Best Friends

by Consuelo Saah Baehr

Special Many of my readers have voiced objection to the ending of this book. I value my readers and their feelings. I heard their disappointment and made a decision to change the ending. Three convent school girls make a promise to care for each other. They go their separate ways, grow into womanhood and try to find love and happiness until a mad man's actions bring them back together to fulfill their childhood promise. Old money, secrets, revenge, suspense, illicit love, women hurling toward a predetermined destiny. Praise for Best "Consuelo Baehr is a very talented novelist. She not only writes lovely prose, but she keeps you turning the pages, heart thumping, to see what will happen next." Rona Jaffe, author of The Best of Everything and Class Reunion“Worth curling up under the covers with.” The Washington Post“A pleasure to read . . . fascinating, extraordinary women…I wished they were my best friends.” Susan Isaacs, author of Compromising Positions, Shining Through“Plenty of sex … It’s a good read.”COMPANYProduct was unlikely they would ever meet. Yet fate brought them together first as naïve schoolgirls . . . then as complicated women facing events that would alter the shape of their lives forever.NATALIE– betrayed by her first love and consoling herself with the richest husband in America who is both powerful and dangerous.SARA – buried her ambitions until a blazing passion reminds her of all she has given up. Her suburban security is about to be shattered by a new job and a passionate affair.MIRANDA – exotically beautiful, dangerously trusting and driven by her own sexuality. She is in love with a famous screenwriter whose scenario doesn’t include a wife.Three women with little in common . . . except a pledge made when they were children when they knew nothing about what life would bring . . . a pledge they will be called upon to keep.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Mystery, Contemporary, Ebooks

339 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 1980

About the author

Traveled with my mother by bus through Texas to join and be left with my father and his four brothers in Washington DC. My father and his brother, Charles owned a prestigious small department store, Jean Matou, la Maison de treussou, on the corner of Connecticut and M Street. The men soon placed me in a convent boarding school where I spent most of my growing up trying to figure out a plan. Writing was my only way.

Reviews

[Jaidis Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best Friends by Consuelo Saah Baehr is the story of three girls who meet while attending St. Mildred's academy for girls. As most young girls do, they make a promise to each other to remain best friends no matter what, until things suddenly change when Sara unexpectedly has to leave the school because of her father's passing. The book jumps ahead to tell the separate stories of the three women who did not keep in touch as promised and how they have grown on their own as strong women. Even though all three women have certainly had their share of heartache, their lives are still intertwined even though they may not realize it at the time. Best Friends is written in such a way that you are pulled in and can relate to the circumstances in at least one of the women's stories, if not all three. This book reminds us about the value of friendship and how even though friends may spend years apart, they are still willing to sacrifice everything to help a friend. You will experience friendship, love, pain, and loss along with Natalie, Sara, and Miranda from the beginning to the heart wrenching end! Best Friends does contain adult material best suited for mature audiences that are ages 18 and over.

[Katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could give this book zero stars I would. I do not mind reading bad books for a guilty pleasure as long as I know from the beginning not to get my hopes up. I had high expectations for this book after the first few chapters, and then it turned into one disappointment after another. ***SPOILER ALERT!!!***. The main characters are shallow, cruel, cheap, adulterous women that you want dead by the end of the novel (besides the one redeeming character that, alas, does meet her demise). When wanting a reader to empathize with a woman torn between fidelity or destroying her family with an adulterous relationship at least let the potential relationship involve true feelings, not just a sick attraction to money and power. The continuity of the book made me feel as if one chapter were written by the author and the next one by a ghostwriter. I was confused and thought that the ending was a failure of my Kindle to download the complete book, but I see from a previous review that, unfortunately, that was not the case. I do intend to give the author another shot. I would not be as angry at this book as I am if I were truly indifferent to the characters.

[Manda · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of those books that I almost didn't put up. I should have stopped at the prologue but I didn't and then I got sucked into the characters. There was definantly a lot of adultery and rated R scenes and very little about the friendships themselves. Very disappointing. Oh, and the ending did nothing to wrap up the stories and was depressing.

