Book Review: Always Something There to Remind Me

Book: Always Something There to Remind Me by Lilian Kendrick

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Description:

It’s never too late to live your dreams!

Divorcee Lydia is clearing out her attic when she finds an old, dust-strewn notebook, containing a list of her teenage hopes and dreams:

- Overcome fear of flying

- Learn to ice skate like Jayne Torvill

- Sing in front of an audience

- Get a date with a rockstar!

Still petrified of planes and with no celebrity notch on her bedpost in sight, there’s no denying that her younger self would be disappointed. So Lydia elects to tackle her teenage bucket list: one dream at a time!

From falling flat on her bum on an ice rink to a hilarious encounter with a hypnotist, Lydia’s journey throws up more chaos than she ever imagined. Thank goodness her gorgeous friend Des is there to literally hold her hand every step of the way!

But Lydia soon realises that there’s something missing from her list: love. And it could just be that the man who’s helping her achieve the dreams of the past will do much, much more…and unlock the key to her future!



Rating: 2 stars

Review:

Okay, right off the bat, I couldn't really gauge how old the main character Lydia was, the story didn't say (or I must have over looked it). I know she said she was middle aged however most of the time she act like she was older especially in the beginning. The way she talked about herself it like she was a little old lady, so I guess she's 45 to 60+ but most likely in the 40+ range.

I found in the beginning Lydia didn't really know how to have fun and enjoy life, I'm not even sure her divorce could be blamed for this. She was a bit of a bore but she did get better as the story went along. Anyway, the story follows Lydia who was cleaning out her attic and found one of her old notebooks from school. Inside was a list of four things she had wanted to accomplish when she was younger, the list included: overcoming her fear of flying, learning to ice skate (like Jayne Torvill), to sing in front of an audience and to get a date with a rockstar!

Thinking she needed a new outlook on life, Lydia decides to work on her list. Along for the ride are her two friends: Trudi (her best friend) and Des (a friend she met at a writing group).

She did her best with trying to tackle each goal but some things just didn't work out but it did start to look like her and Des might be connecting in a romantic way. Des is a nice guy but he's a bit secretive at times. As much as they connect they seem to keep acting as if they are not interested in each other which I found to be annoying at times. Even when they eventually hooked up a few times they still never really just got to the point of saying "I like you" instead more time was wasted with these two avoiding the subject.

This wasn't a bad story but I do think the focus on Lydia trying to accomplish her list was not as important to the story as it went on. It started to turn into a romance book with Lydia not sure how she felt about Des and so on. I like that Lydia wasn't one of those annoying chick lit characters who's a total mess and is an idiot. She was a normal person who wanted to take on a goal of completing all of those things on her list and ended up potentially finding love along the way.

I wasn't quite sure how to rate this because there were times I really like this while other times I was a little bored. Overall, it's a good fast paced story that showed Lydia changing into a more livelier and more interesting person but the story wasted so much time with all the romance drama.