Bloody hell! I can't believe how fast I listened to this audiobook!

Really good storytelling, characters and narration. It flowed well and had a seriously unexpected (for me) ending - I didn't see that coming!! I felt really bad for the mum character, no spoilers...but all's well, that ends well, as they say.

Thanks to the author, NetGalley and Bookouture Audio
for providing me with this new audiobook - as always, this is my honest review.

A woman returns to her hometown to reveal the truth about a murder ten years early in Shannon Hollinger's latest suspense whodunit mystery—BEST FRIENDS FOREVER.

Kate returns to her childhood home in Florida after fleeing ten years earlier to Boston.

There was a murder near the orange groves, a bloody rock, a 30-something homeless man (Brad), two sisters (Kate and Lily), and a best friend, Emma Daley.

There were other friends, Becca, Mel, and a few guys.

We learn something terrible happened on graduation night. Appears Emma killed someone with a rock, and Kate cannot stand back and watch, so she leaves town. (makes no sense)

Her younger sister, Lily, was traumatized and became mute. Kate regrets bringing her little sister that night. Did she leave her behind with a serial killer?

Now there are multiple murders. A serial killer, or is it Emma?

She failed Brad and there were more victims, more deaths she could have prevented. All the new murders were discovered within days of the anniversary of Brad's death.

A different killer, a copycat, an accomplice?

Her baby sister is now a woman and Kate is there partly to take care of their mom, which has broken her hip.

Can Kate forgive herself for leaving?

However, was everything as it appeared after digging into the dark past?

When Emma dies, her best friend is gone forever. Was there something more sinister going on?

Did Emma end her life, or did someone murder her to keep quiet?

From past to present, we hear the events that unfolded that fatal night. Where nothing is as it appears.

Was Emma the killer or someone else, all along? Did Kate get it all wrong all these years?

Unfortunately, I could not get into this book, which seemed very disjointed. The author's background is impressive in her field; however, I was not invested in the story or any of the characters. The novel seemed unbelievable and more like a YA book with the girls and lots of drama—not a fan and steer away from these types of books.

I cannot recommend this one. Maybe it will appeal to an audience of YA. This book is NOT even in the same league and is nothing remotely similar to Karin Slaughter, Paula Hawkins, or Freida McFadden (I have read all their books) as referenced in the description. Very misleading, which is the only reason I took a chance on it.

I read the e-book and listened to the audiobook narrated by Kate Handford for an engaging performance.

📖 Book: 2.5 Stars
🔉 Audio: 4 Stars
💫Overall Rating: 3 Stars

Thank you to #Bookouture and #Netgalley for a gifted ALC and ARC.

Blog Review posted @
www.JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 3 Stars
Pub Date: Jan 12, 2023

Initially I didn't really like the recording voice , but after listening to the first few chapters I was hooked.
A solid mystery thriller with a good story and characters you will love to hate. Who can you trust? You'll just have to read it to see!
I cannot wait to read more of your books Shannon Hollinger!

Kate gets a call from her sister. There's no voice on the line but like a bat signal, she knew it was time to completely uproot her life for what could have been a butt dial.

Kate's little sister Lily hasn't spoken a word in 10 years, since she witnessed something traumatic in the woods at a party. That was the same night Kate promised herself she'd leave that town and never come back. Lily was only 12. She shouldn't have even been there and that guilt eats Kate alive. Not enough to stick around though.

When she gets back, everyone is happy to see her but some mysterious deaths begin to happen and she starts to think the death in the woods all those years ago was part of something much bigger. She decides to investigate as best she can but someone doesn't appreciate it and she might pay for the truth with her life.

This was pretty interesting but you really have to suspend disbelief. The characters constantly did things that made no sense to me. It starts off slowly, grabs you, but then loses you again until the end, which was creepy but kind of silly so it wasn't as satisfying as I would have hoped. It was a solid and quick read regardless.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to listen and review! The narration was great but she mispronounced some random things here and there. Not a big deal though, it could be regional.

If you are looking for a thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end, this is the book for you. Hollinger knows how to keep your attention and string you along while unbeknownst to the reader, keep hinting at who is the culprit and you honestly will not know until 90% through the book. Highly recommend.

