The Year That Changed Everything: Book Review

You may recall this post
Well, I finished it last night, so here is my take.

The above book is by Cathy Kelly, an author I have read a lot of over the years because I like her style of writing.
This is about three women who all share the same birthday but don’t know each other.
One is 50, one 40 and one 30. Their lives could not be more different, and yet the year following their landmark birthdays turns each of their lives upside down and find them battling it out to survive in the emotional stakes.

Callie has it all, posh house, fancy car, no money worries, a husband who idolises her and a brat teenage daughter who takes everything for granted but it’s still not enough.
On the night of her birthday party, the police turn up to arrest her husband for fraud.
He’s packed and gone, leaving her and her daughter with nothing but shame and suspicion to face the music.

Sam is a career girl who desperately wanted a child but IVF treatments failed. Suddenly she finds herself pregnant by natural methods, and goes into labour on her 40th birthday.
Although I’ve never had kids, I can well imagine the scenarios in the delivery room of alternate fear, frustration and excitement, not to mention the pain inflicted on the father to be. Baby is born, and everything is wonderful………… except suddenly Sam wonders how on earth she is going to cope with a baby, especially as her own Mother was not exactly mother material.

Ginger is 30 and has been best friends with Lisa (the bride) since they were 4. It turns out that Lisa is not a friend at all, and Ginger throws herself into her job, taking over as an agony aunt for the magazine she works for. She has a bit of a cow of a boss who tries to put everyone down and Ginger gets roped in for a Keep Fit and Healthy series, but with friends who know what they’re doing with makeup and clothes, she looks amazing in the ‘Before’ pictures, and develops a crush on the gym trainer assigned to her. They are almost a item until Bitch Boss makes a play as she wants free gym membership and publicity.

All three women make discoveries about themselves, their families, spouses, and friends, and eventually do meet up but not under circumstances that you might think.
I’m trying not to give away any punchlines, but it’s a totally believable story, well told with humour and genuine characters.
Worth a read and I’d give it a good

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