Five Tries to Get It Right by Kathryn Dodson – Review by Jennifer Gordon

Five Tries to Get It Right by Kathryn Dodson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A heartwarming and at times heartbreaking story celebrating female friendships and women choosing their own destiny’s. I was captivated from start to finish by this book about two friends Lydia and Kate, who decide to retrace their wild youth and go on a worldwide voyage. Lydia is a widow living and working as a teacher in a small town but is feeling lonely following her husbands death. Having married and built a successful career Kate is now divorced and facing professional failure, having hit rock bottom she believes she has only one option. However, her longtime friend Lydia offers her a different option, and with one hoping to heal her heartache and the other needing to find a meaning in life again, they travel to all the exotic locations they visited when they were younger. Amidst the heartache and loss their passion for life and love is reignited, but Kate still has plans to end it all. When a surfer from Lydia’s past offers her a second chance at romance and love she is forced to choose between saving herself or Kate. This heartfelt story took me on an emotional rollercoaster of a journey and it does deal with some upsetting and difficult themes. However, these are handled with sensitivity and honesty and overall I found the storyline to be an inspirational one. I found both Lydia and Kate likeable and relatable and I felt instantly engaged with them and invested in their journey. The wonderful places they visited came to life through the descriptive narrative and I felt fully immersed in the story.

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