FOUR FRIENDS by Robyn Carr

Publisher:  Mira
Published:   March 25, 2014
ISBN:  978-0778316817
Genre:   Women’s Fiction

Format:  Ebook
Obtained via:  Publisher - Netgalley
Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina Gina@loveromancesandmorereviews.com

Two  

Four friends in bucolic Mill Valley, California find themselves at a crossroads that none of them could have truly prepared for.  In the course of days…weeks, their view of themselves as wives, lovers and friends are called into question.  But even more so is their own self-view.  How did they get there?  And where will they go from here?

Gerri has an idyllic marriages.  Both she and her husband have demanding jobs, but they’d dealt with each issues as it arose.  Or did they?  When secrets begin to see the light of day she knows it is time for some changes, but what will those changes be?

Andy longs for love.  One special man to spend her life with but until now each attempt to connect becomes more and more disillusioning.  But when a down-to-earth contractor—someone so different from what she has always thought she wants—comes into her life, all her beliefs about love are called into question.

New Age Sonja has always been the epitome of stability, at least in terms of her beliefs.  But when her husband suddenly leaves her, her world is shattered and none of her theories or what was her philosophy at life can save her.

And then there is newcomer, BJ, a woman who bring her own secrets to the little community.  As those secrets are revealed, will they affect only BJ?  Or will her friends find their lives irrevocably changed by them?

I picked up Robyn Carr’s FOUR FRIENDS because I love Ms. Carr’s books, not because I like women’s fiction. I could not wait for each of her Virgin River series books to come out and she far surpassed herself with her Thunder Point series. Sadly for me my enjoyment of Ms. Carr’s writing was not enough to sustain me through FOUR FRIENDS.  While women’s fiction can be depressing and it takes a while to get to some point of stability and joy, I never got there with FOUR FRIENDS.  It was one of the most depressing books I have ever read.  Even when things begin to turn for the women I felt like I was slogging through a depressive fog.

Maybe the problem lay with all of the narrative.  Pages and pages of omniscient narrative.  Gerri did this, Gerri did that.  Gerri got to be downright boring.  There was so much telling and backstory that bogged the story down that at points I wondered if someone else had written the book.  This was NOT Robyn Carr!  I don’t know where she went, but whoever wrote this book was not the incredibly talented storyteller I’ve come to love.

I never came close to caring about any of the characters.  Maybe because I never saw them as anything but mired in their own depression and seeing their lives crumble. 

I will definitely read Ms. Carr again; in fact I already have her latest Thunder Point book, THE PROMISE at the top of my TBR and I cannot wait to dig in to it.  But as far as her women’s fiction, I’ll be passing it by.

If you are a fan I honestly don’t know if you will enjoy it or not.  If you haven’t read Ms. Carr yet, I strongly suggest you read her Virgin River or Thunder Point series first to see just how talented and what a great story teller she really is.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.