Hannah Doyle’s The year of saying yes isn’t usually my style when it comes to a novel. As I was getting ready to head off on vacation, however, I found myself downloading it onto my kindle. Maybe I was inspired by the essence of the title. I mean, I have been pushing myself to say yes to more things lately… or maybe I just liked the idea of reading something funny and lighthearted for a change!
I quickly found myself wanting to be main character, Izzy Mulligan’s, best friend. She was so relatable, and I genuinely did laugh out loud several times as I read each ‘monthly chapter’ where Izzy receives a dare via the readers of the magazine at which she works. I often found myself thinking, ‘yeah, that’s exactly how I would react too!’ and ‘oooh I would really like to try that now!’
As Izzy opens up to life and says yes to more things, throwing herself out of her comfort zone, her life genuinely begins to improve as well. Positivity attracts positivity right? That really got me thinking about how many times I have opted to stay home and watch some netflix when I could have been out with friends or even hitting the gym and making the most of my time. Even the small choices that we make each day have a big impact on how our life feels overall.
So I might not have reached the end of the novel thinking ‘sign me up to everything possibly available, all the time’, but I was really taken by the idea of making small changes to generally improve my life. I will definitely think twice when someone asks me to do something and my gut-reaction is to run home to my slippers and a cup of tea! And most importantly, I will look at life with a more positive energy as a result.
So, overall, I highly recommend the book even if you aren’t interested in the premise, because, it’s hilarious, easy to read and a real escape from your own day to day. You never know, you might even get a boost from it too.
Featured image via Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
