I really enjoyed this book. It was fun, light and quirky. This book has it all, mystery, family and most of all friendship. All the twist and turns all three take kept me reading almost nonstop. In the very beginning a crime is committed and it drew me in. I had to know why it happened and who did it. Then Jennifer tells us the history of Valerie and Addie's friendship, first as young girls, then as teenagers and now as adults. Boy the high school years sure brought back memories. I felt like I was right there again but this time I was with Addie and Valerie. Now as adults after a high school reunion Valerie shows up on Addie's doorstep in trouble. The two go on the lam even though they have been estranged since high school. The book takes on a very Thelma and Louise feel but in a fun way. I really hated Valerie at times. She seemed like trouble to me. Then I would feel sorry for her because I don't think she could really help it due to her strange upbringing. I felt much compassion for Addie who overcame so much in her life. She grew from a shy, weak girl to a strong woman. This was a great story of friendship and the bumps it takes along the way. I will be looking to read more of Jennifer Weiner's books. ( )

Too much sameness, Returned after about 50 pages. ( )

Chick-lit. Novel is best when the story looks back at a shy girls first best friend. Author captures high school angst and family tradegy with humor and poignant moments. However, the present day storyline is rather silly. This story may be not be Weiner's best, but it is still a fun read. ( )

From The Washington Post
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Claudia Deane Best-selling novelist Jennifer Weiner says her seventh book, "Best Friends Forever," is in part an answer to this question: "What if Thelma and Louise didn't have to die?" The two doomed dames do come to mind when reading this high school revenge fantasy, which opens with onetime jock Dan Swansea waking up in a dark parking lot naked with blood on his head. But Weiner fans shouldn't panic; the story soon turns to her more familiar themes: loneliness, friendship, the search for love, the struggles of mothers and daughters, and the sheer misery of being a fat girl in a thin girl's world. Her heroine here is Addie Downs, a 33-year-old greeting card illustrator in the Chicago suburbs who has spent her adult life taking care of troubled family members and who now lives alone in her childhood home with fresh memories of dismal blind dates. The story starts in earnest when Addie's childhood best friend, Valerie, a beautiful blond weatherperson on "Chicago's third-rated TV station" whom she hasn't spoken to since high school, appears on her doorstep one cold evening, upset and bloodstained. You can probably take it from here, no? As a fan of vulnerable smartass Cannie Shapiro, the likable heroine of Weiner's most recent bestseller, "Certain Girls," and her breakout novel, "Good in Bed," I had trouble warming up to this most recent offering. In "Best Friends Forever," Valerie is over-the-top, weather-girl ridiculous -- she wants to rob a bank, for heaven's sake -- and at times the story borders on the farcical. But there are compensations. Addie displays flashes of the trademark Weiner snark: "Didn't you once read the weather while you were riding a mechanical bull? I'm going to suggest that the dignity ship has sailed without you aboard." And the flashbacks to the girls' childhood friendship and their two vastly different mothers are moody, touching and true to life. In fact, the thing I enjoy most about Weiner's books is their familiarity -- how her characters' concerns, jokes, insecurities and even homes feel like real life, or at least the embarrassingly tame version lived by average middle-class moms like me. With its girl-on-the-lam main characters, "BFF" has less comfortable warmth than some of Weiner's previous works, but enough to keep me pleasantly looking forward to book 8.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved. ( )

Addie and Valerie were best friends since they were little girls living next door to eachother. Though their home lives were radically different, they were loyal friends until an event in high school tore them apart. Now, years later, Valerie shows up unexpectedly on Addie's doorstep asking for help. As the two engage in an impromptu flee from the law, the girls revisit their past and rekindle their friendship. This book was funny and heartwarming, but also painful at times, as the girls' relationship and the troubled experiences of high school were revisited. As with all of Jennifer Weiner's books, I really enjoyed this one. I think the girls' friendship was honest and the characters were well-developed. I was sad to leave them behind and would love to revisit them in a future book! ( )