WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE......THEIR YEARLY HUNT-AND-KILL GAME TURNS SUSPENSEFUL....(****)

 With Friends Like These by Alissa Lee (2025)

     By the time I'd finished this hybrid of suspense thriller and lifelong friendship drama, I realized I'd enjoyed it a whole lot more than I ever expected I would.

     Author Alissa Lee managed to expertly juggle the thriller end of it, while blending in incisive, deeply layered portraits of her five main characters. And I've always been helpless to resist a story that takes an expansive view of people who, as young adults have planned out their sky's-the-limit, world-is-ours-for-the-taking future, full of hope and promise. And then watch what befalls them as life happens, with all its curveballs, rollercoaster turns and reversals of fortune.

     And so it was with Sara, Allie, Dina, Bee, Wesley and Claudine, six Harvard girls ,bright shining lights of their class. Until in their senior year. Claudine died in an accident swirling with unsettling questions as to what really happened. Now, twenty years later and into beginnings of middle age, the five surviving women still share one constant bond through their years of successes and failures - they continue their yearly 'Circus', a hunt-and-kill game they play among themselves amid the streets or New York. Sara and some of the others would just as soon opt out the game until it's revealed that the prize money fund set aside for this year's winner tops a million dollars. It's Game On for sure.

     The game proceeds but not without uneasy, ominous events. Sara swears she spotted the supposedly dead Claudine, while an ambitious DA may reopen an investigation in her death. Generating even more anxiety, Bee and Wesley receive anonymous threats to publicly reveal the 'Circus' to the world at large.....and thereby forever damage their reputations and futures.

     I'm aware that opinions on this book widely vary but I can only say I found every bit of it a compelling, page-turning read. And I salute author Lee for continuing on with the story even after the thriller aspects have been resolved. By that time I'd come to care enough about these characters to want some satisfying closure.....(and I'm totally fed up with recent books resorting to annoying abrupt finishes, as if the authors think those cinematic, cut-to-black endings will gain them a better shot at a movie deal. )

     What else can I say? A well executed thriller-drama with a cast of characters worth staying with and delving into all the backstories. High recommendation, a great one to cozy up with during those upcoming cold nights.

       4 stars (****).

      

WHERE THERE'S ROOM FOR US.....THE SWEETEST OF ROMANCES IN A MAKE-BELIEVE ENGLAND....(****)

 Where There's Room For Us by Hayley Kiyoko (2025)

     First let me say that I'm truly impressed at how much more assured and skilled Haley Kiyoko has become as a writer. This new book, an alternate universe YA romance set in late 19th century Victorian England, reads as if this author was born to write richly imagined stories spun from her own fairy tale, snow globe versions of long ago times.

     And I say that as somebody most definitely NOT a fan of alternate universe takes on familiar historical settings.

     Slowly at first, but inevitably I found myself taken in (and very taken by) this sweet charming re-creation of an England where women may still be, in many ways, second class citizens but queer romances and marriages are not categorized as the Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name. On the contrary, amid the upper classes there's a sort of live-and-let-live acceptance going on.......except when sapphic relationships interfere with the traditions of male heirs inheriting their family estates.

     Our sweethearts here could not possibly be more lovable and sympathetic than the daring, outspoken American poetess Ivy and the gentle, warm hearted Lady Freya Tallon. Ivy's recently arrived from across the pond to help her brother, who by birthright is now the Viscount of a sprawling estate and landlord to its residing tenants. Their nearest neighbor is the equally impressive estate of Lord Tallon and his large family, including Freya and her sisters. Nuclear powered sparks fly between Ivy and Freya, but Lord Tallon expects Freya to be courted and wed to a noble young Lord,......and thereby providing a male heir that Freya's sisters have yet to a bring into the world.

     The romantic chemistry reaches a boiling point. Freya;s torn between family obligation and her newly discovered passion while Ivy finds herself forced to inhibit her bold independence to help Freya somehow navigate their way to a happy ending. And the growing political movement for women's equal rights, bitterly opposed by Lord Tallon, threatens to forever rip apart and divide our two adorable lovers.

     As much as I go out of my way to avoid alternate universe fantasies, this one, I'm forced to admit seduced me into its Never Never land completely (Practically every time Ivy and Freya encounter each other qualifies as a sigh-worthy experience.) I also don't want for forget to point out that author Kiyoko has taken on the effort of creating her unique fact-and-fiction England with enough detail to make it seem real while you're reading it.

     Well then, , I guess I've said more than enough to explain why this ended up as a surprising (to me, anyway) 4 star review. (****).  Anyone entranced with a head-over-heels romance set in sumptuous English landscapes, here's a book vacation worth booking.