⭐⭐⭐⭐ Was I hooked by that book? Yes. A realistic look into the life of a woman who felt unseen and unappreciated, that brought home the message that it’s never too late to chase your dreams and that it’s okay if your dreams are different now than they were before.

Jessica Holloway has everything going for her, she is happily married, her two kids are doing well (for teenagers), she has a part-time job, regular visits with her friends, and she volunteers at the school. But Jess is not happy. Her kids are ungrateful, her husband doesn’t see her misery, her one best friend doesn’t understand her frustrations. She misses her younger self: the fun, smart woman with an excellent LSAT score who had dreams of becoming a lawyer. Why did she give it all up, was it worth giving up, and can she have her career now?

MY THOUGHTS

I think Jess is very representative of a lot of women in their 40s and 50s whose kids are growing more independent. Her role is changing and it’s leaving her feeling a bit empty. Jess didn’t know how to fix it, she just knew that something had to change. Her methods were maybe a bit haphazard and unwise, but all that made her more real, flawed, and relatable. She was supposed to keep a gratitude journal, but instead she made up fantasy scenarios where she was living a dream life somewhere far away. Jess felt unfulfilled and she made some impulsive decisions that she stubbornly clung to.

Some of Jess’s choices made me feel super frustrated. Sometimes I felt sympathy for her and other times I just wanted to shake her. Throughout the book I was rooting for Jess and Mike, but nothing between them was locked down until later, towards the end. That, and Jess’s uncertainty about her life, created a good amount of tension that made me want to continue reading. Mike and their children were also far from perfect, and they added to the mix of making bad decisions.

Even though it’s in the third person, the story is told just from Jess’s perspective. I enjoyed the quotes at the start of each chapter and Jess’s dream journal entries. The very last one seemed to be too good to be true, very few people get that lucky, but it was a good ending.

This isn’t a romance, it’s more about Jess finding herself again and it does have a happy ending. I can recommend this if you like women’s fiction with flawed, conflicted characters. See what other people are saying on Goodreads.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Were you hooked by that book? Let me know in the comments below.

Genre: Women’s Fiction
Sensuality Rating: Subtle