A captivating story that explores some very important and current social issues, while also following a journey of personal growth, this isn't a book you'll soon forget. Bonnie is an amazing character, and watching her grow and change as she meets and tries to help people who have been through some horrible trauma was heart-warming. She feels real, and it's easy to imagine you could bump into her on the street. The story moves along smoothly, although not at a quick pace. I definitely recommend this for anyone looking for LGBTQIA+ women's fiction.

4.5⭐

A Year In Her Life by Alice Benson. Published 11th September 2019. A Year In Her Life by Alice Benson. Published 11th September 2019.

I didn't enjoy A Year in Her Life. I just couldn't enjoy the character and thus the whole thing fell flat for me and was a DNF.

I had high hopes for this but unfortunately it fell short. I found it slow and difficult to get through.

The dialogue didn’t feel real and I couldn’t connect to Bonnie, nor could I feel the connection between her and Jane (or Larry). There was nothing romantic about their interactions. There were some nice moments of Bonnie and her friends on their girls nights.

This has a lot to do with feminism and social conscious, which felt heavy handed. A lot of the dialogue about issues felt like they came from pamphlets rather than true conversation.

I wanted so much to like this, because as a fan of queer romance novels, finding a good f/f book is often an impossible task. This, sadly, was not that book. The dialogue read as stilted to me, I didn't particularly connect with any of the main characters, and I didn't feel the chemistry between the two leads; there's barely any romantic language used about how they perceive the other at all. The idea is great, and I welcome the author's attempt to draw attention to issues that we don't talk about enough, but I feel like this came at the expense of an engaging story.

DNF @ 17%

First and foremost, the writing style didn't work for me: too much telling, not much showing. If not for the synopsis or the mention of "a gentle wave roll[ing] through her belly" at the thought of Jane, I would absolutely never have guessed that this was a romantic storyline in the making: there didn't seem to be anything special about their early interactions.

The dialogues on intersectionality are really heavy-handed, and they sound more like textbook monologues than realistic discussion (generalizations, statistics, polar-opposite attitudes/beliefs). Which is not to say that this kind of portrayal doesn't have any place in mainstream fiction — it just doesn't appeal to me as someone who has some foundational knowledge of, and personal experience with, the issues at hand.

I also wasn't a fan of Bonnie's reasoning or decision-making processes. She makes snap judgments about people, for better or worse, and fails to take basic personal-safety precautions when planning for dates with relative strangers. Her privilege-based guilt is palpable, but so is her white-savior mindset: she literally says that she "pictured [herself] helping people, and in my mental image, I pictured them thanking me".

The portrayal of relationships also bothers me — there are some sweet girls' night scenes, but also some small scenes where they take each other's emotional labor for granted (one of the best friends is a WOC and single mom); every time the first (male) love interest subtly indicates that he's disappointed by her (perfectly reasonable) declining of his invitations, she jumps to make him feel better. I'm also really not a fan of scenes where characters stare at themselves in the mirror and reflect on their sexuality and/or sex appeal, but there are several of those.

Of course, it's totally possible that all this is improved later on, but I haven't been hooked enough to want to find out.

This book is about love, friendship, loss, feminism and social conscience. I feel it tried to cover all this issues and didn't always succeed in including them seamlessly into Bonnie's story. Whilst I enjoyed bits of the book I felt other parts seemed clumpy and didn't ring true, such as how the friends talked to each other!

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


What a well written novel! Alice Benson does an amazing job at exploring tons of deep social topics such as Black Lives Matter, White Supremacy, Women’s Rights, and racial invisibility. A Year in Her Life was such a great controversial read that I highly suggest to anyone (unless you are a Trump Supporter- actually.. Ya’ll should jump in on this too LoL)


Bonnie’s character is super relatable. We have all been Bonnie at one time or another. I feel like one of the most important parts of Bonnie’s journey, was how she did not recognize the abuse in her own relationships while despite working with abused women.


All and all, this was a great book. I believe everyone should give this a read. Thank you so much to Alice Benson, Black Rose Writing, and NetGalley for a copy of this book for review.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my review. Thank you NetGalley.

So i have to admit, i had a really hard getting into this book. The storyline just didn't keep my interest. I unfortunately gave up on it about 60% trhough. ;/

I have never read anything like this book before and I must say that I enjoyed it. Will look for other books by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley, Black Rose Writing and Ms. Alice Benson for the opportunity to read this Advanced Readers Copy of "A Year in Her Life".

