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Release date: November 4, 2016

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Narrator: Kathleen Wilhoite

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Blurb: 

A brilliant novel from the author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette, about a day in the life of Eleanor Flood, forced to abandon her small ambitions and awake to a strange, new future.Eleanor knows she’s a mess. But today, she will tackle the little things. She will shower and get dressed. She will have her poetry and yoga lessons after dropping off her son, Timby. She won’t swear. She will initiate sex with her husband, Joe. But before she can put her modest plan into action-life happens. Today, it turns out, is the day Timby has decided to fake sick to weasel his way into his mother’s company. It’s also the day Joe has chosen to tell his office-but not Eleanor-that he’s on vacation. Just when it seems like things can’t go more awry, an encounter with a former colleague produces a graphic memoir whose dramatic tale threatens to reveal a buried family secret. TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT is a hilarious, heart-filled story about reinvention, sisterhood, and how sometimes it takes facing up to our former selves to truly begin living. 

Review: 

I’m probably one of the only people on the planet who still hasn’t read Where’d You Go Bernadette and I’ve had it on my TBR forever. One day. But when I saw Semple’s latest book was an option for an audio review I was pretty excited after all the good things I had heard about her earlier work. While this was an extremely enjoyable read at times, there were definitely some moments where I wasn’t entirely engaged and I struggled to keep going.

Eleanor is the main character and she vows that today will be different for her. There were parts of her that I really liked, she’s snarky, has a wicked sense of humor and is dry, but I really like that. She’s married to Joe and they have an eight year old son named Timby. That’s not a typo though his name is the result of an autocorrect error. The story follows her in one day as she strives to be her best self despite her general unhappiness with her life. The universe has other plans and nothing goes the way she wants it to. What follows is a series of unfortunate events that have many humorous happenings. 

Wilhoite did a fantastic job as narrator, she did exceptionally well when she was reading as Timby. There’s a scene where she sings Morning Has Broken that was just amazing. She definitely made my experience more enjoyable. 

Towards the middle there are some flashbacks that discuss Eleanor’s relationship with her sister Ivy. I found this part to be quite boring if I’m being honest, it seemed to drag on and on. I also had problems connecting with Eleanor even though I appreciated her humor, I had no deeper connection to her. I loved Timby though and found him to be sweet and endearing. Joe didn’t really leave any sort of impression on me, he was just there. The ending was a bit of a let down as well and I was just underwhelmed. Overall it had some really funny moments and it was far more enjoyable than un enjoyable for me, but something key was missing for me that I can’t quite put my finger on.

Overall rating: 3/5

Thanks to Hachette Audio for my review copy.