What do you think?
Rate this book
Younger #1
Younger
A story of inspiration and transformation for the really desperate housewife—now a TV series from the creator of Sex and the City , starring Sutton Foster and Hilary Duff!
She’s old enough to be his mother.
Alice has always looked young for her age, even with her graying hair and her dowdy New Jersey housewife style. Make that ex- Now that her husband’s gone and her daughter is grown, Alice is in desperate need of a whole new life. So she lets her best friend Maggie, a hip New York City artist, transform her on New Year’s Eve. Soon, thanks to the wonders of hair dye and tight jeans, Alice looks really young, as one night in a Manhattan bar confirms. At midnight, she kisses a boy who was in diapers when she was in high school.
She’s having too much fun to care.
The white lie Alice tells Josh gets her thinking that if no one asks her age, she doesn’t have to tell. So she applies for a job she had briefly before becoming a full-time mom—and gets it. Meanwhile, Josh is falling head over heels for Alice, who’s just way cooler than girls his age. He figures she’s about twenty-nine—and for the first time since she was twenty-nine, or possibly ever, Alice feels that life is ripe with possibility. Unfortunately one possibility is that she’s gonna get caught.
Challenging the adage that the truth will set you free, Younger is a hilarious and insightful story that proves that you’re only as young as you feel.
She’s old enough to be his mother.
Alice has always looked young for her age, even with her graying hair and her dowdy New Jersey housewife style. Make that ex- Now that her husband’s gone and her daughter is grown, Alice is in desperate need of a whole new life. So she lets her best friend Maggie, a hip New York City artist, transform her on New Year’s Eve. Soon, thanks to the wonders of hair dye and tight jeans, Alice looks really young, as one night in a Manhattan bar confirms. At midnight, she kisses a boy who was in diapers when she was in high school.
She’s having too much fun to care.
The white lie Alice tells Josh gets her thinking that if no one asks her age, she doesn’t have to tell. So she applies for a job she had briefly before becoming a full-time mom—and gets it. Meanwhile, Josh is falling head over heels for Alice, who’s just way cooler than girls his age. He figures she’s about twenty-nine—and for the first time since she was twenty-nine, or possibly ever, Alice feels that life is ripe with possibility. Unfortunately one possibility is that she’s gonna get caught.
Challenging the adage that the truth will set you free, Younger is a hilarious and insightful story that proves that you’re only as young as you feel.
284 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 571 reviews
September 8, 2015
Review of Book in comparison to the TV Series.
My husband and I watched the TV series Younger this year and loved it. It was a lot of fun to see how someone around our age would adapt to the 20 something scene. So when Younger was the daily deal on Audible I had to pick it up.
First - it is clear the TV show is based on this book but has definitely been expanded to include more characters and situations. The main character list only includes Alice, Josh, Maggie and Lindsay with a few appearances by Alice’s daughter. I really liked the expanded cast a little better from the TV show. There are a lot more quirky characters and moments in that.
Second – I liked the Josh in the book much more than the Josh from the show. Here are the main differences. Josh in the book is an established 25. He is a game designer who has just broken off an engagement and decided not to join corporate America but has finished some of his college. He is getting ready to go to Japan to learn some more about game design. The best thing about this was that it was easier to see why Alice would fall for him. He is smart and they have fun together but at the same time I felt that emotionally and intellectually they were similar.
Josh on the show is a hot Tatoo artist that didn’t go to college and is still very busy with the bros and bar scene. He is really nice on the show but he always seems really young still and while yes he brings out the inner 20 something in Alice I never see them as super compatible long term.
Third – The hard thing about reading the book is being in Alice’s head as she overanalyzes some of the social situations. She has been discriminated against because of her age but I find she is guilty of the same things. I did really like some of the realizations that she made and how empowered she became by the end but her internal thoughts started to grate a little. On the show all these revelations are made situationally and so they were more entertaining and easier to take in.
Fourth – The show and the expanded cast have the better main story lines. Possibly this is because there are just more of them. While I prefer the romance story arc of the book I like the situations and secondary character story arcs better on the show. Alice’s boss for instance in the book is a single mother of three that seems to take all the credit for Alice’s ideas. While on the show she is a single woman in her 40s looking for love and might have started by being a pain in Alice’s butt but she also has some great redeeming qualities to her that make her character much more three dimensional.
Overall: I liked the social issues about women, motherhood and ageism brought up in this book. It is difficult to be a woman and know how to juggle family, career and home. I also like that it flips the script on the younger/older relationship issues. Who says that only older men can date attractive younger women? I am a firm believer that people are people and when you find someone you click with no matter the age different and gender you should just go with it no matter the social norms.
I totally prefer the TV show to the book in most regards but I’m glad that I read the authors original concept.
My husband and I watched the TV series Younger this year and loved it. It was a lot of fun to see how someone around our age would adapt to the 20 something scene. So when Younger was the daily deal on Audible I had to pick it up.
First - it is clear the TV show is based on this book but has definitely been expanded to include more characters and situations. The main character list only includes Alice, Josh, Maggie and Lindsay with a few appearances by Alice’s daughter. I really liked the expanded cast a little better from the TV show. There are a lot more quirky characters and moments in that.
Second – I liked the Josh in the book much more than the Josh from the show. Here are the main differences. Josh in the book is an established 25. He is a game designer who has just broken off an engagement and decided not to join corporate America but has finished some of his college. He is getting ready to go to Japan to learn some more about game design. The best thing about this was that it was easier to see why Alice would fall for him. He is smart and they have fun together but at the same time I felt that emotionally and intellectually they were similar.
