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Time of My Life: A Novel | 
| Author: Allison Winn Scotch
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
Category: Book
List Price: $23.00
Buy New: $13.60
You Save: $9.40 (41%)
Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 4097
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.8
ISBN: 0307408574
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780307408570
ASIN: 0307408574
Publication Date: October 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Jillian Westfield has the perfect suburban life straight out of the upscale women's magazines that she obsessively reads. She’s got the modern-print rugs of Metropolitan Home, the elegant meals from Gourmet, the clutter-free closets out of Real Simple, and the elaborate Easter egg hunts seen in Parents. With her successful investment banker husband behind the wheel and her cherubic eighteen-month-old in the backseat, hers could be the family in the magazines’ glossy Range Rover ads.
Yet somehow all of the how-to magazine stories in the world can’t seem to fix her faltering marriage, banish the tedium of days spent changing diapers, or stop her from asking, “What if?”
Then one morning Jillian wakes up seven years in the past. Before her daughter was born. Before she married Henry. Suddenly she’s back in her post–grad school Ikea-furnished Manhattan apartment. She’s back in her fast-paced job with the advertising agency. And she’s still with Jackson, the ex-boyfriend and star of her what-if fantasies.
Armed with twenty-twenty hindsight, she’s free to choose all over again. She can use the zippy ad campaigns from her future to wow the clients and bosses in her present. She can reconnect with the mother who abandoned her so many years before. She can fix the fights at every juncture that doomed her relationship with Jackson. Or can she?
With each new choice setting off a trajectory of unforeseen consequences, Jillian soon realizes that getting to happily ever after is more complicated than changing the lines in her part of the script. Happiness, it turns out, isn’t an either-or proposition. As she closes in on all the things she thought she wanted, Jillian must confront the greatest what-if of all: What if the problem was never Henry or Jackson, but her?
Sharp, funny, and heartwarming, Time of My Life will appeal to anyone who has ever wanted to redo the past and will leave readers pondering, “Do we get the reality we deserve?”
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| Customer Reviews: Read 23 more reviews...
 A Fun Read December 31, 2008
Eclectic Booklover (Any Town, USA)
I wanted to wrap up the year with another light read, so I chose: Time of My Life; by Allison Winn Scotch. The premise sounded very cute, and one that probably many women have wondered about at sometime in their life----what if I had held on to the guy that got away?
The day after a deep chi-clearing massage, Jill finds herself seven years in the past when she was a highly paid advertising executive instead of a stay- at-home wife to her lawyer husband, Henry, and a devoted mother. Through trial and error Jill rethinks her biggest decisions and finds that rarely are life's decisions black and white.
This was a cleaver exploration of the path not taken, however, in the end there were a few issues which were left unresolved.
 Clever, Clean and Extremely Thought-provoking December 28, 2008
Christina Katz, author of Writer Mama & Get Known Before the Book Deal (Wilsonville, Oregon)
The premise of "Time of My Life" by Allison Winn Scotch is based on a device--What if Jillian, a mom from the suburbs with an enviable, "perfect" life, had a second chance to go back in time and create a revised future for herself? In the hands of a less-skillful writer, this literary leap could have been clunky, amateurish, or just a suspension of disbelief readers would not willingly take. However, from page one, Winn Scotch takes the reader gently by the fantasy and guides her down a rabbit hole that many of us have not only thought about...and which some moms I know just plain old obsess about.
If you could go back in time, would you choose differently?
If you did, what kind of impact would that have on your life today?
These are great questions and under the spell of Winn Scotch's words, we all get to go there and imagine the possibilities, as they play out for her heroine, Jillian, and every life she touches. I found myself glowing with admiration, not only for Jillian, but for Winn Scotch, and even for a few of the lucky choices I've chanced to make in my own life. As an added bonus, I realized how mutable memory can be and how our positive or negative spin can make or break the story that defines us.
The book is both brilliant and imminently readable. A must-read for moms of every stripe.
What If? December 23, 2008
Sheri S. (Montreal, Quebec)
Rating: 4.25
"Time of My Life" is the story of Jillian Westfield, who wakes up one morning only to find herself living in her former apartment with her former boyfriend from seven years earlier, before meeting her husband Henry and having their child. After coming to terms with this `second chance' at her previous lifestyle, Jillian starts enjoying being involved with her former boyfriend Jackson, whom she never quite got over, and embraces the job she once gave up to start a family. Armed with newfound hindsight, Jillian navigates through her prior life with great ease until she realizes that the greener grass of this former life may just be an illusion. As time goes on, she misses her daughter and wonders if there could have been some way to save her deteriorating marriage with Henry. Is this old life really a better path or merely just a different one with its own set of consequences?
This story is ultimately one about second chances and begs the question of "what if". What if you decide to take the road not taken? What if you had another chance at love with a former flame? What if you kept your former job and got that big promotion? What ends up happening to Jillian? You'll just have to pick up a copy to find out!
I really enjoyed this book and devoured it in a single night. There is something very familiar and comforting about Scotch's writing and the characters she has created. I like that the concept of the novel is simple and yet holds so much possibility which Scotch took full advantage of by exploring Jillian's feelings and inner thoughts. I found myself very curious about where Scotch would decide to take this book until the very end. My only one wish is for the ending to have been more developed because I felt the conclusion was too abrupt.
While this book makes for a light read, there is much to take away from in terms of life lessons. People should make the best of their lives instead of wishing for other ones and there is really no 'right' direction in life but it is what you make of the one you chose that makes all the difference!
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Enjoyable read December 13, 2008
C. Monroe (Irvine, CA)
I really liked this book. The whole 'what if' storyliine, the choices, how when armed with new perspective she can make subtle changes for the better and learn the biggest lesson of all. The only person you can change is yourself. Excellent.
The only way it would have been better (and rec'd 5 stars from me) is if the F word was removed say about 12 times. It was overdone in my opinion and lost it's impact. So much that after about 8 of them, I was cringing when it came up.
I really enjoyed this book December 1, 2008
M. E. Utter
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I wasn't so keen on Allison's first book, but really enjoyed the 2nd one.
quick enjoyable read.
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