I enjoyed ‘Faking Friends‘ even though it is labeled to be women’s-fiction and I’m, obviously, NOT in the target group 😉

Full of twists, betrayal, love and throwing up questions about friendships (are you a good friend?) Fallon puts down a story about love and friendships gone wrong in a downward spiral of revenge and betrayal while keeping up appearances towards others.

Fallon hasn’t fallen into the chick lit trap, which she could have done easily, but produced a book which is very enjoyable to everyone!

Jane Fallon’s books are terrific, but I do sometimes think she should be writing crime books – so, let’s say, as well as her line in contemporary, funny novels. She is the absolute mistress of plotting, and of revenge stories, and of back and forths in a competitive, difficult or point-scoring relationship. She is a modern-day Revenge Tragedy/Comedy Queen, the John Webster of today, only with great clothes, and witty comebacks, and some chance of a happy ending.

Hers are excellent books, full of surprises and twists and turns, and if she wrote a flatout murder mystery I am betting it would be up there with the very best. Just an idea.

In this one (as in all her books I have read so far) she doesn’t waste any time - it’s another thing I love about her- the setup is brought to us straightoff in the opening pages. Amy is working in New York, and comes home unexpectedly to surprise her fiance. Of course, she gets the surprise: her boyfriend is sleeping with her best friend Melissa.

Horrified, Amy acts as if she hasn’t found out – she wants time to figure out what to do. As it happens, her job in NY is coming to an end so (in a slight challenge to believability) she comes back to London and gets another flat, while pretending to the two most important people in her life that she is still in NY. All clear on that? She goes to considerable lengths to maintain the fiction through Skyping and so on, and starts rebuilding her life in a not-particularly-nice part of North London. She is greatly helped in this by having another friend, Kat who (it is not a spoiler to say) is a much nicer person than the evil Mel.

Interspersed with her story of cheering up her new flat, trying to find work, meeting a new potential boyfriend, we hear the long story of her relationship with Mel, from when they were at school together. It is very nicely done, with only a slight feeling that Amy should have seen her coming a mile off, and that for someone so nice and so smart she was mighty stupid about Mel. But, there you go, we’ve probably all been there in some measure.

There is another element to the book (which previous readers of Fallon will guess) in the way of surprises and viewpoints, but I will say no more for fear of spoilers. The twists are impressive, the reader really wants to know what is going to happen next, and as ever with Fallon, the female characters (whether good or bad) are far more interesting and entertaining than the males. And the book is also very funny – all the characters get very witty lines, and the picture of modern London life is both authentic and hilarious.

So just sit back and enjoy the book – FallonWorld is a great place to spend an afternoon.

Mel is Amy’s best friend — or is she?
This is a tale of love, betrayal, deceit, and revenge. But this is not just another romance novel with a hint of bite. Author Jane Gallon has taken these traditional themes and hauled them into twenty-first century. She has dispensed with the sentimentality and moralistic viewpoint that many books of this genre wallow in, and she has created a narrative that gives valuable insight into the harsh realities of modern dating.
Amy is a second-string actor looking for her next role which will, hopefully, progress her career. Meanwhile, Mel, who always dreamed of becoming a famous actress, is stuck in a mundane job still living in the memory of that dream; fibbing to everyone prepared to listen about how successful she once was. When Amy discovers her fiancé is intimately involved with another woman she is distraught. When she suspects the other woman is her best friend, Mel, her distress evolves into something that has the potential to become something much more sinister. As the plot unfolds, each page turn ratchets up on the pending-disaster stakes. The well-paced prose and the numerous twists will have you wanting to continue reading, trapped within the chapters — left wondering who is digging themselves further into a trap of their own making, Amy or Mel?
Set against a backdrop of the social hardships of North London, the characters are well-crafted and fully deserving of your sympathy or contempt. With the occasional retrospective, the plot is expertly delivered and believable, examining the fickleness and nuances inherent in friendship. It taps into a topic that surely must be everybody’s nightmare scenario.
Be warned, once you read this book you’ll have that unnerving feeling that maybe everything in your own life is not as it seems. And maybe you’ll seek advice — just be wary of who you ask. Oh, and once you’ve finished reading it, think twice before you lend this book to your best friend?