Josh on the show is a hot Tatoo artist that didn’t go to college and is still very busy with the bros and bar scene. He is really nice on the show but he always seems really young still and while yes he brings out the inner 20 something in Alice I never see them as super compatible long term.
Third – The hard thing about reading the book is being in Alice’s head as she overanalyzes some of the social situations. She has been discriminated against because of her age but I find she is guilty of the same things. I did really like some of the realizations that she made and how empowered she became by the end but her internal thoughts started to grate a little. On the show all these revelations are made situationally and so they were more entertaining and easier to take in.
Fourth – The show and the expanded cast have the better main story lines. Possibly this is because there are just more of them. While I prefer the romance story arc of the book I like the situations and secondary character story arcs better on the show. Alice’s boss for instance in the book is a single mother of three that seems to take all the credit for Alice’s ideas. While on the show she is a single woman in her 40s looking for love and might have started by being a pain in Alice’s butt but she also has some great redeeming qualities to her that make her character much more three dimensional.
Overall: I liked the social issues about women, motherhood and ageism brought up in this book. It is difficult to be a woman and know how to juggle family, career and home. I also like that it flips the script on the younger/older relationship issues. Who says that only older men can date attractive younger women? I am a firm believer that people are people and when you find someone you click with no matter the age different and gender you should just go with it no matter the social norms.
I totally prefer the TV show to the book in most regards but I’m glad that I read the authors original concept.
June 10, 2015
The biggest knock I kept hearing on Pamela Redmond Satran’s Younger is that no one would ever believe it if a 40-something woman pretended to be in her 20s. The feminist in me wants to scream, “Would you ask that question about a book about a MAN???” but I saved my vocal cords the strain because of course you wouldn’t. Nobody gives a shit how old a man is unless they’re casting his girlfriend in a movie. Ask Maggie Gyllenhaal. Hell, I’ve even seen discrimination about the age of the book - “It’s ten years old, who cares what it has to say about anything?”
The premise might be just this side of implausible, but if you want gritty realism, consider the very plausible idea that lead Alice thinks she has to pretend she’s in her 20s just to be more desirable to pretty much everyone: her hot, young new fling Josh; the publishing company where she gets a job; even her cool, younger friends. But after the year from hell in which she lost her mother and her marriage, she has a little too much New Year’s Eve champagne and decides it’s time for her own year of yes. As a 20-something, Alice gains access to everything that had been denied her as a 40-something. She’s still Alice (sorry, had to), but because of a simple change of integers, she’s suddenly sexy and employable and all the things women my age take for granted (and the reason that my friend Kelsey and I had a pact to take each other out at 39 because we assumed - not incorrectly - the world for a 40-something was a cold, vacuous expanse).
For readers in their 40s, Alice’s trip through the 20-something looking-glass is breezy, sexy wish fulfillment, like My Fair Ladywith the condescending misogyny turned down. (In this iteration, Alice is both Higgins and Doolittle, because #feminism.) But for younger Younger readers like me, Alice’s predicament is ostensibly a cautionary tale. We won’t be in our 20s forever, and if we think the world is an unkind place now, just wait until we start getting crow’s feet. For readers of any age, Alice is a fascinating case study in ageism in the workplace, in the dating world and in self-perception. Alice never tried all these exciting, sexy things because she thought her expiration date had passed. It’s only when she saw her more youthful self-reflected in the eyes of everyone around her that she had the courage to go out and live.
It may sound like a frothy rom-com, because, well, it is (and it’s a really good one). But Younger resonates because it’s ultimately not about getting the guy as much as it is about getting the life you always wanted but didn’t dare dream you could have. Anyone who thinks it’s a trite, slight message need only look to the reinvention of 65 year-old Caitlyn Jenner. Like Caitlyn, Alice has felt invisible, trapped and isolated for years, and both of these bad-asses decided they’d had enough. Their external appearances didn’t match who they truly were inside, so they found themselves at ages that are usually bitter punch lines or dead ends, and they did something truly revolutionary for women of certain ages: They started over.
Obviously, Alice and Caitlyn aren’t equals (stand down, concern trolls), but the message of both triumphs is similar: We are not constrained by the bullet points of our biography. We are not our age, our gender, our sexual orientation, or whatever boarding school we couldn’t afford. Who we are is so much more interesting and complex than any of these classification tools, but it’s up to us to show that to the rest of the world.
The premise might be just this side of implausible, but if you want gritty realism, consider the very plausible idea that lead Alice thinks she has to pretend she’s in her 20s just to be more desirable to pretty much everyone: her hot, young new fling Josh; the publishing company where she gets a job; even her cool, younger friends. But after the year from hell in which she lost her mother and her marriage, she has a little too much New Year’s Eve champagne and decides it’s time for her own year of yes. As a 20-something, Alice gains access to everything that had been denied her as a 40-something. She’s still Alice (sorry, had to), but because of a simple change of integers, she’s suddenly sexy and employable and all the things women my age take for granted (and the reason that my friend Kelsey and I had a pact to take each other out at 39 because we assumed - not incorrectly - the world for a 40-something was a cold, vacuous expanse).
For readers in their 40s, Alice’s trip through the 20-something looking-glass is breezy, sexy wish fulfillment, like My Fair Ladywith the condescending misogyny turned down. (In this iteration, Alice is both Higgins and Doolittle, because #feminism.) But for younger Younger readers like me, Alice’s predicament is ostensibly a cautionary tale. We won’t be in our 20s forever, and if we think the world is an unkind place now, just wait until we start getting crow’s feet. For readers of any age, Alice is a fascinating case study in ageism in the workplace, in the dating world and in self-perception. Alice never tried all these exciting, sexy things because she thought her expiration date had passed. It’s only when she saw her more youthful self-reflected in the eyes of everyone around her that she had the courage to go out and live.
