THE YEAR WE TURNED FORTY by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

From the Publisher's Website:

If you could repeat one year of your life, what would you do differently? This heartwarming and hilarious novel from the authors of The Status of All Things and Your Perfect Life features three best friends who get the chance to return to the year they turned forty—the year that altered all of their lives, in ways big and small—and also get the opportunity to change their future.

Jessie loves her son Lucas more than anything, but it tears her up inside that he was conceived in an affair that ended her marriage to a man she still loves, a man who just told her he's getting remarried. This time around, she’s determined to bury the secret of Lucas’ paternity, and to repair the fissures that sent her wandering the first time.


Gabriela regrets that she wasted her most fertile years in hot pursuit of a publishing career. Yes, she’s one of the biggest authors in the world, but maybe what she really wanted to create was a family. With a chance to do it again, she’s focused on convincing her husband, Colin, to give her the baby she desires.


Claire is the only one who has made peace with her past: her twenty-two year old daughter, Emily, is finally on track after the turmoil of adolescence, and she's recently gotten engaged, with the two carat diamond on her finger to prove it. But if she’s being honest, Claire still fantasizes about her own missed opportunities: a chance to bond with her mother before it was too late, and the possibility of preventing her daughter from years of anguish. Plus, there’s the man who got away—the man who may have been her one true love.


But it doesn’t take long for all three women to learn that re-living a life and making different decisions only leads to new problems and consequences—and that the mistakes they made may, in fact, have been the best choices of all…

My Review:

I always look forward to Liz and Lisa's latest release- no matter what they write it goes immediately on my wish list as soon as I learn about it. Although time travel and re-living your past is a theme that I've read before I was looking forward to seeing how Liz and Lisa would add their unique twist to it, and I wasn't disappointed!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book about three women who are given the chance to re-live their past in order to make (hopefully) better decisions. What I especially enjoyed is the fact that I had no idea what the ending would be! Predictable endings certainly have their place ( I enjoy a good predictable ending now and again!) but sometimes it's nice to not know what is going to happen, and I can truly say that I didn't know what would happen this time until it actually happened. It was nice to be left guessing!

Complex and well-written, The Year We Turned Forty is a worthy addition to your beach bag for this summer (if you can wait that long to read it!). My favourite author duo has done it again- creating a story so seamless that you will be amazed that it was written by two authors instead of one. At times the story had me laughing, other times it saddened me, and at the end it kept me guessing. I enjoyed it and I can't wait to see what these authors come out with next!

My thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest review.