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FOUR OF A KIND
By Val Frankel
I’ve featured my online friend Val Frankel on here before, with her memoir, It’s Hard Not to Hate You, which is awesome and funny and if you haven't read it yet, you MUST get it now! She’s also the author of a bunch of novels too, and another memoir - the girl CAN WRITE!
Today, I’m happy to feature her latest, FOUR OF A KIND!
Today, I’m happy to feature her latest, FOUR OF A KIND!
Besides the fact that their kids all attend the same fashionable Brooklyn Heights private school, Bess, Robin, Carla, and Alicia have little in common. Thrown together on the tony school’s Diversity Committee, the women impulsively turn their awkward first meeting into a boisterous game of poker. Instead of betting with chips or pocket change, however, they play for intimate secrets about their lives.
As the Diversity Commitee meetings become a highly anticipated monthly ritual, the new friends reveal more with each game. Picture-perfect housewife Bess struggles to relate to her surly teenage daughter and judgmental mother. Robin, a single mom, grapples with the truth concerning her child’s real father. Carla, an ambitious doctor, attempts to balance the colossal demands of her family with her dream of owning her own private practice. And to distract herself from her troubled marriage, shy copywriter Alicia fantasizes about an attractive younger colleague.
Putting all their cards on the table, the four women grow to rely on one another, bracing for one final showdown.
As the Diversity Commitee meetings become a highly anticipated monthly ritual, the new friends reveal more with each game. Picture-perfect housewife Bess struggles to relate to her surly teenage daughter and judgmental mother. Robin, a single mom, grapples with the truth concerning her child’s real father. Carla, an ambitious doctor, attempts to balance the colossal demands of her family with her dream of owning her own private practice. And to distract herself from her troubled marriage, shy copywriter Alicia fantasizes about an attractive younger colleague.
Putting all their cards on the table, the four women grow to rely on one another, bracing for one final showdown.
Read an excerpt here:
If you’d like to win a copy of Four of A Kind, since this is all about bonding with women you wouldn’t expect to bond with, have you met and bonded with a friend in an unconventional way? I met a friend at a party, who is still a friend today. She was talking about a guy she was dating, and when she said his name and where he was from, I shouted out loud, “OH MY GOSH, WE SLEPT WITH THE SAME GUY!” Turns out, at that point, she hadn’t slept with him, (she never did but we are still friends to this day! PS… she was smart not to go there. Me, not so much.)
So, tell me about how you met your friend in an unconventional way, and you could win Four of A Kind!
Remember, MaNiC MoMMy is aiming to feature great books each and every week this year, and you’ll have a chance to win it as well! Please stop by often AND MAKE SURE TO CHECK THE PREVIOUS POSTS as I’m now posting new books more than once a week! Open to US/Canada residents only, and thanks to all the participating authors and publicists for providing the books.
Check back on this post in a few days to see if you’ve been chosen, and as long as there is not a highlighted winner’s name on the top of the blog post, you may enter to win any of the previous books being offered. One entry per person as always! Please include an email address or a uniquely identifying user name when entering to win!
73 comments:
My friend and I met in the graduate office of one of our schools. She was cursing out the school and I was online behind to her complain about the same thing she was cursing them out for.
brn2shop9 at gmail dot com
I have a friend who was an ex of my ex and we became friends through a mutual friend years later.
Margaret(singitm)
I met my friend at freshman orientation. There was nowhere to sit at the dining cafeteria that I asked if I could share her table with her. Had I not done that we would never have met since we majored in completely different things and didn't have any classes together. 20 years now, we still keep in contact despite living an hour away.
At college orientation I heard that the cute guy who looked the Tom Cruise was from my home state. I was walking to class behind him, caught up with him, and introduced myself. It turned out we had the same class schedule and became great friends. We stay in touch to this very day.
He calls me Sassy Sue.
Susan B.
One of my best friends I knew as a high school student, we weren't friends then because I stole her boyfriend. Ten years later our paths cross again and I was nervous she was still going to hate me, luckily she doesn't and now we're like family!
