Also of interest... in friendships made and broken

The Three of Us by Ore Agbaje-Williams (Putnam, $26)

“Everybody needs a friend as loyal as Temi. God help anybody with a friend like Temi,” said Ron Charles in The Washington Post. That’s the paradox of Ore Agbaje-Williams’ “deliciously wicked” debut novel, which offers three perspectives on a marriage: one from the husband, one from the wife, and one from her “rich, dazzling, and deeply possessive” best friend, Temi, who disapproves of the relationship. The book is “as short and sharp as a paring knife—perfect for carving up this marriage.”

I Thought You Loved Me by MariNaomi (Fieldmouse, $30)

In her latest graphic memoir, MariNaomi attempts to resolve the unresolvable, said Noah Berlatsky in the Los Angeles Times. Using “a barrage of techniques,” including comics, collage, and reproduced letters, the writer-illustrator reflects on a significant friendship that ended abruptly and mysteriously. Though explanations for the break eventually emerge, they “don’t completely coalesce.” Perhaps that’s by design. MariNaomi was left feeling incomplete by the relationship’s end, and “to be true to it, the book has to be one of gaps.”

Wild Things by Laura Kay (Vintage, $17)

Great romantic comedies are very rare, said Casey McQuiston in The New York Times. “By page 7 of Wild Things, I knew I had found one.” Eleanor, an aimless 20-something, buys and moves into a fixer-upper in the English countryside with three friends, including her longtime crush. The result is “buoyant, charming, delectably wistful, and quietly earnest—not to mention, British enough to beguile even the subset of Americans who cuddle up to The Great British Bake Off.”

The Celebrants by Steven Rowley (Putnam, $28)

Billed as The Big Chill for our time, Steven Rowley’s new novel is “equal parts contemplative, heartfelt and, yes, slightly corny,” said Alexis Burling in the San Francisco Chronicle. After the sudden death of one of their gang, five college friends vow to celebrate each surviving member before it’s too late, and begin reuniting occasionally for “living funerals” that often turn wild. “While sentimental moments abound, there are plenty of funny surprises, too,” and The Celebrants builds to “a truly heartrending conclusion.”