Lau­ren Appelbaum’s debut nov­el is a mas­ter­ful blend of a com­ing-of-age sto­ry and an oppo­sites-attract romance. The book fol­lows Rachel Weiss as she nav­i­gates adult­hood, anchored by her three best friends in their group chat. Rachel’s life becomes all the more inter­est­ing when her par­ents’ new neigh­bors move in and intro­duce their eli­gi­ble-bach­e­lor son, Christo­pher Butkus. What starts as pure abhor­rence becomes Insta­gram mes­sages and texts, where the two open up and con­fide in one another.

Appelbaum’s nov­el is mar­ket­ed as a roman­tic com­e­dy, but it is even more about reach­ing matu­ri­ty. Rachel makes many poor deci­sions and often­times lacks self-aware­ness around her fam­i­ly and friends. How­ev­er, part of her jour­ney requires that she learn to be a sup­port­ive daugh­ter, sis­ter, and friend. Through­out the book, Rachel faces con­flicts because she’s focus­ing only on her­self and not being mind­ful of what is tran­spir­ing around her. As her group-chat friends mature, she feels left behind, spark­ing a quar­ter-life cri­sis. How­ev­er, as Rachel begins to find her place again and open her heart to Christo­pher, she real­izes that she can’t just float through life — she needs to start tak­ing more control.

Rachel Weiss’s Group Chat is a laugh-out-loud sto­ry. Weav­ing in romance and a lit­tle bit of Jew­ish cul­ture, the book high­lights the impor­tance of female friend­ships and per­son­al growth.