#BlogTour ‘My Best Friend’s Secret’ by Emily Freud

About the book…

Kate Sullivan has a beautiful home, a job she loves and a handsome fiancé: all she’d ever dreamed of since getting sober and painstakingly piecing her life back together.

But a chance encounter with her old best friend Becky threatens Kate’s newfound and fragile happiness. Kate remembers nothing of their last drunken night out, the night Becky broke off their friendship without warning or explanation.

With Becky back in her life, Kate is desperate to make amends for the past. For the closure she craves, Kate needs to know what she did that ruined everything.

But what if the truth is worse than Kate could have imagined?

‘A clever tale of how our demons shape our lives’ ALEXANDRA SHULMAN
‘Gut-wrenching and powerful’ CHARLOTTE DUCKWORTH
‘Beautiful writing and devastating twists’ MIRANDA SMITH
‘A real, clever page-turner. Dare I say addictive’ TINA BAKER

My thanks to Joe Christie at Quercus for inviting me on the blogtour for ‘My Best Friend’s Secret’ which is published on July 22nd in e-book and paperback!

A deliciously dark and immersive read which takes a realistic, well researched view of living with addiction, this novel explores the boundaries of female friendship, the process of recovery and redemption (both personal and social)

Beginning with an unnamed bride being left on her wedding day, we move forward to a meal out between Kate and Ben, the relationship which Kate had never allowed to think herself capable of, Her shattered friendship with best friend, Becky, is nearly 10 years in the past and is a symbol of the path of recovery which she has been on for the past 6 years of sobriety.

She has a feeling that something happened, something which she has managed to block out and, despite her success in managing to work hard, turn her life around and create this new existence with her American fiancé, she has the nagging feeling which, I think, we can all relate to, when it comes to unfinished business.

A chance meeting with Becky,and a chance for redemption as well as to move on in her recovery process presents itself.

But is Kate creating more trouble for herself, and is her seemingly solid reputation for tackling the most challenging pupils in a failing school at risk as she seeks redemption? Is it entirely altruistic when she reaches out to Becky to understand, and take accountability for, actions which she cannot remember? If she truly cannot remember the reason why their friendship broke down, is she a) ready to hear what she did and b)how far does she trust that Becky is telling the truth?

All this is deeply fascinating as the way in which Kate describes her climb from alcohol addiction, to acceptance of her illness and subsequent re-invention, has you rooting for her. You want her to succeed , for her hard work not to be in vain. And yet…there is a sneaky niggle that maybe, just maybe, what she did was so bad that there can be no forgiveness.

As Kate digs down into the past, whilst also trying to re-establish her relationship with Becky, plan her wedding, prepare for exams and maintain her sobriety, you begin to wonder whether she will be able to make the distance, and if she will ever stop punishing herself for actions which she cannot remember.

It’s such an interesting character study on redemption, needing to right wrongs and also why we go to such lengths. Is Kate right to turn Becky into the sole reason she needs forgiveness, or maybe she also needs to start forgiving herself at some point in order to move on.

I genuinely found myself invested in, and caring about these characters and becoming concerned that jeopardy was around the corner. Are some things just better off not knowing?

Read ‘My Best Friend’s Secret’ and find out for yourself!

About the author…

In my other life, I make TV. I have over ten years experience in development and production and have worked on some of the most loved, talked about and award-winning series in recent years.

Credits include: ‘Educating Yorkshire’, ‘First Dates’, and ‘SAS Who Dares Wins’. This lifelong fixation with story and character is the thread that runs through my work, and ultimately led to the pursuit of a writing career.

‘My Best Friend’s Secret‘ is my debut novel, published by Quercus.

I live in London, with my husband and two small children.

Links-https://www.emilyfreud.com/

Twitter @MsEmilyFreud @QuercusBooks