It may sound like a frothy rom-com, because, well, it is (and it’s a really good one). But Younger resonates because it’s ultimately not about getting the guy as much as it is about getting the life you always wanted but didn’t dare dream you could have. Anyone who thinks it’s a trite, slight message need only look to the reinvention of 65 year-old Caitlyn Jenner. Like Caitlyn, Alice has felt invisible, trapped and isolated for years, and both of these bad-asses decided they’d had enough. Their external appearances didn’t match who they truly were inside, so they found themselves at ages that are usually bitter punch lines or dead ends, and they did something truly revolutionary for women of certain ages: They started over.
Obviously, Alice and Caitlyn aren’t equals (stand down, concern trolls), but the message of both triumphs is similar: We are not constrained by the bullet points of our biography. We are not our age, our gender, our sexual orientation, or whatever boarding school we couldn’t afford. Who we are is so much more interesting and complex than any of these classification tools, but it’s up to us to show that to the rest of the world.
April 16, 2024
This was a nice, light, easy to read story. It follows Alice (Liza in the tv series) as a 44 year old attempting to reenter to workforce after twenty some odd years, and realizing that no one wants to hire a middle aged woman who has been running a household and raising a child. Hence her desire to be “younger”. It was enjoyable enough, but the series was much better.
February 20, 2020
I won't lie - I read this book solely because I love the t.v. show and haven't been able to watch it. And very clearly, that was a bad idea.
If you're like me and want to devour all media relating to your favourite things, beware! Not every book to t.v. adaption will be similar, so you may be left disappointed (like I was!). The television show has expanded wildly on the plots and characters in this book, so you will absolutely be left disappointed if you wanted a beat by beat replay.
Either way, this book was still cute and a very quick read.
Alice is a 40-something year old woman who gets mistaken for a 20-something year old woman and plays it up. She gets her old dream gig, gets a sexy man and tries her best to keep this secret. She meets the absolutely wonderful Josh - a young guy with a passionate dream and a life. She also has a best friend (who is a lesbian) who is wanting some babies in her life, while Alice has a 20-something year old daughter living her best life. With all this in mind, Alice has to figure out what she wants with her life and needs to figure out if she can continue living with this lie.
I found this book heavily focused on lying and the portrayal of older women. Are women discriminated against? Yep, absolutely! But I found that this book almost made light of it in a somewhat negative way. The way Alice talked in her head sat wrong with me, because she was agreeing with the comments she didn't agree with. I think this book is a step in the right direction for discussing some of the major issues about women, society, ageism and fertility, but I think it could have been done a little bit better.
I really wanted a happily ever after sort of book, but this book is not the romance you might hope it would be. It's definitely more of a commentary on what women should look for in life. You don't always need to get the guy, you need to make sure you're living your best life and being an honest person. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Yes, it's important... but can't we get a little happily ever after sometimes? I felt like this book just made me more depressed about getting older than excited for the adventures age can bring. Maybe the book was intended to leave us wondering or making our own ending, but I didn't enjoy it.
Since I've ranted about what I don't like, it's probably time to list some of the awesome qualities of this book:
1. This book moves fast and has an addicting writing style. I enjoyed Pamela's voice and wanted to continue reading.
2. Josh is an absolute gem and is written to be an absolute dream boat.
3. I liked that a lot of women's issues was brought up in this book. The more visibility, the better.
Overall, this book was a nice read to get my mind away from reality for a while. It might have made me a little sadder about the world, but it could definitely be enjoyed by other readers.
Although, I'll still take the television show over the book any day of the week.
Two out of five stars.
If you're like me and want to devour all media relating to your favourite things, beware! Not every book to t.v. adaption will be similar, so you may be left disappointed (like I was!). The television show has expanded wildly on the plots and characters in this book, so you will absolutely be left disappointed if you wanted a beat by beat replay.
Either way, this book was still cute and a very quick read.
Alice is a 40-something year old woman who gets mistaken for a 20-something year old woman and plays it up. She gets her old dream gig, gets a sexy man and tries her best to keep this secret. She meets the absolutely wonderful Josh - a young guy with a passionate dream and a life. She also has a best friend (who is a lesbian) who is wanting some babies in her life, while Alice has a 20-something year old daughter living her best life. With all this in mind, Alice has to figure out what she wants with her life and needs to figure out if she can continue living with this lie.
I found this book heavily focused on lying and the portrayal of older women. Are women discriminated against? Yep, absolutely! But I found that this book almost made light of it in a somewhat negative way. The way Alice talked in her head sat wrong with me, because she was agreeing with the comments she didn't agree with. I think this book is a step in the right direction for discussing some of the major issues about women, society, ageism and fertility, but I think it could have been done a little bit better.
I really wanted a happily ever after sort of book, but this book is not the romance you might hope it would be. It's definitely more of a commentary on what women should look for in life. You don't always need to get the guy, you need to make sure you're living your best life and being an honest person. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Yes, it's important... but can't we get a little happily ever after sometimes? I felt like this book just made me more depressed about getting older than excited for the adventures age can bring. Maybe the book was intended to leave us wondering or making our own ending, but I didn't enjoy it.
Since I've ranted about what I don't like, it's probably time to list some of the awesome qualities of this book:
1. This book moves fast and has an addicting writing style. I enjoyed Pamela's voice and wanted to continue reading.
2. Josh is an absolute gem and is written to be an absolute dream boat.
3. I liked that a lot of women's issues was brought up in this book. The more visibility, the better.
Overall, this book was a nice read to get my mind away from reality for a while. It might have made me a little sadder about the world, but it could definitely be enjoyed by other readers.
