Yep I have finished reading yet another book and thought this one was worthy of sharing on my blog. This time the name of the book was called My Best Friend’s Girl by Dorothy Koomson. I must say this one was an absolute doozy for me. It had so many emotions entangled with it. The major characters have a lot to deal with. Especially Kamryn. She has had a rough life and she is dealing with so much because her life is changing in so many ways. But she has no idea how much her life will change.
Kamryn Matika and Adele Brannon who met each other 14 years ago when they were paired up to do a college project together. They never imagined that they would become such great friends or that many years later that their friendship would end as abruptly as it did. Both have had rough lives. Kamryn spent her childhood being tortured by kids who picked on her because of her size and skin color. She also in her adult life put up with men telling her she wasn’t good enough. As a result she had difficulty letting anyone in man or woman but Adele somehow broke through which is why her actions later on wuld hurt so bad. Adele grew up with an abusive father and stepmother. Her father blamed her for the death of her mother who died due to complications of child birth. Her stepmother she treated her as nothing but a bother. This left Adele always looking for love and acceptance. Her search for these two things will lead her to make a decision that will change hers and Kamryn’s relationship forever. What she had done was slept with Kamryn’s fiancée Nate Turner. The night she slept with him they conceived a child. The child was named Tegan whom Kamryn loved just as much as Adele did when she entered the world. Kamryn doesn’t find out about Nate and Adele’s indiscretion until 3 years later 2 months before her wedding. Adele lets it slip one night while they were making wedding plan. When she finds out she breaks things off with both Adele and Nate. She still keeps in contact with Tegan by sending her cards at her birthday and other holidays because she realizes Tegan had nothing to do with how she came to be. Besides she loves the child and she is her godmother. She doesn’t have anymore contact with Adele until 2 years later when she receives a birthday card from her on her birthday pleading for her to come see her because it was an emergency. It wasn’t easy but Kamryn decided to go see what Adele’s emergency was and that’s when she found out that she was going to lose her best friend. Her and Adele hadn’t spoken in awhile but her feelings for her and Tegan had never changed. The next thing she was informed on was that Adele wanted her to take over raising her daughter. Kamryn decided to do it once she went to see Tegan at her grandparents’ house to see how she was because Adele’s parents hadn’t brought her to see her mother in awhile so she was wondering how she was doing. The grandparents were mistreating Tegan. They were abusing her like they did Adele so Kamryn took her. Adele died a week later. This left Kamryn feeling guilty because she never allowed her to explain what happened between her and Nate. Kamryn felt that she and Adele had left things unfinished. Now she had to figure out how she was going to adjust to life raising Tegan. When she returned to work she found out that she had to deal with another change. Her boss was leaving and she was going to get a new boss named Luke. Someone who took the job that she thought she should have but couldn’t take because she now had a child to raise. Plus he treated her like men in her past had treated her before. He looked at her with disgust. What he and her hadn’t planned on was that Tegan would bring them together. That they would fall in love. They had a few bumps to overcome for example Nate coming back into the picture and getting passed Kamryn’s self image and low self esteem issues. Plus she and Tegan have to adjust to life without Adele.
This was a wonderful story. While I loved the main character Kamryn I have to say my favorite was Tegan. She was so sweet and insightful. She was the one who basically brought the grown ups together. I thought that this story was very well written. I like how the author let Adele speak her peace through letters when it was appropriate. I have to admit I cried a little when Adele passed away and when Tegan had moments where she missed her Mummy. Another thing I like was the book was based in the U.K. I had to figure out what some of the words meant but once I figured it out I kept it going. It was so cool. Kamryn is a strong woman but she kind of let her issues with self image and low self esteem overshadow her. This made her take blame for things that weren’t even her fault. I found it very honorable that she took Tegan in despite what happened between Adele and her fiancée I don’t think I would have been able to be that strong. I mean I think I would have done it but it definitely wouldn’t have been easy. I loved Kamryn and Tegan’s relationship. They grieved together and helped each other through some rough times. They always knew they had each other. I thought the ending was surprising. I totally didn’t expect the way it ended. I knew it was a possibility because of certain situations but when it happened I was surprised. I would read this book again. It even had it’s funny parts. It was definitely a great read.
