Augusta "Gus" Curtis was banking on one person to keep her from feeling totally alone and backward on her 30th birthday: her aloof boyfriend Nate. So when she catches him lip-locked with college friend Helen, Gus is forced to consider how well she really knew or liked any of these people -- including herself.

Frenemies is definitely a novel exploring the nature of women's friendship, as Megan Crane herself notes in the afterword. She says she wanted to write about the things women do to each other, looking at it all from a Mean Girls perspective. I think she succeeded in that. But was it all that interesting? Not really.

I thought Gus was this strong-minded, almost rebellious librarian -- an interesting concept -- only to realize she's quite dependent on those around her, including best friends Georgia and Amy Lee. That's okay -- I wouldn't immediately hold that against her -- but it takes so long in the novel to see Gus's growth that it just becomes . . . frustrating. I wanted her to break out of the blindness to see that when Nate says he "can't be" what she needs him to be, he means it! And move on. She wasn't in love with him -- everyone sees that. She's just angry that Helen, her so-called "friend," took what was hers, thereby destroying the illusion Gus had created for her life.

The novel is well written and full of witty banter, and I was relieved to see how far Gus had come at the end of the book, but getting there made me feel a little tired. Many of the peripheral characters are very unlikeable, including Henry, Georgia's former "crush to end all crushes" and Nate's housemate. I wanted to feel something about him, but I didn't.

Overall, a quick read looking at friends-as-family and the way women depend and hurt one another. Did have some insightful scenes, but overall fell a little flat for me. ( )

This book has been sitting on my nightstand for awhile now. I reached my renewal limit at the library and ended up returning it unread. I put myself on the wait list again and was determined to finish it this time. And I did... today. Frenemies is an easy, quick read, however I have to say I was somewhat disappointed.

Gus is heart broken after catching her boyfriend kissing her friend, Helen. I can see how upsetting this can be. The problem I had with this scenario is I just didn't believe Gus and Nate were a serious couple and Gus and Helen were really friends. I didn't feel a connection with either relationship. Actually I didn't feel a connection between any of the friends. Henry, Nate's friend, and Gus had an interested relationship and I'll leave it at that to prevent writing any spoilers. This book is very predictable, however somewhere in the middle it got interesting again only to end flat.

Honestly, I didn't care too much for any of the characters. I found them to be extremely exhausting and wondered if that was the author's intent. Gus wanted everyone to feel sorry for her regarding the break-up and wanted Helen to been seen as the "crazy" one. Funny how one can quickly judge another but cannot see the same characteristic in herself. ( )

This is the story of Gus Curtis, librarian, as she is approaching her 30th birthday. She walks in to find her boyfriend kissing her best friend (some best friend!) and is beside herself. Here she is, having planned most of her life out and having most of it happen the way she planned and now nothing is going the way it should be going. I found myself laughing out loud several times while reading this book. This is a good chick lit story that is not filled with too much fluff but does have a bit more substance to it. It would make a great beach read or a light read any time you are looking for one! ( )

A fun little book, I was really just expecting to be entertained but I actually learned something about friendships. Halfway through I wanted to strangle the narrator, I could see where things were headed, why couldn't she. The characters were pretty well developed and their back-story believable. A little deeper than most chick-lit I've read and I would recommend it if your looking for something a little lighter but still somewhat intelligent. ( )

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