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The Bucket List
I NEVER wanted to be a daredevil. Even as the 49-year old adult that I am, I still don’t want to ride a roller coaster or jump out of a perfectly good airplane. And I don’t understand people who want to do those things - even my lifelong best friend.
And yet, here I am, holding a list of daredevil-ish things in my hand at my best friend’s will reading.
I am SO going to get her back for this in the afterlife.
So, my outgoing, adventurous best friend decided to leave me her estate but only if I completed her bucket list. HERS, not mine. And I have to do it before I turn 50 because she didn’t make it to 50.
I don’t know if it’s appropriate to want to kill someone who’s already dead, but I can’t help how I feel.
Still, I want to honor her wishes. And I kind of want that beach house she left me, too.
The next few months will either change my life, or I might join her in heaven if one goes terribly wrong.
And yet, here I am, holding a list of daredevil-ish things in my hand at my best friend’s will reading.
I am SO going to get her back for this in the afterlife.
So, my outgoing, adventurous best friend decided to leave me her estate but only if I completed her bucket list. HERS, not mine. And I have to do it before I turn 50 because she didn’t make it to 50.
I don’t know if it’s appropriate to want to kill someone who’s already dead, but I can’t help how I feel.
Still, I want to honor her wishes. And I kind of want that beach house she left me, too.
The next few months will either change my life, or I might join her in heaven if one goes terribly wrong.
250 pages, Paperback
First published May 31, 2023
1313 people are currently reading
6292 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Hanna
92 books2,800 followersHey there! Before I tell you all about myself, can I invite you to join my private Rachel's Readers Facebook group? That's where my readers hang out, discuss my books, participate in giveaways and learn about new releases.
You can join us here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Rache...
So who am I? My name is Rachel Hanna, and I am a wife, mother of three incredible kids (maybe I am a BIT biased?), two lovable doggies and one cat that lives outside and thinks he owns the world. Okay, I also have a gecko now too. Don't judge me.
I started writing as a young child, and I went into the field of Journalism for many years as an adult. Now, as a romantic fiction writer, I get to live out my own daydreams every single day and share them with readers around the world!
I'm a Southern chick living near Atlanta, so I say "yes, ma'm" and "ya'll", but I wouldn't have it any other way. :)
You can join us here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Rache...
So who am I? My name is Rachel Hanna, and I am a wife, mother of three incredible kids (maybe I am a BIT biased?), two lovable doggies and one cat that lives outside and thinks he owns the world. Okay, I also have a gecko now too. Don't judge me.
I started writing as a young child, and I went into the field of Journalism for many years as an adult. Now, as a romantic fiction writer, I get to live out my own daydreams every single day and share them with readers around the world!
I'm a Southern chick living near Atlanta, so I say "yes, ma'm" and "ya'll", but I wouldn't have it any other way. :)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 479 reviews
March 9, 2024
You know that quote, “a good book can change your life”? Well, this book is that book for me. This book is changing my life. I have such horrible anxiety and I’m a hermit. I stay inside my house 99.9 percent of the time. I avoid going out at all costs. This book made me realize, I’m only 32, not 50. It made me realize I need to hurry up and go live life before I am 50 like the woman in this book. It made me realize I might want to go do some of the things on the bucket list in this book. I’ve already done a few of them back when I was young and wild. I have my own actual bucket list I’ve been making for over a decade now. It’s time to get up and go do the things on that list. The things that are affordable, anyway. I need to live while I’m alive. Thank you thank you thank you to the author Rachel Hannah for writing this amazingly life changing story! I’ll be forever grateful that I got to read this book. Also thank you to my book club, wavelength book club, for choosing this book for the club. I wouldn’t have ever heard of it otherwise. Sometimes the right book just slips into my life unexpectedly. I give this book a million billion gazillion stars!
April 28, 2023
I’ve read many books by Rachel Hanna and enjoyed them all. However The Bucket List might just be her best one yet. While dealing with some serious subjects such as the loss of a spouse, the more recent death of a best friend and a fairly severe case of anxiety this story is a heartwarming account of how the main character, Jill, deals with all of this. There are many humorous moments where Jill forces herself to do things she never thought she would or even could due to her anxiety. That’s something I think we can all relate to having experienced at one time or another and at different levels. But we can also learn from her experiences as well. I highly recommend The Bucket List for everyone.
June 14, 2023
This was a cute easy read. I’m all about plausibility and this one just wasn’t. I’m not sure how Jill and her friend were even besties to begin with if they had nothing in common. And of course Jill kept running into Levi at every turn. A little too much emphasis on Jill’s extra weight. Like yes we all want hope for second love when we are frumpy and a little overweight (as put by the author) but the extra emphasis on these things seemed forced. Jill was a little too self deprecating for me. Overall this was a nice break from my usual reads.
May 9, 2024
2 1/2 Stars
This is a feel good positive ending book. I really liked the premise. There is so much potential in it. When reading this book I could help but think that this was a first book for her. IT ISN'T! I was truly shocked at the amount of books she had written before this one. This one seemed to be missing so much. It felt like it was a first draft that she turned into her publisher. It felt like there was so much room for more.
There were a few scenes where the storyline just didn't match up. I disliked the last envelope that Monica gave Jill. How would she know that she was going to be able to complete it? And if she hadn't she would have lost everything. Yeah ok...just didn't seem plausible.
It is a good quick read, but it needs so much in order to take it up a notch.
This is a feel good positive ending book. I really liked the premise. There is so much potential in it. When reading this book I could help but think that this was a first book for her. IT ISN'T! I was truly shocked at the amount of books she had written before this one. This one seemed to be missing so much. It felt like it was a first draft that she turned into her publisher. It felt like there was so much room for more.
There were a few scenes where the storyline just didn't match up. I disliked the last envelope that Monica gave Jill. How would she know that she was going to be able to complete it? And if she hadn't she would have lost everything. Yeah ok...just didn't seem plausible.
It is a good quick read, but it needs so much in order to take it up a notch.
April 25, 2023
Wow, what an amazing book! Rachel Hanna has truly outdone herself with The Bucket List. From the prolong to the final word I was completely captivated. I could not put this book down! Jill’s an amazing woman with so much to offer. After heartbreak, it’s so wonderful so see her blossom. Monica was an amazing best friend who knew Jill better than she knew herself. Make sure to read this book as soon as you possibly can! You won’t be disappointed. The only thing disappointing is that it’s over. Would love to see more of all these characters.
October 22, 2023
This was a DNF
Adore the cover but I'm sorry I just can not like this one.. It feels juvenile and booring at the same time
Adore the cover but I'm sorry I just can not like this one.. It feels juvenile and booring at the same time
August 26, 2023
This book was not great. I was in a stressful place so it gave me background noise even though I couldn’t stand the narrator on the audio book! Very robotic! Monica dies and leaves her BFF Jill a list to complete and then Jill can have her beach house etc. 🙄
July 31, 2024
I liked this book! Made me cry, made me laugh. Very easy and quick read- pretty predictable throughout and lacks substance. I’d call this a palate cleanser
July 6, 2023
One of the author’s earlier books written under another name. Standalone. Contemporary clean romance.
A widowed woman (Jill) who has a very high anxiety level, inherits a beach house and enough money to be financially independent when her best friend dies. However there is a condition to the inheritance. Her friend has left a bucket list for Jill to complete first. The plot premise is interesting but I felt that the author could have developed it further. But this short novel was a quick, light read and I enjoyed it.
A widowed woman (Jill) who has a very high anxiety level, inherits a beach house and enough money to be financially independent when her best friend dies. However there is a condition to the inheritance. Her friend has left a bucket list for Jill to complete first. The plot premise is interesting but I felt that the author could have developed it further. But this short novel was a quick, light read and I enjoyed it.
June 3, 2024
This is such a sweet, cute book!!!! Definitely needs to be a hallmark movie!!!!! Even though the subject seems heavy, it really is fun and light! Jill's best friend dies and leaves instructions for her to complete a bucket list and it was so enjoyable to ride along on her adventures, slowly breaking her out of her anxious, scared comfort zone. a great little summer read!!! Narration is great too, available on hoopla!!
December 5, 2024
By far my favorite book by Hanna. The story was everything and all the feels.
August 1, 2024
I loved this book.
April 21, 2024
What’s on your bucket list and when are you going to get to it? This one goes quick! A little repetitive, but overall an enjoyable read.
September 25, 2024
This is my first Rachel Hanna book. After reading several intense, Long novels, I was looking for a quick romantic story.
I found the main character to be totally annoying, a that is reflected in the rating.
I found the main character to be totally annoying, a that is reflected in the rating.
August 11, 2023
Bleech. A 2 is generous. I kept waiting for something surprising to happen. Nope. Boring, predicable and lame.
May 13, 2025
The Bucket List by Rachel Hanna (2023)
281-page Paperback
Genre: Women's Fiction
Featuring: Single Mother with Adult Child, College Student, Empty Nesters, Widow, Atlanta, Georgia; Long Best Friends, Pawleys Island, South Carolina; Helicopter Parenting, Quadragenarians Soon-to-be Quinquagenarian, Real Estate Agent, Restaurant Worker, Grief, Terminal Illness - Cancer, Death; Anxiety, Inheritance Trope - Challenge, Attorney Lawyer, Beach House, Hermit - Almost Agoraphobic, Insecurities, Birthday Goal, Personal Growth Trope, New Year's Day, Guilt, Activities Out of Comfort Zone, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Romance, Friendship, Thought Nuggets, Fated Encounter Trope, Blue Ridge Mountains, Author's Link
Rating as a movie: PG
Books and Authors mentioned: Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Memorable Quotes: My hand grips my phone, as it does around this time each day, while I stare at the GPS app. Watching my technically adult daughter make the one hour drive from her workplace to her apartment always puts me on edge. It’s not that I don’t trust her. I do. I just don’t trust every single other idiotic individual on the road next to her.
