Jess and Clara meet in university and become best friends. Readers follow their lives over two decades including tragedy, love, heartbreak, marriage, anxiety, isolation, and motherhood. In the beginning it is Clara that rescues Jess and later strong minded Clara certainly could use some rescuing however refuses it. In the end their friendship continues to float with the ebbs and flows of life.
I wasn’t very fond of both these female characters and Clara was a lot in the later chapters. If you enjoyed Firefly Lane you may enjoy this one. A book club could have a good discussion on the topics of motherhood and friendship.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada, Doubleday Canada, Net Galley and Kerry Clare for the ARC of this book.

History of friendship

Asking for a Friend takes on the subject of women's friendship over the years. Starting in college, the two heroines are best friends, the friendship endures over the years that include many of life's challenges -- marriage, abortion, children and loss. Not a totally light book, but very much worth a read.

Thank you to the publisher who lent me a time-limited e-arc via Netgalley. This review is optional and my own opinion.

Asking for a Friend is an ode to friendships and the importance of connection. Claire's novel is both heartbreaking and uplifting—she perfectly captures how sustaining female relationships are.

Told in shifting perspectives and spanning two decades, this novel explores some weightier topics: abortion, pregnancy loss, women's reproductive rights, the challenges of motherhood, and women's roles. Jess and Clara have an unbreakable bond that sees them through the highs and lows of friendship, and their life choices yet through it all, they always find their way back to each another.

With its incredible depth, this book is the perfect choice for book clubs and to celebrate the women in your life.

This a book about enduring friendship through time as well as through the ups and downs of life on life’s terms. It follows two friends who meet at college and become intertwined often to the exclusion of others. When both eventually meet their life partners, things get tricky. This book authentically highlights the relational challenges of long term friendships especially when differences are encountered like financial status, child-bearing differences, vocational differences, etc. As each woman grows in relation to her life history and environment, the other struggles to understand and make sense of this growth. The ending is special and the reader is given a sense that all will be well and we can see these two sitting on a porch step as they age together. I found myself recognizing myself and my old friends in this novel. The book gave me an opportunity to process and explore why certain friendships prevailed, where they went off the rails and how they could be repaired. For this I’m thankful to the author. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

A beautiful exhibit on the ins and outs of female friendship, life, loss, motherhood, and all the in betweens. While I had very little in common with the characters (except I grew up very much like Clara, I think) - both women were relatable and real and frustrating and wonderful. The pacing made for an enjoyable experience and the pages are tinged with a bittersweet hopefulness. I highly recommend - especially of your a woman who grew up in the 90s, bonus points for being local and recognizable.

This book is about a complicated and enduring friendship betweeen two women that initially meet in college. The friendship betweeen Clara and Jess is quite codependent. At times it seems too codependent but there are also times when their contact wanes and times when it is non existent. Overall though they maintain a strong friendship over the years as they embark on their post university lives. They both struggle to find their way as they start their careers, marry and have children. Their friendship comes back from and withstands many disagreements, misunderstandings and hurt feelings. There are some relavent and important topics covered in the book that are of utmost importance in women’s lives and it was interesting to see how their friendship dealt with them. Overall it was an interesting book that made me wonder about friendship and the role it plays in our lives.

I was drawn to Kerry Clare’s latest novel Asking for a Friend because it was compared to works by Emma Straub and fans of Firefly Lane, do not read this book if that is what you are expecting. Canadian author Clare does not deserve to be compared to other books and authors she is established on her own.

This book takes you through the friendship from Uni to adulthood. It is a story about self-discovery, growth, love, forgiveness, and friendship. It is about the complex connections of female friendship and the realities of modern motherhood.

This is not a fast-paced novel, but it is engaging. I can see this book being picked up for many book club discussions on the importance of friendship.

Thank you #netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

@kerryreads

This is a novel about female friendship and deals with abortion, pregnancy, miscarriage, marriage and motherhood. It moves slowly at times, but I enjoyed it. The main characters (Jess and Clara) were well developed and their struggles with life and sometimes each other were believable. Jess became a specialist in the study of fairy tales and I appreciated how the author related the various tales to the lives of women. 3.75/5 stars

A beautiful story about the complicated bonds of female friendship and the difficulties of modern motherhood. Jess and Clara meet in college and quickly become best friends. They support one another through extremely difficult times and while they grow apart over the years they always show up when the other calls or needs them.