Although, I'll still take the television show over the book any day of the week.
Two out of five stars.
March 2, 2018
Often I watch a tv show or movie and read the book if it is based on one. Of course usually the book is much better than the show or movie. But not this time. I really like the show but this book fell short for me. 🤷🏼♀️
June 23, 2015
3.5/5
Place à la série maintenant !
Place à la série maintenant !
June 20, 2017
Tv show is much better than book.
March 22, 2015
3.5 rating...
This is one of those books that I dove into without really knowing what to expect and also with a bit of hesitation because I am not easy to please when it comes to Romantic Comedy. But, I am a huge fan of books that tug on my emotions and this book did successfully do that. There were several scenes where I was definitely reaching for the Kleenex because it kind of hit the nail on the head for how I've been feeling now that I'm in my forties. It was also kind of eerie for me because I saw so much of myself in the main character, Alice. I'm the same age, I lost my mother last year, my kids are fleeing the nest, I also gave up a career to take care of my family. So, yes, Alice and I were kindred spirits in that regard.
I definitely connected with some of the personal challenges Alice was going through as a woman who has spent most of her life as a devoted housewife and mother. When the children leave the nest it leaves you feeling lost and wondering, "What the heck am I going to do now?" Being in your forties is a time when it's "almost" too late to start over. You're too young to give up but definitely too old for some things. But, that doesn't mean we shouldn't try… right?? And, that's where Alice decided to take a chance. She looks unusually young for her age, so she decides to use this to her advantage to take back some of the things she felt she missed, more specifically a shot at a career in the publishing business. What she didn't expect was to find love again and with a man in his twenties. That's when the façade she was playing really started to become a challenge.
I loved the friendship that Alice shared with Maggie and they were two sides of the same coin. Alice gave up her career for family and Maggie gave up family for a career. Now, Alice wants that career she gave up and Maggie is desperate to become a mom. These are both very difficult things to achieve in your forties. The one thing I kept thinking about was this… no matter what choices you make when you're in your twenties, there are always consequences to those choices and regrets that will come back to haunt you when you're older. That's what the mid-life crisis is all about… Did I make the right choices? Would I do it all different if I had a choice to go back and do it all over again? In that regard I thought the author did a wonderful job of addressing some of these difficult issues we face during our middle age years and blending it into a story that is yes, a little bit farfetched but at the same time entertaining and thought provoking.
The ending of the book did leave me hanging a little, I had a lot of unanswered questions in regards to her daughter and some of her rash decisions. And, will the love between Alice and Josh prevail over the age gap? I guess we'll have to fill in our own blanks in that regard. I can see how this would make for a great TV series, and I liked this story enough to go and check it out. Maybe I'll get some of these questions answered. :)
Did this work for me as a Romantic Comedy?? Not really. I liked it more for the thought provoking, emotional moments that it evoked. I do think this would be a fun choice for a book club... a little wine, a little chocolate, a little debate... could be fun!
Follow us on
KT Book Reviews
Twitter
Facebook
Pinterest
This is one of those books that I dove into without really knowing what to expect and also with a bit of hesitation because I am not easy to please when it comes to Romantic Comedy. But, I am a huge fan of books that tug on my emotions and this book did successfully do that. There were several scenes where I was definitely reaching for the Kleenex because it kind of hit the nail on the head for how I've been feeling now that I'm in my forties. It was also kind of eerie for me because I saw so much of myself in the main character, Alice. I'm the same age, I lost my mother last year, my kids are fleeing the nest, I also gave up a career to take care of my family. So, yes, Alice and I were kindred spirits in that regard.
I definitely connected with some of the personal challenges Alice was going through as a woman who has spent most of her life as a devoted housewife and mother. When the children leave the nest it leaves you feeling lost and wondering, "What the heck am I going to do now?" Being in your forties is a time when it's "almost" too late to start over. You're too young to give up but definitely too old for some things. But, that doesn't mean we shouldn't try… right?? And, that's where Alice decided to take a chance. She looks unusually young for her age, so she decides to use this to her advantage to take back some of the things she felt she missed, more specifically a shot at a career in the publishing business. What she didn't expect was to find love again and with a man in his twenties. That's when the façade she was playing really started to become a challenge.
I loved the friendship that Alice shared with Maggie and they were two sides of the same coin. Alice gave up her career for family and Maggie gave up family for a career. Now, Alice wants that career she gave up and Maggie is desperate to become a mom. These are both very difficult things to achieve in your forties. The one thing I kept thinking about was this… no matter what choices you make when you're in your twenties, there are always consequences to those choices and regrets that will come back to haunt you when you're older. That's what the mid-life crisis is all about… Did I make the right choices? Would I do it all different if I had a choice to go back and do it all over again? In that regard I thought the author did a wonderful job of addressing some of these difficult issues we face during our middle age years and blending it into a story that is yes, a little bit farfetched but at the same time entertaining and thought provoking.
The ending of the book did leave me hanging a little, I had a lot of unanswered questions in regards to her daughter and some of her rash decisions. And, will the love between Alice and Josh prevail over the age gap? I guess we'll have to fill in our own blanks in that regard. I can see how this would make for a great TV series, and I liked this story enough to go and check it out. Maybe I'll get some of these questions answered. :)
Did this work for me as a Romantic Comedy?? Not really. I liked it more for the thought provoking, emotional moments that it evoked. I do think this would be a fun choice for a book club... a little wine, a little chocolate, a little debate... could be fun!
