After throwing her husband Richard a surprise 50th party, Kim gets an even bigger surprise - he’s leaving her for their next door neighbour.
The following day she sets off to Nottingham with her son Harry, who is about to start university.
Exhausted and humiliated she falls asleep in the spare bedroom and after meeting the other housemates when she wakes up, they agree to her staying with them for a few days, that turns into a few weeks and then a few months.
With a host of wonderful characters, we follow Kim’s journey as she grows in confidence and rediscovers herself.
Lots of funny and sad moments that will resonate with us all and although the ending was predictable, I still really enjoyed this book.
With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Throwing your husband of 20 years a surprise 50th birthday comes with extra surprises. Announcing he has been having an affair with the next door neighbour and he's leaving.
Not only has this life changing event happened to Kim but her only child is leaving for university the next morning. Talking her son Harry to his accommodation in Nottingham circumstances conspire that Kim ends up taking the spare room in the house share. Making a new family not blood related but supportive and kind leads to new opportunities and eyes open to a lot of things.
Enjoy I did

Kim and Richard Jacobs have a nice life. She is a hairdresser, who loves to chat and socialise. He is a professor at Lancaster University, a bit of an egg head, and very reserved. Not a match made in heaven, but after twenty years together, Kim feels they have life sussed. With son Harry due to go off to Nottingham University, their lives are entering a new phase. For Richard’s fiftieth birthday, Kim throws a surprise party, something he would definitely shy away from, so she has sworn all the guests to secrecy. The party goes very well, even though Richard was more than a little shocked. Kim puts this down to the way Richard is, a bit reclusive, doesn’t want a fuss. Little does she realise that the shock is because of a secret that Richard blurts out when they are doing the after party tidy!

I loved this book, a real cracker. The writing immediately drew me in, confident, exceptional, and the characters were excellent (oh Sonny, bless him!). Not a speedy storyline, but there wasn’t a wasted page, and the plot flowed beautifully. What starts off as quite sad soon develops into the most joyful story. Chasing those rainbows is definitely worthwhile.

A treasure of a book.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins.

The Time of her Life
The day after Her husbands 50th surprise party Kim’s husband Richard tells her he has been having an affair for the past year with their next door neighbours wife and will be leaving Kim
Completely blindsided and devastated by this especially as that day they were taking their son Harry to start at university she just gets in her car with Harry to take him to university by herself.
When they arrive at the rented house Harry with be sharing with two other students Angus and Sonny there is a spare room Kim so asks if she could stay with them for a few days to try sort herself out. The scenes here are full of humour, with three boys not used to cooking and cleaning after themselves and leaving everywhere an absolute shambles plus there only being one bathroom you can imagine the carnage and odours.
With Kim being heartbroken and Harry also blindsided there are many emotions to navigate. Gradually though Kim finds a part time job and is helping the others with her no nonsense advice.
I did keep waiting for ‘the time of Kim’s life’ to get going but this is a slow burn as she slowly realises what she actually wants and needs to do with her life now.
A satisfying and entertaining read.
My thanks to netgalley and publisher for the opportunity to review this book honestly.

You know from the first page of reading a book whether you are in a confident pair of hands with an author, and Tracy Bloom is exactly that – a confident and experienced pair of hands.

I raced through The Time of Her Life, experiencing every emotion from gut wrenching heartbreak to laugh out loud and everything in between. I felt every second of the rollercoaster ride with Kim as she worked her through every person’s worse nightmare, rooting for her every step of the way.

#NoSpoilers, but see earlier point, this is Tracy Bloom at her best, she takes no prisoners tackling difficult situations with humour, but getting the balance with poignancy absolutely right.

A cracker of a story, one of the ones you slow down your reading as you approach the end because you don’t want to finish and say goodbye to characters who somehow along the way became friends.

Highly recommend.

This was SO good I read it in less than 48 hours. Kim was an absolute legend and a real inspiration. To be blindsided like she was and to not totally fall apart (minus a night or two of drunkeness and many tears!) was incredible. I loved her and Harry’s relationship- what a wonderful son he is. I loved Max, Annie, Sonny and Angus- they were all hilarious. The whole premise of her living the student life with the boys was so funny and provided plenty of warm moments too. Just thoroughly enjoyed it, and wondering if I might be able to tag along with my kiddos when they set off to uni (maybe without the affair bit happening though?!)