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I'm So Happy for You
What if your best friend, whom you've always counted on to flounder in life and love (making your own modest accomplishments look not so bad), suddenly starts to surpass you in every way? Wendy's best friend, Daphne, has always been dependably prone to catastrophe. And Wendy has always been there to help. If Daphne veers from suicidal to madly in love, Wendy offers encouragement. But when Daphne is suddenly engaged, pregnant, and decorating a fabulous town house in no time at all, Wendy is . . . not so happy for her. Caught between wanting to be the best friend she prides herself on being and crippling jealousy of flighty Daphne, Wendy takes things to the extreme, waging a full-scale attack on her best friend -- all the while wearing her best, I'm-so-happy-for-you smile -- and ends up in way over her head. Rosenfeld has a knack for exposing the not-always-pretty side of being best friends -- in writing that is glittering and diamond-sharp. I'm So Happy For You is a smart, darkly humorous, and uncannily dead-on novel about female friendship.
289 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 9, 2009
42 people are currently reading
973 people want to read
About the author
Lucinda Rosenfeld
8 books116 followersLucinda Rosenfeld is the author of five novels, including CLASS, a satire about parenting, public school, and the liberal bubble.
Please see: @authorlucindarosenfeld on Facebook. Purchase here: http://amzn.to/2cNULku
Please see: @authorlucindarosenfeld on Facebook. Purchase here: http://amzn.to/2cNULku
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 273 reviews
August 30, 2009
Congratulations to Lucinda Rosenfeld, who has created the least likable protagonist in the history of fiction for women by women. To the readers of "I'm So Happy For You" who laud the honest portrayal of female friendships, I say, "Who the hell are you hanging out with and why?"
Wendy Murman, a 30-something editor for a lefty political magazine, is singularly focused on getting preggers with her unemployed, stoner, screenplay-writing husband Adam. Meanwhile, all of her friends are shooting out kiddies like their hoo-ha is the mouth of a water slide. To make things worse, her frenemy (you can punch me for using that word) Daphne -- a beautiful drama queen whose life is a layer cake of disasters -- has ditched her married boyfriend and stumbled into a blissful relationship with the loathsome Jonathon. Six weeks later, she's engaged, renovating a museum-esque brownstone, then married, then pregnant. With each success that Daphne achieves, Wendy becomes a little more psychotic. She snarks out in her toast at Daphne's wedding; She defiles her shower gift for Daphne.
Wendy is an insecure, caddy, selfish, jealous, gossipy woman who revels in the misfortune of the people around her. She only sleeps with her husband when she is ovulating. Hobbies include spite and toxicity. Do people really act like this? God I hope not. What a waste of time. But they must, because Rosenfeld wrote it and people are reading it and relating to it. My god, women. Why do we hate ourselves so much?
This is a disappointing novel from a writer I have liked in the past. Rosenfeld had a short story published in a compilation called "Dumped" a few years ago. It was about a short-lived relationship with Pablo Miles, a dude who is so offensive that it is actually hot. It was a chapter from the novel "What She Saw ..." in which each chapter is about a man who has come and gone, and if I recall correctly, it is very well-written, funny, charming, smart. Possible my standards were different then. Or possible that either this novel or that one was a fluke.
Much of "I'm So Happy For You" it is told in uninteresting E-mail dispatches sent to friends. (This is also strange. Did Rosenfeld write this novel in 1998 and just publish it? The main character has a land line and has to do some complicated logging onto the internet, which seems really false in 2009. Its like Wendy is the Laura Ingalls Wilder of Brooklyn.)
Whatever. I'm so disappointed. I feel like I have to wash out my eyeballs and bleach my brain.
