Review: 'Evie's Year of Taking Chances' by Christie Barlow (2017)

Evie’s job has always been her safe haven. As a librarian in the little town of Becton she loses herself in books - after all it’s far easier to read about other people’s problems than set about solving her own. 
Then, one birthday, everything is turned upside down. A mysterious parcel containing a beautiful book with a poignant inscription arrives for Evie. It’s the beginning of a new chapter for Evie and she’s inspired to try and find her real mother. 
Evie’s search leads her to meet handsome author Noah Jones. Charming and intelligent, Noah seems the perfect catch but what Evie doesn’t realise is that he is hiding something – a key to Evie’s past. 
As Evie gets closer to Noah and discovering her mother, she must take a giant leap of faith. Can she embrace the new and make this her year of taking chances? And if she does, will she get her heart broken?
Over the past year and a half or so I’ve had the pleasure of reading several of author Christie Barlow’s novels. I’m a big fan of publisher Bookouture, which is how I was introduced to Christie’s works, namely when I requested a review copy via NetGalley of her novel ‘Kitty’s Countryside Dream.’ I ended up really loving the book, and since then I’ve been looking out for other reads by this author. Since that first novel I’ve also read ‘Lizzie’s Christmas Escape’ and her ‘The Misadventures of a Playground Mother’ series. I have to admit I wasn’t too big a fan of the last one mentioned there, but I was definitely curious to check out Christie’s latest release, ‘Evie’s Year of Taking Chances’, which promised to be a great chick lit read…
Twenty-something Evie has a pretty good life; she loves her job as a librarian and she has some great people around her in the town of Becton, particularly her best friend and colleague Clara and her foster mother Irene. Yet, every single year on her birthday Evie can’t help but wonder whatever happened to her real mother; why was she unable to take care of her and where could she be now? One year, Evie decides it’s time to finally start searching for some answers to her questions so she tries to find her birth mother. At the same time, however, there is someone else who makes an unexpected reappearance in Evie’s life; eight months ago she developed a crush on author Noah, but never bumped into him again after that. Now he’s back in town and, most important of all, seems to be interested in her… Will Evie be able to make the best of this new year, full with chances, or will it all just be a bit too much in one go?
When I read my first Christie Barlow novel, ‘Kitty’s Countryside Dream’, I immediately developed a liking for the author’s writing style and loved the story she had come up with. However, the books I’ve read since then just didn’t quite manage to live up to that very first novel I picked up, in my opinion. However, I’m happy to say ‘Evie’s Year of Taking Chances’ did manage to capture that same feeling, and really was another captivating and warm-hearted chick lit read I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. The book has realistic characters at its core, and also ones that are easy to warm to and root for. I liked Evie from the start, and also thought there were some wonderful secondary characters that really added their own touch to the story as a whole (I especially liked Clara, Evie’s best friend and colleague).
I quite like it when the main storyline of a novel consists of several different aspects and different things are going on. This was also the case for this book and I was really curious to see how everything would work out, even ending up being a bit surprised by some of the events (don’t want to give anything away!). Christie Barlow’s writing style also fits the chick lit genre really well, so if you’re a chick lit fan and curious to check out one of her reads, don’t hesitate to start with this one. All in all, I’m really happy to say I was once again convinced by Christie Barlow’s writing with her latest release; ‘Evie’s Year of Taking Chance’ is a lovely and wonderful story filled with smiles, love and friendship; a thoroughly nice feel-good read!

Rating:8,5/10

  For more information about this book: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Goodreads
Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.