patching hearts

Amazon's description:
In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the “coolest girl in the world” moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all---beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer’s end they’ve become TullyandKate. Inseparable.
From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. In the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, she looks to men to fill the void in her soul. But in the buttoned-down nineties, it is television news that captivates her. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success . . . and loneliness. 
Kate knows early on that her life will be nothing special. Throughout college, she pretends to be driven by a need for success, but all she really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn’t know is how being a wife and mother will change her . . . how she’ll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she’ll envy her famous best friend. . . .
Ok...disclaimer...this book is sad.  My sister has been telling me to read it for 2 years.  I finally did and cried my eyes out--at work (during lunch) no less.  Here's what I thought...

I am lucky enough to have a few life long friends.  Most of my closest girlfriends are girls that I have known since elementary school so I can relate to that life long friendship.  My friends are like my sisters for me as well.  They are the first ones I call (other than my husband) when I am happy...or sad.  They are always there to pick up the piece, no matter the distance between us.  I love the Kate and Tully share that same friendship as well. 

I related most to Kate.  She is logical and realistic and optimistic.  Ok, I may be more optimistic than realistic, but I definitely related to her.  Like Tully and Kate, I also majored in Communications with a plan to go into broadcasting, but like Kate, I discovered, I really only enjoyed the writing and I didn't have the ambition to be on-camera and move anywhere for a job.  My focus was having a family as well. 

Kate and Tully's story is heart warming and heart breaking at the same time.  I love that the book shows...no matter what happens and how much time passes, lifelong friends are just that....life long.  I would definitely recommend this book to anyone (just read it alone unless you want to cry big ugly tears). 

** I'm now reading the follow up book- Fly Away.  I'll post on that when I'm finished (only on Chapter 5).  It is slower so far, but still good.