Wendy Murman, a 30-something editor for a lefty political magazine, is singularly focused on getting preggers with her unemployed, stoner, screenplay-writing husband Adam. Meanwhile, all of her friends are shooting out kiddies like their hoo-ha is the mouth of a water slide. To make things worse, her frenemy (you can punch me for using that word) Daphne -- a beautiful drama queen whose life is a layer cake of disasters -- has ditched her married boyfriend and stumbled into a blissful relationship with the loathsome Jonathon. Six weeks later, she's engaged, renovating a museum-esque brownstone, then married, then pregnant. With each success that Daphne achieves, Wendy becomes a little more psychotic. She snarks out in her toast at Daphne's wedding; She defiles her shower gift for Daphne.
Wendy is an insecure, caddy, selfish, jealous, gossipy woman who revels in the misfortune of the people around her. She only sleeps with her husband when she is ovulating. Hobbies include spite and toxicity. Do people really act like this? God I hope not. What a waste of time. But they must, because Rosenfeld wrote it and people are reading it and relating to it. My god, women. Why do we hate ourselves so much?
This is a disappointing novel from a writer I have liked in the past. Rosenfeld had a short story published in a compilation called "Dumped" a few years ago. It was about a short-lived relationship with Pablo Miles, a dude who is so offensive that it is actually hot. It was a chapter from the novel "What She Saw ..." in which each chapter is about a man who has come and gone, and if I recall correctly, it is very well-written, funny, charming, smart. Possible my standards were different then. Or possible that either this novel or that one was a fluke.
Much of "I'm So Happy For You" it is told in uninteresting E-mail dispatches sent to friends. (This is also strange. Did Rosenfeld write this novel in 1998 and just publish it? The main character has a land line and has to do some complicated logging onto the internet, which seems really false in 2009. Its like Wendy is the Laura Ingalls Wilder of Brooklyn.)
Whatever. I'm so disappointed. I feel like I have to wash out my eyeballs and bleach my brain.
November 14, 2015
I'm So Happy For You by Lucinda Rosenfeld is one of the worst books I've ever read. I got it for free. One of the girls gave it to me from a gift bag from either Rooftop or Shecky's. I decided to take it on the plane to Denver. It was horrible but I had nothing else to read, so I read half of it. After reading half of it, I was too far in to not finish it. And so, it took well over two months to finish the friggin thing. I didn't even want to take it to the bathroom with me to read it in snippets. No, I don't make a habit of reading books in a bathroom, but I contemplated doing so just to finish it and that never happened. I wound up finishing it on the three trains to Jersey and then dumped it on Li with the warning that it was a really bad read.
What's it about? It's about horrible people living horrible lives by being things they aren't and wanting things they can't have and being horrible to each other. No character has any redeeming quality whatsoever. Nothing good happens at all. If the tone is sarcastic, then I've completely missed it. Even if it is, it's too much. It has an epilogue about what happens later on to the characters, like some movies do, which leans towards a tongue-in-cheek style, but I don't think it is. I think it's simply horrible.
What's it about? It's about horrible people living horrible lives by being things they aren't and wanting things they can't have and being horrible to each other. No character has any redeeming quality whatsoever. Nothing good happens at all. If the tone is sarcastic, then I've completely missed it. Even if it is, it's too much. It has an epilogue about what happens later on to the characters, like some movies do, which leans towards a tongue-in-cheek style, but I don't think it is. I think it's simply horrible.
August 28, 2013
Oh I wish this book were a better book, because there SHOULD be a really great novel about the dynamic of a toxic female friendship, and its weird co-dependent push/pull. So far the closest that I've found is Christina Schwarz's ALL IS VANITY, which no one but me seemed to like. But that's okay. That's actually one of the reasons I braved the grim Goodreads rating here, because I have liked books about this in the past that everyone else has hated, books with review after review that reads "These characters are so UNLIKEABLE." Ha! I said. I don't need characters to be likeable in order to enjoy them--sometimes it's fun to hate everybody, am I right?" I didn't think that I had the bone in my body that prevented me from liking a book because a character didn't behave the way I wanted.
Then I read I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU. And now I know that I do own judgypants, and that they are quite comfortable. I like to imagine that they look like Pajama Jeans.
