East Coast Girls

 East Coast Girls by Kerry Kletter  368 pages

 There is nothing new in the plot of “East Coast Girls”: Four best friends are traumatized from an event that happened when they graduated from high school, twelve years ago. HOWEVER, what makes this one different is the lyrical, literary writing and the event that happened was shocking, totally catching me off guard.

Best friends Hannah, Blue, Renee and Maya spent their summers at Montauk, Long Island, at Blue’s nana’s cabin. Since their last summer there, twelve years ago, they have barely spoken or seen each other. That night destroyed the family bond that they had created and left each of them adrift, all their dreams

Hannah has no life other than sitting at the bedside of her high school boyfriend, Henry, hoping and praying that his brain will begin to work again. She is a neurotic mess, barely able to function without Xanax and is a total germaphobe.

Maya drifts from job to job, never keeping one for very long and watches her bills pile up. If she doesn’t get it together soon, she will become homeless.

Blue lives in Manhattan and is the most successful of the four. But she, too has paid a price. She’s a workaholic, but I was never really sure exactly what she did—real estate? Wall Street?  Whatever it was, she is a wealthy woman. Lonely as hell, but wealthy. She does stay touch with Maya, but only because Maya needs money---all the time.

Renee, well, only Maya seems to know about her. She and Blue had a huge falling out, but no knows what it concerned.

Now, as the girls are celebrating their thirtieth birthday’s, Maya is getting the gang back together at Nana’s cabin in Montauk.  Will they ever be able to re-capture their dependence on each other?  Can they ever let the past go?

I LOVED this book. I was hooked from Page One until the very end. I really like that author Kletter didn’t give away the shocking event until almost the end. That way I had had time to conjure up images of what I believe happened, but nothing prepared me for the shock.  “East Coast Girls” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Friendship List

 The Friendship List by Susan Mallery  384 pages

Ellen Fox and Unity Leandre have been best friends “practically since birth,” but lately they have been in a rut.

Ellen hasn’t had the easiest of lives. Pregnant at seventeen, she has given up love and sex in order to raise her soon, Cooper, who is now seventeen. They do okay. All she wants out of the rest of her life is for Coop to go to college and not have a great life—for him to fly as she was never able. But one afternoon, she overhears Coop talking with a friend that he may not get to the university of his choice because his mother needs him too much.

But Coop is wrong, Besides Unity, Ellen has Keith Kinne, a coach at the same school where she teaches, and, not ideally, Coop’s coach.  I can’t say I know what sport Coop played, but I’m sure it was mentioned somewhere.  Not only are Ellen and Keith co-workers, Keith also has a seventeen year old, a daughter he is raising on his own after her mother abandons them.

Unity is Ellen’s opposite in almost everything but the rut. She lives in her late husband’s mother’s house, still filled with all his things. She even sleeps in his childhood room, unwilling and unable to let go of her grief. Emotionally she hasn’t progressed much in the three years Stuart was killed in action in Afghanistan.

One afternoon, after a fight, Unity creates “The Friendship List,”  a bucket-like list that will prove to Cooper that she can get along without him just fine. The women “make a pact to challenge each other to use the summer to make some changes.” For Ellen, it all begins with a bus trip to visit colleges with  Keith, Cooper and the rest of the senior athletes.  For Unity, it begins with meeting the great-nephew of one of ther clients and to think about boxing up Stuart’s things.

“The Friendship List” is a fun, breezy read, with a few moments of drama thrown in to make it a complete story.  For me, there were way too many sex scenes, and it seemed that sex domainted the second half of the novel.  Therefore, “The Friendship List”  receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Dork Diaries 14: Tales From a Not-So-Best Friend Forever

Dork Diaries 14 Tales From a Not-So-Best Friend Forever by Rachel Renee Russell    320 pages

Cute story,  I didn't realize it was an ongoing series.    Even though I came in to this series on the 14th book, it was still easy to keep up with the characters and what their current issues are.   Nikki's band has been hired as the opening act for hugely famous boy band Bad Boyz!   The girls are so stoked to do the tour and meet the guys, however, there is a glitch in their joy.  Nikki's nemesis and on good days frenemy,  MacKenzie Hollister's wealthy father has gotten her an in and turns out she will be tagging along with them acting as tour coordinator of venues and pretty much all else related to securing hotels, travel and taking care of details for both bands.   MacKenzie thought it would be an easy gig with little to no work involved and basically a free ride/vacation  what a rude awakening for her when she realized they actually expected her to work and the Bad Boyz are assuming she has the tour all planned out and everything taken care of.   What?????????   A funny fun ride with romance, lots of tween quizzes to see which Bad Boy would be the one for you in all manner of scenarios, cute book definetly geared for the tween set but fun none the less for an easy read on a day with time on your hands.   I would recommend this one to anyone looking to get an idea of current tween life in the age of cellphones and excellerated technology.   It is a new world to those of us from the previous century and a lol romp for 21st centurions (insert smiley face emoji).