Ultimately satisfying though I have to say if you are looking for a rah female friendship book, the two main characters have very little do with each other for most of the book which was funny. Instead both of them rely on people they have either just met and or have known for a while before circling back to their friendship. I found it a bit weird, but ultimately liked it. Rachel is still hurting from Claire turning away from their friendship when they were pre-teens and Claire is oblivious to the hurt she caused.

This is the second book in the Hartley-by-the-Sea books. We were introduced to one of the characters in the first book, Rachel Campbell. The second character we follow is Claire West.

Rachel has had a hard life. She gave up the chance to go to university and get a degree in chemistry. Instead she is forced to drop out after her father runs out on her, her two younger sisters, and her disabled mother. Rachel takes over her mother's cleaning business and cleans the homes of the residents of Hartley-by-the-Sea and wishes for better things for her younger sister who is about to take her O levels. Forgive me if I got that wrong since I did not grow up in England and always mess up the A and O levels in books. Though Rachel is not trying to, she is pressuring her younger sister to do what she didn't do which is to go to university and get a degree in biology.

Claire is hiding in Hartley-by-the-Sea. After her fiancee calls her parents and claims she's an alcoholic, Claire goes to rehab and then refuses to follow her parents to London. Instead she goes back to her childhood home where she hopes to find a job.

Rachel is surprised to run into Claire when she stops by to clean one day and it brings up all of her anger towards Claire dropping her when they were kids. Claire finds a job at the local store/post office and is doing her best to push her parents and her older brother, Andrew, out of always thinking they know what's best for her.

We have a lot of secondary characters in this one. We have Rachel's two sisters, her nephew, and Claire's brother Andrew, as well as the shopkeeper that hires Claire. We also get some nice sightings of Juliet and Lucy from book #1 as well as Abby Rhodes (who is the focus of book #3) and a few other characters as well.

Hewitt does a nice job with writing about two girls whose lives did not turn out the way they expected. They both get pushed in different ways which was great. Rachel has to learn to let go, and Claire has to learn to speak up for herself and do what she wants, even if it is hard. We do get some romance in this one, but not a lot honestly. Both of the women are the focus in this book and they have a lot going on from beginning to end.

Hartley-by-the-Sea sounds charming though cold and Hewitt does a great job with describing the village and it's inhabitants love of the weekly pub quiz.

The ending has both women on a different path and I hope that Hewitt keeps following up on them in future books. ( )

In the little Cumbrian town of Hartley-by-the-Sea, Claire West and Rachel Campbell were best friends as children, at least from Year Two through Year Five. But they came from very different backgrounds, and in Year Six things changed. Rachel's mother, the reliable working income in their household, fell and broke her back. Rachel became responsible for the care of her younger sisters. Meanwhile, Claire's wealthy family enrolled her in a tonier school than the village school they'd both attended till then.

Claire was too shy to walk out of the circle of rich girls who were suddenly her "friends," while Rachel was too proud to fight this apparent dropping of their friendship.

Fifteen years later, Rachel is still in Hartley-by-the-Sea, having given up her cherished opportunity to attend Durham University to support her family when their father leaves them, without explanation and apparently without a backward glance.

Her mother, Janice Campbell, is still trapped in her bed by her broken back. Middle sister Meghan has a three-year-old son and works a few nights a week at the local bar. Youngest sister Lily is finishing secondary school and has a conditional acceptance from Durham University, pending the results of her exams.

Rachel loves her family, but she's given up all her own dreams to take care of them, and is tired, prickly, and feeling unappreciated.

Claire West has just arrived back in Hartley-by-the-Sea, just released from a month in rehab after her fiance told her parents she had a drinking problem. She's spent the intervening years being coddled, protected, and managed by her family, especially her mother, and is determined to stop going along with this. She wants to choose her own path in life.

She just has no idea how to do that.

Both women face surprises, frustrations, and discoveries over the next few months. They both miss their old friendship, but can they forgive each other? Claire's family has already tried to make her come back to London, and she;s evaded that once, but has no idea how she can manage outright defiance. Rachel is making her cleaning business work and support the family, but everything's tight, especially with her mother's expensive medications. Meghan is increasingly unreachable, and Lily--Lily says she doesn't want to go to Durham University. And she wants to study art and design, not biology. How can she pass on the wonderful opportunity that Rachel herself had to give up?

We get each woman's viewpoint in alternating chapters, as they struggle with their difficulties, get challenged in their views of the lives, and make unexpected new friends. Including, in a slow and painful process, each other.

This was much more absorbing than I expected it to be, with both Claire and Rachel more engaging and compelling than my initial impressions of them. A great beach read.

Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. ( )

This book was an easy and quick story - perfect for summertime reading. Yet, it deals with some difficult issues: childhood abandonment, parental chronic illness, mistrust of or lack of confidence in others, and seeing the world through only your own eyes without consideration of the viewpoints of others. One could almost treat it as a self-help book with a sweet fictional narrative.
This story focuses on two, now grown, women who though once best friends are now virtual strangers after a childhood falling out which just happened and resulted in disappointment by both girls. One is of the poorer struggling class and the other of the wealthy set. It is set in the small Cumbrian town of Hartley-by-the-Sea. Rachel is struggling, running her permanently disabled mother's home-cleaning business while managing the Campbell home and the residing younger siblings and young nephew. She feels as though she's the only one of the family working so hard to keep it all together - just trying to keep the loose threads of their family ties from unraveling. The fact that Rachel's dad walked out on the family 11 years ago sure didn't help matters.
Meanwhile, childhood friend, Claire West, returns to Hartley-by-the-Sea after a failed engagement and lackluster career in Portugal which resulted in an alcohol rehab stint. Claire didn't really feel like an alcoholic. She just felt trapped and gave in to the abundantly flowing alcohol one evening. Her disgusted fiancé, Hugh, suggested to her parents that Claire had a drinking problem and she was quickly shuffled off to a rehab hospital. Claire is so used to everyone directing her life so what's the point in arguing about this turn of events? Following rehab, she chooses not to head to her parents' home in London but rather to her childhood home by the sea. She wants a fresh start and thinks that being on her own will give her that start. Good thought except that she continues to look to others for direction.
The story really picks up as the interaction between these two women develops. Other characters, equally well developed, are introduced and add sparkle and charm to the story. This was a charming feel good story and much enjoyed.
I am grateful to author Kate Hewitt, publisher Penguin Random House and Goodreads First Reads for having provided a free advance reading copy of this book. Their generosity, however, did not influence this review - the words of which are mine alone. ( )

Now and Then Friends can be summed up in one word: BRILLIANT!! Book 2 in the Hartley-by-The-Sea series, it has become my favorite book thus far in 2016. It's the first book this year to make me cry intermittently, and one in which I was sincerely disappointed to see end. I have loved all of Kate Hewitt's books, but she really outdid herself with this one. All of the characters, primary and secondary, were so well developed and beautifully flawed with such admirable, redeeming qualities, that I was majorly interested in each of their stories.

In it we find two women, Rachel Campell and Claire West, best friends in primary school but who after four years drifted apart when Claire, the shy but financially privileged one, seemingly abandoned Rachel for the "in" crowd of girls that embraced her. It's about 16 years later and Rachel stumbles upon Claire in her parent's house, which Rachel cleans, presenting a very awkward reunion between the two. Claire has been living and working in Portugal with her now ex-fiancé, Hugh, but has returned to her childhood home in Hartley-by-The-Sea to reclaim her life and start over on her own terms, without everyone else's interference as to what's the best course for her to take. Rachel's dreams of procuring a University education dissolved after a mere two weeks when her mother had an accident while on a cleaning job rendering her bedridden, and relegating Rachel to the tasks of caring for her, the cleaning business and her two younger sisters since her father took off shortly after their mum became incapacitated. These are the predicaments of the two women when they come face to face after 16 years. What ensues after that is stubborn pride, resentments, and misunderstandings that initially hinder a proper reconciliation. However, as circumstances in life cause both women to converge and grow, there's the hope that with some compromise everyone involved can see a brighter future.

The vivid setting, superb depth of characters, deeply emotional dialogue, complex relationships and wry humor kept me planted to my seat in eager expectation of each pursuant chapter. There are so many astonishing moments to relive in my mind's eye that this book will have a lasting favorable impact on me for many days, weeks or even months to come. I await Book 3 in the series with eager anticipation. ( )

This is Kate Hewitt's second book with a setting of Hartley-by-the-Sea, a small town in England. There are a few references to the characters in the first book but this can be read as a stand alone with no confusion.

Claire Westland and Rachel Campbell were best friends in school until Claire started to hang out with the popular crowd in junior high. Claire left town as soon as possible to live in Spain and Rachel stayed to take care of her mother and sisters and to take over the family's housecleaning business. When Claire returns to town, Rachel is filled with resentment. She is sure that Claire has led an exotic life while she was stuck in the same place and she sees no reason to rekindle their friendship. But Claire's life has a lot of issues and they both really need a friend but can they get past their resentment of each other and become friends again?

Kate Hewitt does a fantastic job of creating her two main characters - they are very real and both have a lot of problems and faults. Both were unlikable at times but once their whole story is revealed, they are both fantastic characters.

This is a fun summer read and I highly recommend it.

Thanks to Penguin House and the author for a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. ( )