Tell me you don’t believe friends and strangers are often the same people and I give you this novel.

Elisabeth, an accomplished journalist and new mother, is struggling to adjust to life in a small town after nearly twenty years in New York City. Alone in the house with her infant son all day (and awake with him much of the night), she feels uneasy, adrift. She neglects her work, losing untold hours to her Brooklyn moms' Facebook group, her "influencer" sister's Instagram feed, and text messages with the best friend she never sees anymore.

Enter Sam, a senior at the local women's college, whom Elisabeth hires to babysit. Sam is struggling to decide between the path she's always planned on and a romantic entanglement that threatens her ambition. She's worried about student loan debt and what the future holds. In short, they grow close. But when Sam finds an unlikely kindred spirit in Elisabeth's father-in-law, the true differences between the women's lives become starkly revealed and a betrayal has devastating consequences.

These two characters are what I enjoyed most about this book. They each tell their story, offering insight into the mind of a mother, a child-carer, and the two individuals independent of these identities. Elisabeth and Sam get sucked into each other’s lives and their relationship evolves during the course of a year into something that gets increasingly complicated. Through them, the author traverses the frailty of human bonds and why delicate limits must not be breached.

I wouldn’t say this is a page-turner but it has an almost hypnotic appeal to it. An exploration of motherhood, privilege, and power dynamics within communities – it will question the very foundation of relationships.

This ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Two Roads Books.

Friends and Strangers is a well-written book with good characters. However, it draws on too many clichés. I did find the approach of the struggle between classes rather interesting and well put. It did not grip my attention and I was more interested in finishing it that enjoying it, but it ends up being a pleasant read.

Whilst this book is insightful and thought provoking I did find it very slow. It has so much detail that I sometimes felt there was a bit too much and was not always needed.

It took me a lot longer to read this novel than normal. Sometimes I would not read it for a few days. Sometimes I would read a chapter and think it was becoming more exciting but it just never felt like it went anywhere in particular.

Although for me it was not a page turner, it did cover issues such as motherhood, family, equality and privilege. It was I felt beautifully written nut just didn't always hold my attention.

Although I didn't love this book, I would encourage people to try it, I am glad I gave it a go and read it nevertheless.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Relationships are complicated. Humans are multifaceted creatures, driven by emotions and social interactions. Relationships between women are particularly complex, with so many labels placed upon us and so many familial roles to fill - from mother, sister, wife and friend, I'm fascinated to see what authors do with the various dynamics this brings.

Sullivan dedicates her book to examining the intimate relationship between mother and babysitter. It's a sacred role, to trust someone enough to care for your children, and Sam and Elizabeth form a unique bond and a fledgling friendship as they each provide the other with something they need. Elizabeth is struggling to adjust to new motherhood, and missing her old life and friends. Sam provides a youthful link to her past. Sam is a naive college student, who looks up to Elizabeth and aspires to have her life. However, as the two grow closer their relationship drastically changes.

This is a quiet novel in many respects, heavily character driven without much of a plot, it spends much of its time delving deep into the thoughts and emotions of our characters. It brings up a lot of important discussions on privilege, class and expectations. And although I enjoyed this, I do think the lack of plot and slow pacing dampened my enjoyment. I also didn't connect to these characters as much as I wanted to. There was just something lacking for me.

The writing is excellent, the characters thought provoking, but I found this lacking in plot and personal investment.

Disclaimer - I read 65% of this books but then stopped so my review is based on that section read.

The fact this is a DNF tells you everything you need to know about my enjoyment of this book. Friends and Strangers centres around two women, Elizabeth the new mum and author trying to find her feet again and Sam their babysitter juggling her final year at college and a long distance relationship.

There is however a huge lack of storyline, I kept reading thinking something was going to happen, thinking the storyline was about to kick in. It doesn’t, or at least it hadn’t by 65% and almost 300 pages in when I finally called it quits.

I couldn’t connect with the characters. The first world problems Elizabeth has was really starting to grate with me. They seemed very shallow despite the pages of unnecessary back stories.

The 2 stars I have given it goes solely to J. Courtney Sullivan writing style. She writes really well and I would read her other work, but unfortunately this book lacked anything real for her to write about. The irony that the main character Elizabeth is an author who is struggling to write her next book, struggling to come up with what to right about shouldn’t be overlooked!

So in summary, meh. Thank you to Net Galley and John Murray Press for providing me an advance copy of this book.

Novel about a mother looking for a nanny for her baby. Sam a student was the successful candidate chosen by Elizabeth. I felt the story was slow to take off and after persevering had to give up on the book.

I love books about female friendships, Ghosts by Dolly Alderton, Expectation by Anna Hope, Olive by Emma Gannon, just to name a few. They are all right up my street so I knew I would enjoy this one too.

Friends and Strangers follows a successful journalist, writing her third book, called Elisabeth. Elisabeth has a very young baby called Gil and she is in desperate need of a nanny.
This is where Sam comes in, 21 years old and worried about money, debt and her future. Sam becomes Gil's nanny. Predictably Elisabeth and Sam become friends.
P
privilege is explored throughout this novel, Elisabeth is very privileged. I liked how this book clearly portrayed how much of a difference a good education makes to your life, and how bloody privileged you are if you are able to access one.

