‘The Time of Our Lives’ – Jane Costello book review.

After reading Jane Costello’s ‘Summer Nights at the Moonlight hotel’ earlier this year and absolutely loving it, I knew Costello was an author whose work I just had to read more of.

I picked up ‘The Time of Our Lives’ in my local Waterstones and I had very high expectations for this book. ‘The Time of Our Lives’ tells the story of three young women – Imogen, Nic and Meredith, who win a luxury holiday to the beautiful city of Barcelona. The girls are so excited for their trip together which is destined to be the time of their lives with cocktails, sun and relaxation. However as Imogen spends most of the time glued to her phone with work problems that threaten to leave her jobless, plus a nagging mother who exagerates a half eaten lipstick as an emergency, the girls luxury holiday isn’t exactly going to plan.

Despite the problems surrounding them, the girls are determined to make the most of their holiday no matter what it takes.

Luckily for Imogen there is something that does manage to bring a smile to her face, something in the form of a very handsome man who seems to be everywhere she turns. But is he as charming as he makes out or is there a more troubling reason as to why he seems to be following Imogen around Barcelona?

With all of Imogen’s woes, I found myself feeling a little exhausted as I begun reading this story, the constant nagging from her boss and her mother wound me up a lot. I just wanted to scream at Imogen ‘Turn off your dang phone!!’ However as I read on I really started to enjoy the story more and more and there were even some laugh out loud moments, which I was expecting since ‘Summer Nights’ had me giggling throughout.

What I loved about ‘The Time of Our Lives’ is how it revolved around the three girls and really focused on the importance of their friendship. I thought it was lovely how even though the girls are all so different, they all care for each other deeply and aren’t afraid to be honest and open with one another. Their’s is a friendship group I think a lot of young women should aspire to be a part of – supportive, honest and caring.

There was a really great plot twist in this story which really shocked me and led me to be more understanding of Imogen’s character and see her reasoning behind things. I felt that as the story went on I could sympathise with Imogen a lot more, she became more and more likeable to me and I really enjoyed how her character progressed and grew throughout the novel.

Overall I enjoyed the lovely story of friendship and love and it did have it’s laugh out loud moments. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if there wasn’t so much negativity everywhere, the constant problems did stress me out to begin with. Obviously though that was all part of the plot and the story wouldn’t have worked without it.

I would recommend ‘The Time of Our Lives’ to anyone who is looking for a story focused around friendship which includes humour and romance, whilst also touching upon more sensitive subjects too.

Have you read ‘The Time of Our Lives’ or any other novel’s by Jane Costello? Be sure to let me know in the comments below.

Thankyou for reading this review of Jane Costello’s ‘The Time of Our Lives’.

With love, Jennie. ❤️ xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx