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Best Friends Forever
by Kimberla Lawson Roby
c.2016, Grand Central
Publishing
$20,00 / $24.00 Canada
183 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Truth Contributor
You’d
do almost anything for your best friend.
You’d take a bullet, take her in, or take her
anywhere she needed to go. You keep her kids and her
confidences. And, as in the new novel, Best Friends
Forever by Kimberla Lawson Roby, she’d do the same
for you. Probably.
Celine Richardson was absolutely furious at
her husband, Keith.
It was bad enough that he came home at 5
a.m., but lying about where he’d been was the last straw. It
was obvious that Keith was cheating on Celine – but what
Celine couldn’t figure out was why.
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He claimed that she acted like she never had
time for him, and Celine had to admit that she’d been
awfully busy for the last few months. Building her business
took a lot of her time, but didn’t they have date nights?
Sure, she’d been preoccupied now and then, but when they
sent their 10-year-old daughter, Kassie, to spend the
weekend with Celine’s best friend, Lauren, didn’t Celine and
Keith spend alone-time together?
They did, but that wasn’t good enough for
him. He was cheating on Celine with some tramp, but he
wouldn’t come out and admit it.
And yet – that wasn’t the worst thing in
Celine’s life.
Just a few days before Keith’s first lie, she
found a lump in her breast and, after rounds of doctor
visits and too many tests, her worst fears were confirmed.
It was malignant, but Keith was full of excuses why he
couldn’t accompany her to the hospital and Celine knew
instantly that she could never again rely on her husband for
support. Still, she wasn’t alone. With the help of her best
friend and her brother - and no thanks to her no-good,
absent husband - she’d be just fine.
But Keith wasn’t done, and neither was
cancer. Celine’s recovery didn’t go well, and her
soon-to-be-ex had a bombshell to share, one that she sensed
wasn’t the whole story. And just when Celine thought she
couldn’t take any more, Lauren spoke her mind…
Friendship, as you know, is never one-sided.
It’s a give-and-take, and that includes
Best Friends Forever.
From the very first scene in which a
delicious scandal erupts, author Kimberla Lawson Roby gives
her fans a story that’s sordid and scary but also, in an odd
way, spiritually uplifting. Roby’s Celine is a strong,
God-loving woman who’s totally out of patience, but I
enjoyed that she’s given a lifeline as well as two
surprises, one right after the other. While that ultimately
leads to what I felt was an abrupt ending that left me
hanging, it also gave me hope that we haven’t heard the last
of these characters.
And the takeaway? I liked it, and I think
you will, too: readers get a great girlfriends novel that’s
easy to read, super-quick to finish, and that can happily be
passed around or recommended for a book group. If that
sounds like a dream read for you, then get Best Friends
Forever. It could be a book you’ll do anything for.
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