It's a quick read. I read most of it on the subway, and often I had to catch myself before I turned to the stranger next to me and ask them to please remove their headphones so we could commiserate about how this Wendy woman was the worst. Like, the absolute worst. Actually, maybe a sociopath. Pretty sure the point Wendy and I officially broke up was when her husband's father was in a car accident that left him in a coma, and the response we got from her was relief that she wouldn't have to go up to be with the family and how this gave her a chance to snoop on his computer to see if he was really writing the screenplay that he had taken a year off of work to complete. And that was before she actively started lashing out at anyone.
Even that could have still been okay, though. The thing that ultimately sank the book for me was that I never got the impression that Wendy was supposed to be portrayed as anything other than a normal lady with a sinking friendship. I admire authors who aren't afraid to explore the jealousies and resentments that can seep into long-term relationships, but there was never a point in this book where I felt like Wendy and Daphne's relationship was un-poisoned. There never even came a point in the book where I felt like any of the female friendships were un-poisoned. After reading this book, I might be afraid to befriend anyone in Brooklyn, honestly.
(I also thought it was strange that we never got Daphne's point of view--it seems like a conceit that begs for a dual narrator, and Wendy didn't make good enough company to pull it off solo; I constantly wondered what Daphne was thinking about Wendy, and would have liked that more than the small twist that being out of her head delivered at the end.)
So a swing and a miss here, unfortunately, although it will probably make you feel pretty great about your own friendships, marriages, internal thoughts, non-demonic soul, etc.
Then I read I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU. And now I know that I do own judgypants, and that they are quite comfortable. I like to imagine that they look like Pajama Jeans.
It's a quick read. I read most of it on the subway, and often I had to catch myself before I turned to the stranger next to me and ask them to please remove their headphones so we could commiserate about how this Wendy woman was the worst. Like, the absolute worst. Actually, maybe a sociopath. Pretty sure the point Wendy and I officially broke up was when her husband's father was in a car accident that left him in a coma, and the response we got from her was relief that she wouldn't have to go up to be with the family and how this gave her a chance to snoop on his computer to see if he was really writing the screenplay that he had taken a year off of work to complete. And that was before she actively started lashing out at anyone.
Even that could have still been okay, though. The thing that ultimately sank the book for me was that I never got the impression that Wendy was supposed to be portrayed as anything other than a normal lady with a sinking friendship. I admire authors who aren't afraid to explore the jealousies and resentments that can seep into long-term relationships, but there was never a point in this book where I felt like Wendy and Daphne's relationship was un-poisoned. There never even came a point in the book where I felt like any of the female friendships were un-poisoned. After reading this book, I might be afraid to befriend anyone in Brooklyn, honestly.
(I also thought it was strange that we never got Daphne's point of view--it seems like a conceit that begs for a dual narrator, and Wendy didn't make good enough company to pull it off solo; I constantly wondered what Daphne was thinking about Wendy, and would have liked that more than the small twist that being out of her head delivered at the end.)
So a swing and a miss here, unfortunately, although it will probably make you feel pretty great about your own friendships, marriages, internal thoughts, non-demonic soul, etc.
September 25, 2009
I loved this book. Okay, so the main character isn't the most likeable person in all the world--but I feel like her jealous, petty, inner thoughts are thoughts we all tend to have at some point. I could totally relate to Wendy and felt I've had my fair share of Daphnes in my life, and I bet a lot of us have as well. I felt Rosenfeld did a great job of building these women's lives and showing the complexities of women's relationships with each other. Sure, some people will read this and just think it's petty immaturity but I think that, on some level, a lot more of us can relate to these types of thoughts and feelings than we'd like to admit.
July 8, 2010
I was excited to read this book. I am not going to lie, I have been guilty of feeling insecure and even jealous over a friend, so I thought this book would be a great read. Not so much. If I wasn't obligated to read this for a book discussion, I probably wouldn't have finished it.
