Book Review: More Than Friends

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

More Than Friends     Amazon US PB Amazon US TPB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada TPB Amazon Canada HC
Barbara Delinsky
Class/Genre:   Romance
Morrow, Feb 2006, $18.95, 416 pp.

Next door neighbors in Constance on the Rise, the Popes and the Maxwells have been close friends to each other seemingly forever even sharing a summer place in Maine fittingly dubbed “Popewell”. Annie Pope and Teke Maxwell were college roommates while their future spouses John David “J.D.” Maxwell and Sam Pope have been best buds since childhood and work as full partners at a Boston law firm whose top gun is the Maxwell patriarch John Stewart. Nothing could rip apart the loving friendships between two generations of Popewells.

However, nothing until tragedy occurs. Thirteen years old Michael Maxwell is shocked when he sees Teke and Sam making love. Stunned and feeling betrayed, Michael races outside without looking in front of a pickup truck driven by Teke’s former childhood boyfriend Grady Piper. Michael remains in a coma from the accident while J.D. angrily wants to take out his frustration on everyone involved especially Grady. However, all changes when the infidelity surfaces leading the Popewells to war with one another while Michael lingers in a comatose state.

The key that keeps this fine family drama from becoming a melodramatic emoting soap opera is the reactions of the key cast members to the tragedy as each in a restrained way feel as if they caused the accident. Thus the ensemble Popewells and Grady seem genuine while coping poorly with what happened to the youngest. Barbara Delinsky is at her best with this sobering look at friendship.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner