SOURCE: Wales, Ruth Johnstone. “Love's Labor in a Small English Town.” Christian Science Monitor 90, no. 157 (9 July 1998): B5.

In the following review, Wales offers a mixed assessment of The Best of Friends, commenting that the characters fail to engage the reader.

“I think love is a very good place to start,” a psychologist counsels one of the wronged wives in Joanna Trollope's new novel. In fact, The Best of Friends is all about love: between friends, lovers, husbands and wives, parents and children, across generations.

For Vi and Dan, a pair of retirement-housing elders, love is a late-in-life warm blessing. For Laurence and Hilary and their three teenage sons, who run a small family inn, love is buried in busyness. For their elegant and wealthy friends Fergus and Gina, love has become lost in self-absorbed isolation.

The story unfolds through the eyes of Sophy, the 16-year-old daughter of Fergus...