Monday, July 18, 2016

Dare Do A Do-Over?

Image: Amazon.com cover


If you could go back in time to fix something in your life, would you do it?  The Year We Turned Forty by Liz Fenton and Lise Steinke, takes a novel look at this question.

Three close women friends, who are about to turn 50, get a chance to go back 10 years to right the wrongs in their lives. Jesse lost her marriage when she confessed to an affair. Gabriela lost a chance at motherhood when she chose to focus on being a best-selling author. Claire lost control of her daughter in the wake of her mother's death. All three hope to go back in time (with the help of a magician) and make better choices.

Now here's the catch. After one year in "do-over" time, the three ladies must decide whether to stay and live their "new" life or go back to turning 50 and accept things as they went the first time around. To add tension, they must all stay or all go back together.

This is a five-star book for me, because I loved all the drama of relationships gone awry and the friendship between the three women. At first, going back and righting their wrongs seems to happen with a magical ease, but the "butterfly effect" soon complicates things. By the end of the book, you don't know whether these ladies should stay or go.

Fans of Liane Moriarity, author of The Husband's Secret and Big Little Lies, would enjoy The Year We Turned Forty. (Anyone else counting down the days until the release of Moriarity's Truly, Madly, Guilty?)

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On a different topic, I am a guest blogger today over at children's author, Stephanie Faris with Rodents and Your Car, A Recipe For Disaster. You probably have no idea how delectable your go-buggy is to little critters with big teeth. Paul and Laura Alderson suffer the consequences of such an invasion in the short story Monitor, available in Heart Stopper and Other Stories at Amazon.com.


Image: Cover from Amazon.com


Come August 9, Stephanie will have a release of her own with the Piper Morgan chapter book series. Go here for more details.

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Personally, I wouldn't dare go back in time to fix anything. I'm pretty sure I would only make things worse. How about you? Have you ever had to deal with a rodent invasion in your car, garage, or home? What worked best to get rid of them?


19 comments:

  1. A year in "do-over" time. That is a neat concept. I wonder what they choose: live new life or go back. I think that would be a hard decision to make.

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  2. There are so many things I'd like to do over, though if our lives didn't unfold in exactly the way they did, we wouldn't be where we are now.

    Some years back, there was a problem with rodents chewing something in my car, I think it was under the hood and under the floor mats. No actual rodents were found, though the damage was consistent with their biting and nesting behavior. I put dryer sheets under my floor mats for the long time, since I was told the smell would drive them away.

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  3. All three must do the same thing? Do I dare say getting three women to agree to that would be difficult?
    I wouldn't do anything over. I like my life now.

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  4. The clever part is that all must agree to stay or go. That would create tension as I'm pretty sure they have different opinions. :)

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  5. Love the theme of this one. Such a fascinating question to think about, especially for me as I just turned 60. Gulp.

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  6. That's an interesting concept. I have a feeling if I think about it too much it will make me a little bit crazy.

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  7. Aww, thank you for mentioning my book! So happy to have you on my blog yesterday (and continuing into today!). That first book certainly sounds interesting but what an odd age...there isn't much I'd change if I could go back to 40, but 30 for SURE! And 20, too! But then my path might not have led me here and I love the way my life is now.

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  8. That sounds like an excellent story. I'll have to add that to my to read list- Stephanie's book was already on the list.

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  9. That sounds like an excellent story. I'll have to add that to my to read list- Stephanie's book was already on the list.

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  10. I'm headed to Stephanie's place in a minute. Yay! That sounds like a book my neighborhood book club would love. I'll have to suggest it.

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  11. I'd be terrified to go back in time and fix things . . . there are too many small choices that lead to big, huge changes.

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  12. That sounds like an interesting concept. I'm not sure I'd want to change anything, to be honest.

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  13. That sound like a great read. I love Liz Fenton's work.

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  14. Huge fan of Lianne Moriarty's books. Waiting for Truly, Madly Guilty with bated breaths. Will check out The Year We Turned Forty.

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I will do everything in my power to visit commenter's blogs unless I've been abducted by aliens or my children get sick. (If my children get abducted by aliens, I will be very busy, of course, catching up on my sleep.)