Book Review: The Art of Friendship by Lisa Ireland

Title: The Art of Friendship
Author: Lisa Ireland
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Publication Date: 24th April 2018
Pages: 400
Format Read: Paperback
Source: Publisher supplied.


Blurb

We all expect our friendships from childhood to last forever...

Libby and Kit have been best friends ever since the day 11-year-old Kit bounded up to Libby's bedroom window. They've seen each other through first kisses, bad break-ups and everything in-between. It's almost 20 years since Libby moved to Sydney, but they've remained close, despite the distance and the different paths their lives have taken.

So when Libby announces she's moving back to Melbourne, Kit is overjoyed. They're best friends - practically family - so it doesn't matter that she and Libby now have different ...well, different everything, actually, or so it seems when they're finally living in the same city again.

Or does it?


My thoughts

Lisa’s last book, The Shape of Us, has been shortlisted for the AusRom Today Reader’s Choice Award for book of the year, and Lisa has been shortlisted for the Best Established author. The Shape of Us was also in my top 10 reads of 2017.

The Art of Friendship wasn’t exactly how I imagined it to be. I thought it was going to be a BFF, follow their lives, a bust up then HEA. Basically it was along those lines but so much more. It was a look at the different types of friendships we have during our lives. Friends that come and go and those that we have known forever, these know all our secrets. Sometimes you follow different paths, as is the case with Libby and Kit, but there is so much history that binds you. Friends come and go, people change, and your best friend from childhood and your teens may not connect with you in adulthood. Is there a time when you should let these friendships go?

“There’s something about friends we form in childhood that makes them hard to let go, even when we no longer have anything in common.”

The narrative is written in both Libby and Kit’s POV so the reader gets a very good idea of how both women are thinking of the friendship and each other. However, the main focus is on Libby as she moves through different friendship groups and how these friendships affect her relationship with Kit.

Watching their relationship was painful with the back and forward bitterness and Libby’s overreacting to situations. I was really hoping the girls would work it out as lifelong friendships are so precious.

Ireland conveys through her story that some friendships are for a common reason, some only for a season and others are a bond that traverses time and distance.

                                    

The Art of Friendship will make you stop, think, ponder and question every friendship you’ve ever had.

Lisa Ireland came across this idea of friendships and how they impact our life after seeing an article on ghosting, which is apparently a real thing in this overly connected world of social media.

Ghosting: (noun)

The practice of ending a personal relationship with someone suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan Australia for my copy for review purposes.

Content: infrequent coarse language, implied sex.

My rating 4/5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟 

About the author

Lisa Ireland lives on the Victorian coast with her husband and three sons. After working for many years as a primary school teacher, Lisa is now a full-time writer. When she's not writing, she can be found drinking coffee with friends or wandering along the beach with her extremely disobedient but totally lovable dog, Lulu.


This review is part of the Book Lover Book Reviews Aussie author challenge
and book #13 in the Australian Women Writers Challenge