[Samantha Kossa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to connect

I found the characters very hard to connect with, they all start out in a Catholic school but seem to grow up with no morals. Having gone to a Catholic school myself, I found it very hard to believe that not one of them in their adult life would question a God forgiving them their indiscretions. And while they may be portrayals of what could be actual people, I just didn't find any of them to be anything other than selfish and untrustworthy. I'm sorry, this one just wasn't for me.

[Sheila Moffett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book moved slow at times for me.

[Kris Jones · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into this. And the typos!!! .....

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best Friends is about the lives of three girls who met at boarding school. The book chronicles their lives as adults. The story of each girl grown into a woman is engaging. I devoured the book. The writer filled the book with truisms about the hearts of people. The descriptions of people are so vivid that you recognize their personalities and idiosyncrasies immediately. I haven't been this sad to have a book end as when I finished The Help.
One man is described as "never alone. seems to need crowd therapy. Always surrounded by people. Ugh." You get such a picture of this man as very tedious.
One truism I have often quoted, "Hair could make or break you. It was frightening."

Other Truisms
"Working hard at getting someone to like you was the best way to get them to hate you."
"motherhood and marriage had completely blotted out all former dreams as if they had no value except to keep one's spirits up until the real thing came along."
"Be careful whom you help, Sara. They never forgive you for it."

On love, "I know them so intimately. I know what scares them and what makes them laugh. When you know someone that well, there's a responsibility to make them happy to trigger the responses that get the smiles...maybe that's love."

On fear of vulnerability, "She began to think seriously about herself. What was so great about her life and feelings that she guarded them so zealously against invasion? There was pain in her life already. The pain of loneliness. She could just be trading in one kind of pain for another. Maybe it wouldn't be painful."

My favorite of all describes the ideal man, "knowing he had all the advantages made him scrupulously fair." I think one of the things I loved best was the variety of the three stories. The fact that the stories intersect again seemed almost incidental to me. I never wondered how they would meet again because each woman's story was engaging in its own right. I also loved how comfortable the men in the story were with vulnerable women. It almost seemed like vulnerability was more attractive than anything else, not because it could be preyed upon but because to see behind the walls, someone without artifice was an honor.

Read this book and be drawn into the lives of three women. It is the most delicious distraction!

[Rebecca Lockley · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was awful. Billed as a "Romantic Suspense", there was nothing romantic or suspenseful about it.

***Spolier Alert***

Three girls meet at a private school in New York when they are all in their early teens (as far as I can tell). But even that gets off to a slow start. The book changes perspective and jumps forward in the girl's timelines with no rhyme or reason. Finally, we reach the adulthood of the three girls and learn that they are no longer friends, but two of the girls find each other right away. They are both married with children (though one child isn't their husband's), and the other has just lost her fiancé, however it doesn't phase her much as she wasn't in love with him and she promptly meets someone and finds herself pregnant.

Partway through the book, Sara's name changes to Sarah.

The rest of the book is devoted to the two married women cheating on their husbands. The only "suspense" part was learning that one of the husbands was gay (which was immediately obvious) and then finding out that he wanted to kidnap his son and leave his wife. The book culminates with the two pregnant woman in hospital after being shot at by the husband and the unmarried woman's baby dies, and the husband kills himself.

All in all, I'm glad this was free.

[Continualknowledge · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me almost a year to finish this book. I think that alone speaks to the book's ability to hold my interest. It was one of the strangest stories and the ending was just beyond ridiculous. You build us up through all this detail and personal connection and then the ending is just ahh. But I guess in many ways the ending reflects the premise of the book and one woman being able to attract such luck, beauty, and joy and those wanting to be near her doing anything for her just to be in her company. She controlled all of her relationships and often drew other folks to her so she could later push them away. But there are some unresolved issues that I hope do not make it into a sequel. I wouldn't advise picking this book up.