I love Jane Fallon's books and this one is no different - what a great read! It's every woman's nightmare of not only finding out her fiance is cheating on her but that it's with her best friend! What ensues is an emotional rollercoaster that has you rooting for Amy the whole time. Very enjoyable read indeed.

Really enjoyed this book think it is aimed at a much younger audience but liked the ups and downs of the friendships and relationships Amy certainly took revenge on her ex to another level she was certainly a strong character proves you don't always need a man to be happy as happened at the end glad she was reunited with her old friends think there could be a follow up novel enjoyable

Nice story about a woman seeing her life long best friend for who she really is after finding out she's sleeping with her fiance.

I felt the revenge element was lacking a bit, Amy could have gone further with it but unfortunately it fell flat and didn't really have enough of an impact to show that revenge probably wasn't the best solution.

I really enjoyed Amy's journey though, finding out who she was without Mel and realising how much of herself she packed away to pacify Mel. Amy really came into her own and it was nice not to see a giant forgiveness plot.

The romance was bland, neither here nor there but the twist was fantastic, cheers all round for Amy taking no bullshit.

Overall a fantastic Rom com book and I finished it in one sitting.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book but I was very pleasantly surprised! I thoroughly enjoyed every page and would describe it as a kind of psychotic love triangle slash square with humour and a feeling of 'what is she going to do next?!' I finished it in 2 days which says alot for me! I thought it was very cleverly written and I enjoyed all the twists and turns - some of which I wasn't expecting! It is an easy read so don't expect a complicated thriller but if you want a very entertaining page turner - this is the book for you! I will definitely look up some more books by this author! Many thanks to Netgalley for this honest review in return for an ARC of this great book!

I wanted an easy, fun read, after a run of psychological thrillers and this book hit the spot. What could be worse than finding out your fiancé and your best friend are having an affair with each other? I loved reading about how Amy plotted her revenge !

What do you do when you inadvertently discover that your fiancé is cheating on you with your best friend? If you are Amy, you start to plot your revenge on both of them with the help of your friend, Kat, and her husband, Greg.

To add insult to injury Amy also finds herself jobless and homeless. What follows is an amusing story that charts the ups and downs of friendship and how we can delude ourselves about what friendship really entails.

Melissa is a self-centred, spoilt, indulged person who befriends Amy at school and their friendship continues until Amy discovers that Mel is the other woman. Amy is devastated but Mel’s behaviour seems typical of somebody who goes through life oblivious to the destruction caused. Mel’s past bad behaviour has caused Amy to lose good friends but until this point, Amy has always made excuses for her, but not anymore.

The story takes a few delightful twists along the way. Fallon’s writing has skilful characterisation and the story remains fresh and exciting until its conclusion. I like Fallon’s own description of this genre as ‘chick noir’, and as most readers will have had an experience with a toxic friend it really resonates.

A fabulous read and I am now a fan of Jane Fallon.

Gillian

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

Actual rating: 2.5 Stars

This book has left me a bit confused… When I started it I thought I was in for a funny chick lit. I do love a good chick lit, but I'm getting tired of the 'girl loses job and boyfriend on the same day, then moves back to her small but charming hometown, opens a bakery, meets a hottie and lives happily ever after' story, so I was excited to read a book in which rather than moan about her bad luck, the girl actively takes revenge on the cheating boyfriend and bff.

