Fallon Monroe is a 40-year-old soccer mom with a great husband, an adorable seven-year-old, the hot flashes of menopause, and a chocolate business she’s trying to get off the ground. Aside from spending extra time in the freezer aisle at the grocery store trying to cool off, she does okay. Not great, like those moms who can be full makeup and clean clothes at school drop-off, but okay. Until her friends cut her off.

They had been a solid group of friends. Well, they were still a solid group of friends. Fallon just wasn’t invited to hang out with them anymore. Her former best friend Beatrice stopped answering her texts and taking her calls, and Fallon doesn’t know why. So Fallon decides to win her back.

She decides to try a tea party, but the plans for that fizzle out. But her plans for the Mexican Fiesta are strong, with plenty of margaritas and tacos for everyone. There is a mariachi band, there is a piñata filled with tequila, there is broken glass on the dance floor, flying cactus, and an ambulance. When Fallon wakes up in the hospital, having passed out at the party, she is told that she is overly stressed and needs to take better care of herself.

While trying to get her chocolate business going is difficult, Fallon thinks that it’s her friend ship problems that are causing her the most aggravation. She decides to go the the therapist that helped her and her husband back when they were having some problems, and she ends up taking a look at all her relationships and how her thoughts about her friendships are taking a toll on her mental health. As she realizes what she wants in a friend and what she doesn’t, she learns how to be a friend to herself first.

The Friendship Breakup is a sweet reminder of how much female friends matter in modern life. It’s told with warmth and lots of humor, with good friendships and toxic friendships and one hairy, clumsy male stripper with a knack for showing up at the wrong time. It’s smart and encouraging and gives female friends the story line that usually goes to romantic relationships.

I think we’ve all heard that friends come for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. We’ve all been hurt by those we thought were friends but who turned their backs on us when we needed them. The Friendship Breakup is a study of friendship, the ones that last and the ones that don’t, and the feelings that come with the new ones, the old ones, the toxic ones, and the ones we depend on for our sanity. This one is a chocolate covered treat, but there is substance under that candy coating too.

Egalleys for The Friendship Breakup were provided by Alcove Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.