“In Love With My Best Friend” was given to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.
The short story revolves around two best friends, Camille and Trevor, and their sudden (or maybe not quite so sudden after all) realisation that they have feelings for one another. Downside to this apparently wonderful thing is the fact that Trevor is about to get married to Chelsea, a girl they both met at college, which makes the timing of the emotional development inconvenient, to say the least.
I liked the way both characters slowly notice the changes in each other, look upon each other with different eyes, even though Camille has practically been in love with Trevor since they first met at age thirteen.
The story shows the struggle the main characters have to deal with in order to decide whether to either give in to their feelings or stay away from the consequences such a confession would ultimately bring crashing down upon them, considering their timing.
The fact that the points of view of the story, narrated in first person, switched sometimes was not a bad idea as such but I felt that the characters were not developed - and sometimes not consistent - enough for this to happen. Also, the author regularly slid in descriptions of the other person, describing reactions and emotions the first person speaker simply could not know.
I may personally not approve of the actions inside the book but I found that they were somewhat realistic in their description, even though I really, really wished for just a bit more detail.
There was fluff missing around the dialogue to make the story feel a little more like a story rather than something a friend would be narrating over cocktails. I did like the easy flow this created for the story though, but when I read, I want to read more than just dialogue and what sometimes felt like a listing of actions.
In other places in contrast, there was almost too much detail. At one point (without spoilering), there is a dance class and the description of how the dance steps are supposed to be done carried on for extremely long – in comparison to the descriptions provided in between long passages of dialogue.
Another thing I would have liked to see more of would have been background stories, if not a lot, but a bit at least to give an idea on how Camille and Trevor interacted with each other throughout their lives. There are a few of these flashbacks but not nearly enough to give the characters more depth.
I would have loved to get to know more about Chelsea. I am hesitating between thinking she is a total b***h for the way she is behaving (aren’t they all supposed to be friends? Though I guess I can understand the sentiment.) but a bit of explaining of the actual relationship Chelsea and Trevor have, and had before the story takes place, would have been good, especially considering that apparently they didn’t live together?
While I liked the story, by the end, I couldn’t help but feel as though I was reading the skeleton story of something that would in the future grow into something a little bigger. Not a 600 page mammoth, but larger than the 87 pages it was on my e-reader. The potential is there!
(A few edits would be necessary though since there were time slips here and there.)
Actual rating: 2.5/5 stars.