Your best friend deserves the truth. But it will ruin her life. What would you do?

It’s been over twenty years since four very different teenage girls sat on the beach, and swore to be best friends forever. Their lives went different ways after Emily left. But each remembered that promise. And none truly found friendship like it again.

Emily is an almost 40 year old actress who is realizing that it may be time for a career switch. Even though she always thought she would be a Mum one day she didn't expect it to happen now and her partner is 100% not on board. With an appointment at a clinic she's trying to decide what's best for her.

Jess is a highly successful advertising exec that is thrown for a loop when her ex-boyfriend is hired at her firm. She thought she was over him, but seeing him brings back feelings she thought were long gone.

Lolly has everything she has ever wanted except a daughter, but her husband doesn't want a third child. She thinks she should be happy, but is heartbroken every month the pregnancy test reads negative. Events transpire that make her question if she's really happy or she's just made herself think this is what happiness is.

Amanda was forced to scrimp and barely make ends meet when her husband left her with a young daughter years before. When he shows back up, her daughter decides to live with him and Amanda left trying to figure out what happened. She doesn't feel like she was the best Mum, but she definitely tried her best. Her daughter is embarrassed of her Mum's sexuality and has to decide if she can get past the embarrassment or cut her Mum off.

I think just about everyone can relate to having best friends in school that we ultimately drift apart from. Just because you drift apart doesn't mean you can't reconnect and it usually happens when you need it the most. I think the author did a great job of creating relatable characters and a story that just keeps you wanting a little more. Each of the four women are faced with a life changing decision and finding out the outcome keeps you reading on. This book covers a variety of everyday struggles the reader will be able relate to (marital problems, unexpected pregnancy, and rifts between mother/daughter). I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for strong female leads who aren't afraid to make midlife changes. I love that these women build each other up instead of tearing each other down.

Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 for great writing and characterization

I really enjoyed this story. The 4 main characters are each at a crossroads in life and reunite after 20 years. There is some strangeness and mystery as to how and why they suddenly fell out.

The friendships that were rekindled were lovey. The women start out quite guarded and eventually they let down their defenses. There are surprises, some you may see coming and some not so much.

This is a powerful story of women lifting each other up. That I did like. What I didn’t? The fact that almost every male character was deplorable. Ok, Mac was great, but that’s pretty much it. And the situation with Jess was handled somewhat strangely, really swept under the rug, after so much buildup.

I’m satisfied with the conclusion and would recommend this book. It’s not a thriller so if you’re looking for that be warned but it was a great story of woman and friendships.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Bookouture for a copy in exchange for a review.

I enjoyed this book very much with its four women characters and charming setting in the Cornish village of Gorran Haven. Emily, Jess. Lolly and Amanda were best friends in high school, but after Emily moved away at the age of 16 they drifted apart. After a couple of decades Emily decides to move back to the village she grew up in and the four friends have a reunion. Will they be able to rekindle their friendship and will that friendship survive secrets big and small?

Anna Mansell does an excellent job with the story and bringing the characters alive. It kept me interested and engrossed in the book.

This was a good read. I am drawn to books that are strong with female friendships and mother/daughter relationships. I liked the 4 main characters who reunite after 20 years but the story didn't have that extra piece that would give it a higher rating. I really enjoyed the setting of Cornwall and sometimes enjoyed some of the secondary characters more than the 4 women. I also found the secret a bit predictable but I think the author handled the outcome in a more a realistic way than what most books would have done. Thank you NetGalley for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Her Best Friend’s Secret by Anna Mansell is an emotional, pulling-at-the-heart-strings novel about friendship, love, secrets and the bonds that tie us together.

Four school friends – Emily, Lolly, Amanda and Jess – reunite after decades apart. Each has a secret they hide from each other, their friends and family but as their friendships rekindle and grow stronger these secrets come to the surface.

I really enjoyed this novel, and the themes it addresses. The central theme moves around how women are judged for everything – from what they do for a living, to what they wear, the choices they make regarding careers and children and how afraid they are to say and do what they want because society will stereotype them. It’s about how society defines women by the work they do, and never seems to see past that.

It’s also about reconnecting with friends who have drifted apart and led very different lives. Why would you? There’s a reason people drift apart. Can friendship overcome the distance? Or are those friendships forged during our formative years the ones that last forever? It made me think back to high school and the friendships I formed during those years, and the friendships I have now.

The characters were so well developed and relatable, and I could see aspects of myself in every one of these women. The story moved at a great pace and it was a comfortable read. While there were a few surprises, this is not a thriller. It’s a beautiful story about the love and friendship between women. Read it. It will inspire you to accept and love yourself and the women around you!

Thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review
FABULOUS heart warming story of 4 friends the trials and tribulations of life and as true friends were there for each other even after 20 years this is a must read can highly recommend this book it deserves 5 stars.

What if you have a secret? What if you know a secret? What if that secrete could hurt someone? What if that secret could change lives? What if that secret could alter relationships? Would you tell the truth? What would YOU do?

It has been twenty years since Emily, Jess, Lolly and Amanda sat on a beach and promised to be best friends forever. Time, circumstance, moving, careers, happened as they often do when people grow up and the four friends drifted apart. But after a chance meeting between Lolly and Emily, Lolly decides it's time to get their group together once again. All the women have changed. Their lives have taken them in different directions and some of them have secrets.

At their reunion, they all realize that their bond is still there and even though some have deep buried secrets that worry them, it is not until it is disclosed who one of them is married to that their tight knit bonds could be tested.

Friendship, marriage, heartache, heartbreak, lies, deception, betrayal, support, understanding, acceptance, and moving on are all here in this book. Ah, the friendships forged in youth - is there any sweeter kind? Someone who has known you and experienced all the growing pains with you. They loved and accepted you through the gawky phase, the acne phase, the bad clothes, the bad hairstyle (spiral perm, anyone?), dating woes, etc. They studied with you, they broke rules with you, they shared secrets with you, they got in trouble with you and they loved you through it all. Still have your friends you grew up with? I do, making this book relate able. Ever wonder why we can meet someone in the present day and don't get those butterflies in your stomach like you do before that high school reunion? Caring what people, you have not seen in twenty years will think of you, how you look, if you gained weight, if you achieved your dreams, etc. These women had similar thoughts. Not having seen each other in so long, wondering if they will be judged for a career choice, for carrying a torch for someone, for coming home, etc.

This book is about friendship, betrayal, marriage, friendship and second chances. I found this book to be a fast read. I enjoyed most of the characters and although, I figured out one thing very early in the book, it did not affect my enjoyment of the book at all. This book was pure escapism reading for me. Getting together with friends one hasn't seen in a long time should be a happy time but growing up comes with adult issues. It's how we navigate those issues that matters.

Entertaining and thought provoking, this book had a few twists and turns along the way.

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

I'm so glad I requested to read this book! The story line really hits home, having friends that I very rarely see, however when we get together it's like we haven't spent any time apart.
This story really captures friendship, in a way I really love reading about. It isn't just a happy story of girls getting back together after years apart, it has all the issues that being an adult comes with.
Pregnancy, Marriage issues and Controlling partners. This book covers a wide range of issues that people all around the world deal with on a daily basis.
Really well written, and a pleasure to read.
Can't wait for the next one Anna Mansell!

This was the story of four friends who hadn’t seen each other for 20 years but got together again after two of them bumped into each other. They all had secrets or problems but all pulled together to help each other. Makes you want to be friends with them!

Four teenage friends all go their separate ways in life. Twenty years later two of them bump into each other and decide to contact the others for a reunion. All four of them have misgivings about meeting up, will it still be the same? Have they all changed too much?
When they do meet up we learn that there are a few secrets floating around that the women don't know whether to keep to themselves or share.
I really enjoyed this story of friendship and how even after twenty years apart it can still be revived. I liked how strong the women became when the had the support of each other.

I’m often drawn to a book focused on friendship and this one did not disappoint. Her Best Friend’s Secret gives us four friends that reunite after 20 years, written alternating between each of their points of view. Emily, Jess, Lolly and Amanda are four fiercely independent, likable and relatable characters. I really enjoyed this book and loved getting to explore the dynamic of their friendship. Each of their stories were intriguing and I was eager to keep reading to uncover the “secret”. Some unexpected twists, some heartache, some joy and a perfect
capture of what it means to have the kind of best friends that you can not see for 20 years and pick right back up where you left off = a perfect friendship book.

I loved this book. I even woke up in the middle of the night and had to finish it before I went back to sleep. Loved the characters and all their individual back stories. Should you meet up with old friends? The jury is still out on that one, the outcomes can affect your life as you know it.

