Allreaders.com

My Best Friend's Girl Book Summary and Study Guide

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of My Best Friend's Girl


Kamryn adopts her dead friend's daughter, but must get over her dead friend's old betrayal, learn to love her adopted daughter, and learn to trust men again. The heroine Kamryn must put old grudges aside when her former best friend, who stole her boyfriend, is dying and asks Kamryn to become her child's guardian, and things only become more complicated when a handsome man named Luke appears on the scene and takes an interest in wooing Kamryn. My Best Friend's Girl is a chick lit novel that I read back when I was in high school, and I enjoyed it then. It is set in England's industrial north, a welcome reprieve from the usual 20-somethings-in-London that you usually get in these kinds of novels.
Click here to see the rest of this review...


The protagonist is a young woman named Kamryn who has a mid-level corporate job and is recovering quietly from heartbreak. She has been single for years, ever since her boyfriend Nate got together with her former best friend Adele. This betrayal hurt especially because Kamryn had been friends with Adele since they were in college together and thought they would be inseparable forever. It has been a lonely existence for Kamryn and she's not sure she's over it - when she gets a letter from her treacherous best friend Adele, who claims that she is dying.

Against her better instincts, Kamryn goes to visit her friend and finds out that Adele has leukemia and wants Kamryn to adopt her daughter, because she doesn't trust her own father or her jealous, spiteful, emotionally abusive step-mother to do the job, and Nate. When the prospect of giving up custody of the child, Tegan, to Kamryn comes up, the grandparents show that they have zero affection for Tegan and allow Kamryn to take her. Kamryn has not seen the child in two years, and now learns for the first time that Nate is the father, which is an emotional blow to her. Nate abandoned the family, however, and there is nobody else to take care of the girl. After seeing the grandparents emotionally abuse Tegan by blaming her for her mother's illness and threatening to beat her, Kamryn makes up her mind and takes Tegan in. As she and Tegan begin to get to know each other, Adele dies, and Kamryn and Tegan return to Leeds together.

The pair take a while getting used to each other, adjusting to each other schedules and diets, Kamryn guiding Tegan around Leeds and making sure she's adjusting well in school, and allowing the girl to grieve and get over her shock. Tegan is a sweet and loving six year old child, who begins to endear herself to Kamryn despite all that's happened.

On the office front, Kamryn's office gets a new boss from London named Luke, a tall, handsome, well-spoken man who immediately takes an interest in Kamryn. Kamryn is not interested at first, but the glue that begins to bind them together is Tegan. Tegan constantly invites Luke out with them and Kamryn has no choice but to accept his presence. Slowly, she begins to trust and like him as she sees how he takes care of her and how protective, kind and friendly he is with Tegan. Luke and Kamryn end up in bed together and start a relationship, and things begin to fall in place for the first time.

Tegan's father who abandoned her, and Kamryn's ex-boyfriend, returns to England and now wants to be a part of Tegan's life again. Kamryn struggles with her anger with Nate. She hates him less now than she did before, mostly because she got over him a little with time, her career, and distance, but the grief and anger is still there every time they are talking. Nate's attempts to bond with Tegan are hollow and shaky, and he reveals constantly how little he knows about his own daughter. When he accidentally feeds Tegan food that she is allergic to and Tegan ends up in the hospital Kamryn and Nate get into a talk that starts with Tegan but devolves into their personal issues with each other, bringing up all the conflicting feelings and, in a moment of weakness, a kiss. Unfortunately at this moment Luke sees what happened, and breaks up with Kamryn.

Kamryn cuts Nate out of her life and only allows him supervised visits with Tegan, not allowing him near here in the same way before. She realizes that she truly is over him now and it is not because of the time and distance, but because of Tegan and Luke. They have filled the hole in her heart that Adele and Nate left. She grieves for Luke for months, but continues to try her best to be a good mother to Tegan.and put the child's needs before her own. And when she and Tegan run into Luke after a shopping trip one sunny afternoon in Leeds, Luke confesses that he misses Kamryn deeply and loves her, and understands she made a mistake.They resume a relationship, and they both adopt Tegan.
Best part of story, including ending: I liked the depiction of Leeds. It comes off as a gentrifying town with its own identity, and it lends a lot of flavor to the novel.


Best scene in story: When Kamryn and Tegan go grocery shopping together have hilarious clashes on their different ideas of what kind of food they should get, mostly because Kamryn momentarily forgets the kind of foods kids need to have in the house.


Opinion about the main character: I thought Kamryn was incredibly childish and immature.

The review of this Book prepared by Princess Peach a Level 10 Peregrine Falcon scholar

Chapter Analysis of My Best Friend's Girl

Click on a plot link to find similar books!

Plot & Themes

Tone of book?    -   thoughtful Time/era of story    -   2000+ (Present Day) Romance/Romance Problems    -   Yes Is this an adult or child's book?    -   Adult or Young Adult Book Lover is    -   upset about past relationship

Main Character

Gender    -   Female Profession/status:    -   business executive Age:    -   20's-30's Ethnicity/Nationality    -   British

Setting

Europe    -   Yes European country:    -   England/UK

Writing Style

Sex in book?    -   Yes What kind of sex:    -   descript of kissing    -   touching of anatomy    -   actual description of hetero sex Amount of dialog    -   roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

Books with storylines, themes & endings like My Best Friend's Girl

Dorothy Koomson Books Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
2 Ways to Search!
Or



Our Chief Librarian