Keep Your Friends Close by Paula Daly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Keep your Friends Close grabbed me from the first page. I literally couldn’t put it down.
The story is mostly told from two contrasting viewpoints: Natty, the wife who is totally confident of her husband’s love, and Eve, the friend who sets out to deliberately steal him away.
Natty is away from home for only two weeks for a family emergency. When she leaves home Sean loves only her, has actually never thought about straying. When she comes home, the first thing he does is tell her he is in love with Eve and wants a divorce. By the next day, Eve is living in Natty’s house with Natty’s husband and children and making her position clear at the business Natty has built. Natty is banished to her father’s spare bedroom, ashamed to show her face because she knows the whole town is talking.
The tension builds chapter by chapter, Eve’s viewpoint allows the reader to know more than Natty does, and your heart aches for her as she bumbles along and starts to figure things out.
The story made me think about how easily a person without principles can find a weakness to exploit in even the most solid relationship.
I won’t say more about the plot because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. I can say I was not disappointed in the end and would be happy to read a sequel.
Keep your Friends Close will be published in September. I read an advance copy from NetGalley.
