Asking for a Friend

Written By Linda Malek
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Asking for Friend by Andi Osho
Reviewed by Linda
📗📗📗📗

Many thanks to @theandioshow & @hqstories for an ARC of this cracking
debut! I met Andi back at the last HQ event in February 2020 and once we got talking about this book I knew it'd fast track to the top of the TBR as soon as I had it in my hands!

I loved this book! I was engaged throughout and for its relatability
to genuine conversations with old friends the story took me to a happy place as I smiled from cover to cover. Andi writes with sharp wit and charisma, most of the characters are people I see myself and my friends in (particularly Meagan) and the scenarios are authentic and
heartwarming.

We follow three best friends, Jemima, Simi and Meagan, as they navigate the minefield world of dating, each of them prospecting potential partners for the other in the form of The Dating Game. No side pieces, no vetoing and no falling in love are just some of the rules, but most importantly no woman gets left behind.

However, after all the comedy and the laughter, each dating experience reveals some salty home truths and the cracks in the girls' professional and personal lives begin to show.

Dig even deeper and Andi crafts The Dating Game to explore the importance of female relationships. It's these respective character studies that had me hooked. How many times have you advised a friend against a toxic relationship choice? Is there a friend who always self-sabotages? Are you the glue in the friendship group? I loved how Andi covered all these themes and more.

It's rare to read a lighthearted novel that covers poignant themes and delivers it with comedy and flair. Andi has set a gold standard and Asking for a Friend is the best I've read in this genre in a very long time!

Linda Malek

I've always had the urge to set up a forum and voice my thoughts after each read, but never had the confidence to do so alone. 18 months ago, I got my fellow book-loving friends involved and formed The Candid Book Club! Aside from having an exponentially growing to-read pile and deteriorating shortsightedness, we've been lucky to have been invited to publisher events and have attended several talks with our favourite authors (Thank you and long may they continue!) To take a break from the pressures of PhD Chemistry, Jess and I exchanged books all the time and in my youth, I was that kid with the first editions of Harry Potter having already read Gulliver’s travels and some Charles Dickens. At work, my desk is a library and luckily for me I sit next to another bookworm Jack who entertains all the photo-taking. I'm suffering from a chronic case of wanderlust (age-related crisis) so books which are set as far away from home as possible tend to float my boat: Middle East, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Asia...you name it. But if it's got anything to do with Egypt then I'm all over it. So you get the drift...I read all the time, everywhere (on the tube mostly), everyday, a book a week, and very quickly I'm onto the next! And then sometimes there is a book that stops me in my tracks, makes me want to swallow the pages whole, and have it next to me at all times, with some sentences staying with me forever: Shantaram by David Gregory Roberts, anything by Khaled Hosseini, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo (absolute gem of a woman), A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shuklaand and anything by Naguib Mahfouz.

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