Thirty-one year old Charlotte Merryweather is a glowing example of the modern woman, a successful businesswoman who owns and runs her own PR company, living in a smart flat in London, with a fabulous sports car and a property developer boyfriend. Her day starts at six in the morning and a work out with her personal trainer, before a busy day filled with business lunches with top flight journalists, meetings with prospective clients, cocktail party press launches and dinner with Miles, her boyfriend. Sounds perfect? Charlotte is stressed out, always tired, a glutton for self help books on how to perfect her life, and has migrated from her dream of becoming a writer in favour of financial stability. So when she follows a diversion because of road works and finds herself face-to-face with her twenty-one year old self, she realises she has the perfect opportunity to undo some of the mistakes she made ten years ago.
The genre of chick-lit has moved on from the straight forward boys meets girl type of romcom, and now spans the spectrum of the life of women in today’s society. This is no exception, and although the publishers are keen to point out on the back cover that this is a romantic comedy, it is really more about a woman coming to terms with the mistakes she made when she was younger, and learning to understand what the important things are in her life, and realising her dreams. There is enough romance to satisfy the chick-lit audience, but this book is squarely in the aspirational category, concentrating on the main characters relationship with herself, her family and friends.
When I reviewed the last book by this author, I said that I thought it was a return to the form she showed in her first couple of books, and this one is even better. I loved the heroine, both as a twenty-one and thirty-one year old. All through the book, you’re wondering why she changes so much from the young carefree woman, into the stressed executive, and when the explanation arrives, it is brief, but as a woman, it speaks volumes and you understand completely how it could change your life.
You do wonder how the author is going to explain the time-travel plot line, and it is a bit of a cliché, but it’s not too overblown and I think she gets away with it. The ending of the epilogue is a bit corny as well, and if I’d written this book, I’m not sure I would have included it, but I guess it was necessary to tie up a particular loose end. It didn’t spoil the book by any means though, so I’m not going to quibble over it!
Overall, an above average chick-lit book, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and would happily recommend to other fans of the genre.
the view from chesil beach 