The Life List by Lori Nelson Spielman

Publisher: Bantam Books

Date published: July 2013

ISBN: 978-0-345-54087-4

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Book format: Paperback

Obtained via: Publisher

Reviewed by: Marieke

Brett Bohlinger's mother dies after a short illness. She leaves Brett’s brothers and her sister-in law a lot of money and a multi-million dollar company. She leaves Brett the life list she made when she was fourteen and the news she will only receive her inheritance when she fulfills the final ten goals. 

Those goals include becoming a teacher, having a good relationship with her father, falling in love and having a baby, which her current boyfriend doesn’t like very much. And does she really love him?

Her mother’s lawyer Brad Midar guides her along the way and there is an attraction between them. But Brad has a girlfriend.

For her new job as a homebound teacher she needs to report to a psychologist about one of her more troubled students. They get along great and there also develops some form of attraction, but they never seem to be able to get to getter and meet.

Then a final gentleman comes into the picture just as all hell breaks loose and Brett is asked to adopt the baby of her students when she dies of complications from the pregnancy.

Which man will be her Mister Right?

The first half of this story is very sad and at some point it all appears to be hopeless. You start to wonder why Brett’s mother would put her through all this. But then when she starts to teach, it gets better. Life seems less desperate and you can feel the hope growing.

All the men, except her first boyfriend, have wonderful personalities and are good candidates for a long term relationship.

When she finds out the man who she thought was her father wasn’t her real dad, she starts looking for her biological father. That search brings understanding and some peace with the past, which I loved to read.

The story is very well written and you don’t know the ending until the very last chapter That makes this story pretty unique.

The thing that bothered me was the enormity of all the drama in the first halve of the book. It was so bad that it became a little unbelievable to me. But the second halve made up a lot.

So yes it is a wonderful book and I would recommend it to read.

This is not an endorsement of this book. This is an objective unbiased review.