Sarah
So excited about this book!!! Anyway, I have a dear friend who was my student teacher. Fate put her in my classroom, and now I am proud to call her my friend.
mellsimons (at) gmail (dot) com
I met one of my close guy friends on a cruise with my family. We have been friends for about eight years now and met the last night of a cruise.
I met my best friend because I was her moms boss.
Qweska8402
I met a friend through one of my exes.
Thanks!
-Jessica M
walkingcorpse11@hotmail.com
I met my friend Colleen on the Metra. She asked me what was in the large envelope and we struck up a conversation. I gave her my card, thinking I'd never hear from her. A few weeks later she invited me to a party.
I met a good friend of mine while playing a game on my phone. We both played the game and soon hooked up on facebook. We haven't met in person because she lives on the other side of the US but we talk often.
Carly H
I met my friend through a mutual friend. We bonded right away. The funny part us that neither of us still talk to the other gal.
kndyer
I met one of my BF's on myspace. Totally random. That was about 5 years ago.
kyfaithw at aol dot com
My friend and I met on a msg board for a cruise we were taking. It was our first cruise and they had been before so we just talked a lot to get ideas, info, etc and never thought that 2 years later we would be really great friends.
jobella
I met one of my current bff's because her bf cheated on her..with me.
wow, I really can't think of any unique ways I meet my friends. Melissa Rem
I met a life-long friend at high school in the 12th grade. I was outside smoking (no judging please---it was high school and it was the 80's!) and she came up to ask me for "Fire?". Turns out she was an exchange student from Spain and she was trying to ask for a light. We are still friends to this day. She now lives in Greece!
i met my friend when we were headed to a convention in washington dc...i was super sick and she was sitting next to me on the plane (from california!)...my ears wouldn't pop and i felt terrible and she kept trying to make me feel better...it ended up being that we were roommates at the convention and we've been friends ever since! that was 9 years ago!
My best friend and I met through a friend when our friend realized we lived two blocks from each other.
Eloisepeaches
a high school friend who dated the same guy at the same time. We are still friends.
I love the friends I meet online and then get to meet in person!
I haven't really met any of my friends in unconventional ways...but I have become good friends with someone who I thought I had nothing in common with. Turns out we are two peas in a pod after all and she is one of my favorite people to hang out with now.
I met my best friend in 5th grade. We weren't in the same class but we just knew each other. We both ended up winning an art contest and got to know each other during the award banquet. We are in our mid twenties now and still BFF :)
Amy R.
Amy.a.risner@gmail.com
i've known my close group of friends since grade school/junior high, but we live 3 hours away so I see them about once a month. I have made some friends where I live through myspace. I did a search for females my age that didn't want kids. That search led to meeting at least 4 new friends. Turns out we all love cats too. And some of us are actually married.
Our kids became best friends in kindergarten, so we were together a lot. We decided we liked each other too, and now we're besties.
I met my best friend shortly after I had my first baby. She lived a block away and we were walking our babies after dinner and bumped into each other. It soon become a habit to do that because both our kids wouldn't sleep. We started spending the witching hour together every day, so our kids wouldn't be cranky and would play with each other.
met one of my dearest friends at a charity walk..we ended up pacing together and then talking and then that was it! That was 15 years go and still going strong.
I was one of a handful of girls in an honors Freshmen engineering course, so we girls tended to stick together. Not to be mean, but honors freshmen engineering had some geeky guys in it. We girls starting assigning nicknames to the people we didn't know. Well, there was one guy we dubbed "Normal Looking Guy", because...for that class, he was! Eventually we were assigned to the same study group and became fast friends. He was one of my best friends throughout college. I eventually lost touch with most of my girlfriends from that class, but "Norm" and his wife are still very good friends of the hubby and me to this day (13years later)!
-Colbey J
I met one of my best friends at college orientation. They had us split into small groups based on the alphabet. At the time I didn't like her and I thought she was annoying. One month later she was in my freshman biology class. We sat together because we didn't know anyone else. We ended up both pledging the same sorority and becoming roommates for several years. We are still really close and to think that I didn't like her at first!
aggiekristi04
I met one of my friends because we were random roommates freshman year in college.
