Someone Else's Bucket List

This book has every feel the reader might possibly want to feel.  Sadness, joy, anger, humorous delight, exasperation, and a few others thrown in for good measure.  The term bucket list came into popularity because of a Morgan Freeman/Jack Nicholson movie of the same name.  In the movie both men are dying from whatever malady that has attacked their bodies and they each make lists of things to do before they "kick the bucket." This book has a slight departure from that premise in that the bucket list was made by someone who already kicked the bucket, so to speak. 

Bree Boyd is in the hospital for pneumonia when she finds out that her breathing troubles are not an infection, but actually leukemia.  She has made a connection with a representative of Iris Airlines to help her sister, Jodie, fulfill her bucket list and for every item ticked off the list, a portion of her hospital bills will be paid off.  

The list:

• Plant a tree
• Re-enact the deli scene from When Harry Met Sally at the same deli where it took place
• Get a walk-on part in a Broadway play
• Find Mr. Wong and take the piano lessons she ditched as a child but her parents paid for
• Fly Over Antarctica
• Fall in love

Cheryl, the airline rep, takes on the list by coordinating all the moving pieces, and, in the process, steamrolls Jodie into doing things her way instead of letting Jodie find her own way through the tangle of emotions and fears.  Each item that gets crossed off the list is another portion of Bree's hospital bill paid.  

One of the laugh-out-loud comedic moments in this novel is when Mrs. Wong tells Jodie that she had told Mr. Wong if he died first, she'd make his after-life miserable. Cheryl has arranged for Jodie's classmate/high school crush who is also Mr. Wong's son to give her the piano lessons.  Mrs. Wong remembers Jodie's tortured piano lessons and tells her there is no better revenge than to have her destroy another piece of music on Mr. Wong's prized Steinway. (I just googled Steinway pianos to find that they range in price from low five figures to low-to-mid six figures--well beyond my budget).  

At first Cheryl is pretty driven to see the bucket list through and doesn't mind pushing Jodie far beyond Jodie's own boundaries.  And it's not hard to be angry with her for that, but then Maya, the CEO's assistant, gets involved and makes the whole situation a three ring circus much to the chagrin of even--the CEO.  It takes a lot of feather-smoothing to get Jodie back on track, because Maya is an habitual boundary-stomper. By the end of the book, Cheryl has become a friend.  It was gratifying to see. 

Amy T Matthews has done a great job at pulling the emotions out of her readers in this book.  Even though the book is billed as a rom-com, it has more drama than actual comedy in it, and even in some places, tragedy.  And the romance is well under-stated.  Never-the-less, it is a good four stars. 

Kensington Books provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own.