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I scarcely know what to say about this book. When I came to the end of the story I had come to dislike every character in it...even some of the children. It began as a tale of three girls in a private school together and how they came to be connected with one another and then skipped ahead to look at their lives as adults. Having lost touch through all of those years, their stories once again merge together in a rather bizarre way. The books looks at the frailties of women - their hopes and dreams, unfulfilled desires, their marriages and lives as mothers. There are no happy endings in this book for anyone. It tended to jump around a bit and there were times I felt confused about what was happening to who. Despite all of the negativity, I liked the book well enough.

[Marcia Adversalo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a free book for my Nook. I thought it sounded interesting and so I gave it a shot. I think there was a little too much random dysfunction in this book for my liking. However, I found that I was curious about what would happen next. At the point that I had really gotten into it and didn't want to put it down, it came to a sudden and unsatisfactory ending. I had to double check that it really was over. I don't have to have a happy ending to be happy, but I do like there to be an ending...some resolution of the story. It was a turn off and definitely changed my rating. I think it's basically out of print now and that isn't a great loss to the literary world.

[Klaudyna Z. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like none of the characters in this book were likeable. I feel like all of them betrayed everyone they loved just for short term gratification. The only one who I feel actually thought about how her actions affect others was Miranda.

I felt like this book was hard to follow sometimes and that there were way too many characters. Needless to say, I don't understand why this book was called best friends because they were barely even friends, even in the beginning. I would not recommend this book.

[Jean Browne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book begins with friendships made in high school between three girls who pledge to always look out for each other. Of course, life gets in the way...the author details marriages, affairs, family and children and loves lost with suspense, intrigue. This was a great book; hard to put down because I really cared about these women. It is a fast read and a good beach book; women that you care about to the end.

[Beth]

The jury is still out on this. I WANT to like it. I keep getting the characters confused or loosing track of who they are and flipping backwards in a Kindle isn't as easy as in a book. My frustration level is topping out because either my comprehension level is at low or it is the book. I'm going to set it aside and try again later. Maybe when I have a full afternoon to laze around and just read, it may be that this isn't a pick up for an hour and put down book?

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried so hard to like this book but I just couldn't ever get into it. I felt like there was a lot of plot information missing and not enough character development for certain people. I found myself liking Sara and Miranda but pretty much couldn't stand anyone else in the story. I felt really upset at the ending especially because there was no closure to the story. It just ended abruptly and crazy.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really didn't like this. It was too slow moving for me, I couldn't hold my attention with it...and it felt like I was being forced to read it. I stopped reading after about 10% in. I wasn't able to connect with the characters, I found they weren't likeable, and that there was just TOO much detail....took too much time for anything to happen.

[Starla B · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was not a fan of this story. Pretty much all the characters were horrible and selfish. There was one character I actually liked, but that was not enough for me to like this story, especially given the ending.

[Sonia · Rating 3 out of 5]

What is it with me and picking these books that have a really interesting characters, a pretty decent story line, and a terrible ending?

I enjoyed this book, it was a good story, the characters were well thought, but the ending SERIOUSLY left me completely disappointed.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a little harder to get through than I had expected but it was a decent read overall with complex, unique characters and an easy writing style.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this as much as I enjoyed her others, but the characters are intricate and believable.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of three best friends and the men they love.

[Judy Averitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was ok but not wonderful.

[Buttercup1201 · Rating 2 out of 5]

this was one book that i thought i would never finished. doesn't pick up until the last few chapters.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

boring! couldn't finish it...good thing it was free so I didn't waste any money, must my time :)

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hated the ending....I wanted to know what happened to everyone. Thought the book spent too much time wandering through the girls feelings.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love it!! I could'nt put it down!

[Kimberly Minor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little disappointed with the way it ended.

[diane giles]

Very touching story

truly enjoyed the story of three woman who met as girls and had parallel lives and then brought back together again in a very different twist of fate.

[Shannon]

Meh

Hard to get through. Kind of a hodge podge story. Will not read this author again, or recommend to friends..

[Jennifer Anderson]

False