4⭐️

The cover is striking and appealing.
I would describe it as a psychological thriller crime mystery fusion.

I had the audiobook read by Kate Hanford I liked her main female voice, I found it harder to differentiate between Jeff and Jimmy’s voices.

Kate, her sister and her friends were in the vicinity when her much older homeless friend Brad was killed. The secret of their presence was kept, but Kate felt she had to move away. But it’s a secret that’s been haunting her.
Ten years later her mom has an accident, so she returns home, on the same night Emma is murdered,is it coincidence? Kate starts investigating.

I found the storyline interesting. There’s something going on throughout. At times it took a few moments to work out when they were in the past and the present time frames, as there isn’t any warning of the switch.
I had a small issue with the mom being in a plaster cast for a broken hip. It was only a minor irritation though. There’s some very questionable decision making by Kate too, but without such tropes we wouldn’t have interesting psych thrillers.

I didn’t find Kate very likeable, the way she took off after the night of the graduation party. There was some character growth and development with Kate. My favourite character is Jimmy, I also really liked Brad. But you don’t know who is trust worthy so it’s not easy to engage with the characters as they are all potentially unreliable.

As for the plot, it’s easy entertaining listening, I guessed a part of the final outcome early on. There’s some decent red herrings and revelations along the way which kept my interest. There are also elements that are less convincing on implementation and believability which affected my rating.

I think it’s one where I enjoyed it more listening than I would have reading. I would normally have been a bit harsher on my rating due to points mentioned but I’ve gone with the entertainment value.

Audiobook review

A slightly awkward review for me to write…

I enjoyed listening to this, though I found it quite confusing, how much of the confusion was down to the Audiobook presentation and how much down to the written book it's hard to say.

Two sisters, their lives changed immeasurably by witnessing the aftermath of a violent crime as teenagers. The younger sister suffers from selective mutism and hasn't spoken since the incident, the older sister, main character Kate has also been troubled ever since.

Kate's back in town to care for their mother, and notices a history of murders, apparently happening around the anniversary of the original crime.

Structurally, it jumps back in time without any clear indication (on the Audiobook version), and I was confused, less so so as I got into it, but it didn't help me settle in to it.

I also found the two main male characters quite hard to differentiate, voice wise and character wise. Honestly, I preferred the narrator's female voices to her male ones.

The story itself was quite good, with some original angles, and I felt some threat and tension towards the end.

I don't want to mark it down, I felt it would be easier to follow and get involved if reading so it's a slightly generous four stars for the audiobook, all things considered.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture Audio

The twist that I thought I saw coming, I didn't! It was an entirely different twist that was excellent.

Kate returns to get home town after an absence of ten years. The reason fur such a prolonged absence is that she saw her best friend kill another good friend. Nobody found out and Kate couldn't handle the truth. Kate's younger sister, Lily, hasn't spoken a word since that night.

Upon her return, Kate finds that her mum has broken her hip and that Emma is dead. There are so many secrets to uncover, that Kate is list is a dizzying array of "clues", until she finally gets to "ground zero" and remembers all.

I unfortunately could not get into this book even after listening to it for three hours. The narrators and how the story is written is just not attention grasping or holding. I will be holding off until after publishing to post a review on good reads.

This book served up all of the twists! The suspense kept the ‘pages’ turning. Narration was excellent as well. 10/10 would recommend this book/audio book.

As a teenager, Kate witnessed her best friend Emma kill someone and get away with murder. Kate was drastically affected by the residual trauma from this event which led her to move away. Ten years later, she returns to her hometown and must investigate to uncover the truth about what really happened that night.

This is a psychological thriller and an extremely slow burn. The beginning was very slow, and it did not pique my interest until about 80% of the way through. The flashbacks are repetitive, and the writing is monotonous at times. This book deals with some mature themes like murder, rape, etc... but the writing was more at a YA (young adult) book level. There was a lot of intrigue and drama at the end of the book, but unfortunately the ending was predictable and disappointing.

