OMG I absolutely loved this book!!!! It speaks the truth in so many different ways and is so easy to relate to even if you aren't that identical person. The plot is great, the characters true to life and this book is not one to put down!

I first started reading Alexandra Potter books many years ago and was thrilled to be offered the chance to review this one for NetGalley.
“Confessions” tells the story of Nell, a forty-something who was living in California with her partner and running a business together. At the start of the story, the business has flopped; the romance is over and she has arrived back in London homeless and alone. She knows that whilst she has been gone her friends’ lives have changed: what she hasn’t realised is that she has been left behind.
A really enjoyable book.

An engaging set of characters and an easy to follow plot. I was invested in the plight of the protagonist and read this in 5 hours. Perfect “lockdown” fodder!

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for the ARC.

The main character in this book, Nell, finds herself back in her home country of England after her relationship and business fail in America. She has to restart her life at 40 something, moving into a shared flat while all her friends are living seemingly perfect lives. One weekend while back in her childhood bedroom she decides to start a podcast like a modern day Bridget Jones that ends up leading her to many new opportunities. By making unlikely friendships along the way, Nell's fortunes turn around and she rediscovers herself and what life means.

This book didn't reach ts potential and was rather laboured in parts. The ending was bizarre and you never got to hear much about what happened on her podcast despite it being the defining feature of the book. An easy read but better books out there in this genre.

Nell is at rock bottom, she has split up with her fiancé after their business went bust and has moved into a shared house with Edward, who has a long list of rules .. but on the positive side he won’t be home at the weekends!!

When Nell celebrates her 40th birthday it makes her realise this is not the life she had planned, friends around her are settled down with children and have new friends that enjoy play dates together.

Nell lands up writing obituaries, she meets Cricket an 80 year old widow and they soon make friends and become close. Together they help each other with adventures and laughs along the way!!

This book did make me laugh!! It made me realise life is not always perfect and you have to make the most of it!! It was nice to take my mind off the Corona Virus.

This should be a must read book for every woman.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for sending me an eARC of this book.

I actually read the first look of this over on Readers First and thought it was such an uplifting and fun book; and I felt that way for perhaps the first half, but then i just began to feel very cliche and the ending was just really disappointing for me. I thought this was going to be a story about her finding herself and I was hoping the ending would follow suit but then it just felt like such a let-down for me.

I wish this was more focused on the podcasts and what she actually says on them; we are told that she's getting these insane amount of followers but it's barely mentioned apart from as an anecdote and just doesn't feel well thought out. The rivalry between her and Annabel again just felt so cliche and so unnecessary in this book.

I feel like this book could have been so well done because there were some really good moments and i like the message that we're all told we're fuck ups and we're not, I just wish it came across more in the whole book.

If you ever just feel like you are getting everything wrong and life isn't going to the plan you made when you were 8, then this is the book for you.

This novel really is a celebration of what it means to be a normal person in a world of people pretending their lives are perfect with the aid of filters, surgery and photoshop. Nell offers hope to all, as she battles her way through her forties, embracing her new superpower of invisibility.

This made me chuckle and gasp and left me feeling thoroughly cheered up. What more could anyone want in a book?

This started so well. A new Bridget Jones but sadly lost the plot towards the end and I thought it lacked taste with the part about her future. Without giving spoilers. For that reason I have changed my rating from four star to three.

I really needed a funny lighthearted book to take my mind off what is going on in the world, (read during the coronavirus pandemic), and this was the perfect prescription.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it is very well written with a great cast of characters who are likeable and who you really care about and get to know like virtual friends. It is very modern and on point with today's society.

It is the first Alexandra Potter book I have read but it definitely won't be the last.

Highly recommended

Nell’s life is a mess - almost 40, heart broke , failed business, renting a room with the thermostat warrior Edward and almost skint! Life doesn’t always pan out the way we think it will - the dreams of a floaty wedding dress, the picturesque cottage, 2.4 children, the crufts winning dog... for Nell, life definitely did not turn out as she had expected.

As she celebrates her 40th birthday, Nell compares very life to the perfection that is her friends lives, including Annabel the absolute image of Miss Perfection. However what looks perfect on the outside, might not be all it seems.

Being and feeling like a f*ck up she finally lands a job writing obituaries, Nell then meets the Cricket, an eighty-something widow with challenges of her own, and they strike up an unlikely friendship. Together they begin to help each other heal their aching hearts, cope with the loss of the lives they had planned, laugh and cry together and push each other into new adventures and unexpected joys.

With Nell, I found that I had a lot in common with her idea of being a f*ck up and it was almost reassuring to know that I am not alone.

