The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
10iii_kat's review against another edition
4.0
Oh, the sweet innocence of childhood - right before the world smacks you upside the head with the things you never saw coming, and you're never the same after.
This is probably the best debut novel I've read in a while. Annie Cathryn if you're planning to continue to write books, just as amazing as this one, you'll become one of my favorite authors.
"The Friendship Breakup" is basically everything you could imagine - full of emotions, relatable moments, and eye-opening on the importance of good, healthy friendships.
Throughout the story I found myself comparing my life to Fallon's and even though I'm 20 years younger than the main character we have a lot in common.
One of the aspects that really made me love the book was seeing Fallon grow into a better woman. Sure, she had some ups and downs but she is an inspiration. She fought for her marriage, she decided to go into therapy, she discovered some things about her past that she was putting out, and she followed her dream even when her "friends" didn't encourage her to do it.
It's a really good read for long nights or maybe a walk in a park once the weather gets better. I think it might become a bestseller once we will find the book in store!
★ thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books | Alcove Press for the e-arc. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
mrsautery's review against another edition
3.0
Thank you @netgalley and @dreamscape_media for this #gifted audiobook.
The subject matter of this book is one that hits really close to home. It really showcases the difficulty of being a Mom who doesn't have a "tribe" and when you start to feel ostracized from your group of friends.
It was a bit of an emotionally difficult read for me, because I really related to the feelings.
I didn't like Fallons friends that she was working so hard to get back with. They were very catty, and it made me consider if being lonely is really worse than having "bad" friends.
I loved that Fallon put so much effort into her friendships. I won't spoiled the ending, but I think it was pretty cathartic.
I recommend this book if you are looking for a deep, emotional read about the ups and downs of adult friendships.
The subject matter of this book is one that hits really close to home. It really showcases the difficulty of being a Mom who doesn't have a "tribe" and when you start to feel ostracized from your group of friends.
It was a bit of an emotionally difficult read for me, because I really related to the feelings.
I didn't like Fallons friends that she was working so hard to get back with. They were very catty, and it made me consider if being lonely is really worse than having "bad" friends.
I loved that Fallon put so much effort into her friendships. I won't spoiled the ending, but I think it was pretty cathartic.
I recommend this book if you are looking for a deep, emotional read about the ups and downs of adult friendships.
kerrylonsdale's review against another edition
5.0
The perfect friendship fiction that shows we can make new friends at any age. Great book club selection. I thoroughly enjoyed.
nixbix_reads's review against another edition
3.0
This book grew on me. At first I found Fallon to be annoying & obsessed with getting back into her friend group after they ghost her. However, I came to like her as the book went on and we got more of her backstory about why her friends were so important to her & why the fear of rejection was such a big issue. There are some genuinely funny parts to the book - the final soccer game had me in tears of laughter - but mostly, it’s about how our friendships sustain us & how they evolve over time.
Thanks to Alcove Press & NetGalley for the DRC in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to Alcove Press & NetGalley for the DRC in exchange for an honest review.
thisismybooknook's review against another edition
2.5
 This book had a lot that I liked but a lot that I didn't. While exploring the tough parts of being a friend, wife, and mom, this book had so many opportunities to be about growth and exploration. And... it was... however, there were a lot of very immature moments where the drama took me right back to high school. That being said, there can be and still is drama in adulthood, but these ladies were straight up nasty and acting like teenagers.
A big thing for me was how Fallon really wanted to make up with the people who just shut her down and ghosted her. She was trying SO hard to push herself back into their lives- and sometimes that can be a good thing... but in this case, they gave her clear signs that they weren't having it. Wanting a reason why is understandable, but some of the lengths Fallon went to were a bit much for me.
I loved the connection with her birth mother and how she got tested for the BRCA gene. There was no need for us to receive the results of it in the book, but I'm so glad we did. The ending of the book had me emotional in good ways.
