Tale of six friends from their time at University thrown together by chance twenty odd years ago through to the present day, based around London and Kent.
Rob, Indie, Yas, Rachel, Zoe and Al, all from different backgrounds yet sharing their lives over the years.
The basic storylines are great, the characters interesting familiar and believable with their dynamics and issues over the years.
The writing for me was hard to follow especially at the beginning, it took me a while to get used to the scattered telling of the tale, quickly flickering from one of the friends to the next which made it hard to keep up with who was where and doing what. At times it felt rather like a staccato effect and almost musical in rhythm.
The story holds your attention and is well worth persevering through the recognisable and familiar situations and scenarios. Yes at times predictable but there were a couple of surprises.
Enjoyable and a somewhat different read. Familiar and yet a little alien too.
Thank you to NetGalley for the early read. I’m still not totally sure………

A group of people, who have just started university, get to know one another better in the aftermath of a funeral of one of the other students. They meet up again years later when one of them is having an engagement party after his previous marriage has ended in divorce. This is a well drawn picture of the six friends, their partners and families. I felt as though I had come to know each one of them and became totally invested in their lives.
A particularly good read.

The plot of Births, Deaths & Marriages centers on the reunion of six old college pals who have been separated for decades. Naturally, the reunion soon turns chaotic, with secrets and emotional baggage being tossed about like confetti at a party with a regret theme. There will be a lot of drama, deceit, and "Wait, what did they just do?" moments because we get to see their life from a variety of angles over the course of a year.

The narrative was incisive and unexpectedly captivating. It was actually rather simple to follow, despite my initial concern that juggling six characters would keep me bouncing back and forth like a bewildered detective with a corkboard. It felt more like listening in on a group chat with too much history and not enough chill because each individual had a unique voice.

I’m a sucker for character-driven stories, and this one delivered. Juggling six main characters could’ve easily turned into a literary circus act, but it was surprisingly graceful. Sure, some characters were more likable than others, but that’s kind of the charm — it’s like assembling a brunch group where not everyone RSVPs for the same reasons, and one person always forgets their wallet.

It took a little patience to remember the dynamics of this group of people who originally met as university students.at the funeral of an acquaintance Peter Kennedy.
Attractions and friendships wavered, but as the group edged towards their forties, Rob’s second marriage instigated a regrouping and catch up of what they had achieved or moved onto.
This tale of youth to maturity with all its consequences is played out with excellent characterisation and feeling.
Love to see this as a drama or film.

I really struggled to get into this novel. From the premise I was eager to read it, but just found it disappointing as it didn’t grab me. I’m sure others will love this book but it just wasn’t for me. Thank you to NetGalley, Random House UK and the author for the chance to review.

This book is exactly about what it says on the cover. Six university friends reconnect and rediscover their friendship. Story was ok. I liked some characters more than others which I guess is true in all friendship groups

Loved the quirky title of this one. Laura has penned an excellent, well planned book with lovely characters and an intriguing storyline.

✉️ Births, Deaths and Marriages ✉️
⭐️⭐️⭐️.💫

This contemporary saga follows six lifelong friends who were once inseparable at university but have since drifted apart. Each of them has their own struggles, careers, and relationships, but when Rob's engagement party reunites them, old passions, feelings and tensions resurface. Over the course of a year, the novel explores love, friendship, and second chances, with one birth, one marriage, and one death among the group.

If you loved four weddings and a funeral like any normal person you need to run and grab this book on release day. This book is set over the course of a year and has multiple POVs which I found really engaging and easy to read. There was so much heart warming humour and love in this book and it was a testament to those friendships that stand the test of time. If you want a fun, slice of life, cosy, chick flick vibe read this is for you.

Births, Deaths and Marriages follows the lives of six friends who meet at university and become inseparable. Interestingly they actually meet at the funeral of a fellow student who was tragically killed in the fourth week of their first term.
What I loved about this book were the many layers of friendship between the group. Even though they all didn’t meet up regularly they were still in touch and all meet up when invited to celebrate the engagement of Rob to his older partner, Gesualdo. Relationships between the group are complicated even more so as Zoe and Rob were married and have an 18 year old son. Al has always carried a torch for Zoe and now they are older and wiser could there be the chance for a deeper relationship? The other main characters are Yas, a senior hospital consultant, Indie, who is an entrepreneur in the coffee business and Rachel who is at home with two children.
Yes, it was difficult to get all the characters and their families into your mind at the start. It was, however, well worth the effort as this novel has a real depth to it. Every character is so interesting and forms a vital part to the story. It’s just my sort of book. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for an advanced reading copy in return for an honest review.

