Title: Us Three
Author: Ruth Jones
Publisher: Transworld
Synopsis:
Meet Lana, Judith and Catrin. Best friends since primary school when they swore an oath on a Curly Wurly wrapper that they would always be there for each other, come what may.
After the trip of a lifetime, the three girls are closer than ever. But an unexpected turn of events shakes the foundation of their friendship to its core, leaving their future in doubt – there’s simply too much to forgive, let alone forget. An innocent childhood promise they once made now seems impossible to keep…
My Review:
Us Three is a sweet novel about three friends as they grow up, from eighteen year olds going on their first holiday together through to 50 year old women dealing with baggage, sadness and stress from years before. For me, although the story was interesting enough, the novel was a little too twee/ cheesy. It fits a LOT of themes in, the overarching one being female friendship, but I just found it a little too saccharine, even though a lot of the book had trouble and sad parts to it too. I think perhaps I just didn’t like the writing style; it made me cringe a little at points and although I usually enjoy books that span a long time period, I struggled to connect or care about the characters.
However, it’s easy enough to read. I read this one as part of a book group and the rest of the group on the whole seemed to enjoy it, liking that it didn’t require too much thinking and that the characters were interesting and felt quite realistic.
I think this would make a good read for anyone who wants something fairly easy and mostly light-hearted (though there are some more serious themes running throughout this novel too). For me, it felt a bit like Ruth Jones had tried to cover too many different ‘issues’ or topics, but I can see why so many people have enjoyed this novel as a summer read.
I had a suspicion this would be rather sugary so youve just confirmed that this wouldn’t be a book to my taste.
‘Sugary’ is just the right word! Or that’s how I felt anyway…!