Set admist current times in the United States during the Trump election campaign, "Bonnie" finds herself looking for answers to the questions she is afraid to ask.

Working at a women's shelter isn't easy, but Bonnie is a natural. She has a natural way with people and excels at raising funds to keep the shelter running. If only her personal life was running as easily.

Bonnie believes she has found her perfect mate, her soulmate. What follows is a year of engagement; between the two lovers, her friends, her employer and politics.

Bonnie realizes that you don't always get what you want, but when you do, it might be different from what you expected, it might be the last thing you really want... or need.

Slow and meandering plot line bogged down by too much detail. I’m sorry that it didn’t hold my intention and unfortunately couldn’t finish it.

It took a few weeks for me to read this. I wanted to stop about 20% in but don’t like not finishing a book so I carried on. The plot was terrible; had the usual straight girl trying to be gay; the “will they won’t they” ran through the whole story and the end was just terrible! The constant referring to Donald Trump and the election made it even worse.

Just could not finish this one and ended up tapping out very early. The style of writing was irritating me--where the author does not describe characters, settings, or even actions and just lets dialogue try to take the place of this. I was having a difficult time being pulled into the characters and the story, instead finding myself very detached. There was no setup and new characters seemed to be randomly introduced without much in the way of context or consistency. It made for a jarring early experience with this story and I couldn't bring myself to continue if it's this way for the entire book. Where's an editor when you need one?

A challenging read that takes you through a year in the life of the main character Bonnie. She has great friends, a job she loves, all she wants now is to find her soulmate. Meet Jane. Bonnie is convinced they're soulmates, but are they?

The writing is at times tedious but there's a definite attachment to Bonnie to see what's happening in her life. There's a strong flow but there's also repetition and I wondered how long it would take Bonnie to work things out. As frustrating as that sounds, it reasonably mimics elements of real life

A Year in Her Life touches on a lot of political issues and is not for the Republican reader. It is written well for the subjects it touches on and I enjoyed the characters. I would read more by this author.

A year in Her Life was difficult for me to read. There are a ton of issues going on in this one. Since this takes place in 2016 it talks a great deal about the climate of the USA during the election period of Donald Trump. Also one of the MC's works at a women's shelter that deals with abused women. For the most part I thought the book was well written (there were a few grammar issues - ie missing words that I caught) and gave a insightful glimpse at mental abuse and all the things that go with it. I wasn't sure I was going to make it to the end, but I am glad I finished it.

I give this one 4 stars.

A Year in Her Life by Alice Benson ticked all the boxes as a solid, socially progressive book. The storyline follows a year in the life of a young socially progressive woman, desperately searching for her soulmate. While she is looking for a man, she us open to sexual fluidity, reasoning that love comes in different forms.
Bonnie is fortunate to have landed the perfect job, working in Transitions House, a shelter for abused and homeless women. While surrounded by women, scared by abusive relationships, Bonnie seems to overlook the signs of abusive behaviour when it comes to her own relationships.
Set in the simmering tensions of the 2016 Election Race, Bonnie finally meets her hearts desire, the slightly older Jane. Although her friends caution her to take things slowly, Bonnie is quickly swept into Jane’s world, where the truth is as much distorted as it isin the election campaign.
Exploring a lot of topical issues such as Black Lives Matter, White Supremacy, and Racial Invisibility, this is definitely not a book for Trump or Republican supporters. The text is peppered with words such as perserverate and heteronormativity, makes this book seem a little like a Sociology Paper, however one can only give credit to the author for exploring, difficult and easy to sweep under the carpet themes. This book is as much about social awareness of woman’s rights as it is about storytelling.
I read this book from the viewpoint of a gay woman, looking for a little light relief from the never ending storyline of boy meets girl type scenario. I am interested in who is telling our stories and are they real or just designed to titillate the non-gay reader. This book was certainly not what I was expecting and too much resonated with me. Things I wish I could forget.
The fact that the book was set within a now historical period of US history, it was easily understood, as the coverage of political campaigns in the United States gets almost as much coverage here as in the author’s own country. Even from an Australian viewpoint, the Election year seemed as chaotic here as it seeded to the author.
I gave this book 3.5 Stars for the content, rounding it up to 4 Stars for being courageous enough to air controversial issues. Well done Alive Benson, Black Rose Writing and thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an unbiased review