Book Review- With Friends Like These

Very early this morning, I finished reading With Friends Like These by Sally Koslow for a Pump Up Your Book Virtual Book Tour.

From Goodreads:

Have you ever been a less than perfect friend? To whom does your first loyalty belong—your best friend or your husband? With her trademark wit and empathy, Sally Koslow explores the entangled lives of women in this candid, fast-paced novel.

Quincy, Talia, Chloe, and Jules met in the early nineties after answering a roommate ad for a Manhattan apartment. Despite having little in common, the women became fast friends. A decade later, their lives have diverged, though their ties remain strong.

Quincy, a Midwestern introvert, is trying to overcome a set of tragedies by hunting for the perfect home; Talia, a high-energy Brooklyn wife and mom with an outspoken conscience, is growing resentful of her friends’ greater financial stability and her husband’s lack of ambition; timid Chloe, also a mother, is trying to deflect pressure from her husband, a hedge fund manager, to play the role of trophy wife; while Jules, a fiercely independent actress/entrepreneur with a wicked set of life rules, is confronting her forties alone.

When Jules gives her new boyfriend the inside scoop on the real estate gem Quincy is lusting after, and Talia chases a lucrative job earmarked for Chloe, the women are forced to wrestle with the challenges of love and motherhood. Will their friendships and marriages survive? And at what price? Punchy yet tender, a high-five to sisterhood, this book will hit an emotional bull’s-eye for anyone who has had—or been—less than a perfect friend.
 
I had a hard time really getting into the book at first.  For some reason, the writing just strike a cord in me.  But then about halfway through, I got really invested in the characters and I wanted to see what was going to happen to them.
 
I found it interesting to read about four women who were friends in college but in such different places in their lives.  While I am not as old as these women, I can definitely identify with going separate ways from friends after graduation. 
 
All four women were so different.  And yet I honestly can't pick out which one was my favorite.  I loved Chloe's innocene.  I loved how real it seemed that Talia lived in New York and struggled to make ends meet.  I love how Quincy was with Jake and how bad she wanted a baby.  And I love's Jule's Rules.
 
There are some definite surprises in store for the women that I didn't see coming.  But I liked the way that it all played out and the ending was good and made me happy :)
 
I gave this book a rating of 3.5/5.
 
This book fulfilled an item in the following challenge:
2010 100+ Reading Challenge: 108
ARC Reading Challenge 2010: 75
 
About Sally Koslow


Sally Koslow is the author of The Late, Lamented Molly Marx and Little Pink Slips. Her essays have been published in More, The New York Observer, and O, The Oprah Magazine, among other publications. She was the editor in chief of both McCall’s and Lifetime, was an editor at Mademoiselle and Woman’s Day, and has taught creative writing at the Writing Institute of Sarah Lawrence College. The mother of two sons, she lives in New York City with her husband. You can visit Sally Koslow’s website at http://www.sallykoslow.com/

*FTC Disclosure: I was sent this book a part of Pump Up Your Book Promotions for a honest review.