Up until the 60% mark I was enjoying the book a lot. Amy is not adorably clumsy or charmingly awkward. Amy is a very much messed up person, sometimes I liked her and I was rooting for her and sometimes she exasperated me, and although I felt some of the stuff she pulled on the bf and bff was a bit too much, I could understand why she was doing it. Then the book took a turn that I didn't expect, and it was not a good thing for me.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

In the last 40% of the book Mel shows up as a narrator and we learn that she has been onto Amy for a while and is actually messing up with her back. For some reason this put me off a bit. It could have made the book more interesting, but Amy's and Mel's voices felt too similar to me, and at times I was so lost I had to double check who was speaking. Then things get even messier - Amy's shiny new job is just a scam organised by Mel to get back at her and her new bf turns out to be another cheating asshole, so basically she's back at square 1. Then she decides to come clean to Jack (the original cheating bf) and stage a final humiliation for Mel and things magically sort themselves out! She gets a regular part in a new show for ITV, reconnects with her estranged college friends (that she lost because of Mel's antics) and there's even a hit of something more with her college crush. It all felt too rushed, too convenient and too messy to me.

So maybe it's because I ended up reading something quite different from what I was expecting, but I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would when I first started the book. It still makes an entertaining story for a boring weekend, but I wouldn't put it at the top of my 'to be read' pile.

If you have read Jane fallon before then you know what to expect, an affair, friendship, deceit and love....this is probably one of her better ones in recent years and felt more believable and less silly ! I liked it, it’s an easy consuming read!

I absolutely loved this book in spite of its heroine's desperate situation - Amy becomes jobless, her fiancé has been bedding her best girlfriend for months, ergo she is homeless as well. After careful consideration, Amy cleverly gets her own back on the two liars by slily and effectively throwing spanners in their works...brilliant plot, can't wait to read more by this author!
Thanks to Penguin UK - Michael Joseph, and Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

So guys. I love Jane Fallon books. So much that her last release made it to my Top Ten reads of 2017 the previous week. So I guess you won't be surprised when I say that I was incredibly excited to receive "Faking Friends" and to start reading it. I was sure - and I wasn't wrong - that this book is going to live up to my expectations and the author is going to deliver a sharp, genuine and brilliantly funny story.

Yes, I must admit, the first part of the book is a little on the slow side but it doesn't mean that it was not a good read - because it was brilliant! Then, later on, with this typical Jane Fallon's skilfulness, she starts to deliver twist after twist and different points of view. The writing style is, as usually, incredibly chatty and engaging and I was quickly immersed in the characters' lives and I wanted either to hug them or to bang their heads together.

I loved the ways of revenge Amy has decided on. There were two possibilities how this is going to develop - the author could either deliver or totally overdone it, and I am incredibly happy to report that it's not the later one! The ideas were fresh and not too far - fetched, they were carefully planned and clever and the more you get to know our protagonist's "best" friend, the more you want Amy to succeed - well, at least it was in my case. There was not a single moment that I felt bad for Mel and Jack, and in my opinion they don't deserve any sympathy to be honest. But the question was, will Mel and Jack get their come comeuppance?

When the story suddenly changes the point of view, it took me a little by surprise and I was confused for a moment, as I wasn't sure who's speaking now. However, quickly I found out who this is and later on, when the perspective was changing again, it took me only a sentence or two to know which character's perspective it is now. Maybe adding a name of the character as a title for the chapter wouldn't be a bad idea?

Parallel to the main story, we also get to know the history and background of Amy and Mel's friendship, and trust me, guys, if I were Amy I'd ditch such friendship immediately. She only now starts to realise that Mel has never been a real friend, that she could never count on her and the more I got to know Mel, the more I disliked her. Even though our Amy was also full of flaws, in contrast to Mel she was a real angel but there were moments I wanted to shake her and tell her to run away from this toxic friendship as quickly as possible. I think all of us know at least such toxic person as Mel, and we know how their work, and once Mel realises she's busted she doesn't tuck in her little tail, oh no, she causes even more trouble - it was the moment that I thought, oh no, Amy, what now? I wanted Amy to succeed so much and - and it doesn't happen to often! - I just wanted to get somehow into the pages of the book to warn her. To say that I was afraid for Amy would be an understatement, Mel has scared the hell out of me, guys. Yes, you can say that the characters were a little too black and too white, that one was the devil and the other was the angel but if you look a little deeper into their personalities than you can also see that there was some insecurity in Mel as well and that there was a little (A LITTLE! And it's fully understandable!) bitterness and meanness to Amy, but in my eyes this only made them feel more realistic and true. However, I admired Amy and her calmness and patience. I really am not sure how I'd react in such a situation but Amy for sure had the guts. She also had a heart in the right place because revenge here or there, but she didn't feel the satisfaction. I was team - Amy all the way.