I'd read another book from Annie Cathryn, and as a debut novel, this one is pretty decent!Â
A big thing for me was how Fallon really wanted to make up with the people who just shut her down and ghosted her. She was trying SO hard to push herself back into their lives- and sometimes that can be a good thing... but in this case, they gave her clear signs that they weren't having it. Wanting a reason why is understandable, but some of the lengths Fallon went to were a bit much for me.
I loved the connection with her birth mother and how she got tested for the BRCA gene. There was no need for us to receive the results of it in the book, but I'm so glad we did. The ending of the book had me emotional in good ways.
I'd read another book from Annie Cathryn, and as a debut novel, this one is pretty decent!Â
sbayliez's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
kclikesthings's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
thathappyreader's review against another edition
4.0
I received an advanced copy of the ebook and audiobook but the thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.
Fallon Monroe is a wife, mother of one, and budding entrepreneur. She’s been working hard at creating unique chocolates in hopes of opening a storefront soon. Along the way, she’s sacrificed time with her family and friends.
She belongs to a group of Mom friends who have been together since their children were small. When suddenly one of the friends begins to exclude her from the group activities she’s planning, Fallon is both confused and hurt.
Fallon begins to organize her own events for the group including a Mexican-themed party (complete with a pinata filled with little tequila bottles) but her best friend continues to ghost her. What does she need to do to win back this woman’s friendship?
The book is a discussion on the importance of having good friends in our lives and how these relationships change over time. There is plenty of gossips, toxic behaviours and judgment in this group of friends. There is also a big void in communication. As an outsider looking in, I couldn’t help but wonder why Fallon would want to belong to this group.
The story was engaging, well-written and thought-provoking. You couldn’t help but root for Fallon in her quest to rejoin this group and build her chocolate business. The conclusion was somewhat predictable but completely satisfying.
I listened to the audiobook format of the book which was narrated by Brenda Scott Wlazlo. I loved her performance which was expressive, enthusiastic and well-suited to the book. I found it easy to listen to at my usual 1.5x speed. Those that enjoy audiobooks may want to choose this format.
I recommend The Friendship Breakup to those readers who enjoy General Fiction or Women’s Fiction. Best read alongside a few delicious chocolates – you’ll be craving them.
Fallon Monroe is a wife, mother of one, and budding entrepreneur. She’s been working hard at creating unique chocolates in hopes of opening a storefront soon. Along the way, she’s sacrificed time with her family and friends.
She belongs to a group of Mom friends who have been together since their children were small. When suddenly one of the friends begins to exclude her from the group activities she’s planning, Fallon is both confused and hurt.
Fallon begins to organize her own events for the group including a Mexican-themed party (complete with a pinata filled with little tequila bottles) but her best friend continues to ghost her. What does she need to do to win back this woman’s friendship?
The book is a discussion on the importance of having good friends in our lives and how these relationships change over time. There is plenty of gossips, toxic behaviours and judgment in this group of friends. There is also a big void in communication. As an outsider looking in, I couldn’t help but wonder why Fallon would want to belong to this group.
The story was engaging, well-written and thought-provoking. You couldn’t help but root for Fallon in her quest to rejoin this group and build her chocolate business. The conclusion was somewhat predictable but completely satisfying.
I listened to the audiobook format of the book which was narrated by Brenda Scott Wlazlo. I loved her performance which was expressive, enthusiastic and well-suited to the book. I found it easy to listen to at my usual 1.5x speed. Those that enjoy audiobooks may want to choose this format.
I recommend The Friendship Breakup to those readers who enjoy General Fiction or Women’s Fiction. Best read alongside a few delicious chocolates – you’ll be craving them.
fawnsbooks's review against another edition
2.0
Could have been a fun read, but was executed poorly.
pushingdessy's review against another edition
3.0
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The protagonist was a fan of self-help books, and it makes sense because this book felt like self-help fiction (not necessarily in a bad way!).
