Title: The Wife Who Got a Life
Author: Tracy Bloom
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 384
Rating: 4/5

A huge thank you to Harper Collins and Netgalley for reaching out to me and allowing me to review this book!

Synopsis:

After receiving a motivational diary from her sister (who is living the dream) as a Christmas present, Cathy goes on a mission to get her own life in order, before life takes control of her. Her husband is having his own midlife crisis and Cathy soon realises that trying to put herself first and nailing this list isn’t as easy as she thought it would be. Cathy however is a mum on a mission, she is determined nothing will stop her as she prepares herself for the coming of middle age.

Review:
The Wife Who Got a Life is publishing in April 2021 and it definitely worth the wait. Tracy Bloom is a best-selling author who writes books that are guaranteed to put a smile on your face, bringing a little humour to your life and this one didn’t disappoint!

This is the second book I have read by this author and I couldn’t wait to get stuck in, especially after seeing the many positive reviews! I have to say, a couple of pages in and I already found I had a smile on my face.
The story is told in diary form as Cathy tries to complete her personal goals for the year. The days are clearly marked and easy to follow and each entry isn’t overly long which keeps the story going at a perfect pace.

I am not a mother myself, nor am I reaching middle age but I found Cathy to be very likeable at someone you could related to. This is from experiences with my own mother and my life growing up, I could see little bits of my mum in Cathy. I found that you can really learn from Cathy. Especially when it comes to how the little things can make you the happiest, you do not need extravagance.

This story is very real and down to earth as well as being very humorous! I genuinely found myself grinning at times whilst reading this. This read is a fun, breath of fresh air and I loved it. It is true to life and how we are faced with many ups and downs and I found myself learning from Cathy and her family despite them being fictional.

Tracy Bloom also did a fantastic job at covering sensitive topics such as friendships, grief, cancer, depression and relationships, but whilst she did, they she kept the tone light hearted. Tracy is a very talented writing who uses her wittiness to keep her stories upbeat even when things do get a little serous.

I connected with Tracy Bloom’s writing style, I connected with this book and I feel this would be adored by woman who are reaching middle age. Thank you Tracy Bloom for this wonderful book.

A most enjoyable story of a year in the life of a put-upon woman who is a then daughter, mother, and wife. After receiving an unwelcome Motivation diary from her sister who manages to persuade her to think of things that she would like to do. On reflection she is inspired to put down one thing that she would like to achieve for each month in the coming year. How she manages to do things for herself and then gradually change from a put-upon daughter, mother, and wife, when she is always the one to attend to her elderly parents, bullied by her teenage children, with no help from her husband, who was mostly away on business. How she achieves all her objectives makes a heart-warming account with some hilarious moments in a year of her life, even having to cope with supporting friends suffering their traumas of life and death and by the end of a happy year with everyone in line just as she wished.

I enjoyed this book. It was a nice easy read and definitely appeals to women of a certain age!! As a mum of teenagers rapidly approaching menopause I laughed out loud at some parts! I found the main character very relatable and cried at the end along with Tania

I’d definitely read more from this writer

The Wife Who Got a Life by Tracy Bloom is a great, fun book with plenty of humour but also making some serious points. Cathy, wife of Mike and mother of Freddie (17) and Kirsty (15), receives a motivational diary for Christmas from her pushy, health conscious sister in California. Cathy is not impressed with this gift but also isn’t impressed with her life and decides it’s time to make some changes. She makes a list of monthly goals which are played out to great humour in the rest of the book. It’s a heart-warming, fun and sometimes poignant walk with her family, her friends in the book group, her elderly parents’ needs, her sister in California and her local sister who shirks any responsibility for their parents.

A fun, quick read but addressing some serious issues. Her discussion with Mike, husband of 19 years, about DSR will resonate with many a female married reader I suspect. I can even see many having a similar discussion! I liked the interaction between the three sisters who all seemed quite irritating in some ways but kept a close relationship going despite their very different life styles.

With thanks to NetGalley and Harper Fiction for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Oh Tracy Bloom I think you live inside my head.

Fabulous read, it’s a ‘one sitting’ job. The book focuses on the life of a 48 year old woman, on the verge of peri-menopause, feeling dissatisfied with her career, worrying about her teenage children and family, and dealing with her husband’s midlife crisis, whilst also juggling friendships and hobbies. Nagged by her sister, she decides to create a list of goals for the year, which are not quite as aspirational as her sister had in mind.

I loved this book. It captures my life stage right now, and was hugely entertaining. I’m not ashamed to say that I cried a bit at the end too (possibly down to my own peri menopausal hormonal state!). Definitely worth a read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book is inspirational, I want to me more Cathy!! DSR is going to have to be discussed in my house too!

Really enjoyed this book which is such a great representation of how many of us may feel!

I was invited to read this book and so glad that l was
I could relate to everything in this book and I am sure all women my age with kids could. What was lovely was that Cathy did manage to find some light at the end of the long tunnel which many women struggle with. Well done Cathy!
Definitely worth a read for all the 50 something wives, mothers, sisters and daughters out there
Loved it Loved it Loved it 😊

The Wife Who Got A Life by Tracy Bloom tells the story of Cathy Collins. Cathy Collins is a forty-something-year-old married mother whose life revolves around her husband, who mainly works away from home, her teenage children, their dog, her ageing parents and her siblings who leave all family matters that need sorting to her. Cathy's older sister gives her a motivational diary for Christmas which will change her life in ways she had never considered The diary is a wake-up call for Cathy as she contemplates menopause, her husband's midlife crises, and the impending empty nest situation with her children's adult choices looming. The book deals with the challenges of parenting teenagers, married life, filial responsibility and self-care in a factual yet humorous way that is relatable to women in similar situations. Well done Tracy Bloom for this beautifully written inspiring novel.