Follow us on
KT Book Reviews
August 24, 2019
The only reason I'm giving it 3 stars is because it held my attention! The whole time I kept thinking that is was nothing but a knock off of devil wears Prada. The drama and immaturity of most of the characters was just annoying, especially Diana the daughter!!!! If I had a 23 year old who acted like that and spoke to me in that way, she's be on her butt out on the street in a second!!! Definitely not a book I would recommend to anyone!!! It's nothing but a look at the midlife crisis of an immature 44 year old who instead of dealing with her life in a mature way, resorts to her junior high self and screws everything up!!
September 20, 2016
This was a fun read that served well as a destruction during these last two earthquak-y days. I really can't say more about it at the moment, maybe after the earth calms down.
July 21, 2019
4.5 Stars / 1 Steam Fan
A little bit of a slow start but then it becomes very relatable because Alice is an over 40 year old main character. I could see myself experiencing similar events or the possibility of similar events actually happening. There were some moments that I just wanted to scream at some of the things that happened but I still enjoyed it. Now I want to watch the TV adaptation.
This specific video review will be included in the July 2019 wrap-up.
For other video book reviews check out my YouTube Channel: Steph's Romance Book Talk.
A little bit of a slow start but then it becomes very relatable because Alice is an over 40 year old main character. I could see myself experiencing similar events or the possibility of similar events actually happening. There were some moments that I just wanted to scream at some of the things that happened but I still enjoyed it. Now I want to watch the TV adaptation.
This specific video review will be included in the July 2019 wrap-up.
For other video book reviews check out my YouTube Channel: Steph's Romance Book Talk.
April 18, 2011
I read this book in one day- needless to say, I enjoyed it.
It was the perfect light read, but it did tackle some deeper issues about women and age.
It was the perfect light read, but it did tackle some deeper issues about women and age.
February 8, 2018
Okay, I like the TV show 10x better. There are so many differences in the two...mostly the absence of Charles.
March 31, 2015
There is nothing more that I love to do than to read a book before I see it in the movies or on TV. For some reason, it the one rule in my life that I actually never break. Let’s face it. It is sort of the age old debate, but instead of the chicken or the egg, we are asking which is better the book or the movie/show. So with this in mind, I started Younger by Pamela Redmond Satran.
The premise of the book is simple, 44 year-old Alice has had a difficult year and chooses New Year’s Eve to make a wish to be younger. She has never looked her age, but with her recent weight loss, she is looking pretty good. It is not that she wants to be twenty again, but Alice would like to have the opportunities of a young professional starting out with no judgement or sideways glances from the adolescent HR people. If you think that the job market is difficult for 20 and 30 somethings, you can imagine how difficult it is for a 44 year-old stay at home mom who has limited work experience. With the help of her best friend Maggie, she takes a second look at herself and decides to embrace her friend’s push towards a more youthful appearance. Commence the make-over montage now.
As Alice continues her path to becoming younger, she meets Josh, Lindsay, Terri, and a few others here and there. Each adds another layer to her experience, but also to her deception. Will Alice be caught and have to pay a price for the lies that she is weaving? How will everything turn out with her new friend and lover once they find out the truth? Most importantly, will she ever realize that age is just a number and that love can happen to anyone?
This book is a fun quick read with an unexpected reality check for the reader. You will want to yell and throw things at Alice, but in the end, I think that we can all see a little bit of her in all of us. I don’t believe that I would ever want to revisit my twenties, but I can see the appeal in starting fresh with all that knowledge.
When I flipped through the pages, I found that I enjoyed the banter of Alice and Maggie, and the brattiness of her Diana’s reactions to her Mother. However, with every funny quip or awkward situation, there was definitely an underlying tone of reality to it. I found myself constantly thinking about the consequences to the actions that the character decides to make. For every life choice, there is a good and bad. This story shows us that in spades. We all make the decisions that we think is best at the time. Some of us try to plan into the future with our mystical Magic 8 Ball in hand, but really…how can we know?
In many ways, this book is just as sad as it is funny. I can be reading too much into this, as I have been known to do, but it seems as if it was a commentary on woman’s roles in society. More importantly, it shows how we shame one another for our choices.
The jury is still out on if the TV show will be better than the book, but I have to say, that the book is worth a read. Who knows, maybe next year your will start of your New Years with a wish that could set you on a path that you never thought was possible.
**XOxperts Review**
This Review is originally posted on the XOXO After Dark site.
The premise of the book is simple, 44 year-old Alice has had a difficult year and chooses New Year’s Eve to make a wish to be younger. She has never looked her age, but with her recent weight loss, she is looking pretty good. It is not that she wants to be twenty again, but Alice would like to have the opportunities of a young professional starting out with no judgement or sideways glances from the adolescent HR people. If you think that the job market is difficult for 20 and 30 somethings, you can imagine how difficult it is for a 44 year-old stay at home mom who has limited work experience. With the help of her best friend Maggie, she takes a second look at herself and decides to embrace her friend’s push towards a more youthful appearance. Commence the make-over montage now.
As Alice continues her path to becoming younger, she meets Josh, Lindsay, Terri, and a few others here and there. Each adds another layer to her experience, but also to her deception. Will Alice be caught and have to pay a price for the lies that she is weaving? How will everything turn out with her new friend and lover once they find out the truth? Most importantly, will she ever realize that age is just a number and that love can happen to anyone?
This book is a fun quick read with an unexpected reality check for the reader. You will want to yell and throw things at Alice, but in the end, I think that we can all see a little bit of her in all of us. I don’t believe that I would ever want to revisit my twenties, but I can see the appeal in starting fresh with all that knowledge.
When I flipped through the pages, I found that I enjoyed the banter of Alice and Maggie, and the brattiness of her Diana’s reactions to her Mother. However, with every funny quip or awkward situation, there was definitely an underlying tone of reality to it. I found myself constantly thinking about the consequences to the actions that the character decides to make. For every life choice, there is a good and bad. This story shows us that in spades. We all make the decisions that we think is best at the time. Some of us try to plan into the future with our mystical Magic 8 Ball in hand, but really…how can we know?
