A story about university friends who originally meet a funeral. The slow and sluggish writing failed to connect me with the narrative, though the characters were well rounded and believable.

A 5 star rating from me.

After university six friends who had lived together and become very close went their separate ways. Zoe and Rob who had paired up while at university, married and had a son, Gabe. Rob left Zoe and had a string of failed relationships. Zoe returned home and trained to be a community midwife. Al, widowed going, started working with his dad in the family funeral business. Indie set up her own business and married. Yas became a consultant surgeon and Rachel a stay at home mum.

The friends are thrown together when Rob invites them to his engagement party. Old connections and resentments are rekindled. Over the next 12 months there will be a birth, death and marriage.

You see events from the viewpoint of each of the friends as each deal with the hand they have been dealt.

A novel about friendship, relationships, growing older and ultimately about hope.

A lovely read.

I found this book quite slow and for me, it was ok.

The backdrop of the story is the lives of a group of university friends who stay in touch throughout their lives. We hear the back story to each person and their thoughts and views on each others lives. I think the fact that I had no connection with any of the characters made it very difficult to stay connected with the book.

There were some amusing and very poignant and sad moments but it’s just not for me

Overall I enjoyed this book. I did find some of the characters hard to connect with and some of the story jumped around a bit for my liking. I think I was expecting it to be more humorous. It is very much a modern day 'this life'. Some parts were also quite tragic. Still, I completed the book quite quickly. It just wasn't what I was expecting.

I so wanted to enjoy this novel more than I did. 6 friends who meet at a funeral and continue through life keeping in touch sporadically.
There are lots of characters introduced fairly quickly and then added too, this made it hard for me to concentrate. I think I would have preferred it more if each chapter was 1 persons point of view rather than numerous
However I enjoyed that each person had their own foibles and concerns that felt very realistic.

I really wanted to like this, but unfortunately it just didn’t work for me. The premise had potential—old university friends reconnecting over a year of major life events—but I found it hard to connect with the characters and struggled with the pacing. The narrative jumped between perspectives in a way that felt disjointed, and I nearly DNF’d a few times. It felt like it was trying to say something profound about friendship and adulthood, but never quite got there for me.

This is basically a mash-up of Friends and Four Weddings and a Funeral but without the laughs. Not necessarily a bad thing, I guess.

It’s also like finding out what happened to that clique of university chums you didn’t know that well, as we follow a year in the lives of four women – Zoe, Rachel, Yas and Indie – and two men – Al and Rob. Irregular friends, and occasional enemies since their time in an unnamed London university, a wedding draws then all back together again, but now with children, partners and baggage.

Barnett deftly slips into the minds and lives of each of her characters, splitting into chapters for each one of our six and, occasionally, they overlap, meet up and part. Their stories take them out of London to New York, Beirut, Lisbon, Sardinia.Inevitably, some characters are less interesting than others but, like an episode of Friends, you soon get a chance to spend more time with the character you like best.

And, as the title suggests, all the big events of life are here but it is on the subject of marriage that Barnett excels – how they begin, how they end, the huge leap of faith involved even in embarking on it in the first place.

A moving read that draws you in but, just like actual friends, a little bit annoying at times.

I havent read a laura barnett book before i have to admirlt i struggled with this book a few too many characters for me to follow and i just couldnt relate or feel for them in anyway...

I have been waiting (im)patiently for a new Laura Barnett and was thrilled to read Births, Deaths and Marriages. This is a reflective novel centered around a group of friends who meet at University in the early noughties, and now, as they reach their forties, they are all at very different places in their lives, but still united by the deep friendships they forged back then.

It is a beautiful novel that examines relationships, both in terms of friendship and romantic, the ebbs and flows of life, grief and parenthood. I am a similar age to the characters in the book, and recognised lots of the themes explored, especially the sense that we are halfway through our life, and how do we want the remainder to look?

The writing is beautiful and the depiction of friendship, especially University friendships where you can go years between seeing or talking yet when you meet it is like you saw each other yesterday. If I had one tiny criticism, it would be that the characters were around my age but felt much older. I had to keep reminding myself that they were late 30s/early 40s as, at times, they felt a decade or so older. This didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book though, I have been squeezing in pages wherever I could, and adored the tone and writing.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, Barnett has written a book focusing on a group of university friends. We meet them years later, during an eventful year, where all of their lives change.
Barnett has done a fantastic job with the characters, the sense of a longstanding friendship is very present and they were all very likeable and relatable.
The plot is good, slow in paces but there was always something to keep my interest. The events are relatively simple, Barnett captures everyday life but the characters are so likeable that the ordinary becomes extraordinary.
This was a truly enjoyable read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for an advance copy.