This was a wonderful story about life, love, marriage, motherhood and all the things life throws at you. The book addresses some difficult subjects, from infidelity, abortion, miscarriage and infertility, but is ultimately an uplifting story about the power of love.

Good on audio narrated by Kate Keenan. Highly recommended for fans of Firefly lane or The summer sisters or anyone who loves a relatable story that will tug at your heart but warm it all at the same time. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and Tandem Global Collective for sending me a beautiful finished copy.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book and all opinions are my own!

This book is about two women, Clara and Jess, who meet in university and become best friends. Over the years, we see them grow close and drift apart, experiencing love, loss, marriage, and children. Despite some hardships and differences, their strong friendship keeps them finding each other again and again.

I requested this book as it was recommended for fans of Firefly Lane, one of my favourite reads. This is not a fair comparison and I should not have set my expectations so high. This is a beautiful story of friendship and it kept me entertained, though I did not find either of the girls very likeable. Despite the book centering on only the two women, there was not a ton of character development. Overall, I think this book was overall enjoyable if you don't go in expecting a dupe of Firefly Lane.

Asking For A Friend by Kerry Clare is a gorgeously-written book about what it means to have and be a close friend. In this case, the story follows two women, Clara and Jess through their lives beginning in their college days forward. There isn't really a plot to drive it forward but that to me is part of the point. The slow pace really allows one to become more deeply invested in their personalities and vagaries of life.

Though the two women aren't particularly likeable to me, I did enjoy watching facets of their friendship evolve, sometimes naturally, others circumstantially. They made questionable choices and had times of relationship turmoil as well as a smattering of competition. What I like better than the story itself is the insightful and thoughtful writing. It is obvious much thought went into it. It is not one of my favourites but I am glad to have experienced it and do anticipate more by this author.

My sincere thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this lovely novel.

This book is about two people, Jess and Clara, who meet at university and become bff's but eventually drift apart and then reunite, have a disagreement and don't talk for ages, then reunite again with much heartbreak and many births in the intervening years. In spite of my lackluster review I have to admit that every time I picked the book up, I had trouble putting it back down, probably because I kept waiting for something to happen. The characters are not loveable and the chapters are looong but the writing is very good. Most of the reviews for this one are much more generous than mine so I recommend you read some of those before deciding whether to read it.

TW: Abortion, Miscarriage

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada via Netgalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this novel. All opinions expressed are my own.
Publication Date: September 5, 2023

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
To be honest, I skimmed through a lot of this book after about page 50. I was looking for the plot. Seriously.
This is a story about two friends. That's the plot.
I think we needed more challenges, more oomph, more depth, something to keep the reader engaged.
There was nothing wrong with this novel, but aside from the obvious "I want what she has," there's really nothing exciting in this story.

Big thanks to Netgalley, and penguin randomhouse for giving me early access to this book in return for a review.

The first few chapters of this book really gripped me, but unfortunately this momentum could not be maintained.

This book follows two friends, Jess and Clara, from their meetings in university to their continued friendship throughout their 30’s. They have an insatiable connection at the beginning of the novel. They are inseparable and have a deep connections. This abruptly changes after Clara has to suddenly leave school to take care of her mother after her father dies. In the resulting years they grow further and further apart as one or the other neglects their relationship because of whatever they have going on in their respective lives.

I didn’t really like either of these characters. I found Clara and Jess equally exasperating. At the start of the book Clara feels so worldly and in total control. This illusion quickly disappeared as Jess enters a relationship with another student who Clara doesn’t approve of. Jess is a doe-eyed girl. Neither of these characters really seem to develop past this point and are constantly jealous of one another.

The other big problem that I had with this book was how hard it was to place where the novel was set. At the beginning of the book I thought it was set in America as it used a lot of tropes from American universities, all of which were well executed. But the language often felt British and because of the lack of details around the setting it was easy to see it set there. It was set in Canada, which is great, I love CanLit, but there was not enough distinguishing features for me to figure that out.