In many ways, this book is just as sad as it is funny. I can be reading too much into this, as I have been known to do, but it seems as if it was a commentary on woman’s roles in society. More importantly, it shows how we shame one another for our choices.
The jury is still out on if the TV show will be better than the book, but I have to say, that the book is worth a read. Who knows, maybe next year your will start of your New Years with a wish that could set you on a path that you never thought was possible.
**XOxperts Review**
This Review is originally posted on the XOXO After Dark site.
May 20, 2016
Yes, I read this book because of the TV show based on it. It's changed a bit (not to mention it's ten years old) but it was still thoroughly enjoyable.
Alice's husband left last year. Then her daughter announced she was leaving college to go to Africa with the Peace Corps. Alice, a 44-year-old housewife in New Jersey is bereft, alone, and hasn't had a job since she was 22 and had had to quit when her pregnancy developed complications. On New Years Eve she visits her best friend, Maggie, in Manhattan, and lets Maggie do a bit of a makeover on her. Alice is shocked to find that after a year of depression when she did nothing but garden and work out, she is svelte again, and in fact looks like she's in her (late) twenties. At Maggie's urging, she reapplies to all the publishers who rejected her a year earlier, when she was middle-aged and looking for entry-level work. As a twenty-something, Alice gets hired to work as the assistant to a very difficult Marketing Manager at the same publisher she'd worked at twenty years earlier. The Marketing Manager is awful, and she's also younger than Alice really is, and juggling a powerful, demanding job and three kids. Alice wonders if she made the right decisions, opting our of the rat race in order to try to have a large, happy family.
Meanwhile she's met a guy at a bar, Josh, who seems very cool even though he's too young for her in reality, and she's befriended an editor at work, Lindsay, who is dating one of the publishers on the sly, an awful guy. She moves in with Maggie, an artist in a loft in the East Village, who finally decides it's time for her to have a child. Alice finds parts of being a 20-something freeing, and she finds part of it revelatory. While there's no magic involved, she does wonder if she'd make the same decisions again, if she could do everything over. What was the right thing to do? And can she get a do-over?
The book had some deeper themes for a lightweight chick lit novel. But they were appropriately treated with a fairly light hand, and didn't weigh the book down. But it wasn't a completely fluffy and silly book. The book had even less about the publishing industry than the TV show, as it was just a place where she worked for the most part. I really enjoyed it. It was refreshingly different for a book in this genre, yet that doesn't mean it was trying too hard. As for people who think it's too far-fetched, I look very young myself and think I could pass with different hair and wardrobe, and I also understand why she isn't getting hired at her age with barely 6 months' experience, 20+ years ago. It's not that she's not qualified (although I would wonder if her computing skills were up to par), it's that she's unlikely to be happy in such a low-level, demeaning position as an assistant usually is. Heck, I had nearly aged out of the editorial-assistant position when I got mine at 26 and it was hard for me to kowtow to full editors who were the same age as me. This book was a fun, easy read for a summer afternoon.
Alice's husband left last year. Then her daughter announced she was leaving college to go to Africa with the Peace Corps. Alice, a 44-year-old housewife in New Jersey is bereft, alone, and hasn't had a job since she was 22 and had had to quit when her pregnancy developed complications. On New Years Eve she visits her best friend, Maggie, in Manhattan, and lets Maggie do a bit of a makeover on her. Alice is shocked to find that after a year of depression when she did nothing but garden and work out, she is svelte again, and in fact looks like she's in her (late) twenties. At Maggie's urging, she reapplies to all the publishers who rejected her a year earlier, when she was middle-aged and looking for entry-level work. As a twenty-something, Alice gets hired to work as the assistant to a very difficult Marketing Manager at the same publisher she'd worked at twenty years earlier. The Marketing Manager is awful, and she's also younger than Alice really is, and juggling a powerful, demanding job and three kids. Alice wonders if she made the right decisions, opting our of the rat race in order to try to have a large, happy family.
Meanwhile she's met a guy at a bar, Josh, who seems very cool even though he's too young for her in reality, and she's befriended an editor at work, Lindsay, who is dating one of the publishers on the sly, an awful guy. She moves in with Maggie, an artist in a loft in the East Village, who finally decides it's time for her to have a child. Alice finds parts of being a 20-something freeing, and she finds part of it revelatory. While there's no magic involved, she does wonder if she'd make the same decisions again, if she could do everything over. What was the right thing to do? And can she get a do-over?
The book had some deeper themes for a lightweight chick lit novel. But they were appropriately treated with a fairly light hand, and didn't weigh the book down. But it wasn't a completely fluffy and silly book. The book had even less about the publishing industry than the TV show, as it was just a place where she worked for the most part. I really enjoyed it. It was refreshingly different for a book in this genre, yet that doesn't mean it was trying too hard. As for people who think it's too far-fetched, I look very young myself and think I could pass with different hair and wardrobe, and I also understand why she isn't getting hired at her age with barely 6 months' experience, 20+ years ago. It's not that she's not qualified (although I would wonder if her computing skills were up to par), it's that she's unlikely to be happy in such a low-level, demeaning position as an assistant usually is. Heck, I had nearly aged out of the editorial-assistant position when I got mine at 26 and it was hard for me to kowtow to full editors who were the same age as me. This book was a fun, easy read for a summer afternoon.
