Family Friends

With FAMILY FRIENDS Ashby has created a piercing portrait of marriage, friendship and parenthood. It is a propulsive story with intrigue, secrecy and drama – I had a wonderful time reading it

Jenny Mustard, author of What a Time to Be Alive

With delicacy, sensitivity and atmospheric depth, Ashby writes the way I imagine an artist paints, with attention to the tiniest of details; it’s in this attention and astute observation that she so deftly captures what it means to love and to betray

Huma Qureshi, author of Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love

Sultry and very evocative. Ashby is discerning when writing children and teenagers, and there's a shrewdness to how the energy within those lively, underage time-bombs translates deftly to the tortured, uncertain adults around them. FAMILY FRIENDS contains the sort of characters you'd die to have as neighbours: chaotic, and always on the verge of their next mistake — perfect, in other words, to gossip with friends over

Jo Hamya, author of The Hypocrite

A beautifully poised and riveting novel about the intricacies and entanglements of a group of friends holidaying in the south of France. I was gripped from the start

Claire Powell, author of At The Table

All the hallmarks of a perfect literary holiday read: an idyllic setting, eclectic cast of characters, and multiple unresolved tensions that keep unfurling … Such is Ashby’s skill that you won’t want to put it down (other than to reapply your suncream)

Roxy Dunn, author of Wants and Needs

Family Friends yanked me out of a reading slump. Ashby has such a precise eye for the detail that exactly fits the scene. Filmic and absorbing, I enjoyed it very much

Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of The Sleep Watcher

Delicious! Chloë’s best yet … So good on the way that time ties knots in relationships that trip us up further down the line. Chloë is so patient with her characters, even when they’re making terrible mistakes, whilst also keeping us hooked on her tangled plot

Lizzy Stewart, author of Alison

An intelligent, evocative, elegant novel simmering with tension and drama. Family Friends is a forensic examination of friendship and desire, and the perils of mixing the two

Lisa Owens, author of Natural Disaster

More complicated family entanglements, secrets and lies, set against the backdrop of a sultry summer holiday in the South of France. Chloë writes in a painterly manner - with precision and subtlety

Book(ish), Natasha Poliszczuk: Good Books for 2026

I read Family Friends in winter and was transported to a warm, languid summer in a French country house where two families gather yearly. In Chloë Ashby's expert hands, a hot summer is the perfect setting for mistakes to be made and for tensions to simmer until they reach a boiling point

Rukky Brume, author of It Comes in Waves

Atmospheric and seriously stylish, Family Friends is the perfect sultry summer read that will transport you to the simmering heat of the South of France. With these intriguing characters, Ashby continues to cement herself as a deft observer of the knots and tangles of human relationships

Ela Lee, author of Jaded

An involving and psychologically acute portrait of marriage, friendship and loyalty tested to the limit. A sophisticated summer page-turner for Tessa Hadley fans

The Bookseller, Editor's Choice

Family Friends is a novel of simmering tensions and sultry summer nights. Ashby writes so astutely about female friendship, marriage, motherhood and adolescence, and has created a quietly compelling novel dissecting the unspoken tensions that exist between loved ones

Hannah Beckerman