Overall, I would rate this book 3 stars. I honestly wouldn't have finished it had I just picked it up on my own without being granted an ARC. The audiobook quality and narration were excellent, but the story was lacking.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Holy smokes! This was a seriously demented twisted story. Creepy, dark and messed up, but a good listen. Kate left behind her former life to escape some terrible memories and loss and start anew. Ten years later she needs to go home to help her mother while she is recovering from an accident and surgery. It only gets darker when more and more awful things happen. When things are ultimately brought into the light you will be both shocked and horrified. The author has woven a wonderful story line the if you’re anything like me, will have you on the edge of your chair and keeping the lights on. This was my first experience with this author. Absolutely not my last.

Best Friends Forever♥️
By Shannon Hollinger🌹

Review🖊️

A murder mystery that goes back and forth between the present and past. It was very fast paced and kept me interested throughout. There was so much in this book-a plot twist was around every corner. I enjoyed the story setting, which took place in a small town. The main character was running from her past only to have to face it to figure out who the killer is. The closure at the end of the book was a nice way to wrap up the story. Would recommend for mystery lovers❣️

Mystery❓
Suspense🖤
Psychology Thriller🔪
Best friend or murderer👀

4 Stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book started off strong, with the classic "woman must face her past and move back to her small town" start. The guilt she feels about how her high school choices affected her now-mute sister was compelling as well and made this book stand out from others like it.

However, there were a couple things once the story got going that didn't work. First of all, I couldn't buy the lack of any type of social media. Even a throwaway line like "I even deleted my Facebook when I moved away" would have worked. It's possible I missed that this is set a decade ago, but 28 year olds from a small town are the prime Facebook audience.
Also, the flashbacks didn't do much for me, even though I normally love flashbacks. They didn't add any information that wasn't already summarized in the main narrative. Also, there were a few odd moments of head hopping that seemed out of place.

Then the ending took a turn for the worse. Multiple characters' motivations turned out just to be "they're bad because they're bad" without any good explanation (besides some handwavey "mental illness"). I can buy one character being like that, but it didn't stop with one.

Without going into spoilers, there was one character that would have been really interesting to see more of. In fact, I think Kate was just too far removed from the main conflicts and motivations to make the plot and especially the twists compelling. I didn't even notice any hints that there were character dynamics going on outside of Kate's perception, although that would have been a much more interesting way to tell the story.

I listened to the audiobook version, and that was perfectly serviceable. The production was clear and the volume levels were even, which was nice.

This book was definitely entertaining and I'd recommend it to people who are looking for more of this type of mysteries, and I'd be open to more by this author. Because of the ending, though, I wouldn't recommend it to those looking to dip their toes in the genre.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free review copy!

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for this advanced audio listen.

Holy smokes. Damn! This story is a good one. I am happy to say while I figured out the killer pretty early on, the accomplice had me wondering. Pleasantly surprised on that one!

The narrator did an excellent job of telling the story.

The very fun nod to Anne of Green Gables was not lost on me! I hope other readers/ listeners pick up on it. I will be purchasing a physical copy of this book upon its release date!

Kate hasn’t been back home for years after a traumatic incident involving her sister and her best friend. After getting a call to go back when her mum suffers a fall we follow kate as she tries to come to terms with what happened all those years ago.

Plot wise the story had some great twists and turns and kept me guessing until the end which is always a bonus. I really like the “goes back home after years away” trope and this one, whilst being a little cringy at times didn’t disappoint. Kate is one of those characters you want to shake every time she speaks but overall I really enjoyed this audiobook. The narrator did a great job!

MOODS
➨ Psychological Thriller
➨ Mystery Suspense
➨ Adult but with a decidedly YA-ish feel to it
➨ With flashbacks to the past

If you like YA Mystery Thrillers then this one would work perfectly for you, despite taking place when the characters are adult-aged. I thought I had this all figured out…but I should’ve known it wasn’t going to be that easy. This one definitely stumped me with the ending. Was it a tad OTT, maybe but sometimes it has to be so that it can take you by surprise. Overall, the writing is solid.

My only issue with this book is purely for the audio version. The past timelines didn’t sound any different than the present ones…other than going from first person to third person. They happened so quickly with barely a breath between one timeline to the next, that I was left trying to catch up with each one of them. Things like this tend to pull me out of the story and leave me unable to fully immerse myself within it. If maybe there was a significant pause between the timelines or if they said the year before each jump, I may have been able to stay in the story more easily. Maybe if I had read this rather than listened to it…this issue would be a moot point since the past timeline is in italics in the book format.

