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November 12, 2008 10:50 AM

BOOK REVIEW: Time of My Life by Allison Winn Scotch

I really enjoyed Allison Winn Scotch's debut, The Department of Lost and Found, and I'd been looking forward to her second book, Time of My Life for a while (particularly since I saw the beautiful cover).

It's another in a fairly long line of "what if" type books. Like Jenny Colgan's Do You Remember the First Time (in which a 30-year-old woman wakes up one day to find herself transported back to age 16). Or Catriona McCloud's almost-brilliant Growing Up Again, in which the main character also goes back in time to age 15.

Time of My Life has probably got the most in common with Mil Millington's Instructions For Living Someone Else's Life, in which Chris Mortimer goes to bed aged 25 in 1988 and wakes up aged 43 in 2006. But, you know, in the opposite direction.

Time of My Life's Jillian only goes back seven years, but they're an important seven years. In the present, she's married to Henry, living in the suburbs, a stay-at-home mom to eighteen month old Katie. She's not happy and more and more she finds herself thinking about her former life in New York, working as an advertising executive and living with the sexy Jackson.

And then - via a masseur unblocking her chi - she's back in her old life. At first, it's good. The sex is better than she remembered and, thanks to her future knowledge, she's kicking ass at work. But she misses her daughter. And, when she starts bumping into her future husband, Henry - and is able to directly compare him to Jackson - she's not sure which time she belongs in.

I enjoyed Time of My Life, but I found it a bit slow-going. Reviews on the back cover describe it as "a fabulous, madcap read". Also "funny" and "hilarious". I'm not sure they were reading the same book. I didn't find it funny at all and it's far from madcap. In fact, it's what I would call emotionally intelligent. Jillian looks deeply into the experiences that made her into the person she was (in the future, if you know what I mean). Her mother's abandonment at age 9. The death of her best friend. Her need to be popular.

Despite this, I never really felt I got to know Jillian as well as I would have liked. In fact, I was more interested in her friend Megan and I'd love to read a book from her point of view.

Rating: 3/5

Like this? Try Growing Up Again by Catriona McCloud

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Posted by Keris on November 12, 2008 in American Authors, New Releases, Rating: 3/5 | Permalink

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