A reason, a season, a lifetime. Soulmates. Love languages. Conflicts. Friend dates. Balance. This had a lot of solid tips on types of friendships, how to make friends in adulthood, how to repair after conflict, how to balance time with friends and romantic partners. I felt like I knew a lot of this already given I have a soulmate friendship and have had experiences throughout life that have caused me to learn and grow in the context of friendships. But I think this is a great book to reference if you may be struggling with maintaining friendships or finding friends.

This book had lots of potential but fell a bit flat. I am also in my 30s and feel like this book is better aimed at the 20 something crowd in terms of advice and general life experience.

Finding friends as an adult is HARD, especially as women. Everything takes a village, and in the age of the loneliness epidemic, it is more important than ever to find our tribes. I liked that this book went beyond the surface suggestions on how to find friends and took it steps further with tips on how to navigate conflict, shift priorities, and end relationships with people who it isn’t working out with so you can be more present with those who matter most. There were a lot of scenarios presented throughout the book that I think most people can relate to, so even if every single thing doesn’t apply to you, everyone can still take something away from it.

Thank you to #NetGalley for a review copy of #FindingYourPeople. All feedback is my unbiased opinion, not paid, and simply for the love of books.

I was interested to read this as I had just started listening to their podcast.
However was disappointed as I felt it was more like a long version of a dolly magazine

Finding Your People by Alexandra Hourigan and Sally McMullen is book with practical ways about how to make friends as an adult. It has factual information that helps to normalize the ups and downs of friendship, how friends drift apart, and how to find your platonic soulmate. Al and Sal host a podcast together called Two Broke Chicks. I was not a podcast listener when I read this book but have since found the chicks and really enjoy listening to them. I can’t wait to apply the principles in this book and I definitely recommend it for those interested in a book in the self help category.

This book is aimed towards a 20-something crowd. As someone who is in their late 30s, it just missed the mark for me. The advice feels pretty generic, or common sense to anyone who has ever had a friend. This book would make a great magazine article or series. Or maybe a podcast! Don’t fret, the authors have one and mention it in the book, and on the cover too!

This book had bucketloads of potential. Firstly a book about friendship written by two besties? I can't think of anything better!

And to give them their flowers, Hourigan and Allen did manage to reflect their dynamic as friends really well on the page, it felt like they were passing the mic back and forth constantly which helped create two distinct voices of reason. However, as a self-help book this one just felt a little flat for me personally. I didn't feel like it was structured in a helpful way and at points it did feel like they were just talking at me, almost like a stream of consciousness.

The actual content of the book wasn't super pertinent and it felt like a lot of the points were quite common sense, there wasn't anything that blew my socks off or really caught me off guard. I also felt like there weren't many practical tips or summaries that made the whole thing digestible. Whilst it was easy to read and understand, I often forgot what I was reading because as mentioned this one did feel like following multiple trains of thought with no true meaningful destination.

I loved the fonts, the illustrations, the notes from Sal and Al, the life lessons and just all it! Wonderful tips and examples and advice.

Finding Your People promises insights into building meaningful friendships, but it ultimately falls short of its potential. While the authors attempt to offer guidance on navigating adult friendships, the book seems narrowly tailored to a very specific demographic—white women with ample time for self-care—and does not reflect a broader or more diverse viewpoint.

The book skims over challenges that many women, especially mothers, face when forming friendships. For instance, the emphasis on evening self-care rituals and "being your own best friend" feels out of touch for mothers juggling young children and busy schedules. It fails to acknowledge the realities of limited time and energy that many women experience, leaving readers like me wondering how such advice could be realistically implemented.

The guidance on overcoming negative self-talk and establishing boundaries is similarly superficial. While the authors emphasize the importance of self-kindness, they don’t offer practical steps or actionable advice to achieve it. Instead, readers are told what not to do without sufficient tools for change. The discussion of boundaries is overly simplistic and doesn’t address the complexities of adult relationships. The book also glosses over key emotional experiences such as grief and loss, which are pivotal to understanding the depth and nuance of many friendships.

The inclusion of a section on sexuality feels misplaced within the context of a book about friendships. While self-discovery is a valuable topic, its connection to friendship-building is unclear, making the chapter feel like an unrelated detour.

Overall, Finding Your People feels like a missed opportunity. It fails to fully engage with the struggles and barriers women from different backgrounds might face when building friendships, particularly in new environments. This book was not groundbreaking and the writing style got old fast.

While some readers may find the conversational tone appealing, I found the advice to be more surface-level than substantive. Making friends as an adult is undeniably hard, but this book offers little more than broad platitudes and lacks the depth needed to tackle the complexities of modern adult friendships.

Do not recommend.

A must-have for all those in their early to mid-20’s feeling the shifts in friendships. Best friends from high school and college moving away, starting families, finding love.. how do you stay in touch? How do you make each other feel seen even though your relationship may not always be the same?

This book explores all of that and more. Sal and Al bring their friendship/friendships into this great advice book exploring how to keep friendships alive, know when to cut them off, how to find new adult friendships, and more. The format of this book was really nice - I read it front to back but I’m sure you can go by chapter.

This nonfiction book on making friends in adulthood is aimed at twentysomethings gives a lot of bolstering to the feeliing in early adulthood that friends are now harder to make than when I was younger. This is primarliy two friends chatting in it's vibe and bolsters the authors' podcast as much as giving actual actionable advice.

And so it goes, my first book of 2025! I decided to finally take advantage of Netgalley, and got a copy of this book based on the title alone. I admittedly skimmed over some of the material, but to be fair, after reading through most of it, I quickly realized that I'm not the target audience. As a 35 year old mom of an almost 2-year old, this was definitely not written with me in mind. This is geared more toward 20+ year olds, people who are getting ready to embark on adulthood and put themselves out there. With that being said, however, there are some gems in here for everyone! I found myself reflecting on the relationships in my lives - ones that have come and gone, reasons that I gave myself not to reach out (when in reality, I could still try), and excuses that I've made to not put myself out there. So many missed opportunities! I especially resonated with chapter 1 (being your own best friend), and am also grateful that the book exists. I only wish that it had existed for me when I actually was in my 20's!

this book could be a good one to read in your 20s and i can say this because i am in my 20s so believe me! while reading it i had a journey through my memories and feelings because i had time to reflect about some things while remembering some others and so thanks to this i would suggest to read this book if you are in the mood for a book that approaches some topics that can be discussed in an easy simple way like you’re talking with a friend!

thank you to netgalley and independent publishers group for the e-arc of this book in exchange of my honest thoughts!!