This book is not about best friends. Heck, this book isn't about friendships. This is a story of two girls who claim to be friends but aren't. One friend seems to have everything, looks, money and men. The other is unhappy with her life, her job, her husband is unemployed and she is struggling to have a baby (who would even try to have a baby in those conditions?) This is a story about a friend who talks and belittles everything that her best friend has to her face and behind her back- even the things that she wants for herself. This is a story about a girl who thinks her best friend might be having an affair with her spouse, but yet throws her a baby shower?? This book is just plain weird.
Now don't get wrong, I think the book had potential but none of characters were believable or likeable.
Prior to reading this book I never heard of the author and sadly, I think I would be hesitate to read anything else by this author. :(
This book is not about best friends. Heck, this book isn't about friendships. This is a story of two girls who claim to be friends but aren't. One friend seems to have everything, looks, money and men. The other is unhappy with her life, her job, her husband is unemployed and she is struggling to have a baby (who would even try to have a baby in those conditions?) This is a story about a friend who talks and belittles everything that her best friend has to her face and behind her back- even the things that she wants for herself. This is a story about a girl who thinks her best friend might be having an affair with her spouse, but yet throws her a baby shower?? This book is just plain weird.
Now don't get wrong, I think the book had potential but none of characters were believable or likeable.
Prior to reading this book I never heard of the author and sadly, I think I would be hesitate to read anything else by this author. :(
May 17, 2010
If you're interested in reading a book about obnoxious, whiny, insecure women, this is the book for you. I found Wendy, her husband Adam and her "best friend" Daphne all insufferable. Of course, I put best friend in quotes because I don't believe these women are friends or were ever friends.
The story opens as Daphne, who has a THING for married men is finishing up her affair with a news anchor. She calls Wendy in the middle of the night to sob on the phone to her. Of course, Wendy then turns around and tells Daphne's problems to their equally obnoxious circle of friends. That is the status quo for their relationship.
The trouble starts when Daphne finds a guy and gets her life together to the point where Wendy, unable to be superior anymore, turns an ugly shade of green. Daphne's guy is portrayed to be a jerk simply because he has money and strangely, because he's pro-Israel (where does Rosenfeld get off inserting that issue into a chick-lit book?!). Wendy can't handle it anymore, especially when Daphne gets pregnant, which is all Wendy has been trying to do in the last year.
I understand that there is always competition between friends, but this book takes it to the nth degree. If you want a book about a long, complicated female friendship, I suggest you read Summer Sisters by Judy Blume.
The story opens as Daphne, who has a THING for married men is finishing up her affair with a news anchor. She calls Wendy in the middle of the night to sob on the phone to her. Of course, Wendy then turns around and tells Daphne's problems to their equally obnoxious circle of friends. That is the status quo for their relationship.
The trouble starts when Daphne finds a guy and gets her life together to the point where Wendy, unable to be superior anymore, turns an ugly shade of green. Daphne's guy is portrayed to be a jerk simply because he has money and strangely, because he's pro-Israel (where does Rosenfeld get off inserting that issue into a chick-lit book?!). Wendy can't handle it anymore, especially when Daphne gets pregnant, which is all Wendy has been trying to do in the last year.
I understand that there is always competition between friends, but this book takes it to the nth degree. If you want a book about a long, complicated female friendship, I suggest you read Summer Sisters by Judy Blume.
August 2, 2012
A wonderful, quick and easy read. Finished it in 2 days because I couldn't put it down. Everything Rosenfeld has to say about the secret motivations and jealousies between friends in their 30s is spot on. Anyone who says different has lived a blessed life or is too young to recognize themselves in Wendy. It's that strange period in your life when you know you are a grownup, but still feel so far from being the complete human being you want to be. Whether it's your job, kids, family, money, friends, nothing feels quite right. But it's made all the more confusing because you are over the existentialist musings of your 20s and see things from a more learned, practical, maybe even mercenary viewpoint. I did not dislike Wendy for her whining, because I knew it was based just as much on the doubts she had about herself as it was based on any actual spite for her friends. I think this was a very raw and brave book to write, but it gets filed away as "chick lit" because it was written by a woman and packaged that way for sale. It's really much more than that.