I met 2 of my very best friends through a girl I was friends with in high school. Unfortunately, none of us talks to the original girl any more, which is sad!
I met my BF while working out at the gym. We started a conversation and realised we had a ton in common, and have been besties ever since...almost 13 years now!
I met my friend on the first day of my freshman orientation in college and we've been friends ever since! :)
i was walking in the park on a weekday and a woman approached me and asked if she could walk with me because a car had been following her. i said yes, and we walked and the car left and we walked and chatted for a long time after. we get together for walks regularly now, and we have some pervert to thank for the friendship! :)
For me meeting friends seems to be when you have something in common, like work, kids or other friends. I don't have one of those stories of becoming friends with someone out of the blue. Interesting.
One of my friends and I met when I busted my ex-bf cheating on me. I showed up at the bar to see him and guess what? She had too. We knew each other enough to say hello and started chatting.
Then we discovered that we were both there for the same guy. You should have saw the look on his face when he spotted us. I thought he was going to jump out the window.
Kristi Marie W.
Sadly I have no interesting ways in which I met friends. I have met everyone through school, work or their friends. No randoms =)!
I met my closest friend in during college orientation. I saw her sitting by herself and walked up to her and said do you had preppies too. She said yet and ever sense then we bonded. I was more of an outsider then she was but our dislike for "girly girls" brought us together. Which is really funny cause I've turned in to a girly girl with age. haha
My friend and I met when my husband and I noticed someone sideswipe her car (it was a neighbor that did this). We waited to see if she was going to leave a note but did not. We didn't know whose car it was and when we saw her come out we let her know what had happened. Turns out she was another neighbor of ours and had just picked up her car that day for bodywork she had done to it due to someone else hitting her before! Anyway this was over 20 years ago. We have stayed friends all that time and had our children at the same time. We are still close to this day.
Nicole
I met my best friend online. We were both in the same chatroom (more than ten years ago, when that was still cool...) and it turned out, we were both having an "online relationship" with the same guy. She and I ended up meeting in person, because she happened to be from the town next to where I went to college...and we are still friends to this day. We have no idea what happened to that guy, and we don't really care. :)
Emily116
I met my friend thru a meet-up. She threw out a suggestion about meeting for a after-yoga class and I was the only one that responded. We met before class and just chatted. We've been friends ever since.
I met a friend at a party. We were both Navy wives but our hubbys were on different boats. We bonded instantly and still keep in contact today.
Carie
I met a friend the first day of kindergarten, and we're still friends.
Margie T
I met one of my good friends at my son'e soccer game. I was new in town so during practice I would sit in my car and read. My soon-to-be friend came over and asked what I was reading. She figured since I was a reader and at soccer, we should get to know each other. That was 15 years ago and we are still great friends.
I met a good friend thru her blog. We met up 10 years ago in person and have been super close since even though we live states away from one another.
I'm super friendly so I became friends with this girl whose dad was trying to sell my fiance his truck. it was a short lived friendship (as we didn't exchange info), but we divulged and laughed and shared family histories, goals, and dreams within the span of about 20-30 minutes.
crystal717
i met a lot of friends through work...probably not very unusual...but true :)
karenk
kmkuka at yahoo dot com
I have a good friend still who asked me if she could eat lunch with me when we were in biology class. Still cracks us up to this day that she felt she had to ask permission!
-tmd636
I met a friend at the gym and we bonded over our fertility issues. She has already been through it and I am going through it now so she is a good sounding board for me to ask questions to!
She worked at a coffee shop, made my coffee's, then I asked if she wanted to go get a coffee instead of always making it! :o)
I met my best friend at a get-together luncheon for an online widow/ers group. So, online dating - not so much, but online friens - very successful!
jcsites2002 at hotmail dot com
My best friend is someone I poached from my boss. They'd been friends for decades, or so I thought. In the early days of email, my technology challenged boss had me send her something and we hit it off. Later, I learned that she didn't really like my boss, but had to play along because their parents were friends. We've been besties ever since.
I really cannot think of any unique way! I'm so lame!