University friends who are still in eachothers lives.
Mainly meeting up for life's events. They intersect although life has taken them in many directions. Marriages, divorces, children and careers have changed who they are but the connection to each other still remains.
A multilayered story that I enjoyed and recognised myself and my friends in different characters.

This book is about a group of friends who lived together at uni. They were inseparable but have fallen out of touch but are reunited by weddings.
I found this book quite difficult to read, particularly the more it went on. The characters weren't that warm or likeable. There was a distance between the reader and the characters and I found I didn't really care about them.

A book about a group of 6 friends who navigate life, death, marriage and divorce after the pandemic specifically.
Gosh when I tell you this book was a struggle to finish. I could not have cared less about any of the 6 main characters. The character development was minimal at best. You weren’t really surprised by the ‘twist’, and the general vibe felt like a gloomy England Monday. Just not my favourite, style or story-line.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

3.75 ⭐️

This was a nice read. It was quite slow paced, and at first it was a bit confusing as to who is who since there’s six characters but it does get easier once each of their storylines develop. I think those who are fans of ‘four wedding and a funeral’ would enjoy this! Overall a good character driven book.

Thank you NetGalley for the early copy!

First of all I would like to say thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book as nice cosy read, it wasn’t heavy or had any major plot twists it was just pleasant to read and had some well written characters within the story.

It is typical British book so if you think of the older British romance films like Four Weddings and a Funeral or Love Actually then you will get the vibe of this book. I do have one negative which is just a me thing that it mentioned COVID and lockdown, I understand that this is just a part of history but I hate it being included in books as I don’t want a reminder of what I lived through and have to read it all again.

Overall a lovely book and would recommend for people to read if you want an easy quick book.

A hugely enjoyable book. It is about friendships and relationships that started way back at university. The story is indeed about births, deaths and marriages. Reconnections and relationships. I loved the characters and loved the book.

Thank you so much for providing me with an early copy of this book I really enjoyed my time reading it. When I first started this book I felt concerned that I would not be able to follow the plot as there were so many characters to concern myself with I was convinced that I would not be able to build the necessary connections and understand each subplot. However this was not the case. Laura Barnett has the special ability to write many characters, all of which are unique and hold a key significance to the story meaning that they are easy to follow and identify. It was such a lovely cosy read and something I definitely needed in between the heavy fantasy that I read. I absolutely adore Al and I need him in my life immediately. I liked the ending but I think it was missing something. I’m not sure why but I couldn’t help feeling a little bit let down. I would recommend this book and I will be telling my friends to read it! Definitely looking for more books by this author now.

This book follows 6 main characters and their personal development from University students to 40 (ish) year olds, through their experiences of love, loss and life in general. The book is not a linear story, often jumping to new perspectives, introducing new characters and focuses on individual events in each person's life rather than having an overarching storyline. This sometimes made it difficult to keep a track of who is who and what is happening in their life. That being said, it is very well written, with believable stories and true to life events, I feel I just prefer a book that has an overall storyline to keep me engaged and fewer characters to keep a track of. Perhaps it would have been useful for a list of characters at the end and their relationships to each other (at their introduction to the audience perhaps). Overall would recommend it to anyone who likes a character based story with great descriptions of real life, not suitable for anyone who likes a huge storyline driven story

A story of lifelong friendships made at university. It follows the lives of six individuals as they navigate their way through marriage, divorce and death.

It opens at Al’s 20th birthday party at his rundown university house which he shares with Rob, Zoe, Indie, Rachel and Yas. It becomes apparent that he is in love with Zoe when the two kiss later that night. However, he is quickly relegated to the friend's zone. Fast forward to the Spring of 2023. The group receives an invitation to an engagement party from Rob, who seems to desperately want to reunite the group. He is to marry a much older man having married Zoe previously and with whom he has a son Gabe. As the group reunites, we are given storylines from each of their perspectives and what emerges is confusion, conflict and fear as each character reveals their own problems.

To say I enjoyed this book is a bit of an understatement, it was warm, funny at times but also tragic. Barnett breathed life into each character making each relatable. It’s a nostalgic story that will remain with you long after the final page.

Thank you NetGally for the opportunity to read this ahead of publication.

This novel follows the lives of six friends who first crossed paths at the funeral of a fellow student during their first year at university. Over the years, their connections shift—sometimes deeply intertwined, other times barely present—but the constant thread running through their story is love in all its different forms.

I truly enjoyed this book. It beautifully captures the natural ebb and flow of friendship, woven with the highs and lows.