But this is not only a novel about revenge and the author skilfully and effortlessly adds some subplots that make the book unputdownable. It was a brilliant chick - noir, a read with some edge to it. It was a brilliant, sharp - observed story about friendship, love, betrayal and - yes! - revenge and what happens when it all goes wrong. It shows that no matter what, you're strong enough to pick up the pieces of your life and keep your chin up. It was unpredictable and unique and enjoyed every single moment. This book was realistic and down to earth, the events and situations were so believable and possible to happen and it was probably what made the story so hooking. And Jane Fallon is a great story - teller, she really knows how to draw you in! Highly, highly recommended!

What a read! We knew from the blurb that when Amy discovered a woman's things in her flat it was Mel who was having the affair with her fiance, Jack, but reading it made me feel I was watching the whole sorry mess unfurling. This was easy to read and told a story of different kinds of friendship, as Amy rekindled her friendship with Kat, who turned out to be the best friend she could ever have. We watch Amy's life unravelling and then cheer her on as she begins to put it all back together. And we hope that Mel's will get worse as Amy gets stronger. There were some moments of great humour, mostly connected to Amy's revenge. We see their friendship as it grew from young days and we see how Mel has always been a user and is a truly toxic friend. Despite wanting to get her revenge, Amy truly comes out of it all stronger and with her dignity intact. I raced to the end of the book to find out how it would end - a great read!

I picked up Faking Friends after reading the blurb and deciding it sounded like a good read. I loved the main character Amy from the 1st chapter and enjoyed her journey and self realisation that actually her best friend wasn't who she thought she was and possibly never had been.

An easy read with some brilliant characters with descriptions that pull you in and create vivid impressions of them. I really enjoyed this book and I read it over a couple of days as was drawn in and wanted to know how far Mel would go.

Faking friends is a great read that had me racing through to find out how it ended!!
This is the second book I've read by Jane Fallon and I love her writing style, from the first page Jane manages to instantly draw you in with her strong descriptions and detail making the characters extremely real.
Faking Friends is a real page turner and I instantly liked the main character Amy who is an actress in New York but lives and has a fiancee in London. Amy has a great life but only managing to come home after a few months a a time. Trouble starts when Amy decides to come home for a surprise visit and finds that her flat that she shares with Josh has evidence of a woman living there and somehow everything seems very familiar. Its from this moment that the story hits top gear as you see how the payback that Amy with the help of a couple of friends is carefully planned out for maximum effect.
I haven't read anything like this before and found it hard to put down and very unpredictable, even towards the end I was unsure which way this would go.
A cracking read the I would recommend to anyone.
I would like to thank netgalley and Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

This book was just what I needed in the post-Christmas haze, a story of revenge played out in exquisite detail between Amy and her best friend Mel.

Jane Fallon has the knack of making what could be a flat tale of a friendship gone wrong into one where I genuinely cared about some of the characters, a book that made me wish that some of the lovely people that surround Amy were in my life too, although I have to say I’d give Mel a miss.

Amy and Mel grew up in a small village near Maidenhead in Buckinghamshire, best friends since the age of eleven when Mel offered the hand of friendship which Amy grasped willingly. Mel, even at that age knew she was going to be famous and the fabulous caricature which is Sylvia, ensures that she is turned out for any auditions with ringlets in her hair and blue eye-shadow pasted to her eyelids. Amy stayed in the background and decides to go to university to study history but the girl’s friendship is too strong for the separation to lead to a cooling of their relationship.

