This book was advertised as a hypnotic, sexy, and incisive novel following one woman's affair with her daughter's best friend that tests the limits of love and affection.

What I found was a relationship put to paper in a tone that reminded me of Joanne from Company, without any of the LuPone sparkle. Just the "I'm smarter than you and I thought you should know that" attitude.
Gun to my head, by 85% in- I was wondering WHY I'M STILL READING. I started 7/18, and by hook or by crook- today is my last day trying to finish. NOTHING IS HAPPENING. I waited for 70% for the daughter's reaction to her BFF having sex with her mom and the reaction was a non-entity told primarily in conversations between lovers Alice (BFF) & Celine (Mom). The MAY-DECEMBER FORBIDDEN SAPPHIC SEX was BARELY REFERENCED. This is NOT a romance. It's not even a hate story. As my queen Taylor Swift said- "It isn't love, it isn't hate, it's just indifference." I don't need 300 pages of people being indifferent to each other.

I cannot wait to forget this book exists.

This was such a complicated book. I love characters that just feel so real and this book had that. I don’t want to give too much away but just know this book is worth your time.

I had relatively mixed feelings on this one! There were some elements which I felt really worked, and others which I was less certain about.

The good: lots of queer drama, a delightfully messy premise (character has queer affair with their best friend's mother), really well-developed characters.

On the other hand, the pacing felt a little awkward and uneven at times, and the ending was narrated in a very different way than the rest of the book (and introduced an entirely new character), which felt a little disruptive and disorienting. I also think (after my similarly lukewarm reaction to the romance MISTAKES WERE MADE, which has a very similar storyline) that perhaps this premise is just not for me?

All in all, a decent read, though ultimately not exactly my cup of tea; I'd say it's worth the try if you're on the fence. Thanks so much to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for the e-ARC!

Three perspectives surrounding one life changing weekend. Alice is the good girl trying to find her place in the world. Sadie is also one carving out her own path. Celine is the feminist who is too cool for her own good. The author does a spectacular job of weaving the stories together, though there were a few segments that I considered quite steamy. This is a great choice for adults who enjoy books that deliver the story from different viewpoints.

Sarah Blakley-Cartwright is one heck of a writer. Let's just get that out there. Her prose is biting, often funny, and very distinct. I found myself smiling because of certain turns of phrase she used, like "blow-jobbing his protests silent" and "the rain fell in patterns that Celine's eye liked." I've read other reviews that compare her writing style to Joan Didion and Lisa Taddeo, which isn't that far off the mark. This is the only book I have read of Blakley-Cartwright's, but she seems like the type to whittle her writing down to the bone, the city gal who removes as much sentimentality as possible from her characters. This is not a touchy-feely book with touchy-feely characters, instead they are messy and complicated. Alice, Sadie, and Celine feel like they're real people when you are reading their stories.

I loved how the story was told from three different perspectives and *really* loved how unpleasant Celine was, perhaps because she reminded me of my own mother a bit. Both my mom and Celine are direct, opinionated, and often way too honest for their own good. There's some switch inside their heads that prevents them from keeping their thoughts, both the kind and the rude ones, to themselves when they really don't need to say anything at all. You can't help but admire their tenacity and how true they are too themselves and the way they interact with the world.

I will most certainly recommend this book to my book club when it comes out because it offers so much to talk about. Thank you kindly to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

P.S. Make sure you read the epilogue because that is the cherry on top of this already terrific book.

this is a work of aaaaaaaAarrrrrtttt (insert that annoying tiktok sound). this novel is weird, yes, but it’s fucking beautiful. ok ok i’ll tell why!

for the majority of this book i mostly just felt icky and uncomfy (*cough* CELINE) but then at some point around the end of the second part i started to think past that uncomfortableness and digest what was actually happening but wasn’t explicitly being said. reading between the lines haha and i realize that the subtext was really that, to me anyway, this is a novel of awakening: of sexuality, of living deliberately and on ur own terms, of self-ownership; this is a reckoning of who u think u are, how u wanna be, how u wanna be perceived, and, maybe, in spite all of that, how u are actually perceived by others despite ur efforts. repulsion shifted into compassion for these characters and for this story. then as the novel progressed, it became clear to me it was also a story of growth, and desire, and mothering (oneself, from parent to child then from that child to their child[ren]). and how ur mothered effects all of the above. and family — who ur dealt, who u choose, and who u continue to choose despite their wrongdoings and shortcomings. ughhh it’s just so! good!

