Absolutely loved this book!

The writing style was really good and I look forward to reading any other books from this author in the future :)

Friday the 13th has been incredibly unlucky for Jess. She went from dating two guys to being dumped by both, she was fired, her landlord kicked her out of her flat, and she has really disappointed her best friend. But at least a truly awful day is over, tomorrow is a new day that can't get any worse than this. Except Jess wakes up the next morning and it's Friday the 13th again. She knows that this is the universe somehow giving her a wake-up call, a chance for Jess to fix everything that's wrong in her life, but how can she fix it when she didn't even know things were so wrong?

This might be the perfect Groundhog Day book. Even if you haven't seen the film, like Jess, you kinda know what it's about and the concept is very similar here. Jess keeps waking up on the same day and has to somehow find a way to break the loop she's trapped in. She slowly figures out how to improve her outcomes, she finally watches the movie, but she's still stuck. And that's the moment the power of this story really shines through. Because that's when we go from seeing Jess fix her most recent mistakes (cheating on a great guy who loves her, messing up at work, failing to pay her rent) to her tackling the trauma and the guilt that she has been carrying with her for years.

I'm not ashamed to admit I cried while reading this. I really connected with Jess. The more she tries to fix herself and her issues, the more human she became, until eventually - in a weird way - it felt more like reading about a real person's life.

I went into this expecting good-messy characters and a lot of funny situations, and I'm so happy the story was more profound and thought-provoking than that. This could genuinely be a life-changing book for some people.

Groundhog Day, Palm Springs, Happy Death Day all great time loop films and Jess hasn't seen any of them. Now that she is living her worst day over and over again maybe she should watch them for some tips. Friday 13th really is unlucky

Unlike the protagonist of this book I am a sucker for time loop films and books so when I heard the premise of The Time of My Life I knew it would be right up my street. I love nothing more than characters trying again and again to get things right especially as the way to escape a loop is not always obvious straight away. Even though you need to suspend belief for the premise the deeper storylines within were realistic and heartwarming with some laughs along the way. Jess is someone who has never really grown up and shies away from any sort of responsibility so it was a delight to watch her grow before my eyes even if it took a lot of wrong decision making along the way. Tom was my favourite character as I could picture him the most especially his facial expressions, being oblivious to the fact that his potential girlfriend is reliving the same day over and over. However this is no convoluted romance story as it has friendship at it's core. Rosie Mullender has created a Bridget Jones meets Groundhog Day which is actually a match made in heaven.

Such an enjoyable read. I loved the whole
Concept of the story & throw in some funny and loveable characters and humour and you’ve got a great book! I absolutely loved Jess.. yes she was flawed & immature but she was also hilarious 😂 I really liked her character and felt for her so much whilst she was struggling to understand what was going on. I do love the idea of Groundhog Day and always find it really thought provoking and I felt like
Jess did a lot of things that most people would in her situation. I loved the mix of humour and serious situations too, I thought that worked really well. I definitely recommend this book, I really enjoyed it

This book drew me in, with its concept - a modern twist on Groundhog Day.

I found it to be very engaging, with interesting characters that develop deeply as the book moves on. I though that the main character was relatable and realistic, flawed but loveable. The author's writing style, alongside the plot, made for a very un-put-downable read.

THE TIME OF MY LIFE
BY
ROSIE MULLENDER.

Jess is a thirty something, who still lives like a teenager.
It’s Friday the 13th and everything is about to go spectacularly wrong for Jess.
In just one day she loses her job, her home, the two men she has been seeing and her best friend lets her down big time.
Going to bed that night, Jess plans to start afresh tomorrow. However when she wakes up, it’s Friday the 13th again. Then again and again and again.

This is a time relay, groundhog day type of story.
Each day we delve a little deeper into who Jess is and why she is that way.

This book is an enjoyable read, with real depth. It moves along at a good pace and kept me hooked from the start.
I did wonder if the whole time loop thing might get a bit tiresome, but it really didn’t.

I was hauled through a range of emotions. I laughed, I had a little tear but most of all, I cared. I cared for these lovely characters and wanted a c
Good outcome all round.

Well written, engaging, emotional and fresh.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

HB, Ebook and Audio out now.
Paperback release date: 25/5/23

With thanks to Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group Uk for a digital arc of this title.

As soon as I saw it was a modern twist on Groundhog Day I knew I had to read this book. ⁣
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I really enjoyed this book! Perfectly paced and engaging this book had me reading it in one sitting. ⁣
⁣
Jess is such an interesting character and I liked watching her character develop. She's an incredibly realistic and relatable character that you cannot help but love. ⁣
⁣
Honestly I could talk about this book all day. I love the writing, the characters and most of the plot. I had originally settled on a 4.5 review but after writing this I realised how much I actually loved this book and bumped it up to 5 stars!

Thank you for my eARC of this book. Unfortunately I didn’t finish, I just didn’t engage with the characters and didn’t root for them.

Having read quite a lot of ‘heavy’ books lately, I really felt like reading something more fun. The Time of my Life by Rosie Mullender fitted the bill. It is a modern day Groundhog Day, (the 1980s film which is often referred to in the book.)
The main character, Jess, is having to relive Friday 13th again and again and again. The book follows her attempts to break the cycle. I found Jess incredibly likeable despite her initial self-obsession and shallowness. I liked her relationships with best friend Mel and her ‘not boyfriend’ Tom, and with the other supporting characters from the man in the corner shop, the barman at her favourite pub and most importantly her dog (who was really well portrayed.)
Funny and insightful, poignant in places and a breath of fresh air at a time of social and political uncertainty, I am really happy I escaped the stress with Jess. It was also fun to reflect on what I would do with all that extra time if I had to repeat the same day over and over.
I definitely recommend this for a beach or lazy weekend read, and I will certainly read anything new by this author.

thankyou to Sphere Little Brown Books group for such a wonderful cosy read .

The Plot : so the main character jess has been fired , no longer dating two guys{ not by choice }, lost her flat , and most of all she no longer getting on with her best friend in a big way . she full of regret but thinks oh well I've got tomorrow to sort things out or has she HA! , jess ends going to bed that night , wakes up the next morning to find she living the same day and now she really dose have to solve her problems .


This book is groundhog day on another level . I thought the whole story was wonderful,l cosy up have a hot chocolate but it was a lot more than that it hits home to how most people life's can sometimes feel , it was very witty at times and charming. the story flows so well its not slow happy medium., and the plot was so wonderful written , I loved all the characters but most of all jess 's story , I think we all been in that point where we have to recreate are self's and build bridges

I defiantly recommend this book if you love Christina Lauren you will love this wonderful book , this wonderful book sorry did I just say that !! enjoy guys.

“She’d spent her life running from accountability, under the guise of being carefree and having the time of her life.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I went into this expecting it to be a fun, laugh-out-loud book with extremely messy characters (in the best way), but it ended up meaning so much more to me then I ever thought it would. I will literally never forget this book.

Imagine the worst day of your life. Now imagine living it on repeat... This Friday the 13th has been particularly unlucky. Jess has been fired from her (way too) comfortable job at “Real Talk” magazine. She's gone from dating two guys to none. She's been kicked out of her mediocre flat. And worst of all, she's really really let down her best friend. As she drifts off to sleep, she is filled with relief that this terrible day is over. Tomorrow she will try to fix things, tomorrow cannot be any worse than this. Except it is. Maybe not worse... but exactly the same. When Jess wakes up the next morning, it is Friday the 13th again. And again. And again. And again.

The main character, Jess frustrated the hell out of me at times. There were so many points in this book where I was shouting at her as I knew what she needed to do to get out of the time loop, but that made her character arc all the more worthwhile and satisfying.

(Slight spoiler???)

The reason why I will never forget this book is the fact that this is the first book, first piece of media that I have ever consumed, period, that has ever represented CRPS. I have lived with CRPS for 18 years, it started in my leg and now I have it full body, so to read about a character who also has it, even though they were a side character, made me feel so incredibly seen and I can’t thank Rosie Mullender enough for that.

Thank you to Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group for sending me this incredible book. 💙

I don't often go for books with covers like that, but I met the author at a mutual friend's birthday and she was entertaining enough company that her debut novel seemed worth a go*. The flipside of which, of course, is that if you are a fan of the field, my opinion may well be as useless as when a broadsheet posts a glowing review by someone who doesn't read science fiction of a book by someone who insists they don't write science fiction about a robot...but with feelings, yeah? So: Jess lives in a scuzzy flat, its IKEA coffee table fixed with gaffer tape, in a part of London that I'd still have thought was slightly out of her reach given the state of her finances. As the novel opens she's casually-ish dating two men, an idea she got from Bijou, a fancy, aspirational magazine based in the same building as the less glamorous Real Talk, for which Jess reports (and, at the behest of her ghastly editor, massages) relatable stories about holiday romances and shocking infidelities. She daydreams of moving downstairs but upmarket to Bijou, itself a bit of a step down given it was a childhood viewing of All The President's Men that got her interested in journalism. Then a momentous yet not implausible fuck-up sees her sacked even from Real Talk. Also, she gets dumped. And evicted. All on Friday 13th. Then wakes up the next day to find it's Friday 13th all over again.

