There are six months left of Emma Reiss's twenties. . . and she has some unfinished business.
Emma and her friends are about to turn thirty, and for Emma it's a defining moment. Defined, that is, by her having achieved none of the things she'd imagined she would.
Her career is all wrong, her love life is a desert and that penthouse apartment she pictured herself in simply never materialised. Moreover, she's never jumped out of a plane, hasn't met the man she's going to marry, has never slept under the stars, or snogged anyone famous - just some of the aspirations on a list she and her friends compiled fifteen years ago.
As an endless round of birthday parties sees Emma hurtle towards her own thirtieth, she sets about addressing these issues. But, as she discovers with hilarious consequences, some of them are trickier to tick off than she'd thought…
With only one novel to complete the set, this was a welcome addition to my highly-enjoyable Jane Costello Marathon. A big thanks to Amanda at Onemorepage for sending it to me!
Review: Another cracker of a novel by Jane Costello. I have been thoroughly enjoying working my way through her novels and have been desperate to read the latest addition to her collection. This one is just as witty, fun and entertaining as the rest, certainly up to her usual fabulous standards!
This wonderful author always lands the reader right in on the action and this is no exception, straight away we find out about what exactly 'The Wish List' is and the fact that Emma has a matter of months to tackle it before her thirtieth birthday. We are introduced to all the characters. Emma is wonderful as a Heroine. She is a successful twenty-something with her own flat and a group of fabulously funny friends, and yet she allows this list to take her to places (metaphorically speaking) that she never thought possible. That, to me, is incredibly brave and inspiring. Her friends are fully supportive of her in this quest.
They are all well-developed characters in their own rights. And in true Jane Costello fashion, they all have issues of their own to deal with. Emma's sister Marianne is living in Edinburgh with her boyfriend, but there is some sort of mystery surrounding why she chose to up and leave her fabulous life in London. Cally is a single mum, but her friends are worried that being a mother has taken away the feisty character they once knew! And Asha is in a relationship, the complexities of which unravel of the course of the novel.
Then of course we have the male lead, Matt. At first I thought Matt seemed like a bit of a sap when he sends Emma a message over Facebook, but he turns out to be a really genuine guy who has Emma's best interests at heart even though he also comes with some baggage of his own. The book has the added bonus of a storyline involving Emma's father and his dating life running parallel with the main storyline, this is definitely worth some laughs and rally adds some depth to Emma's own story!
There were countless times when this book made me laugh, also a couple of times when I shed a tear or two. There was one particular moment during a supermarket scene where my blood literally boiled with anger, such is the power of this authors writing! I love the fact that Jane Costello writes in short chapters BUT it does mean that you may find yourself uttering the 'one more chapter' plea and not actually putting the book down for another 150 pages! This is a great addition to Jane Costello's collection of novels. Something that would be enjoyable whether you have read her novels before or not. I think this would appeal to fans of any age and would make an absolutely FABULOUS summer read!
You can follow Jane Costello on Twitter @janecostello
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