Hello and happy Sunday. I think I finally got back into my reading mood, even though as you know, my times are reduced to evenings and weekends. I don’t know if I told you on my last post, but between last week and this I managed to finish not one but two books, so I can also slowly get back to blogging somewhat regularly. Today, I’ll tell you about Kindred Spirits by Sarah Strohmeyer.

I picked up this book from my shelf because I was getting overwhelmed with my NetGalley arcs and I needed a break, which I got, thankfully. This novel is very different to what I’m used to reading in that I tend to pick up new adult or even young adult romance novels, and this would fit more into the “women’s fiction” category. This is the story of four friends who bonded after a PTA meeting, and whose lives now in their forties are pretty different to what they might have pictured. In fact, the novel starts with Lynne, one of the friends, making the final arrangements for, well, her death since she has been struggling with cancer for years, and at this advanced stage she has decided to stop fighting it. Lynne leaves a letter to her best friends, Mary Kay, Beth, and Carol, with a journey they must go on to fulfill Lynne’s final wish.

That’s all I’ll say about the plot itself because I don’t know what can be considered a spoiler. If you like novels that are the perfect balance between plot and character development, then this is it. This is also, in my opinion, a book that you might want to take your time reading. I needed to take breaks because it deals with issues such as illness, grief, suicide and infertility, among others. It is not a dense book by any means, but you might consider these content warnings before reading it and while you’re doing so.

This is a story about friendship and about how no matter how life might change, there are people who are meant to always be in your life. I appreciated reading about women who are supposed to have their shit together but who are still struggling. It is oddly comforting to know that, at the end of the day, nobody has it all really figured out. I laughed and I also cried a lot while reading this novel, and I’m happy that after years of having it sit on my shelf, I decided to pick it up.