A quietly compulsive read filled with quick wit and savvy observations on the nature of friendship, marriage and the transformations we go through and run from.

I absolutely loved this book! It was so easy to read, despite tackling an understatedly complicated aspect of life - how much of yourself to give away in a marriage. It’s a deceptively simple book and I admire the depth in the characters that have been crafted.
My only little quibble is that I wish the characters were named. It would have made the reading experience a little more seamless.

"The Three of Us" centres around a married couple and a third wheeling best friend. The husband (Temi) & the best friend positively HATE each other, both wanting the version of their wife/best friend as they once knew her. Will a marriage be destroyed, or will a friendship run it's course?

The best part of this short story was most definitely the humour, there were times where I gasped, or actually laughed out loud. If it was not for the humour, this would have very much been a DNF for me...

Other than the humour, I found "The Three of Us" to be extremely boring. Much of the story takes place in the couples home in one day - yawn. There was also sooo much repetition throughout - how many times do I need to be told that the friends wife took a gap year? Even though this story is told in 3 perspectives, each perspective failed (IMO) to add anything new or exciting for me as the reader, nor did it drive the plot.

"The Three of Us" has potential to be so much better than this, a higher word count may have helped possibly. It became a bit spicier towards the end, but then it ended.

I also can't for the life of me understand why we only know the husbands name, while the wife and her best friend remain nameless.

🌟🌟  Not one for me on this occassion, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't read it. You may find it enjoyable in your own way.

Release date - 11th May 2023
Thanks to @netgalley for my early copy

The book follows one day in the shared lives of a wife, her husband, and her best friend - the latter two of which clearly despise each other.
I really liked the writing style - each narrative felt like a monologue, pulled straight from the character's mind, which was enjoyable. And I really didn't know where the story might be going, which kept me turning pages.
My main criticism, I guess, is that none of the characters were at all likeable or sympathetic. Maybe the author intended that, though?

I loved the premise of three wealthy Nigerian characters living in London and the fact that the book was so quickly paced, you could easily read this in one sitting. The husband and Temi hate each other and none of the characters are likeable, that's not necessarily a bad thing though!

Where I struggled was that I felt I was missing something, neither the wife or the husband are named and the husband and Temi both felt almost like caricatures with the husband being fundamentally after a 'traditional' life of being the breadwinner, having kids etc while Temi spent her life purely for herself and with both expecting the wife to follow their lead. Both characters are in a power struggle over how she should live her life although for the most part she didn’t seem that bothered. If they're meant to be representations of different ways that women are pressured to live their lives then why not just add that to the book's description? I do feel that this could work brilliantly as a play though.

This book is based on 3 people who have conflicts of interest, the husband, the wife, and the best friend of the wife. Set over one afternoon and evening the debate taken from these people's perspectives, makes you want to change sides as the story unfolds. An unusual slant on a meeting of educated people.

This book is ideal and just waiting for a stage play to portray the people involved.

The wife, the friend, the husband…. I persevered with this book thinking it would go somewhere but I found it a little tedious trying to work out who’s perspective we were in and then suddenly an ending that felt like the author had got bored too. Not for me.

2.5 🌟

Thank you to Random House UK and NetGallery for an advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

For how short this book is, The Three of Us is one of the slowest paced books I have ever read, which made my reading experience more lethargic than engaged.

I enjoyed several elements of this novel such as the plot and the characters, I felt the reasoning for Temi's interference was rather surface level in contrast with the intricate layers of Wife and Husband's personalities and relationship with one another.

I enjoyed how each third was told from a different trio member's point of view, but I personally found the first third to be the most insightful and therefore became less interested as the story progressed and the point of views changed.

Overall, if you enjoy reading unlikeable characters and short literary fiction in which little happens, you may really enjoy this, but it was simply a bit too slow and surface level to receive a higher rating from me.

t makes this book different from all others? And why should anyone care?
I love a good book on black characters that doesn't make suffering the point of the story. The Three of Us is good in that. It's also funny and witty. I love glamorous lives and I love Black British living glamorous lives. I like the ending compared to what everyone else says because we were only meant to glimpse the characters' lives and not have a conclusion.
However, the central idea of this story would've worked so much better as a play than as a book. I could imagine the writing, background story and ending would've reflected marvellously with that medium. The positives of the writing came from the dialogue and internal thoughts alone and nowhere else. Perhaps that's the writer's style and is simply not to my personal taste. I hold my hands up here. Also no punctuation?! I hope that's just in the ARC and not in the final copy.

