Girlfriends: A compelling story of friendship, love and second chances

The story is based around 4 central characters, Andrea, Hannah, Rosalie and Sophie. All 4 are firm friends, all living very different lives.It’s easy to relate to the characters because I think we are all guilty of not understanding our friends at times and acting selfishly with our friends sometimes. I thought the storyline was very good, quite thought provoking . I loved all the characters and how their stories have been interwoven by the author. I liked how the story is based around the music industry.All in all a fabulous feel good read. Definitely one to enjoy with a glass of wine on a sunny afternoon in thegarden.

I loved this book. It covers a lot of issues you face as a grown woman (career, family, sex, self) through the perspective of three women with different priorities. While dealing with big topics there are some great laugh out loud moments, running along to a country music soundtrack against an NYC backdrop. It’ll give you all of the feels, including hunger and a hankering for a good drink. Treat yourself.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher ~Canelo for the ARC.This is a story involving the complicated friendships between three women connected to the music publishing/ producing business. Told from each point of view:Andrea is work and success driven, 38 years old and unable to commit to any long-term relationship. She moved from the family music business to become CEO of Steller, leaving her little sister Sofia to run that with her waster of a husband Jay.Hannah has worked with Andrea for years as a personal assistant and despite having pressures of juggling home life with a lazy husband, a new baby and two older boys, also has to bear the pressure of working with Andrea in her new high-powered job.Rosalie is a socialite; her father Hunter is Andrea's boss at Steller. Seemingly reliant on spending her father's money on all things material she is more than what she seems and yearns to be taken seriously.As each of the women re-evaluate their lives rivalries and jealousies emerge, threatening the strength of their friendships.The characters are interesting and there are many moments that made me smile as they talked about their individual problems and Rosalie and her antics really amused me.A solid 3* read.

Times Like These is about Andrea, her younger sister Sofia, her assistant Hannah and her boss’s daughter, Rosalie have been close friends for years. Each woman is connected in some way to the music industry and as strong as all of them are, every one of them is struggling in some way. Andrea, a tough, straight-talking music executive who after her mother’s death when she was young, practically brought up her younger sister, Sofia who is now married to Jay, a complete waster that everyone dislikes apart from Sofia who loves him. Andrea and Sofia worked together in the family music business until Andrea left to join a far bigger company leaving her sister feeling resentful because she didn’t know all the reasons for her move.Andrea’s loyal assistant and one of her best friends, Hannah struggles to fit everything into her day. She works long hours for a demanding Andrea, while bringing up her baby and two other children and running around after her oblivious husband who doesn’t seem to have realised that he’s not a college student any longer. Then there’s Rosalie, spoilt, never wants for anything and always has the latest new ‘must-have’ accessory. There’s much more to Rosalie than meets the eye and she’s determined to let people know it.I loved the relationships between the women from their closeness to their clashes when three of them discover the truth about one of the others and how they deal with it while coping with revelations of their own. Their relationships with the men in their lives and their struggles and battles with each other are brilliantly depicted. This is a story about friends, their journey to self-discovery and their battle with others and within themselves to try and make the life for themselves that they ultimately discover they want. I loved it.Thanks to Canelo and NetGalley for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the story of four very different women and their friendship across the years. Their time together has seen them through the many ups and downs of grief, children, marriage and working together in the music industry.This time though, a mistake by one of the four, Andrea, has the potential to change everything.I liked the different point of view narrative from each chapter, and felt that this started to give an insight to each of the women and the effect of the relationship on them. By the end, I felt we had started to see the real side of each character.

Times Like These by Laura Carter a four-star read about four friends. This one took a while to get going and it took me a couple of tries to get into the story, but honestly once I got into it, It go better, it just took a while to get to that point. The one thing this did have for me, it didn’t show women in the usual glossy bestie manner, it showed that they drift and hurt and don’t stand up in life always, they weren’t your typical characters but they ended up being that way at times. There were a couple of good dramatic moments in the story and this brought it up, but I have to admit it wasn’t my favourite of this author.

Love how the characters got me hooked on the story from the beginning again. Laura creates characters I just want to be friends with. I also need to start listening to country music.