Friends and Strangers reminded me of Such A Fun Age, where motherhood and the relationship between the nanny and mother are explored. Upon reflection, this book is extremely similar to Such A Fun Age. It seems like the almost 'white washed' version. I've read a few other views and seem that others agree...

This was a good read, it wasn't amazing and didn't blow me away. It was easy enough to flick through, it was quite long and because it didn't have me captivated it took a while to read. If you're going on holiday and want something to fill a day with then this could be the book for you. I'd definitely recommend Kiley Reid's 'Such A Fun Age' over this though!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

Story about the relationship between Elisabeth and Sam. One a journalist and new mum, the other her babysitter. To be honest I found this a slow read, where not much happens and decided to finish about 40% in

I greatly enjoyed this book, thank you for giving me a preview copy. The plot was interesting and fast paced and I sympathised with the characters. This is the first novel I have read by this author but I hope it will not be the last!

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Friends and Strangers is the story of Sam and Elizabeth, who meet at pivotal times in each of their lives. Sam is a senior in college, in a long distance relationship with an older man, trying to decide what her plans are following graduation. She works as a babysitter for Elisabeth, who is a writer that has just moved from Brooklyn to the suburbs with her husband and young baby, and is struggling to adjust to the changes in her life. The story follows them through this year, where they cleave to each other and become friends, blurring the lines of their formal relationship, and how the impact of this will impact them and their futures.

I found this book very compelling, it took me a couple of days to read but I was very drawn into the story and was very keen to see how the story played out between the characters. It’s a very interesting study about how people that you meet at particular times can have long-reaching effects on your life, guiding you to make different choices that what you may have made otherwise. It’s almost like a Sliding Doors premise - one or two different choices at particular points in life could steer you in very different directions. I thought it was an interesting examination of friendships - you can be drawn so close to someone for a period of time and feel like you’ll be friends forever, but choices and circumstances can impact the friendship to send you off in completely different directions. I thought this book was great, I’d definitely recommend it!

I really enjoyed this book of contrasts, friendships and privilege. This is a very thoughtful book, and I related very strongly to what was being explored. The characters are strong, likeable and flawed in ways that were welcome to me. In the end the question is if differences can truly be overcome for a successful friendship? Good food for thought.

A novel about a first time mother and her college age babysitter. To be honest, I gave up. I wasn't invested in the characters or the plot. It was a sleeper for me.

I loved it - so full of keen insights and sharp observations about motherhood, friendship, growing older, and the peculiar loneliness of moving home. Highly recommended.

This was an enjoyable read with thoughtful observations about the relationship between two women at different stages in their lives. I thought the examination of class and wealth was particularly astute, especially in relation to how we think of ourselves versus how other people perceive our class and privilege. Both main characters are well-drawn and empathetic despite their (sometimes glaring) flaws. I did find it a bit slow and almost gave up around half-way through as I wasn't really compelled to pick it up. I'm glad I persevered as I think there is a good character arc that pays off at the end but the book would definitely have benefitted from a shorter word count.

An enjoyable read that highlighted the differences between the haves and the havenots in America as well as exploring relationships and a variety of family dynamics.

Friends and strangers is one of those books where not much actually happens but you find yourself drawn into the lives of the characters. Easily read, somewhat relatable, I would have preferred a more comprehensive ending however.

A slow-paced, gentle and entertaining read that brings together an interesting (and unexpected) mix of topics including class, capitalism, IVF and social media. The unlikeliness of the two characters makes the book more relatable for different types of people which is good.

As my first read on the ins and outs of facing fertility challenges, I found it to be a very thorough and honest narration of the entire process and it struggles.

The book is described as "an insightful, hilarious, and compulsively readable novel about a complicated friendship between two women who are at two very different stages in life", however, as Sam establishes later along the way, building a friendship with an employer is a bit of a grey area - can it really be a friendship when money is involved and one is so easily replaceable? This is what I found hard to work my head around whilst reading this novel.

Overall, it is a good but not particularly memorable read.

Friends and Strangers, J Courtney Sullivan

An insightful, hilarious and compulsively readable novel about the complicated friendship between two women at very different stages in life.

This is both slow paced and compassionate, an intimate portrayal of women, friendships and motherhood.

With engaging characters, sensitive approach to issues such as privilege, power, inequality and politics.

This is a timely must read.

This book tells the story of a friendship between her employer and her babysitter

I did find this book very long winded, and I did at times have to stop reading this book and come back to it at another time .

With thanks to Netgalley & John Murrey press for the ARC of this book in exchange for this review

I really enjoyed this book and the fact that there weren't any major twists or turns, it's just a story of two women at different points in their lives throughout a year.

Elisabeth is a new mother living in suburbia, far away from her inner city life. Sam is hired as the babysitter during her last year at university and a friendship of sorts is established.

The book focuses on privilege both in terms of race and class and how sometimes we are blinded by our own privilege when we only see it from our own point of view.

There was a lot to relate to in this story and lots of likeable characters - flaws and all. Overall a great read!