Review: The Best of Enemies by Jen Lancaster

Title: The Best of Enemies
Author: Jen Lancaster
Format: Ebook
Publisher: NAL
Publish Date: August 4, 2015
Source: I received a copy from the publisher; however, this did not affect my review.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Jacqueline Jordan knows conflict. A fearless journalist, she’s spent the past decade embedded in the world’s hot spots, writing about the fall of nations and the rise of despots. But if you were to inquire about who topped Jack’s enemy list, she’d not hesitate to answer: Kitty Carricoe.

Kitty reigns supreme over the world of carpools and minivans. A SAHM, she spends her days caring for her dentist husband and three towheaded children, running the PTA, and hiding vegetables in deceptively delicious packed lunches.

Kitty and Jack haven’t a single thing in common—except for Sarabeth Chandler, their mutual bestie. Sarabeth and Jack can be tomboys with the best of them, while Sarabeth can get her girly-girl on with Kitty. In fact, the three of them were college friends until the notorious frat party incident, when Jack accidentally hooked up with Kitty’s boyfriend…

Yet both women drop everything and rush to Sarabeth’s side when they get the call that her fabulously wealthy husband has perished in a suspicious boating accident. To solve the mystery surrounding his death, Jack and Kitty must bury the hatchet and hit the road for a trip that just may bring them together—if it doesn’t kill them first."

My Two Cents:

"The Best of Enemies" is the latest by Jen Lancaster. This is a fiction book of hers. I was looking forward to reading some of her fiction as I enjoyed her nonfiction memoirs so immensely. Lancaster is absolutely hilarious in her memoirs and that carries across in her fiction as well.

This book is about Jack, Betsy, and Kitty. Jack and Betsy have been friends since they were children and Kitty and Betsy have been friends since college. All three go to the same college where Jack and Kitty have a huge falling out but both remain friends with Betsy. When Betsy's husband suddenly dies, it brings Kitty and Jack together although something seems to be a little off with the way that he died. Part mystery, part madcap adventure, part rumination on what it means to be a friend and why we stay friends with the people we stay friends with. This is a hilarious book with lots of twists and turns.

Again, I'm already a huge fan of Jen Lancaster but this is the first one of her fiction books that I've read, I believe. So many of the things I liked about her memoirs seem to be present in this book. There is sparkling dialogue and hilarious stories. There's also a lot of heart. It was so easy for me to get into the book. Lancaster has a really great way of bringing characters to life.

It was easy for me to fall for these characters because they feel really realistic. I like the way that Lancaster portrayed friendship in this book. You have the friends that you know you're going to be friends with for forever and you also have people that you just have falling outs with where you can never really figure out what went wrong.

The premise of this book is definitely off the beaten path. I'm not particularly sure how realistic it is, however it's incredibly fun. This is the kind of book that you set aside an afternoon to read because you know that you're going to be incredibly engaged laughing with and at the characters. Overall, this was a immensely fun book and I'm looking forward to reading more of Lancaster's fiction.