🏘️🏘️🏘️1/2
Such Good People
Amy Blumenfeld
Publication Date: July 8th, 2025
SparkPress
360 Pages
Amazon | Goodreads | Bookshop.org
Genre: General Fiction | Literary Fiction
While waiting for her friend Rudy, April meets a man in a bar in Manhattan. This meeting will forever change the lives of both Rudy and April. We then time-hop to Chicago over a decade later, where April is happily married to Peter, a lawyer, and she even has a few kids. April is successful and happy with her job as well. Her husband is running for office, and during this campaign, Rudy, who’s been in jail this time, is now up for parole, and there’s a chance that April’s secrets will come spilling out; she has to make a choice: does she help Rudy or hide from her past completely?
This was a thought-provoking look at friendship and family. I like how the book shows just how messy growing up and growing apart can be. I loved the way the author thought to write about the secrets and regrets we take into adulthood with us. The book was definitely on the sombre side, but some scenes had me laughing out loud, and the author’s sense of humour shone through. I enjoyed the different points of view as we get inside each character’s head.
Peter, the husband, was kind of irritating to me because he acted like a man-child. April makes some questionable choices, and in a character-driven story, I found it incredibly frustrating. The book dragged in towards the middle, and I kept thinking to myself, just get to it. A few of the twists didn’t feel natural, as though the author just threw them in there to add drama because the middle wasn’t holding its own. Overall, this was a half-decent read—intelligent and sharply written. Even though it isn’t one of my favourite reads, I think most readers will find it enjoyable.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
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