At age fifty-five, Meg’s life is too filled with the loss for her to remember what magic feels like. All she has left is a yard brimming with plants that are wilting in the scorching Iowa summer—and a bone-deep feeling that she’s through with living.

Meg has something else too: a bottle of mysterious pills, given to her years ago by an empathetic doctor. He promised that they would offer her dying mother a quick, painless end in exactly twenty days. Though her mother never needed them, Meg does. But a strange thing happens after Meg swallows the little green pearls . . .

Now that she’s decided to leave this world, Meg is rediscovering the joy in it. She sheds everything she no longer needs—possessions, regrets, guilt—and reconnects with those she cares for. Finally confronting the depth of her grief, she’s learning that love runs deeper still. But is it too late to choose to stay?

I enjoyed the book. Meg did the unthinkable, then started to see life with new eyes. I felt her and she was in the "nothing left to lose". Then she begins to regret her choice. I found it to be a touching , sweet story.. I feel I should look more in the good and most people never see what is right in front of them.

Thank you, NetGalley for the advance copy to review.

If I were to have read this book ten—even five—years ago, I do not believe I would have been capable of appreciating the sagacity of this extraordinary tale.

In its creation, from premise to prose, the unspoiled beauty of 'Twenty' lies within Meg's unaffected and candid telling. She did not seek to garner pity nor wished to preach. Depressed, lonely, and tired to the bone, she only sought a resolution in expediting the inevitable. However, as she put her affairs in order, what she had found as the twentieth day drew near was peace, forgiveness, and above all, grace. Meg soon realized that beyond all of the pain and sorrow that she had endured throughout her 55 years, she also had lived a life that was filled with love and beauty. Her life had been a life worth living, and for that, she was grateful.

The simplicity of this unvarnished tale belies the markings of an eloquent masterpiece. 'Twenty' will awaken your conscience, touch your heart, and lift your soul. An endearing story that should be read again and again.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kensington Books, and Debra Landwehr Engle for an ARC of 'Twenty' in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

Wow! I was expecting more heart wrenching, depressing, shaking you to the core kind of book! I already prepared my napkins, tissues, toilet papers, cotton balls, anything to clear my face from the ugly tear drops. But, well, instead of crying for months and screaming till my throat burns, I got something realistic, still emotional, good-written woman’s self-discovery story.

We’re literally getting into Meg’s head, seeing her story before her eyes, witnessing her true heart felting grief and her emotional thoughts about her losses. We’re finding ourselves to take a journey in her life and understanding her motives and what makes her take a decision to end things with those pills.

I loved the author’s objective reflection to Meg’s story. She wasn’t judgmental. She didn’t take hostage our emotions and play mind games with us. Her style was objective, direct, straightforward and honest. She achieved a tough job to deal with too many depressing, heavy, exhausting and somewhat dangerous stuff. The message is so important when you write those kinds of books which are direct arrows to our hearts. If you give them in wrong ways, entire efforts and the development of your characters, whole structure will be collapsed.

Thankfully the author emphasized where she stood by choosing Meg as narrative of her own story and ending was satisfying enough for me because she gave a right kind of ending that kind of complex, provocative story deserves.

My only problem is having hard time to connect with the character. I wish I could know more about her past and her background story which could help me to empathize with her. At some parts, I just disengaged with her and kept myself flow with the beautiful writing.

So I went back and forth between 3 and 4 , even though I didn’t have a true connection or feel for heroine, I loved the effort and intelligent development of the story so 3.5 starts rounded up to 4.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for sharing this poignant book’s ARC COPY with me in exchange my honest review.

I have conflicting feelings about this read and to be honest, I've set aside some a box of tissues thinking water works were going to happen but I was left utterly disappointed. Meg's story just seemed rushed and I was left skimming the pages hoping to find something worthwhile but ultimately this became nothing more than your generic mediocre read. The only thing I could applaud in this novel was the ending. It was open ended and it best suited for this type of storyline, otherwise it's definitely not something to write home about.