November 2, 2016
Estoy casi seguro que no merece las 5 estrellas pero que le vamos a hacer... este libro tiene mas cosas a favor que en contra y admiro demasiado a la autora por concluirlo de una manera tan destacable, despues de una tremenda historia era facil que el final se quedara corto pero afortunadamente no fue asi. este libro tiene de todo: situaciones ficticias, situaciones reales, personajes con una evolución increíble, momentos graciosos, nomentos para reflexionar y muchas cosas mas. Lo recomiendo muchisimo pero no estoy seguro de a que clase de publico... No creo que llegué al top 5 pero fue una lectura que disfrute mucho :)
April 30, 2016
С две думи - по-добре гледайте сериала Younger, който ме накара да прочета книгата.
Далеч по-добре направен, с много по-силен и различен сценарий от първоизточника.
Крайно време е да престана да се надявам, че нейде по света съществува читав чиклит.
Далеч по-добре направен, с много по-силен и различен сценарий от първоизточника.
Крайно време е да престана да се надявам, че нейде по света съществува читав чиклит.
August 19, 2013
I was expecting a fun, light, and fast read and that's what I got. I enjoyed the premise. An newly divorced, 44-year-old housewife passed herself off as a single woman in her early twenties to find work, adventure, and romance, among other things.
My main issue with this book was how incredibly fluffy it was. The characters were fairly shallow and not that well developed. The author tried to tackle some broader women's issues (subjects like marriage, work, children, "can women have it all?") but did it in a very superficial way. It delved about as deep as a Glamour or Cosmo article. Plus, there was a long discussion between two female characters about the importance of waxing pubic hair. Way too long of a discussion.
This book is being developed into a TV comedy by "Sex and the City" creator Darren Star and I have a feeling it will translate well.
My main issue with this book was how incredibly fluffy it was. The characters were fairly shallow and not that well developed. The author tried to tackle some broader women's issues (subjects like marriage, work, children, "can women have it all?") but did it in a very superficial way. It delved about as deep as a Glamour or Cosmo article. Plus, there was a long discussion between two female characters about the importance of waxing pubic hair. Way too long of a discussion.
This book is being developed into a TV comedy by "Sex and the City" creator Darren Star and I have a feeling it will translate well.
May 31, 2024
The only thing common between the novel and the TV series is the basic premise.
A[art from a 40-something lady getting a job in publishing by acting as a 20-something, the series is way, way, way funnier than the book.
I know, the series has so much more time for it to add jokes but I didn't laugh a single time while reading the book.... And don't you get me started on Kelsey of the book, Oh, and the ending of the book... there are so many things that are better in the series, so many...
A[art from a 40-something lady getting a job in publishing by acting as a 20-something, the series is way, way, way funnier than the book.
I know, the series has so much more time for it to add jokes but I didn't laugh a single time while reading the book.... And don't you get me started on Kelsey of the book, Oh, and the ending of the book... there are so many things that are better in the series, so many...
February 21, 2010
I am married to a younger man, so this was one book I wanted to read. Parts of it will keep you rolling on the floor. Overall I enjoyed the book but I wouldn't read it a second time.
June 25, 2015
Meh? Meh. Pretty good right up until the end. Did a different author take over? We went into crazy town pretty quickly.
June 29, 2019
Love the TV series. Love the book.
Easy read.
Easy read.
October 28, 2019
Me leí este libro llamada por la serie, pero al final resulta que es NADA QUE VER. Mucho más complejo, eso sí, con cabos más cerrados y también más dulce. Me gustó mucho, aunque a veces las descripciones son muy largotas, y aunque algunas de las escenas románticas son méh, por no decir huácala. Jajaja.
Encontré también que trataba temas muy inteligentes. ¿Hasta qué punto una mujer postergada es responsable de ello? ¿Y hasta qué punto podemos discriminar por edad? Las conclusiones son interesantes. En ese sentido, me gustó que me hiciera pensar. Y tenía mucha razón en varias cosas.
Si lo leen buscando replicar la serie, ojo con que la mitad de los personajes aquí no existen (como Charles) o existen diferentemente (como la jefa, que en la tele tiene un corazón de abuelita tras su pose malvada y acá es simplemente lo último). Pero si lo leen como un libro distinto, aunque con ciertas semejanzas... yo digo sí.
Solo el final lo habría cambiado un poco. Pero mejor no doy detalles para no hacer spoiler.
Encontré también que trataba temas muy inteligentes. ¿Hasta qué punto una mujer postergada es responsable de ello? ¿Y hasta qué punto podemos discriminar por edad? Las conclusiones son interesantes. En ese sentido, me gustó que me hiciera pensar. Y tenía mucha razón en varias cosas.
Si lo leen buscando replicar la serie, ojo con que la mitad de los personajes aquí no existen (como Charles) o existen diferentemente (como la jefa, que en la tele tiene un corazón de abuelita tras su pose malvada y acá es simplemente lo último). Pero si lo leen como un libro distinto, aunque con ciertas semejanzas... yo digo sí.
Solo el final lo habría cambiado un poco. Pero mejor no doy detalles para no hacer spoiler.
September 2, 2020
Upravo sam završila sa čitanjem, seriju (Younger) sam odgledala samo prve dve epizode i ne želim da gledam dalje jer mislim da će mi pokvariti utisak o knjizi, jer baš i nije verni prikaz događaja. Iako mi se glumac koji igra Džoša jako sviđa, ostalo ne baš..tako da ću ipak da ostavim film u glavi koji je moja mašta napravila dok sam čitala knjigu.
Romantična komedija, u suštini. I jako poučna priča za koju sigurna da bi mnoge razvedene žene same poželele da su je čitale kad su bile u svojim dvadesetim i mislim da bi rado dale njihovim devojčicama, ali i ostalim mladim ženama da pročitaju jer možda i one izvuku neku pouku.
