Anna Bell - The Bucket List to Mend a Broken Heart

A hilarious new romantic comedy for fans of Lindsey Kelk and Jane Costello from Anna Bell, the bestselling author of Don't Tell the Groom. Abi's barely left her bed since Joseph, the love of her life, dumped her, saying they were incompatible. When Joseph leaves a box of her possessions on her doorstep, she finds a bucket list of ten things she never knew he wanted to do. What better way to win him back than by completing the list, and proving they're a perfect match? But there's just one problem - or rather, ten. Abi's not exactly the outdoorsy type, and she's absolutely terrified of heights - not ideal for a list that includes climbing a mountain, cycling around the Isle of Wight and, last but not least, abseiling down the tallest building in town ...Completing the list is going to need all Abi's courage - and a lot of help from her friends. But as she heals her broken heart one task at a time, the newly confident Abi might just have a surprise in store ... 

Comment: This book caught my attention back in 2016 but I only got it several months later or already in 2018, I can't remember anymore. This month, I've decided to add it to my reading list and although it wasn't the best book ever, it was entertaining.

In this book we meet Abi, a British girl who spends a lot of time with her boyfriend - hoping or dreaming he might become something else soon - even though she sometimes feels she can't be as smart as him. Things change when he decides to end their relationship and she is left with a broken heart.

The problem is that she can't see past the steadiness of what they had, even if she wasn't always truly happy and free with him, so she sets up to try to win him back. This seems an even better idea after she finds out a handwritten bucket list among the books and other personal items of her he leaves in her doorstep. The list includes several crazy ideas she didn't think he would actually want to do but she thinks if she does those things and posts pictures of them on social media he will see and realize she was always perfect for him.

However, Abi didn't foresee the complications of doing those things, both for her heart and her professional life. Will she really mend her broken heart?

This is clearly a chick-lit story that I could easily see turned into a romantic comedy. The little adventures Abi embarks on based on a false premise (winning back her ex) can be seen as really hilarious and the things she learns (although it takes her quite a while) about herself and about the possibility to just enjoy the good things she already has are all the marks of these types of stories, where some predictability obviously exists as well. Nevertheless, this was cute and entertaining and I had a good time just going through this.

Abi is not a very surprising kind of character. She doesn't change in a very dramatic, obvious way and the lessons she is supposed to learn come really too close to the end which means we can get the impression she isn't that interested in change or we cannot fully see the repercussions of that change, except for a cute epilogue.

It's not that it's bad the focus is on her journey and adventures - after all that is the meatier part of any romantic comedy or "discovering oneself" tale - but sometimes she did act as if she were a bit too centered on a silly idea, one that I struggle to fully accept. The thing is, Abi is a modern young woman but she still has a personality that convinces us she only lives for her boyfriend. By the way he is described and how he behaves on the (few) scenes he appears in, I can't understand what she sees in him. But well, I suppose anyone can be blind for love or for the routines shared as a couple.

The bucket list idea is meant to be funny and silly and I think this was accomplished for certain. Some situations were very out of character but that is the fun part too. I liked we got to see Abi really trying some things and not just reading about her plans and fails if that was to be so. Some situations were very difficult to imagine personally but Abi was a trooper, even if, like many readers comment and are disappointed with, she is doing those things for wrong reasons.

During her planning, she gets to connect with a co-worker whose friends help her find the means to do some of the things in the list. 

Though this, she makes a friend and everyone who has read chick lit(romantic comedies knows exactly where it will lead. We even have the traditional conflict close to the end where out heroine behaves silly but of course, everything ends up well after the most difficult task in her bucket list is done.

This is, like some have said, a story about improving oneself, about discovering who we are, about putting ourselves first because if we're not happy with ourselves, we cannot be truthful with someone else and then people can't be compatible.  In the books this is always seemingly easy, obvious, ends well because people can act silly but it's more a quirky fun silly than an irresponsible, stupid one.

I didn't finish the book totally convinced it had to be that long for adult, smart? Abi to figure out that after so long but, in the eyes of romance-land, it was certainly fun to watch.

Grade: 8/10