Twenty years after first meeting at university in London, six old friends — Yas, Rachel, Zoe, Rob, Indie, and Al — find themselves brought back into closer contact in the lead-up to Rob’s wedding. Once inseparable during their student days, they’ve drifted slightly, caught up in the chaos of careers, families, and the expectations they had for adult life. Over the course of a single year, marked by three major life events, old bonds are tested, secrets surface, and each character is forced to reckon with where life has taken them — and how far it is from where they thought they’d be.

Laura Barnett has created a novel that is deeply human and strikingly familiar, particularly for readers in their thirties and forties. The characters feel like people you might know — or even be. They are messy, flawed, sometimes selfish, but always believable. While their lives look polished on the outside, beneath the surface lies a web of unspoken regrets, unmet ambitions, and unresolved tensions.

What makes the novel shine is the emotional texture Barnett brings to each chapter. With humour and heartbreak in equal measure, she captures the quiet milestones of adulthood — not the dramatic “firsts” of youth, but the slow realisations, difficult compromises, and deepening relationships that shape who we become over time.

Al stood out to me as the most compelling character: thoughtful, grounded, and striving to do meaningful work in a world that doesn’t always reward it. Others felt more frustrating — self-centred or emotionally opaque — but even this felt true to life. Not everyone grows in the same way or at the same pace, and Barnett doesn’t shy away from showing that.

At times, the novel reminded me of One Day by David Nicholls or Four Weddings and a Funeral — not just because of the weddings and reunions, but because of the emotional connection you feel with the characters. You may not always like them, but you’ll care about what happens to them. And if you’ve ever looked around at your own life and wondered how you got here — how you got so far from the plans you once made — this novel will strike a chord.

Poignant, funny, and sharply observed, Births, Deaths and Marriages is a moving exploration of friendship, time, and the inevitability of change. For millennials staring down middle age, it’s both a comfort and a wake-up call.

A well written book with interesting rounded characters. We get to know them at university and then we get to see them again some 20 years on. Not an edge if the seat sort of a story but an easy, fulfilling read about family, friendship and life

Quite enjoyable, although I found the writing style a bit off putting. It's a good story, with some interesting characters who have a lot of history together,

This is the story of six university friends, Rob, Zoe, Indie, Rachel, Yas and Al, who were inseparable during their university years but whilst they’ve kept in touch since, some more than others within the group, they have gone their separate ways. That is until they are brought together once more following an invitation to Rob’s engagement party.

No character within the group is perfect. They have all done things they regret, had failed or are having failing relationships, had battled grief or illness just to mention some of the things they’ve gone through. This book is about life after all and as the party throws the gang together once more, some passions are reignited, old connections and resentments resurface. Over the next year, there will be a birth, a marriage, and a death – but whose?

For me the best way to describe this book is “busy”. I don’t know if it was just because I had the digital and not the hard copy version but I really struggled with the amount of names. And I don’t mean the six main characters: there are so many names mentioned on every page right from the beginning and I didn’t know which name / relationship was important and which wasn’t and whether I would need to remember it. I ended up creating a little list of names and how the additional names connected to the main characters. Once I’d got into the story, it was fine but it was quite overwhelming at the start.

I have to say I battled through this book. I am not sure if it was the initial amount of info that meant I struggled to get into it or that I enjoyed books I was reading alongside it a lot more but this was not a book I wanted to pick up if that makes sense. However, I can totally see why someone might enjoy it and it is a shame as I like the concept and I am usually a lover of character driven stories. I am glad I persevered as I wanted to see how it all worked out for the characters but I did just skim read towards the end I’m afraid.

What a stunning book. I really enjoyed reading this. It captures the human condition in a way that a lot of books don't do. It shows the characters as HUMAN, flaws and all, and even though you want to scream at them you can't help but sympathise with them and the limitations they deal with.

This book follows 6 University friends and their lives 20 years after graduation. The things they've succeeded at. The things they've made a mess of. I really enjoyed the writing of this. It wasn't heavily plot driven either but it was great to have a peek into the lives of the 6 friends. Some really heartbreaking things happen too. There's love and there's loss.

You should definitely grab this one!

Thanks to the publishers for the ARC.