I wasn't familiar with the genre "mom-com" and, as a single woman with no wishes to be a mother, I probably wouldn't have picked this book on my own. But I received it as my first widget, and I couldn't say no. So thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for sending me this in exchange for an honest review.
I couldn't say no for a second reason, and it's that the topic is very dear to me. We talk too much about romantic break-ups and not enough about friendship break-ups, and how they can be just as painful and hard to get over. And it's not even clean, loud break-ups, either, but the passive-aggressive ghosting, as well as just failing to be there. Where are the songs about a friendship gone cold?
Fallon finds herself wondering what went wrong when she realizes that not only her best friend has been ghosting and avoiding her for some time, but she's also been leaving her out of group hangs. Willing to forgive and forget, Fallon decides to try to bring the group closer while attempting to get her chocolate business started. But some things just can't be healed by a suburban Mexican fiesta...
Let's start with the good stuff. I deeply related to Fallon as far as the topic of friendship went. Her feelings and thoughts, at points contradictory, were so genuine to what losing someone feels like: missing them and wanting them back, feeling like it's your fault, wanting to go back to the good times, yet slowly realizing that it wasn't actually all good, feeling bitter and thinking about all their flaws, trash-talking about them. It's kind of annoying to read from the outside looking in because you're like "which one is it??", but - I've been there! I get it. And then also feeling like it's really hard to meet new people as you get older, whether to date or to befriend.
I also thought it was a very real portrayal of motherhood, ugly bits included. Fallon loves her daughter, but is still cognizant of how much she struggled (and still does) as a mother, the toll it can take on someone's mental health, no matter how much you wanted to have a child. That was really good, in my opinion, as was the fact that therapy and couples therapy was included in a very positive and natural way.
And the reason I called this self-help fiction is because it's overall a really healthy/positive journey of self-discovery and letting go of what doesn't serve you. If you've ever struggled (or are currently struggling) with parenthood or friendships, and you're looking for a book you can feel reflected in with a wholesome ending, then I think you might enjoy this book, for real.
However... I'm afraid it was also very much #whitepeopleproblems. And that might be fine if you relate to the particular demographic of white cis straight middle class USAmerican stay at home mom living in suburbia! As someone not from the USA, though, the depictions of some of these women felt cartoonish. Not because I haven't seen enough to know that people like that exist (hello Karens); I'm just not interested in reading about them and I found myself rolling my eyes a lot. Ironically, it's great commentary on why the "agreement" of letting the man be the bread-winner while the woman stays at home to look after the house and children not only is barely a choice at all, but also puts women at a disadvantage. We see husbands who cheat, who lie, who are barely there for his children, who manipulate, who are unsatisfied. I mean, and I say this with some compassion, no wonder these women are catty bitches who have nothing better to do than create drama in the school parking lot! What else can they do? What else can they feel in control of?
Even in the case of our protagonist, we see that her husband encourages her to pursue her dreams and is attentive to her needs... but we're also told that at one point he failed to do that under the assumption that "agreeing" to be a SAHM meant handling everything on your own because "moms know instinctively" how to do these things (NO), which clearly took a toll on Fallon. And although I commend the author for showing growth, we also see him in the present being frustrated that Fallon hasn't been keeping an immaculate house even though she's now both a SAHM and entrepreneur, and Fallon thinking that her husband's love language must be "acts of service" because he likes it when she cooks and picks up his dry cleaning. No, girl, that's just the patriarchy! Oh, and he tells her to delete her app to meet friends because they need to keep up appearances, suggesting that she should just volunteer somewhere to find new friends, because obviously she's just staying home doing nothing all day, right? This is something that Fallon does think, but doesn't say. I think there was an attempt at questioning this system, but it wasn't fully realized. Fallon even thinks she could have saved on couples therapy and just reread "Men are from Mars, women are from Venus". If that's the kind of couples therapy they got...