When we first meet her Amy returns from working in America for a surprise visit. She heads for her flat that she shares with her fiancé Jack to prepare for Mel’s fortieth birthday party. Surprised (understatement intended) to find another woman’s belongings in her home, complete with toiletries in the bathroom, she determines to find out who they belong to.

The scenes are set with just enough drama to be entertaining without over-egging the pudding which could tip them into farce. Amy has decided not to confront Jack with what she knows until she has made a plan, and for anyone who has for whatever reason, had to be evasive with the people they are closest to, will recognise the awkwardness this quickly causes.
Most of the story is told from Amy’s perspective interspersed with the girl’s back-story of the long friendship which adds depth to the narrative in the present time as Amy decides to get down and dirty to get her own back. Later on we get some input from Mel herself, something that threw me at first as I didn't see it coming, but was well worth it as we see the set up some action which plays out like a slow-motion car crash.
As is usual in this domestic noir type story there is a romance, friends that go above and beyond the call of duty. The problems of living on the outskirts of North London, the cost of rent, the lack of fashionable shops and the trek to get anywhere useful are all dotted through the narrative thus appealing to all those commuters that will probably see this book advertised on the tube. With guest appearances by a cat, a seventies rug and a various assortment of furniture, this book is sure to appeal all of us who want to believe that life doesn’t end when a relationship does.

I love a bit of fun and frippery, Jane Fallon has the ability to make me chuckle and wince in the space of a page but even the revenge planned and executed isn’t nasty with a capital N. In my opinion those who wronged Amy got everything they deserved!

I'd like to say a big thank you to one of my favourite publishers, Penguin UK who allowed me to read a copy of Faking Friends ahead of publication on 11 January 2018.

Very good. Didn't see the twist coming at all. This is Jane Fallon at her best as the pace of this book didn't diminish at all just kept on twisting and turning and the character's were believable which just added to the story. Highly recommend.

Amy and Melissa had been best friends since school days. Amy knew all Mel's little foibles, but put up with them as friends do. They talked on the phone almost daily and were both really devastated that Amy would miss Mel's fortieth birthday bash. Amy- a jobbing actress had managed to get a small part in a US crime drama and was working in New York with an irregular time table.

When there was an unexpected break in filming she decided to surprise her fiance and come home for the weekend of the party. It is Amy who gets the surprise- Jack has not been living alone. There are signs of a female presence in the flat. Instead of confronting Jack straight away she pretends she knows nothing. At Mel's party she recognised Mel's top & smells Mel's perfume- revenge is a dish best served cold & she goes back to New York leaving them none the wiser.

Amy- having been 'killed off' in New York comes back to London. Together with a friend she plots to get her own back!

Although what Amy was doing wasn't very nice I couldn't help rooting for her! This was a great fun read and I really enjoyed it. This is a good one to chase away the January blues! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this super book.

Faking Friends is the first Jane Fallon novel I've read, and it certainly won't be the last. The start of the novel is a very real scenario that could happen to any of us. Amy, working away comes home to find that her fiancee is having an affair, with her best friend.

That's where the normality ends. Amy is an actress, a very good actress. Her best friend Melissa has always wanted to be an actress, but never quite made the big time. Is sleeping with Jack her way of getting back at Amy for being more successful than her?

Or is it just Melissa's usual style of wanting what she cannot have?

Amy, shocked to the core at Melissa and Jack's betrayal decides to put her acting skills to use. She doesn't tell anyone that she's back in the country, bar a lovely old Uni friend who dislikes Melissa and wants to support Amy.

And so the revenge begins...

To start off with Amy's revenge is subtle as she tries to find out exactly how long the betrayal has been going on. When she discovers the truth she only becomes more determined to hurt Melissa and Jack in the same way that they have hurt her.

There are some truly cringe worthy moments in this book, where you think would someone really do that? But as we learn more about all involved every single little thing seems truly justified. A brilliant page-turner, Faking Friends is just what we need on a cold January evening!