04/12/2026
Love by the Book names something I talk about with clients all the time: friendship is not static, it’s developmental.
As we move through different seasons of life: relocation, shifting identities, parenthood, loss( you name it) our relationships are asked to adapt alongside us.
Jessica George captures that evolution with so much skill.
Friendship, in this context, isn’t just about closeness but about capacity. The capacity to stay in relationship as things change. The capacity to tolerate difference, distance, and growth. The capacity to be intentional when ease is no longer the default.
Reading this, I found myself reflecting on how adult friendships require *active* care. Not just history or chemistry, but practice, communication, repair, flexibility, and choice.
Simone and Remy’s connection really illustrates what it looks like to meet someone in process. There’s no performance of having it all together. No illusion of perfection. Just two people navigating their own internal landscapes while allowing space for connection.
From a therapeutic lens, that kind of relationship models emotional risk-taking which requires the willingness to be seen while still becoming.
The book also speaks to a pattern I see often: how we protect ourselves from disappointment by closing off to new connection. How we tell ourselves it’s too late or too complicated to start again. And yet, this story gently challenges that belief. It reframes friendship as something we can continue to build, not just something we inherit or stumble into.
This novel doesn’t romanticize friendship. It acknowledges the effort, the misattunements, the shifts in needs. But it also honors the choice to remain in relationship and to keep showing up, to keep tending, to keep making space for one another in more honest ways.
If you’re thinking about how your relationships have changed, or what it means to stay connected as you change, this is a really grounding, reflective read. It’s a great read for the sister bond (biological) too!