This kind of internalized heterosexism is also baked into two "meet cutes" that are narrated, where a man causes an accident (not on purpose, but out of carelessness - which is almost as bad) on the woman, and then tries to "make up" for it by pursuing the woman, who ofc ends up falling in love with him. Sorry, but if you break my toes, the last thing I'll want to do is screw you.
Racism is also implied, but never actually addressed. Fallon's best friend Avery is a Black woman she met in college, who isn't part of the moms group. Fallon has also stayed in touch with Mel, a Mexican-American woman and single mother who was part of the group for a while before moving away. We are told that the group, except for Fallon, was always rude and judgy to Mel, allegedly on account of her divorced, working mom status. Are we sure there's nothing else there, considering she was the only woman of colour in the group? So, again, this book is very much about and for white people, even if two people of colour are presented in a positive light.
There's also a storyline of adoption, and although an adoptee's feelings on their own adoption are always valid, I can't say I liked the way some of these thoughts were presented and never challenged. Specifically, the idea that a character's hurt about her adoptive parents not telling her she was adopted until she found out would translate to negative feelings about being an adoptive parent themselves. This was a really strange reasoning... you can choose to tell your child they were adopted (and you should!!). I also thought it was supremely weird that the character's adoption file would list all of her birth mother's (European, obvi) ancestry like she was a bred puppy. I wouldn't be surprised if that actually happens in the USA, but it's very messed up.
Finally, in terms of plot, it felt very much like "a day in the life". Overall it's well written, save for some unnecessarily reiterated ideas (like Fallon thinking about people being surprised she married a gynecologist), which made it a quick read. But it's about a specific woman's daily problems, with the main themes of friendship, parenthood, entrepreneurship, and adoption. It felt both like a lot and not enough.
To end on a good note, I did resonate a lot with the main topic of a friendship break-up and the process Fallon goes through, so I don't regret reading it. And if you take away anything from this book, I think it needs to be that friendships sustain us. Go check on a friend now.
The protagonist was a fan of self-help books, and it makes sense because this book felt like self-help fiction (not necessarily in a bad way!).
I wasn't familiar with the genre "mom-com" and, as a single woman with no wishes to be a mother, I probably wouldn't have picked this book on my own. But I received it as my first widget, and I couldn't say no. So thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for sending me this in exchange for an honest review.
I couldn't say no for a second reason, and it's that the topic is very dear to me. We talk too much about romantic break-ups and not enough about friendship break-ups, and how they can be just as painful and hard to get over. And it's not even clean, loud break-ups, either, but the passive-aggressive ghosting, as well as just failing to be there. Where are the songs about a friendship gone cold?
Fallon finds herself wondering what went wrong when she realizes that not only her best friend has been ghosting and avoiding her for some time, but she's also been leaving her out of group hangs. Willing to forgive and forget, Fallon decides to try to bring the group closer while attempting to get her chocolate business started. But some things just can't be healed by a suburban Mexican fiesta...
Let's start with the good stuff. I deeply related to Fallon as far as the topic of friendship went. Her feelings and thoughts, at points contradictory, were so genuine to what losing someone feels like: missing them and wanting them back, feeling like it's your fault, wanting to go back to the good times, yet slowly realizing that it wasn't actually all good, feeling bitter and thinking about all their flaws, trash-talking about them. It's kind of annoying to read from the outside looking in because you're like "which one is it??", but - I've been there! I get it. And then also feeling like it's really hard to meet new people as you get older, whether to date or to befriend.
I also thought it was a very real portrayal of motherhood, ugly bits included. Fallon loves her daughter, but is still cognizant of how much she struggled (and still does) as a mother, the toll it can take on someone's mental health, no matter how much you wanted to have a child. That was really good, in my opinion, as was the fact that therapy and couples therapy was included in a very positive and natural way.
And the reason I called this self-help fiction is because it's overall a really healthy/positive journey of self-discovery and letting go of what doesn't serve you. If you've ever struggled (or are currently struggling) with parenthood or friendships, and you're looking for a book you can feel reflected in with a wholesome ending, then I think you might enjoy this book, for real.