February 15, 2010
This book really did nothing for me. It was very realistic in the sense that it portrayed some truth about women's friendships- especially the jealousy and competitiveness...(Who isn't bored with fiction's highly romanticized concept of best lifelong friends whose shiny unblemished nature exists only in books?) The writing style was more conversational than streamlined, which just didn't grab me...plus, I REALLY hated Wendy...she is the epitome of the bitter jealous bland girl as an adult. I didn't honestly understand why Daphne would continue to be friends with Wendy, when Wendy was a lifelong obsessed, jealous pathetic loser. The ending was far too nice as well...it was just thrown together in such a way as to make neat the mess of people you just wasted two hours reading about. None of the charcters were likable and there really wasn't anything to make you understand why these shallow people wasted time together. Good idea, lousy execution.
May 14, 2009
A lot more accurate than a typical chick lit book. I definitely saw myself and my relationships with some of my friends in Wendy, uncomfortable as it is to admit that. I found Wendy's relationship with her husband (and her best friend's love for a dude who really did seem to be a big jerk) a little less believable. And I couldn't keep any of the other friends (especially the ones who were mothers) straight, so after a while I just gave up and clumped them all together.
Anyway, three stars for accuracy, and for the fact that this is a novel about friendship among women my age (as opposed to the rather popular subgenre of middle-aged ladies battling cancer together), rather than focusing on a girl-meets-boy plot.
Anyway, three stars for accuracy, and for the fact that this is a novel about friendship among women my age (as opposed to the rather popular subgenre of middle-aged ladies battling cancer together), rather than focusing on a girl-meets-boy plot.
December 9, 2010
At first, I found myself really not liking Wendy at all. She was gossipy, jealous, insecure and really quite a backstabber who acted morally superior to her "best friend" Daphne, as well as everyone else around her. Her husband actually pegged it correctly on more than one occasion. As I got into the book, however, I began to empathize with Wendy a bit more, coming to the realization that although she took it to extremes, she really was commenting on the state of female friendships rather accurately. Who hasn't secretly felt jealous or annoyed when one of their friends finds themselves the recipient of something you've wanted for so long? Who hasn't held onto a friendship long past it's expiry date out of a sense of "obligation"? Who hasn't on at least one occasion secretly felt a little happiness on a friend's misfortune or repeated misfortune? The book certainly has made me think about my friendships a little more as I hope to never be as bitter, cynical and b*@$y as Wendy.
May 18, 2013
In an interview, the author said she purposefully created characters that the reader would find unlikeable. The problem is that I didn't feel strongly about the characters - either like or dislike - in any way. They were boring and petty; not the kind of people I would want to be around in real life and certainly not the type of people I want to disappear with into the pages of a book. People are jealous; no one gets along... blah, blah, blah. Nonetheless, I finished it, hoping right up until the end that there might be some redemption. Alas, I was disappointed - the epilogue is just as poorly done as the rest of the book.
The book does get 2 stars instead of 1 because I try to save my one star ratings for books that elicit a strong negative reaction from me. This book was dead on arrival and barely evoked even this review.
The book does get 2 stars instead of 1 because I try to save my one star ratings for books that elicit a strong negative reaction from me. This book was dead on arrival and barely evoked even this review.
March 10, 2010
I started this book yesterday and finished it today. So entertaining!
First off, the main female characters have my favorite girls' names ever: Daphne and Wendy.
Second, I totally thought that their relationship, as well as the relationships between all the women in this book were pretty real. It's sad that there is always some underlying competitiveness to everything women say and do with each other. There's a saying that women don't dress for men. They dress for other women.
I couldn't relate to everything in this book and there were times when I thought the characters were annoying, but I really liked the book and think it would make a great book club discussion - at an all-female book club, of course.
