City of Friends is a lovely story by Joanna Trollope following the interconnecting lives of women.

This book focuses on the trials and errors of middle aged women being women. Lost jobs, children to take care of, parents to take care of, struggling romantic relationships, family drama and friendship drama all mash together into one well written tale. It's everything you'd expect from a contemporary, women's fiction novel!

There are four women who were once friends and now all of them are middle aged. Each of them have their own struggles to deal with, and somehow all of their problems relate to each other's problems. As with most female centered books, there is a pinch of feminine drama that makes me question if women are just bound to be dramatic and gossip (as a woman, I haven't seen too much of that as an adult - maybe it's just me though). Examples of this drama: One woman offers her friend's "mistress" or new lover a job but not her best friend, two of the women's children start seeing each other, a husband tells a woman to pick between their relationships or her mother's health. Yeah... this book felt petty at times.

Even with some of these interesting plot lines, I did enjoy this book. Buuuuuut... it wasn't a hit out of the park for me. I found it was a lovely, soft read that wasn't hard to jump in and out of. The worst part was that it got very slow at times. There were entire chapters that could have been left out and the story still would have progressed. I also didn't feel like there was a real "end" to this book, it just stopped. That's how life stories go there - there never is an "end", something just "stops".

There are some really strong parts of this book, for those looking for my positives! There are strong women characters who are facing realistic problems. I know many girls and women who have faced some of these troubles - like a sick parent, dealing with a lost job, and trying to balance work and family life. I like seeing books like this that bring about real issues so people realize that everyone goes through this stuff. Our lives aren't what we see on Instagram - life isn't perfect.

It may be because I've read a lot of women's fiction lately (on accident) or maybe it is just the plot of this book - I just didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped. The synopsis sounds awesome, the cover is gorgeous and the first half of the book really peaked me interest. At half, I kind of just wandered off in my brain and had trouble getting through it.

That being said, I would still recommend this book to anyone who loves contemporary novels and women's fiction. It's not a bad book, it's just not a good book for me - mainly because it couldn't hold my attention the way other women's fiction has. I think Joanna Trollope has a fantastic, easy reading, writing style and I want to read more books by her! This is just a blip on the book radar!

Two out of five stars.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. ( )

When Stacey Grant loses her job, she can't quite believe it. Yes, she had laid down an ultimatum, but who thought that her boss would take her up on it. And now what was she going to do? She had never been anything other than a high-achieving career woman, the Senior Partner at one of London's most prestigious equity firms. On top of that, she needs to take care of her mother who has the beginnings of Alzheimer's disease.

At least, she feels, she can rely on the support of the three women who have been her best friends since college. However, each of them has problems of their own, and, as often happens in these books, misunderstandings pile on top of each other, until finally the author sorts everything out and ties up the happy ending in a nice, neat bow. ( )

So disappointing for a Joanna Trollope.. I had a hard time finishing this one and kept hoping for it to get better. None of the main characters were engaging, and their relationship characters were equally unappealing. I found Steve particularly annoying, and pompous. Claire, Will, Quinn, even Tom. All completely cardboard, and one dimensional.

The four main women were supposed to be smart and successful, as well as extremely close friends. I found them self involved, irritating and petty. It’s been clear for decades that we women feel struggles in the workplace and work hard to get past shame and guilt when balancing family and personal needs. Even for those of us who aren’t professors, running multi million dollar corporate divisions or consulting practices, we crave both fulfillment and family. And yes, the workplace is insecure and changing around us, and the reality of living “the sandwich generation” is deeply difficult and mostly falls on women’s shoulders. Because these issues are so real and so difficult, I had hoped for a moving connection to the themes in this book. Instead, I felt the story relied on a mesh of stereotypical characters propped up by a flimsy and superficial plot. Very disappointing.




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I am almost to the end of reading ALL of the books Joanna Trollope has written and it will be a terrible feeling as I WAIT for her to finish writing another one. Her characters are distinct in each book and the stories flow---I am amazed at what she is able to do, over and over, each, at least according to me, a masterpiece of fiction! Delightful reading, every single time. How's that for enthusiasm? ( )

This was another raid of the second hand book shop in work, and the first Trollope book I have read. The story centres around four middle aged women - Stacey, Gaby, Melissa and Beth - who have been friends since university and have carved successful careers for themselves. Some events occur, some secrets come out, and things change.

So all of them are HUGELY successful and live in princely piles in central London. I don't hold this against them, some people work hard to get this and some are just lucky. However, as the book progressed I did find some of the characters pretty annoying. Melissa's attitude concerning her son was really shocking considering how relaxed and open their relationship was supposed to be. And whilst I realise that the reappearance of his father was a shock, it doesn't explain some of her actions and attitudes. Beth seems to have disappeared up her own backside until the break up where she regains some humanity, and Gaby, for all her successful leadership skills, seems to have no faith in the friendships she has. The only one I feel some sympathy with is Stacey, with redundancy (although she should have fought it) and the deteriorating health of her mother. This is a difficult situation and she seemed to handle it as best she could.

It hasn't endeared me to Trollope's books, even though her writing style is smooth and engaging. It was just the characters seemed to be a little too self absorbed and not the good friends that the book made them out to be. If that makes sense... ( )