WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE by Alissa Lee-review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 4, 2025

A group of Harvard alums have played a secret game for decades but as the stakes rise, deadly consequences emerge from old lies..

Harvard promised them everything.

Ambitious futures, peers who pushed each other toward their absolute best, and an education that would open doors for the rest of their lives. And though they started out as roommates, Sara, Bee, Dina, Allie, Wesley, and Claudine soon became family. They had their whole bright lives ahead of them—until their senior year, when a shocking tragedy changed everything.

Twenty years later, five of the roommates still indulge in a secret tradition they’ve kept alive since their campus days: the Circus, a harmless elimination-style “killing” game played across the private rooms and hidden alleys of New York City. The game is a nod to their younger selves and a tribute to the sixth roommate they lost too young. But this year, Sara wants out of the game—until she discovers there is a small fortune awaiting the winner of this final round.

As the Circus unfolds, Sara begins to suspect that the others aren’t playing by the rules, and as the danger turns real and the old friends start pointing fingers, she discovers that even those closest to her harbor secrets of their own…secrets that could kill.

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REVIEW: WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE by Alissa Lee is a contemporary, adult, psychological thriller focusing on six former friends and Harvard graduates (Sara, Wesley, Allie, Bee, Dina, Claudine) who are all connected by a common thread, and their annual elimination game known as The Circus..

Told from first person perspective (Sara ) WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE focuses on the twentieth year of a game known as the Circus, a Harvard elimination game in which Sara, Wesley, Allie, Bee and Dina try to outwit and outsmart one another, taking aim until only one of the group survives but a twenty year cold case forces the group to round up the proverbial wagons only one of their members is refusing to play by the rules. Sara Simons is a wife, and a professional photographer who suspects the past is refusing to stay buried, and in this, attempts to pull out of the game the group has played for close to two decades but each member of the group is hiding their own secrets and lies, and in this, everyone becomes a real-life target, not a figurative loser at the end of the game, where winner takes all.

The world building is suspenseful and intriguing as each member of the group becomes the obsession and a target of vengeance. Nothing is clear; someone is targeting the members of the group, and in this, Sara is determined to uncover the truth. Everyone is suspect but some more so than most.

The secondary and supporting characters all have troubles and struggling. Former and current Harvard friends whose Circus game has come to a deadly end. We are introduced to photographer Sara Simons, surgeon Wesley, Allie Kohlstedt, DA Bee Colasanti, professor Dina Aoki, and Sarah’s husband Coulter.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE is a story of secrets and lies, betrayal and vengeance, greed and desperation, friendships and loss. The character driven premise is melodramatic and startling; the characters are determined, frantic and secretive.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy