📖 Book Review ~ Live, Laugh, Leave Me Alone by Harper Ford

Avon
25 September 2025

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

 

Lucy is fifty, frazzled and fed up. After spending half her life working, she’s tired, and her idea of inner peace involves a sofa, wine and a takeaway.

But when her boss announces his retirement, Lucy gears up for a well-earned promotion – that is until Tara, her annoyingly perfect colleague, swoops in, dazzling the CEO with her #BossBabe energy and commitment to a wellness bootcamp so hardcore it sounds like a cult.

Desperate to compete, Lucy lies about joining the same program — even though her body feels more landfill than temple. Now she’s trapped in four weeks of ice baths, crystals and green juices… not to mention jade eggs in unspeakable places.

As the wellness madness escalates and rivalries flare, Lu starts to wonder if she actually might be growing as a person – or if that’s just the kombucha talking? And why can’t she shake the feeling that maybe Tara isn’t as perfect as she seems?

📖 My Review ..

Lucy is at something of a personal cross roads, still waiting for that special promotion at work which will finally give her the dream role she craves only for the chance to be diminished by the arrival, into the company, of Tara, who also has her sights set on the same job. When Tara enrols on a wellness boot camp, Lucy has no choice but to try and keep up with her rival so she also joins the wellness group with no real interest whatsoever in any of the therapies.

What then follows is a great story which looks at the whole idea of wellness and the often fickle nature of an industry which doesn’t always meet expectations. Lucy is a great character, the story brings her to life so well, that she could be any fifty-something woman with all the angst that goes with this particular time of life. The story is funny in places and had me laughing out loud but there’s also some really serious issues as well, about the disappointments and hangs ups that so many of us carry around like baggage and also the minefield that is the wellness industry which can have both a positive and negative effect.

There is no doubt that what this talented author does so well is that she can be lighthearted one minute and make you chuckle out loud, and then, in the next, be deadly serious and move you to tears. She wraps every thing up so beautifully in a story which grabs your attention from the very beginning and which doesn’t stop being entertaining until the very last page.

If there is anything guaranteed to get you out of a reading slump it is the work of this lovely writer whose stories are the perfect antidote to reading ennui, Live, Laugh, Leave Me Alone didn’t stop making me smile until the story was finished.

About the Author

Harper Ford is an author, much of the time. She started out as a writer of historical novels, then found out she was funny during lockdown so decided to write contemporary romcoms too. She has a masters in writing and provides reader and writer services on her website beccanovelista.com

Live, Laugh, Leave Me Alone is her third coming-of-middle-age novel.

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