Review: "The Pollyanna Plan" by Talli Roland

When Talli Roland's first novel came out in 2010 I remember reading it and thinking "Wow! That woman can write!". Fast-forward two years and Talli has become one of my favourite authors. When she announces a new book I can't wait to get my hands on it, and when it is released I can't wait to read it!

Talli's latest release is The Pollyanna Plan. It tells the story of Emma Beckett, who is living a perfectly adequate life. She engrosses herself in her job and has a fiance who loves his job as much as she loves hers. They are planning to marry as soon as they can leave their desks long enough to plan a wedding and although Emma doesn't feel any sparks with George she does feel that their relationship is perfectly fine. She chooses to look at life in a realistic way and if that doesn't make her the world's most exciting person, well, oh well!

When Emma loses her fiance and her job in the same week her best friend Alice challenges her to live her life like Pollyanna. Instead of always seeing the glass as half-empty, Alice encourages Emma to see the glass as half-full. Figuring that she has nothing to lose Emma goes along with the experiment and suddenly she is seeing the world in colour instead of monochrome! As she decorates her sterile apartment, gets to know her little half-sister, and meets a man that makes her heart race Emma finally sees what she's been missing all along. However when her new love interest's secret is revealed, Emma's new world comes crashing down around her. She sees how participating in the experiment opened her up to new heartbreak and she closes herself off to the world again. Is Emma fated to carry out a dull but safe existence or will the changes that she has recently made lure her back to a life of risk with a great potential payoff?

I couldn't help but love The Pollyanna Plan. The plot drew me in from the very beginning. I've long been a believer that being positive even when you don't feel like it can go a long way towards changing your outlook on life, so I loved that Talli chose to explore this theme. I also found myself really enjoying the fact that both Emma and her love interest Will narrate the book. Will's voice isn't as frequent as Emma's but somehow the dual narration really worked for me. I loved being able to get inside of Will's head and compare his thoughts to Emma's, especially at the beginning of the story. I also really appreciate the fact that Talli's books are polished with a capital P. There are no spelling or grammatical errors, but best of all the story flows. There are no awkward sentences or parts of the plot that don't seem quite right. Everything comes together in a way that contributes to an excellent reading experience.

The worst part of The Pollyanna Plan? It ended, and now I have to wait until Talli's next book comes out. Yes, I loved it that much, and yes, you need to buy yourself a copy right now! The Pollyanna Plan is available for $2.99 on Amazon.com and it is also available on Amazon.co.uk. My thanks to the author for providing me with a copy for review.