A laugh out loud with the odd sniffle, a brilliant read!

This book was great. The main character was very relatable, navigating not being where she thought she'd be at this time in her life. I would recommend and read more from this author

The book is told in a humorous, introspective way by Nell, who has broken up with her American fiance Ethan, and returned to the UK to find that her old friends have now moved on, leading completely different lives to those they had. All are in relationships, with children and absorbed in family life, leaving Nell feeling depressed that she has missed out.

There are no chapters in the book as such, and it is slow to start; it just seems a long, depressing monologue, with short motivational comments narrated by Nell, with little happening. The only positive things in her life are her parents, Cricket (an older lady whom she has befriended), and her landlord’s dog Arthur. These characters bring humour and interest to the story, but I feel that the book lacks pace and needs a much stronger storyline than it has. I also feel that there is too much bad language in the book, which is unnecessary.

Nell is a likeable, humorous and friendly character with whom you can readily empathize, and I enjoyed reading about her relationships and interaction with her family and other characters. Although the ending wasn’t what I envisaged, I think it worked perfectly. However, I feel that the book needs a stronger storyline to make a more interesting read.

A fun, light hearted reading that made me giggle a few times. A realistic illustration of how a 40 something woman comes to terms with impending middle age. Really well developed characters - I particularly warmed to Cricket. An easy feel good read.

Quite a fun read; Bridget Jones meets Fleabag! Some nice insights into what it is to be female.
Good chick-lit for a lazy weekend or holiday read.
Enjoyable, but not particularly memorable.

What a brilliant book. Especially for a 40 something who may be at a kind of crossroad of her own life.

Far too realistic at times but it made me laugh, it made me sad and at times, I even sat and stared at the wall trying to make sense of stuff.

I was so so happy and excited when I saw that Alexandra Potter released a new book! I read so many great books by this author! So I was confident that I was going to love this book. Well in the end, I can say that I liked this book but I didn't love it. Some parts of this book are so great, so fun, I even found myself laughing out loud, I even recognized myself in so many ways (I am myself 40 years old) but unfortunately this book is waaaaaaay too long for what it has to tell and this meant that some parts of the book are a bit boring... and that's really a shame because it's good. I gave this book a 4 stars out of 5 but in reality I would like to give it a 3,5 stars. I hope Alexandra Potter's next book will be a little more exciting! I still recommend this book warmly because it's so much fun to read especially if you are a 40 something woman!

Excellent. Excellent Excellent. I enjoyed this book so much. It was genuinely funny, thought provoking and involving. Great characters, especially Cricket and Edward, and a heroine to love. Highly recommended.

As a 40something (nearly 50!) f**ck up myself, I found I identified a lot with Nell.

After leaving the US due to a relationship breakdown and the collapse of her business with her ex-partner, Nell has to start again. Finances mean she can only afford to rent a room, and do she gets by day by day changing the thermostat on her landlord Edwards’s heating and writing obituaries.

I loved the inspirational quotes and the relationship she strikes up with Cricket, after being asked to write her husband’s obituary. The friendship that grows between her and Edward is lovely too.

I also really liked the way she wrote about how families change old friendships and how it can be a struggle to maintain these.

Although I really enjoyed this book, the happy ending jarred somewhat, I won’t give it away but it just seemed too cliche to give Nell a complete happy family.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review.

Brilliant book, well written and very realistic. Funny as well as dealing with serious topics that Nell at 40 goes through. Fantastically written, blog type in parts, which adds to the story even more. Really enjoyed reading this book and highly recommended!

Firstly I have to make readers aware that this is NOT a memoir, which is what I thought I was reading for the first two chapters. Oops! The writing was so real that I genuinely didn't realise it was a work of fiction until I finally spotted that the name of the protagonist was different to the name of the author.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found the writing clever, witty, hilarious and emotive. Nell was instantly loveable (real or otherwise!) and I was immediately invested in her story. There were many, many parts of the story I related to and I'm only a 30-something f**k up. Confessions has all the stamps of an excellent work of modern contemporary fiction, and characters that span the breadth and width of social awareness.

Part of the story focuses on a podcast that the main character, Nell, decides to create, and this was a fresh and interesting concept but didn't take the stage until later on in the story. It was a little confusing due to the fact that it seemed at the beginning that it was going to be a bigger thread, but that's not a criticism, just an observation.

My particular favourite character was Cricket, who shows us that even at 80-something, there is still so much of life to enjoy.

I will most definitely be looking for more Alexandra Potter books to add to my TBR list!