cathryn for a copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.