I wish I liked this more. I enjoyed the writing style and the pacing, but the problems with the setting and characters overshadowed the aspects that I was enjoying.

Such a beautiful story told over the span of two decades. The reader gets to see how the friendship between our two MCs Jess and Clara, changes as their lives change from their time in university to life after.

What I really loved about this book was how the author did a great job at showing how friendships change over time. It was great to see that even though Jess and Clara’s lives took different directions at some points, their friendship managed to hold true. This book definitely makes you think about your own friendships growing up, and how some have endured and some have not.

This would be a great book for a book club to read, as I feel it would create a lot of discussion on various topics.

I am quite boggled by the fact that the publisher thought it was good idea to compare this book to Firefly Lane. There is no comparison in my honest opinion. The only thing similar is that it is based around two women; in this case from college to adulthood and for me that's where it ended. I didn't like these two characters and even the husband's annoyed me. Jess and Clara were both selfish and self absorbed all the while "trying" to maintain their friendship.

This book was far too long and on top of that the author would throw in information about things like the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and share all sorts of unusual historical information that I found completely took away from the book.

There were so many times I almost put it down and didn't pick it back up but I kept thinking maybe it will get better and maybe have something slightly resembling the book it was compared to. Sadly that wasn't the case and even the ending was quite unusual.

Not my cup of tea but I'm sure there will be many who will enjoy it.

Triggers:
Abortion
Miscarriage
Pregnancy
Birthing medical issues

**Received ARC through NetGalley. Voluntarily reviewed*

This book was fine. I expected way more as it was compared to Kristin Hannah’s Firefly Lane.

Both main characters annoyed me, one more than the other but I didn’t like or connect with either of them. I felt the author could have dig deeper into each characters live instead of just giving us an outside view.

There was also a lot of discussion about getting pregnant, fertility treatments and staying pregnant that took up way to much focus for my liking.

Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin Random House Canada and Doubleday Canada for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Asking For a Friend is a heart warming epic tale that is about friendship and motherhood.

Clara and Jess meet at university and although it appears they have nothing in common they soon bond and form a friendship that will last years.

There are ups and downs as they move through life in different directions and yet the bond remains.

Like life as we grow so do our problems and become of a different nature.

Kerry Clare who writes beautifully, touches on many tough subjects with finesse and we see how the friends cope.

Friends change over the years so when you have one that is always there is one to treasure.

This is not my usual genre and my first book by Kerry Clare but it will not be my last one.

Grab your copy and settle in for a compelling read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada, Doubleday Canada for a great read.

Asking for a Friend, by Kerry Clare, is one of those books I really, really wanted to like. I'm female and a firm believer in the power of friendship, so what's not to like?

The novel started very strong and was immediately drawn to both of the main characters - Clara and Jess. They meet one night in university when Jess desparately needs a friend and confidante and Clara becomes that, and more.

Their time together at university and their early careers is so vivid and well-told. I often felt like a fly on the wall, just watching their relationship develop and evolve, ebb and flow. I could see myself and my friends in many of the situations Kerry Clare writes about.

However, the author started to lose me when the women went their separate ways to pursue careers, marriage and motherhood.

Until that point, I found myself liking both women equally and able to see their side during any conflicts.

But, once the careers and motherhood started, I found they both became stereotypes - the uptight suburban professional mom of 2 children, and the hippy, struggling to make ends meet, mother of 3.

I didn't really like them anymore since I found them both selfish and unsufferable at times, In fact, they didn't seem to like each other anymore. They seemed to stop caring about each other or have much in common. I had trouble understanding at times what bound them together, other than the length of their friendship.

Kerry Clare is a beautiful writer though. Some of her observations on friendship and motherhood were just glorious to read.

Asking for a Friend started out strong but eventually fizzled, not unlike some of the important friendships in our lives.

Thank you Net Galley for offering me a review copy to read.

Asking for a Friend is a story about two college friends and their somewhat separate journeys through growing up, marriage and motherhood. It's sometimes funny and often heart-rending and every mother will see something of her fears and challenges in Clara and Jess.
This isn't a light read but it's a rewarding one and well worth the read.