Reviewer: Samantha
I received a copy of The Art of Letting Go in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
One year. One woman. One Diary. One question: Can you ever stop history from repeating itself, and if you could, what would you do to stop it?
When Lilah McCannon realises at the age of twenty-five that history is going to repeat itself and she is going to become her mother—bored, drunk and wearing a twinset—there is only one thing to do: take drastic action.
Turning her back on her old life, Lilah’s plan is to enrol at university, get a degree, and prove she is a grown-up.
As plans go, it is a good one. There are rules to follow: no alcohol, no cigarettes, no boys, and no going home. But when Lilah meets the lead singer of a local band and finds herself unexpectedly falling in love, she realises her rules are not going to be the only things hard to keep.
With the academic year slipping by too quickly, Lilah faces a barrage of new challenges: Will she ever make it up the Library stairs without having a heart attack? Can she handle a day on campus without drinking vodka?
Will she ever manage to read a history book without falling asleep? And, most importantly, can she become the grown-up that she desperately wants to be?
With her head and her heart pulling her in different directions, can Lilah learn the hardest lesson that her first year of university has to teach her: The Art of Letting Go?
Review:
As a fan of the emerging new adult genre, I was surprised I didn’t take to this one more. Sometimes the diary format in a book can make me feel disengaged with the characters, and I think that’s what happened in this case. Lilah is an interesting character, a little on the immature side, but she is a bit younger. I didn’t like her sub plot with being engaged, because she doesn’t want to be, has no intention of going through the marriage, and cheats on her “fiancé” yet I didn’t quite understand why he was such a bad guy to where she just despised having to marry him. There were very few scenes with him involved, so it was hard to get a feel for that. Other than that I didn’t dislike the book, it just didn’t hold my interest very well. I found myself skipping through parts, but other areas I found interesting. A slight miss for me, but others might enjoy this one more than I was able to.
3 stars
