This is pretty much the only book by Ellen Emerson White that I do not particularly enjoy. It is alright but nowhere near on par with her other works. ( )

This book lacked the charm of its sequel Life Without Friends. LWF had something extra to it than your average whodounit. It was more than a YA mystery. This was better than the Sweet Valley High series but because I'd read LWF already I was expecting it to be as good.The book had good points. The grief over her friend was palpable. Her dead friend was more realised than her boyfriend. The villain was scarier in LWF. Here he was your average villain you might see pushing drugs in a Nancy Drew pc videogame. This book lacked the danger one should experience if they are going undercover in a drug cartel. "Listen... I'm not into pushy girls."This book felt exactly like a Nancy Drew game actually. ( )

After having lived in New York for the past three years, Susan McAllister returns to Boston hoping to fit right in with old friends. She's happy to resume her relationship with Patrick and even more excited to be reunited with her best friend Colleen. Colleen however, has changed. She's lost too much weight, seems preoccupied, and is convinced a classmate was murdered when no one else suspects a thing. Susan isn't sure what to make of this accusation until Colleen herself is found dead, supposedly from a drug overdose, and Susan is determined to find out who is responsible for her best friend's murder.Ooohhh. Feel like we're in a Sweet Valley High novel yet?Although Susan is convinced of foul play, her parents and even Patrick don't want to hear anything about it. She's all alone on this one and as she slowly starts to tarnish her new girl reputation, Susan gets closer to danger herself as she finds out who dealt that fatal dose of LSD (I know - campy but still fun) to Colleen.Imagine my surprise when I figured out that the Susan in Friends for Life is actually the same Susan as Meg's hall adviser at college in Long May She Reign - I guess when you have a good character you don't forget them. In Long May She Reign however, I felt like Susan was much more interesting and developed (funny, since she's only a secondary character in that one). Unlike her later books, Friends For Life has a bit of sensationalism to it (upper class teens overdosing on drugs) and is more focused on the drama rather than letting the action be driven by the characters themselves. Which is okay, it just doesn't create the depth which I'm come to associate with Ellen Emerson White's other novels. This difference is most likely due to the fact that Friends for Life is Ellen Emerson White's first novel, written while written while still a student herself. So however much I enjoyed this book, it definitely had a few quirks and didn't pull me in quite as much. That's not to say I didn't enjoy Susan. She's so full of loyalty and courage, it's hard not to like her. ( )