The Girls from Corona del Mar by Rufi Thorpe

~The Book~

I first heard about the book the Girls from Corona del Mar by Rufi Thorpe on a podcast. It caught my attention because Corona del Mar is pretty close to where I grew up in Southern California and I have been there many times. Then my best friend read it and said it was amazing and she couldn’t put it down. I put it on my library list right away and then had to wait about a week or two to get it and start reading it. I finished it in three days, staying up way past my bedtime for two nights in a row. That is a sign of a good book even though I find myself a little tired in the morning.

~The Story~

The story is about two friends Mia and Lorrie Ann. It starts when they are in high school and goes through many years of friendship together. Mia is the more rough, hard-hearted one and Lorrie Ann is the kind one. Mia struggles with her mom, getting pregnant and dealing with her choices. Lorrie Ann has a close-knit family and seems to be living a pretty good life. Then, tragedy struck and everything seems to fall apart for Lorrie Ann. The rest of the book is about how Mia views what is going on with her friend, how she relates to her and what is really going on with the two girls who are now in their late 20s.

~My Thoughts~

I liked this book for a few different reasons. Of course I liked that it started near where I am from, a lot of the book didn’t center around there. It wasn’t a book about Southern California like I thought it would be but that was okay. I liked that the characters were complex and not so black and white. I also enjoyed reading about their relationship and how it changed over the years. That felt very real to me because I have experienced something similar with certain people who I used to be really close to.

This book was dark in a lot of ways and not a light read. But the way the author put the words together draws you in so you really start to care about what is going to happen to the characters. There were a few side storylines I got a little bored with but nothing too distracting where it ruined the book.

I think it would be interesting to read a sequel but where we get to hear this story from Lorrie Ann’s point of view. I think that would be very interesting and give us a lot more insight into who the characters really are.

You can purchase the book on Amazon 🙂

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