I met a friend while shopping at a baby store. We both had kids the same age and after chatting for a minute, we discovered we were both pregnant with the same due date. We became instant best friends.
-Donna W.
I met my friend when both of us took our 1 year olds to swim class. Turns out the kids have the same birthday. Now the "kids" are going to be 23!
Bev V
shaggy552 (at) gmail (dot) com
met one of my dearest friends 12 YEARS AGO on the Ebay Beanie Babie Chat site. So many of us made friends that we all even went to Vegas for a weekend. Most fell away but Lori in Washington and Becki in California are still BFFs.
I don't have a good story because I don't have any friends.
Just kidding. The best I can come up with is that one of my close friends I met because she was hired to be my supervisor. She was hired at a time when I was crazy busy and she had a knack of asking me to lunch on days I just couldn't get away from my desk. She likes to joke that it took her months to break me down before I'd hang out with her.
Terri M. in Phoenix
BORING. That's me... I can't think of a very interesting way I've met any of my friends. I've met them all in very traditional ways - work, school, through other friends. The most interesting thing I can say is that I've been able to maintain friendships that stretch all the way across the nation (I've moved around a lot).
my boyfriend's friends are all married with kids except for one couple. when i met diana we bonded because we aren't mommies.
My best friend and I met when we randomly decided to car pool to a work off-site. We didn't know each other or even live close to each other, but neither of us wanted to go alone.
My good girlfriend and I became close friends AFTER she called me "Debbie Downer" at a staff meeting at work, and I thought immediately, "well that was unnecessarily snarky" and I decided that I was NOT a fan of hers. Lo and behold, several months later we started to talk more frequently and got to know each other eating lunches and going to happy hours. It's been 5 years now, and she is one of my dearest friends to this day. Who'da thunk?! :)
I really have no memory of how I met my BFF all I remember was we met in 4th grade and still at the age of 40 BFF's--its funny because we were not very much alike--she is extremely out going and social and I am not very social unless forced to be in High school she wanted to hang with the "in-crowd" must of them I could not stand so we went our own ways. When I came home from college we reunited and still BFF's funny thing is I have no idea how I reunited with her --Guess some friendships are meant to last forever!!!!!!
I met one of my best friends because a buddy of mine was trying to date her. He never succeeded, but she and I are still friends 10 years later and she was even in my wedding!
I met my friend through another friend & she's the sister of one of my high school nemesis' LOL
I became friends with my sister's ex-boyfriend's girlfriend who he later married (and is now divorcing - awkward)
I think the weirdest way I've met a friend is that we met at a networking event when we were both unemployed after being laid off. We sat next to each other and started talking about what jobs we'd applied for and how our job search was going. Turns out we had interviewed for the same job and had each been told that we were their #2 choice...
ChristinaL
i just finished this one and will be posting a review tomorrow. don't include me in the giveaway, but i wanted to share that i met a woman through freecycle and then we didn't hang out for another year and a half, right before i moved out of the area. we went to see jane green together! we called it our "hot date." :)
melissa a from clc
My friend Kaila and I met thru old boyfriends, who were roommates. She and her guy started having trouble right as me and my guy were newly dating. Her guy was (probably still is) a tool, so I spied on him for her: if he brought other girls to the apartment I'd tell her. 19 yrs later, she's one of my best friends :)
Met one of my closest friends our freshman year of college when she rode her bike into my dorm room and crashed into me! My door was open and she was going by, recognized me from a ballet class we were both in and wanted to say hi! 23 years later and we still laugh about that. :)
I've met several new what I consider friends on FB. We haven't met in person yet, but we talk on the phone, send each other stuff and burn up the internet. writeoncindy@yahoo.com
I met my friend who is now my husband of almost 19 years through his little sister. I was one of her Girl Scout Leaders. I already knew his mom too! What a small world!
nancyecdavis AT bellsouth DOT net
I don't think I have any friends in an unconventional way. Pretty much everyone is from when we were kids, work, or our kids being friends. The ones that I met through my kids are the closest friends. We lead very similar lives! LeslieGC
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