I got this book a month before it’s scheduled release date through the Amazon First Reads programme (if you have Amazon Prime, and you don’t know what this is, check it out – free books!).

It jumped out at me from the list of six books because the blurb looked quite intriguing:

A shocking tragedy reveals that Jenny’s life is far from perfect. Reeling, Penelope vows to stop keeping the peace and finally deal with the issues in her relationship. So she and Sanjay agree to a radical proposal: both will write a list of changes they want each other to make—then commit to complete and total honesty.

The shocking tragedy was a major plot twist for me that I wasn’t expecting, and it made me think the book was heading in a more thriller/mystery direction, which unfortunately wasn’t the case. I can see why it didn’t, but that might have added a bit more excitement for me.

Because although I thought the premise of the book was going to be interesting, it was just a bit slow for me. I found myself becoming more and more frustrated with Penelope and her constant need to be in control of everything, but her refusal to make any changes to her own life, while demanding change from everyone else.

I think we’re supposed to see her as a strong, have-it-all kind of mother, but all I could think of was how selfish she seemed. Granted, her husband Sanjay wasn’t exactly Mr Perfect, but I gave him major credit for at least attempting to change to save their marriage.

As you can probably tell, the book wasn’t perfect for me, but it was a fairly pleasant read and although the characters bugged me, I felt invested enough in their story to want to read through to the end. It wasn’t a terribly long read, and I can tell that for other people, it would probably be a much better fit – it just wasn’t my type of book in the end.