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Between Friends
by
Kristy Kiernan (Goodreads Author)
A provocative new novel about birth, death, and the stuff in between, from the award-winning author of Catching Genius.
Thanks to modern reproductive technology-and the gift of her friend Cora's eggs-Ali Gutierrez is the mother of a fourteen-year-old daughter. Now, yearning for a second child, Ali asks Cora's permission to use another of the frozen embryos that have been...more
Thanks to modern reproductive technology-and the gift of her friend Cora's eggs-Ali Gutierrez is the mother of a fourteen-year-old daughter. Now, yearning for a second child, Ali asks Cora's permission to use another of the frozen embryos that have been...more
Paperback, 352 pages
Published
April 6th 2010
by Berkley Trade
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Wow....that's really all I could say when I finished this one. It grabbed my interest from the moment I started it and it never let go. Lately I have just been kind of going through the motions with books I've read. I purposely started reading a slower pace than with my previous read "The Mermaids Singing" and found it's much more enjoyable that way. However, with "Between Friends" I couldn't pace myself. I felt like I had been starved and was just given my favorite meal. I inhaled this book. If...more
Who among us doesn’t know someone with infertility problems of some sort? Personally, it’s affected every female in my family, including myself. If I were bold enough, I would go as far as to say it’s an epidemic. In some cases and with the help of modern medicine, miracles can happen. People, who would otherwise go without the opportunity to have a family, if they chose to, now are able to. In Between Friends that is exactly the opportunity Cora provides to her best friend Ali and it forever ch...more
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In her latest novel, Between Friends, Kristy Kiernan delivers another compelling story about two women tackling real, life-affecting issues.
Ali Gutierrez couldn't have children of her own. Her best friend, Cora, didn't want children. So Cora donated her eggs to Ali and her husband so they could still have children. Ali's daughter, Letty, was born in this way and was even featured in People for her miracle birth (to Letty's later chagrin). Almost 15 years have passed and Ali is ready for another...more
Ali Gutierrez couldn't have children of her own. Her best friend, Cora, didn't want children. So Cora donated her eggs to Ali and her husband so they could still have children. Ali's daughter, Letty, was born in this way and was even featured in People for her miracle birth (to Letty's later chagrin). Almost 15 years have passed and Ali is ready for another...more
I loved this book, as much if not more than I loved the author's previous work, "Matters Of Faith."
Kristy Kiernan's gift is this: She takes the best elements of literary fiction and marries them to the taut, lean pacing of genre potboilers. "Between Friends" is a story that's story first, that whisks the reader along on a breathless ride and develops its characters and settings with spare but sharp insights along the way.
"Between Friends" juggles a disparate cast, social and medical issues, mu...more
Kristy Kiernan's gift is this: She takes the best elements of literary fiction and marries them to the taut, lean pacing of genre potboilers. "Between Friends" is a story that's story first, that whisks the reader along on a breathless ride and develops its characters and settings with spare but sharp insights along the way.
"Between Friends" juggles a disparate cast, social and medical issues, mu...more
Read too much like a Lifetime movie. Two friends who grew up together. One can't have kids, the other doesn't want them. She donates eggs to friend and husband. Fourteen years later, donater has kidney disease. Donatee immediately steps forward to give one of hers. Husband not too keen. Mix in daugher (age 14) dating an older boy, has sex for the first time with boy who sells pot (just to put gas in his car--so that's all right!:!?!)and husband conveniently dying in the line of duty. The reminci...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This is the first time I have read this author. The book was fantastic. I really thought I could predict where this entire book was going and the author really surprised me with every single character! Excellent and surprising.
Ali and Cora are not typical friends: they are best friends to the upteenth power. Ali and her childhood love and husband Benny wanted a baby even though Ali's eggs were not viable. So, in steps Cora to give Ali what she needs most to fulfill her mommy dreams. Along comes Letty, who, when the novel opens, is fourteen years old and ready to begin her life an a young woman. She fights the system (the system being her mom and dad) and acts out in order to establish who she believes she is (which do...more
Ali and Cora's friendship goes back a long, long way. When Ali and her husband try unsuccessfully to conceive, Cora donates her eggs and Ali is mother to Letty, who is now 14 years old.
