I have to be honest, I do love a bit of chick-lit, and I was hoping for good things from this book. The story is about a woman who dies of cancer, but before she dies she writes a letter to each of her four daughters, along with a journal that she passes on to them with stories about her life and how they grew up. Of course, each story is perfectly timed to help each daughter with the crisis that she’s going through, turning everything into a typically happy ending.

My main problem with the book is that although I’m used to reading books with multiple narratives, it’s usually only one or two. This one had four, which was confusing to start with when you can’t quickly identify each character. Once you get to know everyone it’s better though, even if it did take a while to get used to it.

I don’t know if it was intentional on the part of Noble, but I found myself really liking Hannah and Amanda, and disliking Jennifer and Lisa. Their perspective on the problems that they were having just made it so that I didn’t find myself rooting for them like I did the other two.

The main ‘weird’ thing about the book is that the person that the book revolves around (Barbara, the mum), is dead before the book even starts, so you’re never actually introduced to her directly. Elizabeth Noble does such a good job of integrating her into the story through her letters and her journal that you feel like you know her better than you do her daughters.

I can’t say that this was my favourite book, the ending was extremely predictable (even for a chick-lit book) and I would rather have a book that doesn’t take so long to get involved with, but it was pleasant enough and I did enjoy reading it so I’m going to say 3/5.