The Year We Turned Forty

by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

[Linda]

This review was originally posted on (un)Conventional Bookviews
The Year We Turned Forty is a captivating story of friendship, love, choices and living with the consequences of those choices.



From the very start, The Year We Turned Forty appealed to me - I'm in my forties, too - because the three main characters, Jessie, Gabriela and Claire were my kind of women. Their close friendship was well done, and I loved that they were all flawed and kept some secrets, even from each other. Apart from the element of them going back in time from their 50th birthday to the day after their 40th birthday, the story is very realistic, and I think the struggles they each had in their lives made a lot of sense. One had trouble in her marriage, the other with her daughter whom she raised on her own, while the third had gotten divorced after she admitted to her husband that she had cheated on him. And these three aspects of their lives was the biggest reason why they agreed to go back ten years to try to fix their biggest mistakes.

While there were some heavy moments in The Year We Turned Forty, there was a lot of humour and lightness as well. Especially when they first woke up back in 2005, and had chunky phones instead of iPhones, and there were no tablets for them to do research on. Going back in time made all three of them react differently to situations that were similar, but this did not make their problems go away - only evolve in a slightly different manner. And as they were re-living some hard times, they were able to be more introspective, and understand that no matter their choices, they would have to live with the consequences.

Going back also created some different problems between the three friends, because of things they had kept from each other that came to the surface in unexpected ways. Also, Claire had to deal with a completely different aspect of her cheating than she did the first time, and while she was almost paralyzed with fear at times, she found an inner strength she hadn't had in a very long time. The Year We Turned Forty is character driven, and I loved to see that even going back in time didn't magically fix everything the three women thought was wrong in their lives. However, they were able to see some things with a very different perspective, and acting differently meant that the people close to them reacted differently as well.

Written in three different points of view, Gabriela,Claire and Jessie each share their part of the story in their own chapters, and in past tense, the story moved forward at a very good pace, and I got to know the three protagonists very well. I found the story to be very moving, both because of the strong friendships and because of the way the women handled their problems differently - and with very different outcomes - than the first time around.



As her baby boy was placed on her chest and she inhaled his smell, she was bewildered by how holding her son for the first time could be both the best and the worst moment of her life.

But just four words had changed everything. Four words had instantly trumped all the fights, the months without sex, the names they'd called each other. Just for words ruined their thirteen-year marriage.

He made Jessie feel like she was interesting and sexy, that she could take on the world.