The grace and good breeding that made other MacInnes novels a delight have gone into ["Friends and Lovers"]: but, since it lacks the suspense and the compensating psychological excitement of her earlier books, its good qualities are not quite enough to sustain its thinly plotted narrative. The author has obviously intended a touching picture rather than a profound one. The story is told almost entirely in dialogue, which affords little opportunity for probing…. As a novel, "Friends and Lovers" is talky, uneventful and pieced out with extraneous matters. As a romance, however, it should appeal to those who have won out over just such opposition and who … think that love is a serious matter. That takes in a lot of people.

Mary McGrory, "A Variety of Hammock Companions for the Late Vacationer: 'Friends and Lovers'," in The New York Times Book Review (© 1947 by The New York Times Company...