Cora travels with her job, and is always "somewhere else", but comes back home unexpectedly and stays...she carries a secret.
Meanwhile Ali wants another baby, and plans to use Cora's eggs which have been preserved.
This is a book about friendship, but also has many other threads at work here, almost too many, it...more
Cora travels with her job, and is always "somewhere else", but comes back home unexpectedly and stays...she carries a secret.
Meanwhile Ali wants another baby, and plans to use Cora's eggs which have been preserved.
This is a book about friendship, but also has many other threads at work here, almost too many, it...more
I find the way Kristy Kiernan conveys relationships (between sisters, best friends, mother and daughter) to be incredibly rich and real. Her stories are always complex and I often admire how brave she is for going certain places in her fiction I never could. This book touched on many topics: motherhood, friendship, illness, and medical ethics. All done in a compelling manner. Also, I have to say I totally thought the book was going in a certain direction at the end and was thinking, ack! No! Don...more
Jul 28, 2011
Lynn Dolven
added it
It is definitely time to stop randomly picking up books off of the new paperback fiction table! This story was like an hour long TV drama, including infertility, dialysis and organ transplant, crime, violence, death, teenage angst, etc. Not satisfying at the end - just grateful that it was over and you figured out where the bodies were buried. Maybe this book would be good for a transatlantic flight where you just want to sleep anyway, but I'm not going that far soon, so it's off to the donation...more
Ali and Cora are the best of friends. The type that will do anything for the other. When Ali and her husband, Benny find out they can not conceive a child, Cora comes to the rescue and helps then have the baby they so desperately want. Now that the child is a teenager, Ali is feeling the yearning of wanting another child and there are frozen embryos that could be used to have another child. However, Cora has a secret that could change all of their lives forever.
I am a pansy when it comes to book...more
I am a pansy when it comes to book...more
4.5 Stars
Ali and Cora have been friends since high school. Over the years, their friendship matured and the two women become tight like sisters. So it was only natural for Cora to donate her eggs when Ali was unable to conceive.
Fast forward to present time. Ali and Benny have a beautiful daughter Letty. Ali is extremely thankful for the gift of life Cora gave to her. In fact, she has it documented on her bedroom wall, aka “The Miracle Wall”. Now that Letty is older and growing into a young woman...more
Ali and Cora have been friends since high school. Over the years, their friendship matured and the two women become tight like sisters. So it was only natural for Cora to donate her eggs when Ali was unable to conceive.
Fast forward to present time. Ali and Benny have a beautiful daughter Letty. Ali is extremely thankful for the gift of life Cora gave to her. In fact, she has it documented on her bedroom wall, aka “The Miracle Wall”. Now that Letty is older and growing into a young woman...more
Another cute story about true friendship love and sacrifice using modern science; both the good and the bad! The author tells the story from the viewpoint of three characters, Ali (the forever wanting to be a mother, mother), Cora (the friend that offered up her eggs in order to make Ali's motherhood possible) and Letty (the daughter they essentially share). I could not put this book down; the author did a good job of leaving me wanting to read the next chapter as soon as the last one was done....more
I was so excited to read this book but very disappointed. The book revolves around the lives of two best friends... one of whom donates her eggs in order to help her friend become a parent. The original theme was what hooked me onto the book....however the plot development is slow and does not develop, it seems like the book only spans a week at most.
It is hard to relate to any of the characters as the author does not fully develop their personalities.
It is hard to relate to any of the characters as the author does not fully develop their personalities.
It would be hard to try to summarize the plot of this book. Let's just say it's about friendship, egg donation, complicated relationships, and both personal and medical ethics. I had very mixed feelings. At first, I found the ideas interesting, but the writing boring. Then Kiernan won me over a bit...only to irritate me again by making SO many things happen to these poor people that it felt like sweeps week for a failing TV show. And then I kind of liked it again. What can I say? I'm fickle.
Between Friends demonstrates that which is rarely captured: the friendship ties that bind women. Kiernan deals beautifully with the challenge of portraying the drama of in-vitro fertilization, frozen embryos, and egg donation. She captures the both the wonder and terror of motherhood--and the rift it sometimes causes in a marriage. Most of all, she gave this reader a story that made me have to know what would happen!
