Review: "The Time of My Life" by Cecelia Ahern

Lucy Silchester's life has been on hold since boyfriend Blake left her 2 years and 11 months ago, and Lucy has been ignoring it ever since. However, Life is now refusing to be ignored and Lucy has an appointment with him that he will not allow her to miss. Meeting her Life is shocking- he is disgusting and dirty and he appears to be ill. Lucy is shocked but she is even more so when she realizes that this is indeed HER life. Life is quick to point out to her that her life as it is right now is in shambles. She hates her job, her life is one big tangle of lies, she isn't getting along with her family and she doesn't stay until the end of anything. Life has had enough and he is here to help Lucy fix the mess that she's created.

The Time of My Life is thought-provoking and it has an important message, yet it remains fun and it never becomes annoying or preachy. I'll admit that it took me a few chapters to get into the story but I believe that was because Lucy Silchester is unapproachable in the beginning. She is a Silchester and Silchester's are known for being stoic and emotionally unavailable. Silchester's never cry. As a result it was hard to get to know Lucy at first, but that was deliberate and as Life works with her, her tough outer layers are peeled away and she becomes far more human and far more likable.

The supporting characters in The Time of My Life brought this book to a whole new level. Life (or Cosmo Brown as he is otherwise known) is an altogether likable character and love interest Don is both hilarious and sweet. Lucy's neighbor with the invisible baby as well as her crazy friends make this story complete. It is these characters that bring humour into the pages and they lend us some surprising insights. Bonus points go to Lucy's mother. We don't truly get to know her until the end, but once we do it's impossible not to love her!

The Time of My Life is well worth the read. I really loved the underlying message but it was so subtle that it didn't dominate the book. There were some laugh-out-loud moments as well as some really sad ones, but they all came together to form a book that I would encourage people to take the time to read. My thanks to the publishers for providing me with a copy for review.