Dakle, Lajza ima 44 godine, pre godinu dana je muž ostavio zbog mlade zubarke, dvadesetdvogodišnju ćerku koja je na poslednjoj godini faksa otišla u Afriku jer se pridružila mirovnim snagama, nema posao jer davno dala otkaz kako bi se brinula o ćerki i kućnim poslovima, jednom rečju, bila domaćica. Sad kad traži posao svugde je odbijaju jer niko ne želi da zaposli ženu u godinama koja ima samo četiri meseca radnog iskustva.
Na Novogodišnju noć, izlazi sa Megi, svojom drugaricom, koja ju je lepo našminkala i odenula u svoje krpice i jednom baru, minut do ponoći Lajza upoznaje Džoša, dvadesetpetogodišnjeg mladog muškarca koji misli da su približno godište, a ona ga ne ispravlja...njih dvoje se zaljubljuju, Lajza počinje da radi u izdavaćkoj kući u kojoj je pre radila kad je bila mlađa, šefica joj je kučka, ali na poslu sklapa prijateljstvo sa mladom urednicom Lindzi, koja je kao i ostali uverena da je Lajza vredna mlada žena...sve počinje da joj ide na bolje, ali koliko dugo će trebati da je neko ne otkrije ili ona sama popusti pod grižom savesti?
Jako zabavna priča.
Dajem 3 zvezdice jer mi jednostavno nešto nedostaje, mislim da bih volela da je bilo više dijaloga i da je autorka mogla da napiše mnogo bolji epilog. Ipak, ne može se baš svakom čitatelju udovoljiti. :)
Romantična komedija, u suštini. I jako poučna priča za koju sigurna da bi mnoge razvedene žene same poželele da su je čitale kad su bile u svojim dvadesetim i mislim da bi rado dale njihovim devojčicama, ali i ostalim mladim ženama da pročitaju jer možda i one izvuku neku pouku.
Dakle, Lajza ima 44 godine, pre godinu dana je muž ostavio zbog mlade zubarke, dvadesetdvogodišnju ćerku koja je na poslednjoj godini faksa otišla u Afriku jer se pridružila mirovnim snagama, nema posao jer davno dala otkaz kako bi se brinula o ćerki i kućnim poslovima, jednom rečju, bila domaćica. Sad kad traži posao svugde je odbijaju jer niko ne želi da zaposli ženu u godinama koja ima samo četiri meseca radnog iskustva.
Na Novogodišnju noć, izlazi sa Megi, svojom drugaricom, koja ju je lepo našminkala i odenula u svoje krpice i jednom baru, minut do ponoći Lajza upoznaje Džoša, dvadesetpetogodišnjeg mladog muškarca koji misli da su približno godište, a ona ga ne ispravlja...njih dvoje se zaljubljuju, Lajza počinje da radi u izdavaćkoj kući u kojoj je pre radila kad je bila mlađa, šefica joj je kučka, ali na poslu sklapa prijateljstvo sa mladom urednicom Lindzi, koja je kao i ostali uverena da je Lajza vredna mlada žena...sve počinje da joj ide na bolje, ali koliko dugo će trebati da je neko ne otkrije ili ona sama popusti pod grižom savesti?
Jako zabavna priča.
Dajem 3 zvezdice jer mi jednostavno nešto nedostaje, mislim da bih volela da je bilo više dijaloga i da je autorka mogla da napiše mnogo bolji epilog. Ipak, ne može se baš svakom čitatelju udovoljiti. :)
June 2, 2011
What I liked about this book: Josh, frankly I would have liked to have read more about their love story. Second, the book fit the bill of what I needed at the time--some light, easy to read story. Now, for what I didn't like. I find it hard to believe that a 44 y.o. can be so ostracized and unable to find a job in the working world. Okay, I agree it can be hard to find one without much work experience but mainly the book focused on Alice's age as a roadblock. Forty-four is now like being 34. Perhaps NYC is a different than the rest of the country but I would hire a 44 y.o. on work ethic alone. Second, although I liked Alice for the most part, I felt the author wrote her as an unbelievable immature ninny. I've never been a mom myself but the mom's I know are incredible and are very strong people regardless of the situation they are in. It made me wonder if Alice was a total wuss as a mother as well. Just my two cents...
September 1, 2017
I love the silly show that's based on this book, but sadly, the source material is like a thin, watered-down version of it. It's never particularly fair to judge something -- this book -- as poor just because it isn't the thing you want it to be -- the show -- but actually, I think my fondness for the TV version is the only thing that made me see anything positive in what is otherwise a deeply mediocre piece of contemporary fiction.
December 11, 2019
I'm going to give this book a 3.5 rating. It was a cute, quick read. While I am watching the tv show (it is what prompted me to check this book out), I did remind myself to keep the two separate. I went into the book with an open mind and not expecting exactly what I have been watching since season one of the show. That being said I did enjoy the book. I did like the book Josh better than I do the show Josh. I'd say if you're looking for a quick beach read to give it a whirl.
February 23, 2018
I love the show that is based on this book. I struggled to read the book after watching the show though. Character names were changed and I'm too type A for that to not bug the crap out of me so the book was hard for me to get into.
April 9, 2019
Do yourself a favour and don't compare the book to the show. I love the show and all the detail and layers it explores but I also enjoyed Alice's story through her second innings. Enjoy it for what it is!
June 6, 2019
2.5 stars, but felt like I needed to round up. The book was fine, but the dialogue was sometimes unbearable. Also, the random sex scene in the middle was just really awkward. Love the show, so I wanted to check out the source material. If you love the show, just stick with that. It's much better.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 571 reviews