➨ Narrated by: 🎙️ Kate Hanford 📣 She has a pleasant tone and her voices for conversations are great…but she was robotic sounding at times.

Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture for my Advanced Listeners Copy of this book.

I enjoyed the story a lot, as well as the narration. There were some dark twists and turns that I did not expect. A good thriller. 4.5 stars

This one was a little hard for me to get into. The narrator of the audio version was good, but I had a hard time figuring out which timeline I was in sometimes, which was confusing. Some of the writing was a little stilted in places, with a tendency toward overuse of cliched phrases. I had a very hard time identifying with Kate at all, and kept asking myself why she so easily believed that her best friend was a murderer. However, there were quite a few unexpected twists and turns which kept me guessing, which made this an overall good read.

ARC audiobook provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

“Best Friends Forever” is told from the first-person perspective of Kate along two timelines, one when she was 18 and one in the present ten years later. When Kate was 18, tragedy struck. At a graduation party, Kate and her 12-year-old sister, Lily, stumble upon Emma, Kate’s best friend, standing over a dead body with a bloody rock in her hand. Kate does the only thing she can think of: she runs. Lily never speaks another word. Kate takes running to the next level and days later climbs onto a bus and leaves her friends, family, and life as she knows it behind.

Ten years later, Kate’s mother breaks a hip and Kate is summoned back home to help. Returning to her childhood home in a town she fled, Kate begins to face the life she left behind and that night that still haunts her. Kate decides the only way she can move on is to find out the whole truth of what happened that night, no matter what the consequences. However, the day that Kate arrives, Emma is found dead. Emma’s death makes Kate begin to question everything. As she discovers more about that night and everything that has followed since she left, Kate begins to think Emma might have had an accomplice, and they’ve been busy. After all, there is a trail of bodies spanning ten years, and it might not be over.

With a premise like that, this book held a lot of promise. Unfortunately, I am amongst the group of people who found this book just middle-of-the-road. It started off okay, and it ended okay. However, as the middle of the book progressed onward, I found myself becoming more and more frustrated. My biggest issue was echoed by other reviewers. This book is told from the first-person perspective of our protagonist, Kate. As the book progresses it becomes very clear that Kate is neurotic, self-absorbed, childish (let’s remember she’s 28), idiotic, clueless, annoying, and just plain unlikeable. That may be a bit harsh, and I did not start out feeling that way. However, by the end of the book I was just plain sick of dealing with her. For me, an unlikeable main character just kills a story. Other surrounding characters were often unlikeable, some for good reason, but it was Kate that caused the biggest issue.

Putting that aside, the story was okay. As I noted, it started off with promise. Clues and red herrings abounded throughout the story. Many were blatantly obvious and gave away the ending pretty early for me. I felt that the clues and red herrings were also a bit heavy-handed. Yes, they are necessary in any “psychological thriller,” but this story had so many that it felt over the top. There was also a side story that I think didn’t necessarily add anything to the main story overall in the end, but it did add word count and pages. The ending was okay. It was a bit more interesting than the entire middle of the book, and I think it came together well. Unfortunately, this book was also harmed by a writing style that was more suited for a young adult audience. Due to some content in the book, I would say it would be for an older young adult audience, but young adult nonetheless.

I think the idea for the story was good. I think it could have been developed and flushed out a bit better. I think the main character definitely could have been edited to be more likeable and relatable so that the reader feels more invested in the story. The story was interesting enough for me to hang on until the end to see if my theory of who the murderer(s) was/were, hence the three-star review.

My copy of this book was an audiobook, so I would like to comment on the narrator. I do believe she did a good job. Her narration was on point and paced well. Her female voices were well done. Her male voices were also pretty well done, which is often a point of contention with me when the narrator is female. So overall she did a good job.

Overall, this book held a lot of promise; however, I think the middle of the book and an unlikeable protagonist just sunk the story. This book may work for an older young adult reader audience (older given the nature of some of the content) who are new to the “psychological thriller” genre. I would not recommend this book for regular adult readers of the genre, as I feel you would be disappointed and frustrated by the end. Unfortunately, this book was a frustrating experience for me in what could have been an enjoyable storyline. It passed the time, but it might not have been worth it.