Overall, I liked it. I would recommend it to friends or family, but perhaps only those who would enjoy that Hugh Grant style of romantic comedy. The British humour is very light and would probably go unnoticed by some, too.

Following a group of university friends in their middle age, this is a creatively crafted novel. It focusses on their life events with reflections on their past and how this has shaped their present and their future.

I found myself invested in the characters and their life stories. Recommended as a good read for a lazy afternoon.

In recent years I’ve drifted away from contemporary fiction but, there was something about the narrative of this book that pulled me towards it.

Six people, linked by their university friendship, each one living their own lives and stories, drawn back together by the engagement of one of their group, initiating a character-driven story that delves into their inter-twined lives.

Set amidst their background from meeting at a funeral to present day, this is a 21st century four weddings and a Funeral overlaid with the dark, dry wit of Fleabag, telling the story of one year in the lives of this group of friends.

With its core focus on characters rather than events, the flow of the story is paced, steady, not frantic. The story addresses loss, in more ways than one, grief, love, enduring friendship and the peaks and troughs of relationships in a frank, at times emotional way that draws you into the lives of this complex and interesting group.

Thank you Random House UK, Transworld Publishers and NetGalley for the arc of Births, Deaths and Marriages by Laura Barnett in exchange for my honest and sincere review.

this book was brilliantly done. i have my Favorited of novels and as soon as i read a book about a group of people and so character driven it goes straight to the top. when done well it swoops into my favorite kind of this genre. and this book is done so well.
i love how expertly Laura navigated each character. we are given 6 of them and you felt all of them had the pride of place throughout.
what i also love about such a cast all have importance is that you get such a scope of difference between human beings. so we can love some, not like some but most of the time in a group there is a shared knowledge even as a reader that humans are flawed. and unless they are down right evil then they can still be ultimately good people, friends, lovers,
in this book we have 6 university friends who have a breadth of shared histories together. they come together again to celebrate and engagement. but they havent been together as one group for a while so we are now going to see how that pans out. can they all reconnect? alot of living has gone on in between times. alot of different living and ups and downs. and people change so will bonds still be the same or will the changes bring upon new chances at connections like there wasnt before?
when you are young i think you want to get on with everyone. even inside your own close group you think there shouldnt be a hierarchy or is someone on the outside and you definitely never want it to be you. but over time and age you realise we are all different even within small circles. and often you can be so close to someone and not for others. or you realise you all bring your strength to the table and it really is ok not have all the strengths and its ok to have your flaws. it doesn't make you less loved or lovable. and sometimes you will be just what another person needs. and then how also when you mesh all these positives together a group can really really work.

Twenty years after first meeting at university, a group of six friends grapple with big events in their lives over the space of a year.

When I saw that Births, Deaths And Marriages by Laura Barnett was being described as a cross between Four Weddings And A Funeral and One Day I leapt at the chance to read it as both feature characters you feel a connection with, individuals you wanted to succeed, people you cared about.

In Births, Deaths And Marriages we meet our six main characters, Yas, Rachel, Zoe, Rob, Indie and Al towards the end of their second year at university in London. Having formed a bond early on in the first year, four of the group have moved in together, but the other two are at the house so often it's as if all six live together. Twenty years later and the individuals haven't moved far, with the majority still living in London. While they don't meet up as often as they would like, they have remained in contact. It is Rob's upcoming wedding that sees the group connecting more frequently.

Over the space of a year, we learn that the lives of each individual have varied greatly, some have achieved their ambitions, others have given up careers to start a family and some have found themselves doing things they had never dreamed of. At the age of twenty, they all assumed that twenty years later they'd have their lives sorted, but we discover that unexpected events get in the way. Reading the book I was reminded of the saying "Man plans and God laughs" as this really summed up the story.

Although all of the characters are personable I really didn't engage with any of them apart from Al, who came across as philosophical and easy-going. I found the career he'd ended up with, and the changes he wanted to bring about, very interesting. I found the remaining characters quite shallow and some of them were extremely self-centred. This is possibly a book that will resonate more with millennials, who may see themselves, or their circumstances, brought to life by characters they can identify with.

Four Weddings and a Funeral, through the millennial lens of Fresh Meat and Fleabag, BD&M is caustically emotional with the unlikeable yet deeply sympathetic characters of a Rooney novel, and the swooping plot of a soap opera. It's in turns heartbreaking and hopeful, replete with messiness that Barnett nobly keeps adrift with deft prose.