Best Friends Forever-Hollinger-Thriller-Available Now

Best Friends Forever by Shannon Hollinger is a thriller that mostly delivers on its promises. There are definitely requisite thrills, more than one mystery, and a couple of decent twists thrown in.

In short, there is a lot going on – sometimes too much. But we’ll get to that.

Kate has to return home to help care for an ailing mother and mute sister. She had left her hometown abruptly a decade earlier because of a chilling event. Being home again opens up all kinds of cans of worms.

Additionally, almost as soon as she arrives home, there is another incident that raises even more questions and leaves Kate wondering if her memories of the event are accurate or not. Having “the old gang” around adds to the questions.

So goes the premise of this thriller.

There is a lot to like about Best Friends Forever. The reader can appreciate Kate’s reluctance to be home again given the circumstances but also sympathize with her desire to find out what really happened on that night so many years prior.

I liked the mystery aspects of this thriller. In fact, the plot, in general, was really good. The author dropped enough red herrings and legit clues to keep me guessing.

There are several subplots that may or may not (no spoilers here) have bearing on the overall arc. Those were also mostly handled well.

And once the story reaches a climax, there is surprise after surprise. A few I guessed, but I was not entirely accurate on a couple of main ones until the moment of reveal.

I think the only thing keeping this from being a five-star thriller is that the middle drags…a lot.

Kate tends to dither. I get that it is her character and her unsettled nature at being back home. But there is a large chunk of the story where nothing really impels the plot forward.

A few of the subplots seem to be thrown in as twists that aren’t really needed. There isn’t enough character development for them to really matter (if that makes sense).

However, despite all of that, Best Friends Forever is still a good, page-turning thriller. I will be looking for future books from Shannon Hollinger.