Title: My Ride or Die by Leslie Cohen
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: Contemporary, Women’s Fiction
Length: 336 pages
Book Rating: C
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss
Summary:
A timely and hilarious millennial women’s fiction novel about two friends who decide to give up their search for a perfect man and devote their lives to each other—but their careful plan soon begins to unravel with unexpected consequences.
Fall in love.
Get married.
Turn to your female friends to be truly understood.
Friends for over a decade, Amanda and Sophie decide it’s time to flip the script. Why not spend their lives with each other and keep men on the side for fun, sex, and occasionally fixing things around the house?
Amanda is a lawyer who excels in her professional life but crumbles at the slightest sign of a common cold. Sophie is an aspiring artist who has lived all over the world and doesn’t crumble, period. Together, they’ve been through it all. But when their romantic lives implode at the same time, they decide enough is enough. Enough pretending that traditional relationships work for everyone. Enough fantasizing about an old-fashioned ideal.
They decide to form an alliance: They will rely on each other and give men the secondary role that they deserve. And much to their surprise, it actually works. They fix up a run-down brownstone and create the home they’ve always wanted. Soon, they have love and emotional support as well as a wide variety of male “crushes” on the side. But when one of their crushes becomes something more, Amanda and Sophie must reconsider the life they’ve begun to build and how far they’re willing to go to keep it.
In this brilliantly funny novel, Leslie Cohen asks: must friendship always be second to love? This is female friendship at its finest. Smart. Witty. And no holds barred.
Review:
My Ride or Die by Leslie Cohen is a friendship novel with an interesting premise.
Amanda and Sophie are college roommates who remained very close following graduation. Just as Sophie is about to walk down the aisle, she ditches her groom-to-be and swears off marriage. When Amanda’s friends with benefits arrangement blows up, the two women decide to move in together. They also make a pact to casually date and instead rely on one another for support and companionship. Sounds like the perfect arrangement so what could possibly go wrong?!
Amanda is a lawyer with a few hang-ups but more common sense than Sophie. She uses sarcasm to deflect uncomfortable conversations. Which is fine for friendships but not so great for relationships. Her previous romantic entanglement was with an unattainable man so she likes the idea of no longer searching for “the one”. Although sometimes way out of her comfort zone, Amanda likes the impact Sophie has on her.
Sophie is a free spirit who makes impetuous decisions that usually seem to work out for her. She is also an artist who is a bit flighty as she tries to find her niche. Sophie has a day job to pay the bills and fits in working on her art when she can. She comes up with some ill-thought-out plans but Amanda is usually able to talk Sophie down from some her more outrageous ideas.
Sophie and Amanda’s new arrangement works out really well until one of them unexpectedly begins to fall for the new man in her life. In the meantime, the other friend suddenly begins contemplating a big change. The entire situation blows up when the romantic partner and the in the dark friend find out they have been lied to by omission. And if the worst does come to pass, what will happen to both relationships?
Written from alternating perspectives, My Ride or Die is an intriguing novel but it is slow-paced. The storyline is clever but a good portion of the dialogue is inane. The story is a strange blend of serious, superficial and what seems to be satire (but is the satire feel intentional?). Amanda and Sophie lack character development but their friendship is rock solid. Although a little predictable, Leslie Cohen brings the novel to a satisfying conclusion.