Mum of two and married to Mike, Cathy is stuck in a bit of a rut. So when Mike decides to leave a well paid job to retrain as a teacher, Cathy decides she’d like to do something different too. So she sets herself a goal each month to see how many she can achieve. As she begins to tick off her list of goals, can she stop the rut and take back control of her life?

Entertaining and enjoyable, this was a quick and easy read.

Having read No One Ever Gas Sex on a Tuesday, by this author, I was really looking forward to reading this book. Unfortunately I couldn’t get past the downtrodden lead character, Cathy. How could any woman let her teenage children treat her with such disrespect? Why didn’t she ever stand up for herself? It was too infuriating, which was a shame as there was a great sense of humour here too. I couldn’t finish reading it.

A fun book but with a 'should I be doing more with my life' vibe. As someone who does often but everyone else first it did make me thing that you don't have to make big changes and small goals can be just as rewarding. Plan to put what I've learnt to good use!

I love Tracy's books, they are so easy to read, this was brilliant, a great story, great charecters and was really heartfelt, I totally related to this story, loved it

I enjoyed this novel more and more as the story progressed. I've not read Bloom before but shall now search out for her previous book.
This is a story so many women will relate to. Finding a place, a purpose for oneself when the children have grown, a need to review your role as daughter to aging parents, your job and your marriage.
This was satisfying and uplifting. Thanks for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.

Cathy is feeling jaded with life in general. Everyone else in her family appears to be having more fun and a generally easier life than her, while she clears up everyone else’s mess or cleans her parent’s toilet. Her husband’s job as a consultant takes him away a lot, staying in hotels while Cathy gets to keep things together at home. She has a sister living in LA who wants for nothing and another sister living nearby who is a single parent and also relies on Cathy to keep an eye on their aging parents. One New Year Cathy makes some resolutions to guarantee that her life improves for the better – her plan is, amongst other things, to mix with some younger people, to stop cooking and have a big chat with her husband about who does what in the house. Will Cathy achieve her goals by the end of the year? This is a book filled with humour but also tackling a number of important issues such as depression, cancer and the menopause. These topics are dealt with skilfully and with a light touch that is not depressing in any way. The characters sound like the people in a typical family who bicker and fall out but still care deeply about each other. I particularly liked the part where the whole family go to visit Lizzy, the sister in LA. The difficulty of getting everyone packed and ready to go falls to Cathy, of course, but she ends up having a wonderful time and building some bridges with both her sisters. This was a very enjoyable and easy to read book. Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this.

This was my first Tracy Bloom novel and it won’t be my last. It was really funny with characters you really care about. I would love to read more books with these characters. I couldn’t put this down and read it in a day! Perfect lockdown escapism.

Bridget Jones for the 40-50-something woman.
Seems like a light, easy read, but deals with some pretty serious subjects - mid-life crisis, breast cancer, menopause, depression.
A few thought-provoking moments, but just missed for me - somehow I did not engage as much with the characters as I would have liked..
Despite this, an enjoyable read.

Absolutely loved this book, heart warming laugh out loud moments. A real menopausal coming of age.. A story about finding yourself when you're at your most invisible.. The main character Cathy describes this to a t. She's given a motivational journal by her perfect sister, in it she writes her goals and through this she takes us on her journey....wife, mother, sister, daughter, best friend. Written with insight and humour...I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Highly recommend. Will certainly be reading more from this author.

Very funny in parts and good for Cathy to get what she deserved! I did find the book lagged a bit in the middle but the ending was very good and neat,

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a honest review.

Genre: Womens Fiction

Release Date: 15th April 2021



Cathy isn't unhappy. She's not particularly happy either - she's just normal. In fact, she didn't really pay much attention to how cheerful (or otherwise) she was until her sisters got her one of those pushy motivational diaries for Christmas. Now it's a new year, and a new page and Cathy is slowly realising she hasn't really got much to write about.

She's a mother to two beautiful children ... who could appreciate her more.

She's a wife to a loving husband ... who could do with realising she isn't his mother.

But now, it's time to reclaim herself. She may be a mother and wife, but it's time for her to finally find her own life in amongst it all.

Armed with her diary and her brilliant book club, they try to navigate the things women should never talk about; sex, contraception, periods ... and the severe invisibility of women over the age of forty.

This was a truly captivating commentary on how women get lost in the echo and are constantly expected to lose their own identities for the sake of their partners and families to find theirs and just how hard it can be try and get it back. The characters were vibrant and loveable within just seconds of meeting them, all so unique and glowingly real.

A hilariously heartwarming adventure of relearning how to love yourself and others with a wicked feminist streak that is so hard to do well in anything remotely resembling a romantic comedy.

Admittedly I was conflicted about the final resolution to this story ... there was no dramatic reveal, no explosive conclusion and a few unanswered questions ... which left me somehow feeling both dissapointed and excited at the same time. It felt just like the end of another year in the life of Cathy, and after a few minutes of sulking I realised this was actually kind of perfect.



"It made me think about what makes me happy ... and that's really hard for people like us."

"People like us?"

"You know: female, a mother, a wife."



RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐



Thank you to NetGalley & Tracy White for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Cathy is given a motivational diary by her sister as a Christmas gift.. Initially resentful of such a present she sets herself monthly goals which all come to fruition in different and sometimes unexpected ways. Entering the perimenopause with two teenage children set their own challenges. It did take me a little bit to get into this book as it is not the sort of thing I usually read but then I could not put it down! It was warm, humorous, gentle and very moving in places. I ended up thoroughly enjoying it and it was a great distraction from the current gloom and doom of the current situation and reminds you of the important things in life.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me access to a digital copy in return for an honest review.