Review: The Time of My Life

The Time of My Life by Cecelia Ahern

Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 391
Published: October 31, 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Genre: Fiction

My Rating: 5/5

Summary (from chapters.ca):

Dear Lucy Silchester,

You have an appointment for Monday 27th July 2011.

Yours sincerely,
Life..

Lucy Silchester has received an appointment card. Actually, she's been invited along a few times to this appointment, but she keeps brushing the gold embossed envelope under the shag pile carpet. She's taken her eye off the ball and has busied herself with work (a job she doesn't love), helping out friends, fixing her car, feeding her cat, seeing her family and devoting her time to their life dramas.

But Lucy is about to find out that this is one appointment that she can't miss. And she can't escape it either. Her Life is about to catch up with her in the most surreal of ways...

Review:

You know when a book sits on your bookshelf for a while and when you pick it up and read it you wonder why it took you so long?  That is the feeling I got when I read The Time of My Life.  It was amazing... wonderful... fantastic.

I am going to start off by saying that I was confused by Life.  Who was this person... did he have a life of his own apart from Lucy's?  What does he do when not with her?  Where does he get his information from?  Who pays him?  Now, this may seem like Cecelia Ahern held back a lot of information in the story but the mystery of Life was part of the overall appeal.  It makes you really think about the relationship YOU have with your own life.

Lucy Silchester has to be one of my favourite 'chick lit' characters in a long time.  She embodies everything that makes for a great, memorable character and yet she has enough of the 'down-to-earth' qualities that she comes across as very real.  The story of her life before, during and after she meets her Life is so entertaining that I found myself reading way past bedtime and was able to get the entire 400 pages into a one-day read. 

So many of the situations outlined in The Time of My Life were those that any of the female readers could easily find themselves in and I thought that was genius on the part of Cecelia Ahern.  She made this a personal journey for each of the readers.  Each of the supporting characters were people that we all have in our lives and while the names and faces may be different, certain situations touch home.

Overall, a stunning read from an author that I have now put on the top of the chick lit pile!  A must-read for all fans of good chick lit reads!