We Used to be Friends ~ Amy Spalding
~ Blurb ~
Best friends know each other backward and forward.
James and Kat have been a pair since their kindergarten graduation. At the start of senior year, the two girls are practically inseparable. But by the end of the year, they are no longer friends.
James always had a plan for how her life would go. But when her high-school-sweetheart parents announce they’re getting a divorce, she worries that everything she believes about love and her future is a lie… which she doesn’t tell Kat.
Meanwhile, Kat is newly in love with her first girlfriend and feeling like she’s finally becoming the person she’s meant to be. She wants nothing more than for James to continue to be her rock, but James seems more distant, and no amount of pushing brings her back.
Kat’s story moves forward and James’s story goes back in time in this innovative, intricately constructed story about best friends growing up and growing apart. It’s funny, romantic and authentic-capturing best friendship in all its highs and lows.
Genres – Romance, Contemporary, LGBT, Realistic fiction
Age Group – YA (Young Adult Fiction)
Quotes –
- “Shouldn’t we just admit the friendship had, somehow, run its course? Sure, we might have moments where things feel just like before, but that doesn’t erase the long stretches of time when they don’t”
- “The secret about falling in love is how you can do it a million times over with the same person when the person is the right one.”
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“After all, the boys added up—Tony, Bryce, Javier, and I guess Logan, too—didn’t come close to this. There are breakup tunes and lovesick ballads and celebrating-that-he-was-gone anthems. It was easy to believe that romance was the only heartache out there.”
My Opinion –
We Used to be Friends by Amy Spalding, is a romantic, coming of age book that evolves around the (breaking) friendship of two seniors, James and Kat. They are both going through their own problems, and although they are seemingly the best of friends, they find themselves drifting apart. I found myself relating to Spalding’s characters, some of the problems they faced, and I was very hooked into the story. I really liked the storyline and plot of We Used to be Friends, and how it contained meaningful messages about friendship, romance, and some struggles of growing up. Although life can seem very daunting sometimes, Spalding’s novel really brought into light how beautiful and important friendship is, and how it can be disregarded when in a romantic relationship. I honestly really loved this book, and I highly recommend it as a great read for teenagers.