My review of I Thought You Said This Would Work

I Thought You Said This Would Work by Ann Wertz Garvin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

[This is an edited excerpt from my review on Focus on Fiction]

Perhaps because of the isolation posed by the pandemic, I have been reading a lot of books centered around friendships.

New friendships and old ones. Friendships with people just like us and those that bring new types of individuals into our lives.

Friendships that have withstood the test of time and those that have disintegrated, in some cases, beyond repair. Friendships with people and friendships with pets. (And yes, you can have a friendship of sorts with an animal!) Friendships that are born out of tragedy and those that, in some way, survive even the final loss.

Ann Garvin’s latest novel, I Thought You Said This Would Work, covers all those types of friendships. In turn serious and humorous, the story follows two women, Samantha and Holly, who have been estranged since college, reuniting to perform one final task for their mutual third friend, Katie whose cancer has returned.

And no small task it is. It involves a Great Pyrenees dog once owned by Katie that they need to transport from California back to Wisconsin to give their friend a morale boost and what they hope will be a dose of much-needed animal affection.

Along the way, they acquire a fourth member, the eccentric D-List celebrity Maggie, who becomes the catalyst for changes in how each woman views herself and her relationships. So yes, this is indisputably a women’s friendship novel.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book in the way you enjoy sitting with people you have known for a long time but haven’t seen because of COVID-19 and are now catching up with. And people that, under other circumstances, you might not have chosen as friends but now, because of circumstances resulting from the virus, you can’t imagine not having in your life.

If you have friends, read I Thought You Said This Would Work to remind yourself how lucky you are.

If you have lost friends due to a falling-out, read the book to make you think if the rupture can be repaired.

And if you’re wondering how good of a friend you have been, or should be, read the book and then reach out to those you care about and ask those questions.

True friendships are lifelines that we hold onto when the waves threaten to submerge us. I Thought You Said This Would Work reminds us of that, and also how invaluable and precious friends are.

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