A very sweet and feel-good book but I didn't find it funny and quirky as it was promoted as being. I decided to listen to the book in the hopes that it would be funny and quirky, so I was a bit disappointed when I didn't feel it measured up on those fronts. It was all very convenient and predictable for me. A very easy listen though and I liked many of the characters.

This review was originally posted on Star Crossed Reviews I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.Thank you to Simon and Schuster for my copy of this book via netgalley. I have seen Claire host a Fabulous event a few years ago so the name was already familiar to me. I also heard an extract at the Spring Blogger Event hosted by Books and the City earlier this year. Sadly my schedule has been full to the brim so I have only just managed to fit in some time to read it.

The premise of this story is very interesting. We all know that we shouldn't believe everything we see or read online but we can also easily get sucked into the glossy photos that we see on social media.

The story follows two women Bell and Millie. Bell is a 39-year-old woman who recently got dumped by her boyfriend of 10 years and Millie is mum to little 5-year-old Wolfie. Millie is a social influencer, while she has a lot of followers she doesn't really have any friends. When these two bump into each other they soon become fast friends.

This is a heartwarming story. It has so many important themes running through it. This story deals with postnatal depression, loneliness, bullying and heartbreak. The story had a shaky start and I wasn't sure about it but the story quickly progressed and I soon fell in love with all the characters. I'm not ashamed to admit I had a tear or two running down my face on more than one occasion.

This was a great debut and I can't wait to see what Claire brings us in the future. I can see so much potential from Claire, I am really looking forward to seeing her grow and blossom into an excellent author.

Thank you to Anne Cater for inviting me to join and start the blog tour and to Simon& Schuster for my copy of the book in return for a fair and honest review.

I really enjoyed this book it was a easy read and I liked the characters of Millie and Bell. It was also refreshing that they were very real characters, a single mum and a woman approaching 40 who was unceremoniously dumped by the awful Colin after a long term relationship.
Millie's persona on Instagram is very different to her real life and I enjoyed the reality of this alter ego as it is sometimes good to remember that the perfect lives on social media are not always as they appear.
A chance meeting brings Millie and Bell together and for me this best part of the book is how their friendship develops but also how they each grow as individuals. Each discovering they are much more than they first thought.
A nice helping of girl power! 

Living My Best Life is a very topical book for our social media obsessed world. Instagram is the focus of the story and it's a form of social media which I am totally rubbish at! I like looking at other people's photos and I can post a photo, but have to ask my daughters all the time for advice about stories and direct messages which they think is hilarious! I don't really try to make things look something other than they are, although I do admit to loving the filters!

Bell is very down after an unexpected breakup with boyfriend of ten years. Social media exacerbates her feelings as she sees all the photos of people and their perfect lives being #soblessed and #makingmemories - including her ex. She decides to delete all her social media accounts as they are just making her miserable.

On the other side of the scale we have Millie who is an Instagram influencer. Every one of her photos is carefully considered, filtered, photoshopped and hashtagged to death! But they don't really show the reality of her life where she has financial difficulties and issues with her little boy's father. She also feels pressure to get thousands of likes for all her photos in case the brands she promotes decide she's no longer influential enough.

Through both these ladies we see the positive and negative side of social media. In particular we see the effect which 'trolls' have on people even when their comments are way outnumbered by positives. The negative comments are what sticks in Millie's mind. A chance meeting between Bell and Millie shows they have more in common than you might think. A good friendship begins to develop and the two become a huge support to each other. As they begin to work together on a local community project, Bell begins to see the good that can come from social media too.

Living My Best Life is a fun and enjoyable read. It reflects the modern obsession with showing that you are living your best life, at least online. But is also shows that actually living your best life for real and being more honest online is ultimately more important. Friendship and community spirit comes through strongly in the book and there are a few fledgling romances blossoming as well. There were plenty moments which made me smile in this entertaining debut novel - a feel-good read.

A fun and easy read with great characters who are really relatable. It's unfortunately still rare to find a good LGBTQ+ side character who has their own good side plot. I enjoyed it and would happily recommend it to anyone who wants a nice read.

This was a lovely heartwarming tale about friendship and family.

It was an easy read that flowed nicely. Told from the perspectives of Bell and Millie it shows that while on the surface you may envy other people and their lives, there is always another side that they don't let you see. In a world of insta life and 'reality' on social media it reminds us that not everything we see is perfect.

I enjoyed the friendship that bloomed between Bell and Millie and the large part they both played in each others lives. It was lovely to read about ladies of my age finding happiness and starting again with the support of each other.

Overall this was an enjoyable story and I felt happy when it reached its conclusion.

Sorry to say but I could not finish this book. The concept is alright but the writing and especially the dialogue style was definitely not for me.