Now, at this point we do get a slightly frustrating stretch where the whole time loop concept takes a while to sink in, not least because Jess has not only not seen Groundhog Day, but doesn't even seem overly familiar with the concept, which I would have thought was now sufficiently osmosed that even the most determinedly non-geek people in the West would know it. Still, it does provide an excuse for her nan's wonderful precis: "Like in that film? What's it called? The one with that fella who catches ghosts. Hair like a tramp's fanny, face like Deputy Dawg." And I was a bit puzzled that, even during the stretches where Jess seems almost resigned to gaming the situation and trying to get what she can out of the endlessly repeated day, I didn't spot any mention of her taking the opportunity to get her own back on her dreadful boss – just imagine the fun you could have with endless do-overs! But where the book really comes into its own is once Jess has familiarised herself with the movie, thinks she's fixed things sufficiently to get out, and then wakes up right back on Friday 13th again. This is where the meat of the story is revealed – an examination of guilt, and trauma, and the difference between papering over a problem and actually fixing it, between performative regret and genuinely attempting to make restitution. After all, for people who've experienced something sufficiently horrible, it doesn't take a time loop to find oneself trapped by "an action replay that was always with her, lying in wait, ready to pounce at unexpected moments". And the more we're shown Jess, or at least her behaviours, as unappealing, the more sympathetic and human I found her, which is quite the achievement. I continue to find it intriguing that of the recent wave of time loop stories, I don't recall seeing one which explicitly uses the idea as a gloss on those nightmarish, circular days of lockdown. But the more this grounds itself as a way of talking about other real-life horrors, the more it worked for me.

Also, excellent canine characters.

*And I'm not just saying that because, a former Pointless winner herself, she was encouraging me to go on it, though that is 100% a way to get on my good side. Alas, this was a couple of weeks before Richard Osman announced his departure, and sod doing it without the classic team.

(Netgalley ARC)

Groundhog day but sassy, sexy and a little bit silly.

Jess has read books, she's seen movies - so when she wakes up the day after the worst day of her life to find it's started all over again she knows there's a lesson to learn here. But the problem is, she doesn't know what. Until yesterday, things were great. She was dating two handsome men (but now she's alone.) She had a flat in a busy city (but now her broken Ikea furniture is on the street) and she had a best friend (but she might have ruined that.) She thought her life was good until now, She thought she was having the time of her life. Can she figure out how to get back to that life or will she forever be waking up at 7:45am on Friday 13th?

The Time Of My Life is an engaging, fresh twist on the classic time-loop problem with a modern flair. With a strong, character-driven story of self-reflection, self-love and self-discovery, it's impossible not to connect with Jess - we instantly see through her bravado and her denial and wait patiently for her to go on that journey and see what we see. Jess is stubborn, immature, and somewhat questionable at times but we're able to get glimpses beneath all that to find a character really easy to connect with.

Brilliantly paced, this is packed full of humour and witty observations and is sure to make you smile.

A fun take on a Groundhog Day theme.

Jess lives through a nightmare Friday 13th. She manages to lose her job, home, boyfriend and probably her best friend too. When she wakes up the next morning, her life has reset on a loop back to 7.45am on Friday 13th - can she figure out how to get out of the loop? Will she be able to put right what went wrong, or will she be stuck reliving the day over and over forever?

A well paced read, with interesting characters and a thought-provoking premise - what would YOU do if you had the chance to live one day on repeat? Definitely worth a read.

Such a fun read!
An up to date Groundhog Day. The worst day of your life happens and you go to sleep with the intention of a better day tomorrow only to find out the previous day is on repeat!
This book kept me hooked with great one liners and storyline. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review. It was a blast.

It was OK. Not my normal genre of choice but thought I would try it. Not what I was expecting and found it a bit cringy in places.

A millenial take on Groundhog Day, this was brilliant, witty and full of great jokes and funny characters.

Jess was such a real person to me, with her steadfast refusal to grow up, great one liners and and dodgy moral decisions - all of which hide a sincere, lovely person who has lost their way. I also loved the glimpses behind the scenes at a women's weekly magazine and was cheering for poor Donna as much as Jess!

Loved it!

A very light and easy read which helped me to get out of a book slump. I really enjoyed Jess and loved the groundhog day vibes.

A modern take on Groundhog Day…… Imagine the worst day of your life. Now imagine living it on repeat! This book starts with a bang, which instantly got me hooked and keeps it and tension going throughout the book! This book needs to be on your radar!

I blitzed through this book over the weekend as I just could not get enough. Light and witty I enjoyed every second. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.