I love the female friendships in here. The strong bonds between these women is just wonderful. I love getting to read about how they all come back together.

Thanks to Anna Mansell and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review this book. Friendship is the theme of this book and how its power can stand the test of rime. Four women reunite after 16 years. Utterly enjoyable. Another great read from Mansell

I really enjoyed this book. It goes to show you the power of friendship. After all these years four women are brought back together to face past regrets and define their future. It goes to show you the power of friendship

Great book.
Great thrilling and atmospheric story, strong characters and a lot of twists and turns to keep you guessing

When four once inseparable school friends arrange to reunite after over twenty years of absence, they all nervously prepare themselves for their reunion. They had once been the very best of friends, but how would they react to each other after so long was the question that concerned them most. They needn’t have been concerned at all. Hashtag Friends Forever – that was what each of the women hoped would be their destiny.
Emily is newly back home living in the childhood seaside village of Gorran Haven in Cornwall after living in the States for what seemed a lifetime of living the celebrity lifestyle. She has decided it is a false life for her and her agent/partner, and wants to live a completely new life surrounded by peace and tranquillity instead of hustle and bustle of a large, loud city. But she arrives alone and is stunned about the latest turn of events in once her busy life.
Lolly leads a busy life as a hospital physiotherapist, working wife and mother of two young boys. Her life is almost complete except for the fact that she desperately wants another baby. She yearns for the mother/daughter relationship she missed out on when her mother died prematurely, but which her older sister remembers fondly. The trouble is her husband is not that keen and has only reluctantly agreed to a third child in the family.
Amanda is a single working parent after her husband left her and their young daughter never to be seen again…….until recently. She is estranged from her daughter who has left her to live with her father, leaving Amanda wondering if she will ever be able to build bridges with her cherished daughter and get back to being a solid loving twosome, a relationship she once enjoyed in abundance.
All of the girls remembered the fourth member of the group Jess as friendly and outgoing but she had changed so much and had become quiet and lacking in self-confidence for no apparent reason. It’s as though she has had all of the life squeezed out of her and is afraid to live the normal life of a woman. She lives to work and is not at all interested in socialising.
So, with the first meeting being a roaring success the women get to meet regularly and the reader is pulled into their lives, a wonderfully supportive group of four who help their friends through life’s ups and downs. This is an engaging and beautifully told story with four story threads and narrators that are each equally absorbing. The characters are well crafted and cleverly developed with interacting threads that lead to a warm and satisfying conclusion. The strong storylines involve relationships, betrayal, friendship, mutual support, love and loss, trust and forgiveness. I really enjoyed reading this novel and found the issues thought provoking and relatable.
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from publisher Bookouture through my membership of NetGalley. These are my own honest and well considered opinions that are uninfluenced by any other reviews or publicity. This is a multi-layered and involving story filled with interesting and diverse characters and plenty of interest to keep you engrossed.

Totally loved it! The intrucate storyline, the beautiful settings and the fascinating yet flawed characters.
I could not stop reading. I hope the writer comes up with a sequel.
This was a truly amazing piece of escapism, dramatic and insightful.

I’ve loved Anna Mansell’s previous books, but this is my favourite so far. I'll be shouting from the rooftops how amazing it is.
So beautifully written.
Four women with very different lives. Shows the importance of friendship, the difficulties faced with forgiveness and dealing with judgement.
It made me happy, sad and totally overwhelmed at times….a few ‘oh my god’ moments.
I finished this book with a tear in my eye. Every book by this author affects me massively and I always see a bit of me in her characters, especially in this book. Reconnecting with old friends is brilliant, but can be tough. They know things about you that even though they may not be bad things, they can be things you want to keep in the past.
I don’t want to give anything away and waffle on for the sake of it, but please read this book. It is wonderful with great characters and written from the heart.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the review copy in which I give my honest opinion.

This a really good novel about relatable independent four women who arrange for a reunion after years of drifting apart since being teens.

There are lots of touching and emotional moments about the strength of friendship, the burden of secrets, and the support of those who truly love us and accept us no matter what.
There are also some twists and turns along the way adding another dimension to an already engaging and lyrical plot.

Thanks #Netgalley, #Bookouture, and the author for a chance to read this book, all opinions are my honest thoughts.