Forty things to do before you're Forty

by Alice Ross

[Leah]

When I spotted Forty Things To Do Before You’re Forty, I thought it sounded interesting. I quite like bucket-list type books, and I thought this would be a wonderful bucket list book, but I found the book to not really be to my liking. So I’m going to keep my review short and sweet, because I don’t really have a lot to say, I must admit, which probably sums up how I felt as sometimes I can’t shut up about books!

I very much feel that if you title your novel Forty Things To Do Before You’re Forty, it shouldn’t take until after the novel is over to see what that list entails. Instead, the novel only focuses on one task – running a marathon; of all the things on that list, this is the one Annie picked to focus on, and I just felt because Annie only picked on thing, the novel was lacking. All the novel really focused on was Annie and Jake’s relationship, which I use loosely as they don’t really have one, for ages. They talk, sure, but then gossip interferes and they both separately wonder about certain incidents, and it’s yet another case of if they had just talked about their feelings, it would have been so much easier to sort out.

The novel started interestingly enough, but it flounders with not much to do, plot-wise. I would have loved to have read more about Annie’s baking (I love hearing about baking!), and more about the bucket list thing, but I just felt the book went nowhere as it was, which was a shame. Once the novel settled from the opening few chapters, very little happens and whatever does happen is very by-the-numbers and I was just bored and a bit disappointed, which was a crying shame as I wanted to enjoy this book.