Rating: ****
Tags: Fiction, General, Contemporary, Literary, Contemporary Women, Romance, Humorous, Humorous fiction, Adult, Overweight Women, Humour, Lang:en
Summary
“You’ll be hooked by this charming story. . . .
Smolinski gives us a quick-witted heroine . . . with just the
right amount of romance and a tad of suspense.”
After a car accident in which her passenger, Marissa, dies,
June Parker finds herself in possession of a list Marissa has
written: “20 Things to Do by My 25th Birthday.” The
tasks range from inspiring (run a 5K) to daring (go braless) to
near-impossible (change someone’s life).
To assuage her guilt, June races to achieve each goal
herself before the deadline, learning more about her own life
than she ever bargained for. Smolinski follows up her debut,
Flip-Flopped, with an airy, hit and mostly miss novel
about one rudderless woman's accidental journey of
self-discovery. After a Weight Watchers meeting, narrator June
Parker offers a ride home to newly svelte Marissa Jones, and
the two hit it off until Marissa dies in a nasty one-car
accident. When June runs into Marissa's hot brother at the
cemetery six months after the crash, she makes a rash promise
to carry out the dead girl's list of 20 things to do before she
turned 25 (even though June is 34). The challenges that
follow—running a 5K, kissing a stranger, "dare to go
braless"—serve less to improve June's life than to
highlight how unfortunate it is that she's taken up a
stranger's goals instead of her own. Smolinski's Los Angeles is
a well-executed set—June tilts at windmills as a writer
for a ride-sharing nonprofit—but the most human
characters in it are June's tyrannical and calculating boss and
her secretly sensitive, underused brother. Though completing
the list is a transformative experience for June, the leadup
fizzles.
June Parker's life is meandering along until a freak car
accident leaves Marissa, her 24-year-old passenger, dead and
June wracked with guilt. June discovers a list Marissa had been
keeping of 25 things she wanted to do by the time she turned
25. After a run-in with Marissa's brother, June resolves to
complete the list. Kissing a total stranger and throwing away
her scale prove far easier than pitching an idea at work or
changing someone's life. But June approaches the list with
aplomb, daring to speak up about being passed over for a
manager position, and becoming a Big Sister to a quiet,
studious Latina teen named DeeDee. But when June uncovers a
secret of DeeDee's, she realizes changing someone else's life
might involve changing her own as well. Clever and winning,
Smolinski's novel will have readers rooting for June as they
eagerly turn the pages to keep up with her progress on the
list.
Kristine Huntley
—
Richmond Times-Dispatch
From Publishers Weekly
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