Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

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This book was well written, but the story didn't grab me at all!! It's about the friendship of two girls, Tully and Kate, from 8th grade on for the next 30 years. Things happen, until one of them dies from cancer. I keep reading just to see what happens, out of curiosity, not out of any other reason. Knowing there's a sequel, I'll probably read the next one also, just out of curiosity. The writing is great, don't get me wrong. But it just doesn't grab me.

The story started when neighbors Tully and Kate, both in 8th grade, became fast friends. Tully declares that they are going to have journalism careers together. Kate agrees, but later on realizes she's more interested in writing than reporting. Tully get them an internship as seniors for a local TV station. Kate starts falling in love with her boss Johnny. Later they get married and have kids. Tully keeps climbing the journalist ladder and becomes very successful. Kate seems to always be in her shadow. When Johnny gets hurt on the job, Tully sees it as an opportunity to have exclusive reporting rights to the story and become more popular, which hurt Kate's feelings. Tully repeatedly chooses career over family, believing the right man will come along again after she's more successful. Tully wants to rekindle her relationship with her mother Cloud who's always on drugs. She decides to air the story on her show and have Johnny produce it, which makes her even more popular as she shows her vulnerable side on TV. In the meanwhile, Kate has a strained relationship with her daughter Marah, who idolizes the famous and popular Tully. Tully tells Kate they can do an episode on her show to repair the mother daughter relationship. Kate agrees, only to find out the script isn't what she expected and she's ridiculed by her daughter on national TV. The two girls have a falling out, until Kate finds out she has end stage breast cancer. Kate calls Tully and Tully comes and stays by her hospital bed side until she passes.

See? Not that interesting of a story. And I really don't like terminal illness stories. It just feels like a cheap device to pull heartstrings.

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