I wasn't terribly impressed with this book. I thought the plot itself had a lot of potential but the author didn't fully use it. The character development could have used some improvement as well. I really had to focus in order to finish this novel because I felt like it was getting dragged out. If this book had a little more "zing" in it I'd be able to give it a higher review.
Ali and Cora are friends. Ali can't have a child, so Cora contributes the eggs. Then she get a kidney disease which Letty, the product of Cora's eggs, may have. In the meantime, Letty is testing her wings and gets involved with a boy who sells drugs. Her father, Benny, a cop, tries to help and is shot and killed. An OK book; recommend for a light "women's friendship" read.
When I first began reading this novel, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to finish it. I found the characters annoying and I was completely uninterested in them. However, the plot slowly picked up and I found that the characters were growing on me. I ended up finishing the novel in two days. Still, it wasn't one that I instantly wanted to share with others.
This novel tackles a lot of interesting issues - marriage, friendship, parenthood, infertility, illness, etc, and I think will make for a good book club discussion. But for some reason, I found it to be just good, not great, until towards the end when it took a suprising turn and actually improved in my opinion. Kind of reminds me of a Jodi Picoult book (minus the courtroom drama). 3.5 stars.
I enjoyed this novel a lot more than I expected to! The characters were extremely well drawn and really felt like living, breathing people. This greatly added to their relatability. At its heart, the story of a deep friendship filled this book - but without ever becoming sappy or overly sentimental. It was an emotional read though - I teared up a few times, but I never felt manipulated into empathizing with these three-dimensional characters. The plot - even with its tear-jerking moments - never...more
This book was pretty good. I found it to be predictable, but I still enjoyed reading it. I liked how the chapters were from different perspectives, but it was incredibly confusing that the author wrote in 1st person for both Ali and Cora. The ending was pretty unrealistic, but good for those that like a happy ending and everything wrapped up in a bow.
This was an extremely powerful read that captivated me from the very beginning. Ali Gutierrez desperately wanted to be a mother, but the timing just wasn't right for her and her husband. Kristy Kiernan has a magical way with words and she really has a knack for making sure you get every detail you need to understand what she is trying to tell you. I loved the realness of the relationships, especially the friendship between Cora and Ali, since Cora was the one that gave Ali her special daughter,...more
Janet loaned me this book at the cabin last weekend and I couldn't put it down once I got started! It was suspenseful in the style of Jodi Picoult - - - it doesn't all sort itself out until the end, and it's not an ending I would have predicted. I wanted it to keep going... how do authors decide when to stop?!
This book is well-written by a very talented author. The novel focuses on two best friends, Ali and Cora as they each struggle to make life-changing decisions. Throw a teenager in the mix and it becomes even more complicated. If you are a fan of Jodi Picoult, this might be a book you would enjoy.
This is a really good read with some interesting twists that I was really not expecting. It gave me some laughs and definitely some tears. I was happily surprised by how much I actually liked this book since I thought it was going to be a run of a mill kind of book about friends.
Chick lit. Easy read. Soap Opera. Two best friends - one who provided her eggs to her best friend so she could become a mother. The child is now a rebellious teenager. The friend who provided her egg is facing kidney disease. And the other woman is facing marital problems.
I enjoyed this, but in all honesty, I liked her other two books much better. This one just didn't seem to be as well written to me. It was a good story... quite moving, thought provoking. I will certainly watch for what ever comes next from Kiernan.
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Kristy Kiernan was born in Tennessee and raised on the beaches of southwest Florida.
She is the author of CATCHING GENIUS, published in 2007 and an Ingram Book Club selection.
MATTERS OF FAITH was published in 2008 and was chosen as an IndieNext Notable Title and won the Florida Book Award bronze medal.
BETWEEN FRIENDS was published in 2010 and was a featured selection for the Literary Guild, Double...more
More about Kristy Kiernan...
She is the author of CATCHING GENIUS, published in 2007 and an Ingram Book Club selection.
MATTERS OF FAITH was published in 2008 and was chosen as an IndieNext Notable Title and won the Florida Book Award bronze medal.
BETWEEN FRIENDS was published in 2010 and was a featured selection for the Literary Guild, Double...more
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