Cecelia Ahern has become known for writing rather surreal novels (with the exception of "P.S. I Love You" and "Love, Rosie"). She's had women with imaginary friends, women who get sucked into another world and women who share memories with a person whom they've never met. As you can imagine, I wasn't surprised to learn that "The Time of My Life" followed along this vein, even though it stayed within the realm of chick lit.
Lucy Silchester has been ignoring the invitations to have a meeting with her life. When she finally does agree to a meeting, she doesn't like what she sees, yet she is hounded even further by her life than ever before. She's been known to give her life the brush-off in order to take care of everyone and everything else. Will she be able to meet her life's demands, especially since it has taken on a human form...as a man, no less?
I first need to say that I really loved "The Time of My Life." It was the version of Cecelia Ahern that I've been waiting for since "If You Could See Me Now." Granted, I've enjoyed her other novels since then, but not nearly as much as this one. She gave Lucy so much depth that I felt like I knew her as a friend. I actually wanted to give her a reality slap a few times but enjoyed that her life did that for me. It's so nice to meet a character who has so many quirks and flaws that her family and friends feel she needs an intervention from her life. For some reason, it made her more endearing to me, even when she was quickly making things even worse for her life. She was such a well drawn out and memorable character and I loved her interactions with everyone around her. It was fun getting into her head, being able to cheer when things went well and getting all frustrated when she made a bad move.
Seeing that Lucy's life took on a human form, this story was bound to have a few metaphors to play around with. However, there was an abundance of metaphors, as if Ms. Ahern wanted to hit us over the head with them. She was spelling them out for her readers like we couldn't figure them out for ourselves. Even so, the metaphors were cute and clever at times, so I can't fault her too much. There were times that did warrant a dousing of metaphors. Aside from that, some of the sentences became overly wordy, like one big run-on paragraph, and I had to re-read those parts a few times to get what she was really saying.
Overall, this was a feel-good novel that made me question what it would be like if my own life wanted to have a meeting with me. Fans of Ms. Ahern's earlier works, as well as Sophie Kinsella novels, would really enjoy this story. It was a treat to savor even after I got to the last page!
Thanks to HarperCollins UK for the book in exchange for an honest review.
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I don't know what my life would say if I had a meeting with myself. Sounds really interesting. I have never read any of this authors work. But judging by your review I should.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up wonderful review Melissa. I am going to order it now from my library. I just loved "If I could See you Now" as we discussed earlier in the week. What a fabulous book!
ReplyDeleteAlthough it will be hard to top Sophie Kinsella's "I've Got Your Number." I listened to it on audio, and it was fantastic! Love both authors!