Cathy Hopkins

I picked up "The Kicking The Bucket List" at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons.

I read the publisher's summary that said:

"Meet the daughters of Iris Parker. Dee; sensitive and big-hearted; Rose uptight and controlled and Fleur the reckless free spirit.

At the reading of their mother’s will, the three estranged women are aghast to discover that their inheritance comes with strings attached. If they are to inherit her wealth, they must spend a series of weekends together over the show more course of a year and carry out their mother’s ‘bucket list’."

I was expecting something quirky and redemptive, maybe even feel-good. "The Kicking The Bucket List" isn't that kind of book. It's a book about grief and what it does to us, about being disappointed in ourselves and others, about not being able to talk to the people that we should be closest to and it's about a mother trying to rescue the relationships between her three daughters.

If I were in another mood, I might have enjoyed this. Right now, I'm trying to hold depression at bay, not invite it into my imagination.

What finally convinced me to stop, at the twenty per cent point, was the first "counselling" session the three sisters sit through. I'm ashamed to say, I once ran sessions like that. I was young but I should still have known better. I'm not young any more and these techniques, even when applied to other people, have me grinding my teeth.

So, if you're feeling strong and you want a serious book with three believable sisters in their late forties to early fifties trying to reconcile with one another while grieving for their mother, this is the book for you. show less

Another great installment in the best feel-good series for young adults.

It was great to see things from Nesta's point of view. Yes, she's selfish. But she grows up and starts to see that everything doesn't revolve around money and clothes. And is Simon a keeper? Well, he seems to be.

And ahhh, the feeling of your first hangover. The "I'll never drink again!" pity party in your bed.

Cathy Hopkins is great at telling the stories of these teens.

Interesting concept: a mother videos tasks for her three estranged daughters to carry out once she has died. But I found the cackling old mother and her jolly mates truly irritating, the sort of embarrassing old biddies who would be hilariously flashing their knickers at a wedding dance And if she bothered to go to all this trouble, why on earth didn't she try to manipulate her daughters more before her death? And The three middle-aged daughters were weirdly juvenile, Dee the main POV show more keeping her relationship with the facilitator, Daniel, a secret. Rose being preciously secretive about her cancer. It wasn't the keeping-it-to-themselves that was annoying but their angsting about it. And the various tasks: going for a walk, using a health spa, were terribly mundane. Read for a book group, and while it was readable, a bit shallow and chick-lit for snobby me. show less

Another fun one from Cathy Hopkins and the Mates, Dates gang!

This time we meet TJ, the newcomer to the gang. Her best friend is gone, hundreds of miles away in South Africa, and the bitch at school is trying to make her life hell.

But Lucy, Izzie and Nesta come to the rescue and welcome her to the gang - cue sleepovers, makeovers and boy talk.