in terms of these characters’ relationship to one another individually and as a whole, i didn’t see enough tangibly between sadie & alice. they’re best friends sure but i didn’t see enough of their commitment to one another, didn’t *see* much of how they are best friends and why even after all this time. and perhaps that’s the point but i would have liked a crumb more. i was pleased though with how they each view(ed) and understand(stood) themselves and one another and that intersection of self-aware and delulu was entertaining to read. also their internal lives were so raw and real and discomforting at times so don’t say i didn’t warn u of the ick (once again!) u may feel esp with celine. but also it’s the taboo of her thoughts that compelled me to keep reading so obviously something was done right. right?!

the pacing was a bit off in part one. the bits of the past could have been interwoven differently which is to say more smoothly so the story did lose me bit by being taken so far out of current events into the past. what was given in the past is necessary, it just could have been done differently tho i do wonder how? idk it was just clunky but once those past events and feelings were revealed and we stayed in the present, things moved along and the pace never slacked again for me personally.

as for the introduction of a new pov for the very last chapter… it works for me so so so so well. the story of these three women came together and really solidified how i feel about the novel and the story it tells holistically. i don’t think i would have liked the novel as much without it. i think that maybe the new pov will to be a polarizing opinion. i can imagine why some would hate it and go “what’s the point of it then???” but for me, it made total sense. it was a necessary addition. it couldn’t have ended any better.

i’m going to be thinking a lot about alice, sadie, and celine for a while i suspect.

read it 😁

thank u netgalley and simon & schuster for the arc in exchange for an honest review🤗🥰

So well written emotionally moving enjoyed the different point of views.The characters and their intertwined drama drew me in.to their lives. #netgalley #alicesadieCeline.

Wow. What a pleasant surprise! This book hooked me as soon as I finished the first chapter. Normally, I don't like novels with multiple points-of-view, but this one was different because the writing and dialogue was so addicting and fresh. The only character that got on my nerves was Celine, but I am sure that was intentional from the author. Celine is emotionally immature and selfish. Alice is more of a flighty and naive character. Sadie was the character I most identified with. She's neurotic, high-strung, and sarcastic. The subject matter is very taboo, but I really enjoyed this delightfully creepy story. I didn't want to put this novel down. Very strange and yet relatable at the same time. I will definitely read more from this author in the future. Her prose is stunning. Her metaphors were heart-stopping. Highly recommended!

Thank you, Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the digital ARC.

This book started out really intriguing and fast-paced. There was no slow-build. You were plunged into the action very quickly and into the very complicated dynamics that exist between Alice and Celine and Sadie.

Beyond the first few chapters, through multiple POVs, however - the book lost shape for me. While well-written, the plot was difficult to follow or to even locate at times. The last 50 pages were difficult to get through.

Further, the characters felt under-developed and the relationship between Alice and Celine did not seem to hold much weight, which was disappointing. It did not build tension or have nuance that I felt was necessary to drive the plot. (Also, as an aside, I love a good May-December sapphic romp, but there is an inherent creep factor when you find the December party knew May as a teen.) the friendship between Sadie and Alice appealed to me the most. However, all characters felt one-dimensional.

All in all, If you want a sapphic forbidden romance plot with an age gap, check it out. Just bear in mind what it is and isn’t.

This book was bonkers in the best way… I couldn’t put it down. The writing felt lyrical and the choices the characters made weren’t always right, but they were sexy.

Unfortunately, the character development fell a bit short for me. I had trouble connecting with the characters and could not get invested in the book.

a beautiful and poignant novel, very well written

thank you netgalley and to the publisher for the review copy

Thank you netgalley for this arc!

This was beautiful and poignant. I have never read a Rooney novel but I’m assuming they walk so this can run?

I’m sorry to say that this sort of fell flat for me. As someone who lives for a May December love affair and all of the complications and nuance they contain, I just wasn’t invested in this one. The characters all seemed a bit flat and hard to care about. I couldn’t work out why Celine and Alice dated or why Alice and Sadie were even friends. The explorations of queerness, sexuality and gender were….non existent despite the numerous opportunities to explore those themes afforded by the plot. The epilogue was odd and out of place. Disappointing read. Thank you, Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC.

"Alice Sadie Celine" by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright is a well-written but emotionally heavy novel. It tackles dark themes with sensitivity, making it a thought-provoking read.

This is a Berkeley- and Los Angeles-based book about two lifelong friends, Alice and Sadie, one of whom, Alice, has an affair with the other's mother, Celine. This odd love triangle is the narrative backdrop to explore themes of 1) pan-sexuality: straight, bi, lesbian, and related topics, like women who discover they are bi or lesbian after being in a hetero relationship; 2) mother/daughter relationships; and 3) the endurance of female friendship.

Sadie is more straight laced, while Alice is more free-form in their lifestyles. Celine is a gender studies professor, a lesbian, and a laisse-faire activist mother in her early 40's. The author presents her in a way that makes her seem quite old, which as a 50-something woman/wife/mom was a little off-putting lol. I didn't love how Celine's narrative arc ended and didn't feel she came off well throughout. I could tell the writer associated more with the younger generation of the book.

I personally couldn't relate to Alice or Celine, as their relationship seems such a betrayal to Sadie that I couldn't get past it. Even though Sadie has her hang-ups, she seems the most mature of the whole group, and I was pleased with the author's treatment of her throughout the story. I thought the last 10% of the book, when we jump ahead an indeterminate number of years with a new and unknown narrator, was confusing at first. It did tie up the book nicely, but seemed to skip over so much water under the bridge that it felt abrupt to me.

3-stars for California-based and female-forward fiction, and a way to expose more readers to LGBTQ topics. I also liked that the author did not succumb to cancel culture trope with the novel. Pub date 12/5/23. 272 pages.

Thank you, Simon and Schuster, and NetGalley, for providing an eARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

#AliceSadieCeline #netgalley @netgalley

This book has incredible energy and I couldn’t put it down, regardless of how exhausting I found some of the characters. The realness in which the author points out our many flaws, is so seamlessly woven into the plot and each character I couldn’t put this down, read it!

I wanted to like this more than I did. It started off strong and the characters were interesting. This is the story of a love triangle of sorts and has all the things that normally hit my boxes, like a forbidden age gap relationship.

"Alice Sadie Celine" is about two best friends, Sadie and Alice, and Sadie's famous, feminist theorizing professor mother, Celine. Alice is a struggling actor who's landed a role in a play. Sadie has always resented her mother, who everyone else idolizes, because feels like she has to take care of her more than the other way around. She is hyper-fixated on a new love affair with a young man and asks her mother to go in her place to Alice's opening night. Celine begrudgingly goes, despite being a snob about local theater, and is bewitched by her daughter's now grown-up best friend. They engage in a fiery love affair in a complicated family dynamic full of secrets and betrayals.

I got the appeal of Celine and Alice at first. I didn't mind their instant attraction and it fit Alice's personality, the beautiful, spoiled rich girl who's always perfectly compliant and biddable, never saying no, always flitting from one hobby to the next, trying on lesbianism as if it were ballet lessons. But as the story went on I didn't see their chemistry at all. I get it was a story about loyalty and friendship and finding yourself instead of a romance, but I didn't understand why they even made that tremendous error in judgment in the first place. Sure, people do foolish things for lust all the time, but the lust kind of fizzled and it felt like they were just play-acting roles.

I didn't mind the last chapter veering into a completely different POV than the other chapters as some other readers did; it took a while to figure out where it was going, but it needed a way to resolve the dynamic between the three of them that wasn't from any of their POVs, so it made sense to me why the author made that choice.

I also didn't care for any of their relationships; it felt like they were all using each other and not getting much out of it. I wondered why they all stayed in their lives from the beginning. Even with Sadie and Cormac, I wondered if they even liked each other or if it was just convenient.

I liked the idea of this overall, but I felt like the book meandered a little too much in back story and not enough in character development other than the tacked-on epilogue at the end that hastily resolved everything. It felt unsatisfying in the end, despite parts where the prose really shone.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

As a woman the same age as Celine is in this story, I concede I am not the intended audience for this novel, which read to me as more new adult fiction, with Sadie and Alice's emotional maturity hovering perhaps even younger than their years. Or perhaps that is simply the dynamic of two friends who have known each other since their early teenage years when in the presence of one of their mothers, which is skillfully executed in its messiness and contradictions. The ending didn't quite land for me, but this was a fast read and is sure to find a core audience upon its release.

A fun read. Blakley-Cartwright is a talented writer, on a prose level and in terms of story-telling. I think a lot of writers struggle to create character-driven conflict without making one character the good guy and one character the bad guy -- but all three of the central characters here are well-formed, sympathetic even when they're behaving badly. The resolution is a little pat -- my advice: skip the last chapter -- but otherwise there's a lot to enjoy here.