What a delightful read! If you’re looking for a breath of fresh air, then this might be the very thing you need.
Joanna’s stuck in a bit of a rut. She’s in her forties (she’s reluctant to say which end of them, but we’ll let you guess) and life hasn’t exactly turned out how she expected it to. Her husband David has to be the most ungrateful, miserable individual every born, but at least she has her lovely son, Jack. And although Jack’s an adult and he’s moved out before, thank goodness he’s now back home and brings a bit of joy to what seems to be Joanna’s ever-increasingly unhappy existence (despite David’s constant accusations that he’s a Mummy’s boy and that she smothers him).
Joanna adores her younger sister Hannah, who lives nearby and they have a close relationship. But throughout their lives, it does seem that Hannah is the one who gets all the breaks. Things just seem to come easier to her and always have, whereas Joanna has found life to be more of a struggle and she’s always had to work harder to get any sort of recognition. She knows she needs to change things and that she’ll need to make some sort of drastic decision if she wants any sort of improvement to happen, but she genuinely has no idea how to make it happen.
But isn’t it funny, when you think that things can’t get worse, or you know you’ve reached a turning point, but don’t know which way to turn, the Universe walks in and says “Hi, I’ll take it from here …” And that’s what happens to Joanna one day during a shopping trip. In her usual, awkward way, she manages to drop stuff, unable to figure out how to carry all her shopping bags, when she lands up in a particularly embarrassing situation that proves to be exactly what she needs to point her in the direction she never realized she needed to take. Joanna is on a journey and she soon discovers that so much of the life we assume that others lead, isn’t quite what it appears to be on the surface. She might not be the only one who needs to take a closer look at things, and by changing her own life, she might even be able to help others make some of their own adjustments too.
There are so many readers out there who will easily relate to Joanna, She’s likeable, real and down to earth. She’s flawed and she knows it but she’s willing to own it and do what she can to get her life on track to where she wants it to be. Mostly, she realizes that she can no longer hide from her life and the mistakes that have gotten her to this point, and she knows that the responsibility lies with her if she wants things to improve.
This is a light and easy read with a deep and meaningful message. Thank you to RaRa Resources for the Blog Tour …
Jan's Book Buzz 
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