All in all, great idea but okay execution. Write the script instead!!

This book was a great idea. I didn’t like any of the characters but I think that was a good thing! I was really grateful that two of them WEREN’T my friends! It took a while for me to get used to there being no quotation marks but overall it was a good read - I just wish it had gone on a bit longer as the ending was a bit abrupt!

I am very surprised about the glowing reviews for this book, I found it mundane and could find no empathy with any of the characters. I was 50% through and wanted to commit blibliocide or whatever the technical term is for killing off a character in a book. I got to 70% and nothing got any better so I skipped to the end. This is the first time in my life I have ever done this and wish I hadn't as still nothing really happened.

I read this book in an evening, and, whilst I enjoyed the story, the reading process made be a bit frustrated.

the story is split into three POV’s, which works very well for such a short timeline and gains clarity on each character’s thoughts. I’ve seen some people complain about repetition but I thought it was interesting to see each character’s opinions on the same things.

I hated Temi, and thought it was interesting that she was a named character whilst the husband and wife remained nameless. I have a slight theory that this is due to Temi being selfish and almost seizing control of the narrative by being the only named character (but I might be rambling about nothing)

I think this story needed to be slightly longer to wrap everything up a bit more, and the formatting drove me a bit mad. I don’t mind a lack of speech marks but no line breaks or any indication of a new speaker made it a bit tricky to read.

Mini Review: I was gripped from the very start! We have a wife, husband and Temi, the best friend of the wife. It makes sense that Temi is the only one named because she is the star of this show! She very quickly become a character that I loved to hate! Abaje-Williams did a fantastic job writing nuanced characters, I expected more from the wife, but her role was ideal for the plot and I just felt sorry for the husband! The final chapter, Temi's, was definitely my favourite, I felt like it wrapped up the day's events perfectly. The only negative I can think of is that I want more -but that's because Agbaje-Williams made me feel like I was there drinking along with the group as the drama unfolded.

I was really looking forward to reading this book from the blurb.

Unfortunately I got half way through and gave up. I found it repetitive and boring. I really disliked the best friend and found the wife had no character. Obviously not the book for me..

I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House UK for the ARC for eich I have given my unbiased review.

This book gave a really interesting take on three very different characters locked in a totally toxic set of relationships. None of them was particularly likeable, which can cause you to grind your teeth when reading, but the pace and characterisation was good, as was the writing from different perspectives. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review of the book.

Unfortunately this slice of life story didn’t quite hit the sweet spot for me. A unique premise with interesting subtext, but this book takes ‘unlikeable characters’ to the extreme. While it is well written with each character having a distinct ‘voice’. I found the toxic relationships (both romantic and platonic) to be too exaggerated to be enjoyable.
Thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

A new dynamic!

A book that pulls you along as you wish to find out the end.

Three very different characters and points of view. Two best friends and the husband who changes it all...

Left me wanting to know more

I had read about this and wanted to give it a go - the premise sounded strong.

The Three of US is about a couple (unnamed) and the wife’s best friend, Temi. The first part of from the wife’s p.o.v., the second from the husband’s, the third from Temi’s. Essentially, Temi doesn’t like the husband and wants her ‘friend’ for herself.

All the characters are hard to like. The somewhat anonymous nature of it (including how, in Temi’s part, she only refers to ‘her friend’ which is odd. The strongest part is the wife’s. Despite claims that this funny, I didn’t find it so - just narcissistic and dull.

Admittedly, it’s fairly well-written but really just concerns two women’s excessive drinking, one woman’s control over the other, and a sidelined husband who just wants a good life.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this, I hope there’s a sequel. It was bright, and I could relate to the characters a lot. Huge thanks to the publisher for this gorgeous ARC.

This book details the complexities that arise when there are three people in a marriage - a wife, a husband and the wife's best friend. The story takes place over the course of a day and is split into three sections with the wife, the husband and finally the best friend sharing their view points on the events of the day. Whilst this unusual format had potential it didn't quite work for me and I found each section somewhat repetitive. I think a mixture of viewpoints coming together in the final section certainly could have made for a better ending but instead we had a rather abrupt and uneventful ending.
I do enjoy character driven books but, perhaps due to the short length of the book, I didn't get invested in any of the characters and it all fell a bit flat for me.
I am grateful to the publishers and NetGalley for an ARC of this book and whilst this one didn't quite work for me I would certainly give the author another try in the future.