First off, the main female characters have my favorite girls' names ever: Daphne and Wendy.
Second, I totally thought that their relationship, as well as the relationships between all the women in this book were pretty real. It's sad that there is always some underlying competitiveness to everything women say and do with each other. There's a saying that women don't dress for men. They dress for other women.
I couldn't relate to everything in this book and there were times when I thought the characters were annoying, but I really liked the book and think it would make a great book club discussion - at an all-female book club, of course.
September 17, 2009
I got this out from the library as an e-book because I knew it would be a quick read. This is probably one of the first "chick-lit" novels I've read, and I'm happy to say it will probably be one of the last. I'm all for women writing about women, relationships, friendship, motherhood and all that, but please, do it well. I'm not professing to know how to do it well, but I'm also not writing this kind of stuff and convincing someone to publish it.
Maybe I just didn't like the characters. I like the husband and the dog. They needed more airtime. Protagonist was boring. Best friend was boring. Other friends are boring.
I'd say read this on the beach with a hangover. You don't have to be fully present to get through it, and it'll pass the time while you work on your tan.
Maybe I just didn't like the characters. I like the husband and the dog. They needed more airtime. Protagonist was boring. Best friend was boring. Other friends are boring.
I'd say read this on the beach with a hangover. You don't have to be fully present to get through it, and it'll pass the time while you work on your tan.
September 21, 2009
This book is not my usual taste but there were parts that I could really relate to. The friendship between the main characters was not a very good example of the female friendships I have had. I have never had that kind of ultra competitive relationship thankfully! Instead I was more interested in looking at the main character, Wendy's life and her feelings. I could relate to her experiences and I just thought of Daphne as a personification of "everyone else." I didn't really like Wendy or Daphne but I felt like the author was pretty accurate in the thirty something experience of today. I guess it was a good book for me at this time in my life.
November 3, 2009
this is a really complicated relationship between wendy and daphne -- at first i thought daphne was a total flake and a bitch, but after further reading i realize that wendy is just extremely competitive and insecure. sure, daphne might not be someone you'd want as your best friend... but wendy is just full of illusions and bitterness.
i liked this book mostly because it's so different from most other chick-lit i've read. the girl doesn't get the hot, rich husband at the end. it doesn't necessarily have a neat, tidy, happy little ending. the relationships are REALLY complex, and the author is extremely observant of inner thoughts and external events. well written.
i liked this book mostly because it's so different from most other chick-lit i've read. the girl doesn't get the hot, rich husband at the end. it doesn't necessarily have a neat, tidy, happy little ending. the relationships are REALLY complex, and the author is extremely observant of inner thoughts and external events. well written.
January 29, 2009
This is one of those books that as I was reading it, I was thinking: "why aren't I smart enough to write like this?" She's able to balance really lovely writing with a very relatable plot. I mean, there is an almost-too-real quality to this one that made me have to look away. And yet, you can't. Because all of her characters are so great and in so much trouble that you must, must, must know what happens to them.
February 29, 2016
It wasn't a BAD book but it's not the best portrayal of women. As much as I got a laugh here and there out of it, I think that "a novel about best friends" is a stretch. These women are more like frenemies than they are friends. And boy, do I feel bad for anyone that has "friends" like this.
July 18, 2011
Just bought it but I heard the Slate Double X podcast audiobook club discussion on the book and I'm really excited to start!
June 20, 2019
This could have been a great book about friendship, but it really isn't. It's darker than it seems on the surface.
April 19, 2022
This book holds the status of being the worst book I have ever read. I kept reading hoping it would get better and it only got worse. The most unlikable characters and boring plot.
June 17, 2015
this is a great book about friendship and its hardchipsm great work learned alot from it .
October 7, 2018
I’m So Happy For You was written about a decade ago so first things first expect the slang to be a bit dated. “Fugly” is a prime example. With that being said, I purchased it about five years ago at a library sale and never got around to reading it. I needed a quick and easy read since my schedule is a bit busier towards the weekend.