However... I'm afraid it was also very much #whitepeopleproblems. And that might be fine if you relate to the particular demographic of white cis straight middle class USAmerican stay at home mom living in suburbia! As someone not from the USA, though, the depictions of some of these women felt cartoonish. Not because I haven't seen enough to know that people like that exist (hello Karens); I'm just not interested in reading about them and I found myself rolling my eyes a lot. Ironically, it's great commentary on why the "agreement" of letting the man be the bread-winner while the woman stays at home to look after the house and children not only is barely a choice at all, but also puts women at a disadvantage. We see husbands who cheat, who lie, who are barely there for his children, who manipulate, who are unsatisfied. I mean, and I say this with some compassion, no wonder these women are catty bitches who have nothing better to do than create drama in the school parking lot! What else can they do? What else can they feel in control of?
Even in the case of our protagonist, we see that her husband encourages her to pursue her dreams and is attentive to her needs... but we're also told that at one point he failed to do that under the assumption that "agreeing" to be a SAHM meant handling everything on your own because "moms know instinctively" how to do these things (NO), which clearly took a toll on Fallon. And although I commend the author for showing growth, we also see him in the present being frustrated that Fallon hasn't been keeping an immaculate house even though she's now both a SAHM and entrepreneur, and Fallon thinking that her husband's love language must be "acts of service" because he likes it when she cooks and picks up his dry cleaning. No, girl, that's just the patriarchy! Oh, and he tells her to delete her app to meet friends because they need to keep up appearances, suggesting that she should just volunteer somewhere to find new friends, because obviously she's just staying home doing nothing all day, right? This is something that Fallon does think, but doesn't say. I think there was an attempt at questioning this system, but it wasn't fully realized. Fallon even thinks she could have saved on couples therapy and just reread "Men are from Mars, women are from Venus". If that's the kind of couples therapy they got...
This kind of internalized heterosexism is also baked into two "meet cutes" that are narrated, where a man causes an accident (not on purpose, but out of carelessness - which is almost as bad) on the woman, and then tries to "make up" for it by pursuing the woman, who ofc ends up falling in love with him. Sorry, but if you break my toes, the last thing I'll want to do is screw you.
Racism is also implied, but never actually addressed. Fallon's best friend Avery is a Black woman she met in college, who isn't part of the moms group. Fallon has also stayed in touch with Mel, a Mexican-American woman and single mother who was part of the group for a while before moving away. We are told that the group, except for Fallon, was always rude and judgy to Mel, allegedly on account of her divorced, working mom status. Are we sure there's nothing else there, considering she was the only woman of colour in the group? So, again, this book is very much about and for white people, even if two people of colour are presented in a positive light.
There's also a storyline of adoption, and although an adoptee's feelings on their own adoption are always valid, I can't say I liked the way some of these thoughts were presented and never challenged. Specifically, the idea that a character's hurt about her adoptive parents not telling her she was adopted until she found out would translate to negative feelings about being an adoptive parent themselves. This was a really strange reasoning... you can choose to tell your child they were adopted (and you should!!). I also thought it was supremely weird that the character's adoption file would list all of her birth mother's (European, obvi) ancestry like she was a bred puppy. I wouldn't be surprised if that actually happens in the USA, but it's very messed up.
Finally, in terms of plot, it felt very much like "a day in the life". Overall it's well written, save for some unnecessarily reiterated ideas (like Fallon thinking about people being surprised she married a gynecologist), which made it a quick read. But it's about a specific woman's daily problems, with the main themes of friendship, parenthood, entrepreneurship, and adoption. It felt both like a lot and not enough.
To end on a good note, I did resonate a lot with the main topic of a friendship break-up and the process Fallon goes through, so I don't regret reading it. And if you take away anything from this book, I think it needs to be that friendships sustain us. Go check on a friend now.