Firefly Lane is a beautiful story about a friendship that survives three decades. At its core are Tully and Kate, who became best friends at age 14 and are always together through life's heartaches and triumphs.

In Tully, Kristen Hannah has created a wild and undisciplined teenager; she rarely sees her drug-addicted mother and lives most of the time with her grandparents. Kate is a teenager with low self-esteem living with a typical middle class family.

On one of the rare occasions when Tully is actually living with her mom, she moves in across the street from Kate. The girls bond when Tully confides to Kate about a very traumatic experience. Over time Tully became part of Kate's family and their lives merge, they share the same dream and attend the same college. Things change when Kate realizes having a family is more important to her than her job; Tully always craving fame and success, will stop at nothing until her dream comes true.

Hannah's creation had me laughing out loud and tearing up, I didn't want to put it down but I also didn't want it to end. By the end of the book I wanted to hug Tully and Kate. This is a touching look into women's friendships and all that it entails; a perfect book to share and discuss over coffee with your girlfriends.

Readers will also learn about a little-known form of breast cancer that could effect everyone, especially women. I never heard of it and wonder how many others may also be uninformed. The author puts a postscript at the end of the story explaining how this disease touched her life.

Hannah was in law school when she started writing her first book; she worked on it with her mother who was battling breast cancer. After her mother's death she put the story away and worked as a practicing attorney. She forgot about the story until after the birth of her first child, and she finally finished her first manuscript, published as On Mystic Lake, after the birth of her second child. It made the New York Times bestsellers list.

To learn more about the author visit her official site.