Tina and Jodie are best friends who are both approaching 30 and feeling that life is passing them by and so
they make a drunken pact to change their lives. Jodie is soon married and living in France but Tina is still in the same job and living the same life but without her best friend until she finally decides to set up her own literary agency. Then she gets a new flatmate Maisie and life is starting to look up.

A lovely story following the lives of these friends, the characters all work well together, I especially liked Maisie who was great fun and I love the setting in France, a good light relaxing summer read

This book is a lovely read, following a year with two best friends Tina and Jodie. Both were determined to change their lives, however a year on from a New Year’s Eve promise to do so, only things for Jodie have changed. With Jodie now living in Provence with her new husband, Tina finds herself in London, without her best friend and flat mate at her side, single, unhappy with her new work colleague and still wondering if she is brave enough to take the first step to make the changes she knows she needs to make.

First up for Tina is to leave her job and set up her own literary agency. It won’t be easy, but it won’t be impossible either and she soon finds that one change seems to lead to another. A new flat mate, Maisie, enters her life and then through work, Luc arrives. Maisie turned out to be one of my favourite characters, fun, bubbly and determined, however Luc added a real sense of mystery to the book, and as the next big thing in the literary world, hopefully the answer to more than one of Tina’s dreams.

I enjoyed following Jodie as she settled into her new life in the south of France. To begin with it wasn’t easy, arriving in a French village with little spoken French and a husband often shut away in his study, however with a little bit of chance taking, along with a family mystery to solve and a house move to manage, very soon she begins to create her own future in France, with lots to look forward to.

This book has some great characters, all different, but all worked well together and whose stories of taking chances are nicely woven into the main plot. Sometimes all we need is a little help in getting started and the faith to put our trust in others, despite the uncertainties of the outcome.

A great book about two very different yet connected by friendship characters.

I really enjoyed this book. It made me feel good and thinking about what following your dreams means.
It's well written, interesting characters and you feel involved in their story.
Strongly recommended.
Many thanks to HQ Digital and Netgalley

I was so excited when I see this book pop up on Netgalley, the cover is so exciting but doesn't give much away and I was just so intrigued by the blurb. The story follows best friends Tina and Jodie, who at the start of the book decide that they were going to turn their lives around by the time they turned 30. However, we then fast forward a year and everything has changed for Jodie but everything is still the same for Tina.

Jodie is married and living in the lovely Provence in France and Tina is exactly where she was those twelve months ago. I did feel for Tina, she wants the best for her friend but at the same time missing her immensely. However, as the story gets going, Jodie tells Tina that there's still time to turn her life around - as she's not 30 yet! The events that take place after this is totally exciting and I was just hoping that everything turned out okay for Tina!

As well as this, although everything appears rosy for Jodie, she misses parts of her old life, especially Tina. And whilst Tina is taking Jodie's advice about turning her life around, she starts her own business and meets a new flatmate. So everything is turning around! But will they stay that way?

I thought this was a really interesting and so well written. I enjoyed Jennifer Bohnet's novels before and this one was no different!

A super book.. Two best friends Tina and Jodie who are getting close to thirty and still single. Not that single is bad, but they aren’t in the place in their lives they expected. Drunk on New Year’s Eve, they make a New Years resolution. If at thirty they are still single they will move to Wales and raise cats, no alpacas. They look up at the stars to tell the cosmos it has less than two years or they will be going to Wales.
A great read you won’t want to put down.

Tina, Jodie, and Maisie all find themselves somewhere they didn't expect to be but they're all determined to get where they want to be. Does that make sense? If it does, well then you know how this entertaining chick lit novel is going to go. Jodie may have married too hastily and now she's adjusting to life in France while Tina has opened her own agency and is struggling to get business. Maisie, well Maisie moved to London from Scotland for a man, and that didn't turn out well at all. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this nicely written quick read which while not especially innovative, is encouraging and hopeful.

Don't we all get to a point where we want to make changes in our lives?

The characters, Tina and Jodie in A year of taking chances have decided to take some risks and make positive changes as they approach their big 3-0 birthdays.

A year of Taking Chances is a wonderfully written, warm read that explores the strength of friendship and it's unbreakable bond during a period of change, with a few surprises thrown in to boot!

To top it off, there's a truly beautiful ending, guaranteed to give you all the feels.

I really enjoyed this book. I like the characters, their motivations and the dynamic between them. And I could also picture a lot of their situations and therefore could rationalise their decisions. New Year and alcohol gives these girls the courage to follow their dreams before the big 3 0. Or does it. . . Read it and find out!

This tells the story of Tina and Jodie, two friends who want to make changes in their lives before they turn 30. It's a good theme (albeit nothing new), about taking chances, but there was little drama and I felt Tina and Jodie were a bit bland - Jodie in particular. Neither showed a great deal of emotion, and even during difficult periods in their lives I didn't feel the angst.

In Jodie's case, I felt the changes which occurred in her life were a tad unrealistic in terms of how fast they happened.

I really liked the scenes set in France, and the fact that Tina is a Literary Agent (loving the book theme). There is an additional storyline surrounding Maisie, whom Tina befriends, which added an interesting dynamic, but which was kind of left hanging at the end.

It's a nice enough story, just a bit bland in parts.

A lovely book about having the courage to follow your dreams... an enjoyable read once you get past Tina's melancholy having been left behind whilst Jodie is living the good life in France...

even better, it's a book about books as our heroine Tina works in a literary field...

3.5* an enjoyable read

Before they hit the big thirty, New Year sets two friends, Tina and Jodie on a mission to make the following two years the ones in which they achieve their dreams in love and work. However, life isn't all plain sailing and wish granting as literary agent Tina finds out after her PR worker best friend Jodie gets married to Ben an author whilst she's still playing the dating game with a lawyer who left her hanging and living with her unfulfilled working life still too.



However Jodie finds herself yes married but after a whirlwind romance, losing her parents and moving to France away from her normal life, she finds herself unable to adapt and dreams of being back with Tina having her best friend there to talk to face to face and so can't wait for an upcoming event which means they'll be reunited.



Yet plans can fall through and new faces can become trusted friends over time, we see taking chances are great sometimes and can really pay off in the long term despite any doubts originally.



This is a book showing that the best friend bond is super special and not everything typically happy leads to happiness and fulfillment in life as many aspects need to be in order for true happiness to be present. It was a sweet with added drama read and utterly enjoyable from beginning to end and another great book by Jennifer.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

2.5 stars

***ARC received in exchange of an honest opinion***

I was expecting more from this book. It took me a lot of time to get into it, until the second half of the story I was debating not finishing it.

The story is told in 3rd person, which I usually like, but in this case it’s told in the POV (although in 3rd person) of the three main characters. I think that in this case the story is would have benefited from the 1st person, that way it would have been easier to connect to it and relate to the characters.

Speaking of which, the characters bored me most of the time. And when they finally peeked my interest I wanted more from their stories, specially their love stories, and I feel like the book only skimmed those.

I was left feeling there were some lose ends. Since it focused on three major characters (and then it only focused on two of them and the third was just left there), there wasn’t any particular focus on neither of them and I missed that connection.

Unfortunately this wasn’t the book for me.

Tina and Jodie are best friends. They room together and their jobs are intertwined. Jodie is a PR person and Tilly works for a literary agency. During a drunken New Year's Eve celebration, they ask the Cosmos to help them change their lives within 2 years.

Jodie meets a Frenchman named Ben and within a short period of time, they are married and living in France. Ben is a successful author who fell in love with Jodie and the feeling was mutual.

Tilly is still alone as the 2 year deadline approaches, but things at her job are becoming more and more difficult. So, she quits and to open her own literary agency.

Tilly has also taken in Maisie. Maisie is a young woman who has been living on the streets for a few weeks. She came to London from Scotland to connect with her boyfriend, John. It turns out that John has found another girl and he quickly dumps Maisie. Tilly helps her make a new start in life.

These 3 women are each going through a metamorphosis.

Jodie is learning how to fit in in a new country. After being a driven woman at work, she must adjust to an entirely new life. She takes classes to learn French, she meets people in the village and she is becoming a housewife.

Tilly is overcoming a sense of uncertainty. The new business may be a failure, she may not be able to find authors. In reality she is good at recognizing talented authors and Jodie will be able to publicize the new agency to help create success.

Maisie, with Tilly's encouragement and help, sees that she can create a new life for herself and she is better off without someone as rotten as John.

This is a nice story about life and the surprises that come along. Each of the women must learn to create a new path for themselves.

Jodie and Tilly are women who have lived through losses and successes. Both of them are likable characters who carry the story forward. Surprises come their way, not all of them good ones. No matter what happens, their inner strengths allows them to find solutions for any problem.

This is a book about family relationships which can be painful as well as wonderful. It is about discovering who we are by the journeys which have been made. It is also about learning that opening up to all sorts of love can be very healing.

I enjoyed the book very much. This is the first book by Ms Bohnet I have read. I hope to read much more by her.

I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley. I am voluntarily writing this review and all opinions are my own.

I liked the book, but in points, it felt like it dragged on.
I kind of wished it only followed one point of view and had a second book for the other.

Unfortunately, the font in the file was too small for to read on my e-reader. Therefore, I have been unable to read and review this book. Unfortunately, the font in the file was too small for to read on my e-reader. Therefore, I have been unable to read and review this book.

This was a well-written, fun, engaging book. Tina and Jodie made an agreement to change their lives before they turned 30. A year later Jodie is married and living in France, but Tina's life hasn't changed. It's the start of a year of adventure for both Jodie and Tina. I enjoyed reading this book and look forward to reading other books by this author.

From the moment I started reading I knew I was going to enjoy this story.
Tina and her best friend Jodie are now leading their own lives, after flat sharing together.
Jodie met and married Ben, a writer within months of meeting him and they settled in Ben’s home country of France. Something is not right though and she sets about it to make it good.
Tina was in a rut with her job and was missing Jodie. She decided it’s now or never on taking a chance to do something for herself, a big bold decision.
We meet Maisie, a girl who was living on the streets after following her boyfriend from Scotland only for him to jilt her. She was lucky enough to meet Tina and her wonderful life begins. All three women had support from someone. This is their story.
So many lovely characters and written very well, a must read.

Characters you can identify with, well-written and engaging. Made me laugh and cry. The cover of this book was also very engaging. Recommend this and would read more from the author in the future. Thank you for providing me with a copy of this book