The Kicking The Bucket List - Cathy Hopkins - Review



My forever book buying obsession lead me to The Kicking The Bucket List by Cathy Hopkins.

This book is an easy read. I managed to read it in around 2 weeks although I wasn't constantly picking it back up to read just a little bit more whenever possible.
Iris had left her 3 daughters her life possessions and savings in her will. There's only one clause; that the sisters must reunite for a weekend once every other month for a year. Each time the sisters meet ,they will be set tasks they must complete which will hopefully reignite their friendship and help them to find happiness. This is Iris' Kicking The Bucket List.
 
 
I found this book to be very funny and full of family tensions that we all experience in our lives. The book, as easy reading as it is,is thought provoking with hard topics of death, financial hardship and illness however it also has much lighter subjects such as the friendship and love between the 3 sisters and finding happiness in everyday life.  
The storyline itself is fairly predictable however I quite enjoyed this as I was looking for something not too far fetched and something a little different to what I usually read (full of twists and turns and un-seeable endings).
I wish that there was more of a backstory into why the sisters who all had a loving relationship with their mother, hadn't had a close relationship with each other for so many years. The only issue mentioned was that the three sisters couldn't agree on what was the best care plan for their elderly mother before her death. I felt that there was more to the story that was being told.
The middle section of the book became slightly repetitive with the sisters personalities and opinions clashing with the only variation being the situations. Fortunately this didn't last long and the story picked up again soon after.
Although the characters were very realistic, I didn't connect with the main characters at all on a personal level. I'm not sure if it was because they were all women of my parents generation and couldn't relate to them or whether it was because I had no real relatable links to them apart from that we share the experience of the death of a mother.
The gentle ending to this book feels complete and didn't leave me longing for more information (a follow up story).



If you're looking for a book to read that isn't too taxing, I'd definitely recommend this book. If like me, you're into a lot of drama and twists, you'd perhaps want to give this one a miss. 

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