Title: Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up
Author: Alexandra Potter
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
[Synopsis]
Nell Stevens’ life is a mess.
When her business goes bust and her fiancé with it, Nell’s happy ever after in California falls apart and she moves back to London to start over. But a lot has changed since she’s been gone. All her single friends are now married with children, sky-high rents force her to rent a room in a stranger’s house and in a world of perfect instagram lives, she feels like a f*ck up. Even worse, a forty-something f*ck-up.
But when she lands a job writing obituaries, Nell meets the fabulous Cricket, an eighty-something widow with challenges of her own, and they strike up an unlikely friendship. Together they begin to help each other heal their aching hearts, cope with the loss of the lives they had planned, and push each other into new adventures and unexpected joys.
Because Nell is determined. Next year things are going to be very different. It’s time to turn her life around.
[My Review]
Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up is an easy, fun read about a woman (forty-something years old, of course) who feels like her life hasn’t got to where she thought it would be at this age. She’s just broken up with her fiance, moved back in with her parents, and hasn’t got a proper career to speak of. This is the story of how she navigates a life which is less ‘together’ than she expected it to be.
I love the fact that this features a slightly older woman than characters we’re often presented with in other books in the ‘women’s fiction’ / ‘chick-lit’ (both annoying classifications, let’s face it) genres, and one who has a real zest for life. There’s her friend Cricket, who is exactly the kind of person I want to be when I’m a lot older, and her odd new landlord Edward – all interesting and different characters, which is what I enjoyed about this book. I also really liked that one character, who I definitely thought was going to play a more significant role just because that’s what always seems to happen in books like this, actually didn’t.
However, this is quite a long book and there were plenty of parts within the story were a little predictable. I also wasn’t completely sure about the very end of the book which felt a little rushed / tacked on, but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment overall.
Plenty of the pages made me laugh and smile, and there were a lot of interesting issues raised within the story. I really enjoyed my time in Nell’s world and would happily read more about her in future books.
[Rating: 4/5]
Many thanks to the publisher, Pan Macmillan, for providing a copy of this book on which I chose to write an honest and unbiased review.