It was great to be back with Nell and the gang, in this second instalment of Confessions of a Forty Something F##k Up. Time has moved on but Nell is still as confused as ever about how her life has got to this point and where it should be headed.

As soon as I started reading this it felt like meeting up with an old friend. Alexandra’s writing radiates warmth, understanding and humour. There is something in here that everyone can relate to. From battles with a partner over the thermostat, to the bigger life battles like cancer or marriage breakdown; it’s all here and they are dealt with honestly and sensitively.

We pick up with Nell as the country is coming out of lockdown. I think that it was right to acknowledge the pandemic; it would have been strange not to in a book which is so open about other things. I thought it was handled well; focusing on the effects the imposed restrictions had on the characters lives. The loneliness, the anxieties of re-emerging into society again, adjusting to home working; again all things that are relatable to us as readers.

The book acts as a reminder to us all that life has no plan and we can’t control what’s around the corner. It encourages us to embrace the small things and to find humour in the day to day mishaps that we all experience. It also reminds us that sometimes big life changing things happen and we can’t control them but we can be open about them and share our feelings and experiences and help each other through them.

It’s a really enjoyable read, with a big hearted message and I now have a new idol in my life, an octogenarian named Cricket!

It’s great to be back with Nell and all her friends especially Cricket. I have been a fan of Alexandra Potter for quite a few years now and her books will always make you smile. Nell still feels like a f**k up when all her friends have it all together but looks can be deceiving and do we ever know what we are doing. A fab read to make you laugh and maybe make you ease up on the doom scrolling

More Confessions of a Forty-Something F*** Up by Alexandra Potter
I give this book 5 stars

Nell’s back. Her life still isn’t going to plan and she’s asking the big questions like:
When everything goes tits up, do you fall apart or jump on a plane to LA with Cricket (an eighty-something widow and your BFF)?
Join her for more laugh-out-loud lessons to be learned,truths to be told, adventures to go on and joys to discover.

I can’t tell you how happy I was to catch up with Nell and Cricket they have such an endearing friendship and all the other familiar characters in this sequel,they truly feel like old friends!
Told in a diary style format by Nell (first person) be prepared to embrace what everyday life throws at you and how you deal with it . . . . . family,friends,laughter,sadness,gratitude.
It’s rare for any book to actually make me laugh out loud like this one did (more than once) and for a book to resonate on so many levels with me.
Brilliantly written, extremely relatable, honest, full of humour and totally uplifting, Everyone needs to read this (you don’t have to be forty-something) and realise it’s never too late to change what you don’t like in your life and their are tons of women dealing with the same thoughts and feelings.
With thanks to Netgalley,Alexandra Potter and Pan MacMillan for my chance to read and review this book.

Absolutely adore this series and I hope that this isn't the end of these books!

Living in a world that focused on social media, as stated in the book is just a highlights reel, you never know what people are going through and it's easy to feel like a f**k up if you aren't where others are.

This book is a great reminder that we all go at our own pace and paths.

It's hard not to love all the characters! Especially Cricket! Definitely worth a read, you don't have to have read the first one but it's a bonus if you have!

Nell is back! The story picks up 18 months after the end of Confessions of a Forty Something F**k Up. Nell is discovering that falling in love is much easier than staying in love. Her friends are experiencing their own issues within their relationships and Nell and Edward find that they may not be on the same page when they picture their future together.

This book has less funny moments than the first but that is down to the themes covered in this one. Nell tries to process her miscarriage and the grief she feels from the loss. There is also a health scare with one of her friends. However, this book will still have you laughing in all the right places, and don’t worry, Cricket is just as amazing as she is in the first book. I loved Nell’s and Cricket’s character growth in this one, showing how time can heal and that age really is just a number.

I found this book just as honest as the first. Nell is relatable and the story depicts real life situations in a believable way. Nell shows that relationships take work, that social media isn’t real life, and that people all have flaws.

Thank you to @netgalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review

This was just as good as the first book I got to read, made me laugh so much.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

I enjoyed the first novel but this felt like it meandered without any real purpose. This book is set after the lockdown restrictions were lifted and it already seems too soon for Covid to be mentioned in fiction. It's the first book I have read that has mentioned it. It is realistic in how certain characters are affected by Covid, despite restrictions easing. However, there wasn’t much drama in the novel to hold my interest and there were certain issues touched upon that I don't want to read about in a light-hearted novel (one being going to a social class where you get to build your own coffin). I know a lot of readers enjoyed this book, but I don’t think I this style of book is for me anymore.

Much like the first Confessions book, the sequel is very entertaining and relatable and altogether impossible to dislike. Easy to read, funny and full of truths, I expect this book will appeal to all kinds of people. Would recommend for a light read that isn't afraid to also address some more serious issues.

This is a great follow up book , the first had me laughing out loud but I found this more heartwarming. Funny and well written the characters are likeable and believable.

Life is definitely not a fairytale! I absolutely loved the first book and ‘more confessions’ was just as good… what I like about the writing is the raw and real life approach, as someone in her 40s this book resonates with me, relationships take work, nothing is as perfect as people make it out to be on social media and this confronts that!

With lots of humour and amazing characters, we all need a bestie like Cricket!! This book tackles some deep subjects and somehow can keep it lighthearted.

Recommended by me!! Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the digital arc… 5 stars!!!!

A funny and heartwarming story. I loved the relationship between Nell and Cricket, that was a real surprise. This book was better than I expected, I didn't like the style at first but I warmed to it, then was gripped and couldn't put it down.
Brilliantly written, a book for our time.

I loved this book for a number of reasons; the great host of characters, a complexity of relatable life issues and an eccentric octogenarian to name just a few. All in all a great read.

An enjoyable read that makes you think about relationships. I liked the author's use of mind focusing lists at the end of chapters.

Absolutely brilliant, loved it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me an advance copy, I will definitely be recommending.

I've got to say I actually enjoyed this more than the first book. Domt get me wrong, the first book had me proper belly laughing at some points and smiling with a warm heart in others BUT the second book even more so.

In this installment, as the world is moving forward after Covid we see Nell engaged and living with Edward, her former flat mate and his two older sons.

Finding a positive pregnancy test in the bathroom, Edward's reaction to Nell being pregnant turns her world upside down. The test wasn't hers but it makes her reevaluate her life completely. Once again Nell is back to the single life questioning what it is she actually wants.

The breathe of fresh air that is known as her 'best friend' Cricket offers well thumbed advice whilst living her life to the fullest and dragging Nell along for the ride.

What has life got in store for Nell? Is she meant to be single for the rest of her life or will she find her way back to Edward?

A beautifully written and enjoyable read that was hilariously funny and heart warming in equal measures.

Thanks to netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC.

This was a great second book. Really enjoyable and would recommend to a friend. I did prefer the first one but that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy this one

Not my typical book but enjoyable all the same. Found it a bit slow in the middle but not slow enough that it would stop me from reading it. Good style of writing, light, and funny read.

I absolutely loved this book. It was the first time I'd read anything by Alexandra Potter and it won't be the last. I really felt for Nell and the humour that the author had threaded through the book really made me feel like if Nell were real, I'd really want her as a friend. It was emotional and funny and made me cry a couple of times. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys humour, vulnerability and the view of the world from a 40 something year old woman...

I couldn’t wait to read the sequel to confessions of a forty-something f##k up but I was gutted when I started reading it and the first ten percent was all about the pandemic and lockdown. We’ve just lived through all that do we really need to read about it? It did put me off for a week but then I forced myself to read it and it soon became the Nell and Cricket I loved from the first book. It was nice to catch up with what was happening in all the characters lives especially Arthur, it shows that everyone has their struggles. I’m glad I stuck with the book and would recommend it to others I just wish the pandemic element wasn’t in there.

Thanks to NetGalley for my advanced reading copy.

After thoroughly enjoying Confessions of a 40-Year-Old F***Up, I was thrilled to hear there was a sequel.
picking up around 18 months after the end of the first book, we are reintroduced to Nell, who seems to be settling into life better than she was before,
She is engaged to Edward, they are living together, and she has her trusted friendships, as well as her new best friend, Cricket, the octagenarian who she met in the first book.
The thing is, no matter how settled you think you are, life always has alternative plans, and Nell's life is no different.
From that late urge to want motherhood to dealing with the beginnings of Perimenopause, friendships becoming fragile as everyone is dealing with their own issues and realising you might not actually have it all together, despite being closer to 50 than before.
I loved getting back in touch with Nell and her life, and though our situations are different, there was still plenty I could relate to, as a woman of a similar age.
And I just LOVE Cricket! Her character develops in a brilliant way, too, showing us that age should never be a factor that writes you off.
Fantastic sequel!
Many thanks to NetGalley and PanMacmillan for an ARC.