Wendy is the main character and Daphne is her best friend. Wendy has a lot of resentment towards Daphne for making her feel less than her throughout their long friendship. Daphne didn’t exactly grow up well off, which is difficult to make your way into a higher social class in New York City. Although, that doesn’t exactly stop Daphne from somehow always having the upper hand. Wendy has been married to her husband for eight years and throughout her and her best friends relationship she has always been the shoulder to cry on at 2 A.M. when Daphne is distraught over a guy or any other situation causing her distress. She vents to her husband quite frequently about the friendship to which he laughs it off or is supportive of Daphne’s carefree behavior which is a bit odd and comes into play later on. I’ve never had a close female best friend and I found most of their interactions cringe worthy and not leaving much desire on my end to have missed out on the joy accompanied with that experience.
Wendy does have slight growth in her character towards the very end. However, her personality is a bit wishy washy. I wouldn’t say So Happy For You is at all life changing but if you’re looking for a semi dramatic account of disingenuous friendships then this is your book.
Wendy is the main character and Daphne is her best friend. Wendy has a lot of resentment towards Daphne for making her feel less than her throughout their long friendship. Daphne didn’t exactly grow up well off, which is difficult to make your way into a higher social class in New York City. Although, that doesn’t exactly stop Daphne from somehow always having the upper hand. Wendy has been married to her husband for eight years and throughout her and her best friends relationship she has always been the shoulder to cry on at 2 A.M. when Daphne is distraught over a guy or any other situation causing her distress. She vents to her husband quite frequently about the friendship to which he laughs it off or is supportive of Daphne’s carefree behavior which is a bit odd and comes into play later on. I’ve never had a close female best friend and I found most of their interactions cringe worthy and not leaving much desire on my end to have missed out on the joy accompanied with that experience.
Wendy does have slight growth in her character towards the very end. However, her personality is a bit wishy washy. I wouldn’t say So Happy For You is at all life changing but if you’re looking for a semi dramatic account of disingenuous friendships then this is your book.
July 8, 2017
Unsure whether to give this a 2-star rating or 3-. The worst element of this story was, by far, the protagonist - and overall, the whole cast of characters. The protagonist is so goddamn egocentri - she's all for getting into other people's business, making a show of being a great friend, a carer and whatnot, but at the end, she's just so unlikeable. The thing is, there ARE people like that in life. I've recently had a close relationship with a woman who was this toxic and I made a conscious effort to extricate myself from her. So, reading about a person like this again was definitely determining factor to not liking it, but on the other hand I do have to applaud Rosenfeld for painting ugly people as her protagonist. Ugly people do exist -- as much as we try to say charitably that everyone is beautiful -- but it's all about their personality, intentions and behaviour. The story simply withered, ran out of steam, and had such a low-impact ending. The best part would definitely be the post-script; rather than the long drawn out narrative that posed as a novel, the quick summary of the characters lives was way better written than anything preceding it.
December 16, 2018
I could not put this book down. Our protagonist is married and trying to get pregnant. Her best friend is a bit of a hot mess. The protagonist slowly becomes more distant from her husband who doesn't actually want kids.
The best friend gets engaged to a jerk, and they get married and pregnant, then move to a big beautiful house. At the baby shower our protag is rude and causes a friend breakup, shortly thereafter breaks up with her husband.
Our protag tries to reconcile with the friend, finds out that the friend has been having an affair and doesn't think the baby is her husband's. Best friend has a suicide attempt, protag finds and saves her, it turns out the baby is her husband's after all.
The protag gets pregnant, tries to date other people but it doesn't really work out, eventually starts dating her husband again.
The best friend gets engaged to a jerk, and they get married and pregnant, then move to a big beautiful house. At the baby shower our protag is rude and causes a friend breakup, shortly thereafter breaks up with her husband.
Our protag tries to reconcile with the friend, finds out that the friend has been having an affair and doesn't think the baby is her husband's. Best friend has a suicide attempt, protag finds and saves her, it turns out the baby is her husband's after all.
The protag gets pregnant, tries to date other people but it doesn't really work out, eventually starts dating her husband again.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 28, 2019
2friends Wendy and Daphne who have been friends since college change when Daphne who always had trouble finds a a great guy Jonathan but she ends up cheating in her fiancée which you don’t find out till later when she is pregnant
But the two of them are just going their own way and Wendy now is feeling very jealous of Daphne how well all is coming up roses for her and her Wendy’s husband Adam is trying to write a screenplay and she feels he is not ans they get kicked out of their rental and move into a dingy place and he leaves her later with all bickering going around
When Daphne almost commits Audie ans almost loses the baby Wendy was there but for all different reasons
Did not like the book for true friends do r act like this but I guess they were never true friends
But the two of them are just going their own way and Wendy now is feeling very jealous of Daphne how well all is coming up roses for her and her Wendy’s husband Adam is trying to write a screenplay and she feels he is not ans they get kicked out of their rental and move into a dingy place and he leaves her later with all bickering going around
When Daphne almost commits Audie ans almost loses the baby Wendy was there but for all different reasons
Did not like the book for true friends do r act like this but I guess they were never true friends
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 8, 2024
The question while reading this was not-"is this a garbage book?"
it definitely is going in the garbage, not to be donated-I can't risk that someone accidentally reads this.
The question was did the author intend for the protagonist to be a villain, a monster?
I got an answer! "One of my goals in writing I'm so happy for you was to make both main characters simultaneously problematic and sympathetic. If you come away loathing one or both of them, I haven't done my job."
Beyond loathing both main characters, I don't think there is a character in the entire book that is not selfish, entitled, horrible, maybe the intern and the mother in-law, but that's not enough to save this for me.
it definitely is going in the garbage, not to be donated-I can't risk that someone accidentally reads this.
The question was did the author intend for the protagonist to be a villain, a monster?
I got an answer! "One of my goals in writing I'm so happy for you was to make both main characters simultaneously problematic and sympathetic. If you come away loathing one or both of them, I haven't done my job."
Beyond loathing both main characters, I don't think there is a character in the entire book that is not selfish, entitled, horrible, maybe the intern and the mother in-law, but that's not enough to save this for me.
December 31, 2018
I loved this book. It was evil and awful at times but also very truthful, though maybe exaggerated. The characters were relatable. Everyone has that flaky friend or the one who drops you because she has a new Boy who she thinks is "the one" and you know they were all "the one" at one time and you just roll your eyes because you know it will end and another "one" will come. I just think there's a lot of underlying truth to the story. I love all my girlfriends and wish them all happiness but secretly there are times when I get a little jealous or wonder why not me. And that's what the premise is. Why her. why not me. Just remember the grass isn't always greener.
July 25, 2019
Cute story, perfectly enjoyable, but at the end of the day, left me feeling a little empty. I certainty understand the complexities of female friendships and I understand that this story is about the challenges of one, but there was no glimmer of hope or silver lining about the female friendship. I believe that while tumultuous female friendships exist, most are positive and supportive, a side that was not shown in this book.
July 7, 2024
Sometimes you want to read about women supporting and loving other women and beautiful friendships. Sometimes you want to read about horrible mean women who are complete bitches to each other and call it friendship and think to yourself , thank G-d that's not me!!! This book is the later. Mean girls, it's the early 00s, the war on terror is on everyone's minds, being tan and anorexic is still in, and "girl power" has not been discovered yet. Bitchyness ensues.
August 21, 2025
This book has terrible reviews, but I read it anyway and am glad I did! Most of the reviews focus in on how unlikeable the characters are, and that is absolutely true. But characters don’t always have to be likable and sometimes a bd example is better than a good one. What the author did was to take some of the less noble aspects we all have, especially women as it pertains to comparison, and exaggerate them so that we would squirm a bit and recognize those same characteristics in ourselves.
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