Why is it, when someone you love dies, they suddenly have no faults? I can’t think of one fault that man had, but I know he had some because we were in marriage counseling when he died. Those bad memories have been wiped out of my brain. I only remember positive things. I guess that’s a good thing, but it sure has made the last fifteen years lonely.
Anxiety is a thief. It steals your focus. It steals your fun. It steals your peace. It steals large chunks of your life as you zero in on your symptoms and your thoughts instead of paying attention to everybody around you. For the first time in my life, I'm determined to defeat it. I'm determined to tell it to sit in the back seat while I take us on the rides. Instead of letting anxiety drive, my new goal is to put it in the trunk. It will always be with me, but I need to take back control.
Anxiety does that to a person. When you're having a panic attack, your only focus is the fear. That's what takes center stage. Everything else around you is just a blur, just a side-note to the main event.
I remember how she was sitting her chair for hours, lost in a good book. She read over one hundred books a year, maybe more.
"Hey, God made sugar for a reason. Who am I to question Him?"
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½⚱️💃🏼😟🏕💐
My thoughts: 📖 Page 188 of 281 Chapter 11 - I love this story!
This was a perfect palate cleanser, perfect for Hallmark despite the serious topics. I could read this again, although it was kinda predictable.
Recommend to others: Yes. This is probably the best story I've read from this author, even better than The Beach House.
281-page Paperback
Genre: Women's Fiction
Featuring: Single Mother with Adult Child, College Student, Empty Nesters, Widow, Atlanta, Georgia; Long Best Friends, Pawleys Island, South Carolina; Helicopter Parenting, Quadragenarians Soon-to-be Quinquagenarian, Real Estate Agent, Restaurant Worker, Grief, Terminal Illness - Cancer, Death; Anxiety, Inheritance Trope - Challenge, Attorney Lawyer, Beach House, Hermit - Almost Agoraphobic, Insecurities, Birthday Goal, Personal Growth Trope, New Year's Day, Guilt, Activities Out of Comfort Zone, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Romance, Friendship, Thought Nuggets, Fated Encounter Trope, Blue Ridge Mountains, Author's Link
Rating as a movie: PG
Books and Authors mentioned: Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Memorable Quotes: My hand grips my phone, as it does around this time each day, while I stare at the GPS app. Watching my technically adult daughter make the one hour drive from her workplace to her apartment always puts me on edge. It’s not that I don’t trust her. I do. I just don’t trust every single other idiotic individual on the road next to her.
Why is it, when someone you love dies, they suddenly have no faults? I can’t think of one fault that man had, but I know he had some because we were in marriage counseling when he died. Those bad memories have been wiped out of my brain. I only remember positive things. I guess that’s a good thing, but it sure has made the last fifteen years lonely.
Anxiety is a thief. It steals your focus. It steals your fun. It steals your peace. It steals large chunks of your life as you zero in on your symptoms and your thoughts instead of paying attention to everybody around you. For the first time in my life, I'm determined to defeat it. I'm determined to tell it to sit in the back seat while I take us on the rides. Instead of letting anxiety drive, my new goal is to put it in the trunk. It will always be with me, but I need to take back control.
Anxiety does that to a person. When you're having a panic attack, your only focus is the fear. That's what takes center stage. Everything else around you is just a blur, just a side-note to the main event.
I remember how she was sitting her chair for hours, lost in a good book. She read over one hundred books a year, maybe more.
"Hey, God made sugar for a reason. Who am I to question Him?"
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½⚱️💃🏼😟🏕💐
My thoughts: 📖 Page 188 of 281 Chapter 11 - I love this story!
This was a perfect palate cleanser, perfect for Hallmark despite the serious topics. I could read this again, although it was kinda predictable.
Recommend to others: Yes. This is probably the best story I've read from this author, even better than The Beach House.
September 25, 2025
When her best friend dies and leaves her as the only beneficiary Jill is full of emotion beyond just sad. She’s shocked when she finds out Mon has left everything to her and her daughter, but with a catch. Jill has to complete her friend’s unfinished bucket list.
This was my first Rachel Hanna book and although it was a bit more “sweet” than I usually read, it really made me examine my own life.
Don’t let life pass you by! Get busy LIVING it!
This was my first Rachel Hanna book and although it was a bit more “sweet” than I usually read, it really made me examine my own life.
Don’t let life pass you by! Get busy LIVING it!
February 24, 2025
I enjoyed reading this book because it’s something I feel like I would do if I were in her shoes. The storyline was easy to follow and kept me engaged because I was curious to see what was in the next envelope.
March 16, 2024
Not a book I would of picked up on my own, but it was a really cute palette cleanser 🙂
March 23, 2024
Absolutely loved this book. This is my first book by this author- I will be reading more!!
April 7, 2024
Easy read, kept me interested. Funny witty, sad, happy!! Characters were intriguing. The author deals with anxiety and fear issues - entertaining! Definitely glad I read this book even though my favorite genre is historical fiction.
July 12, 2024
Quick read! Great story! I really enjoyed it from beginning to end!
September 9, 2024
What would you be willing to do if a friend bequeathed you his/her home?
October 6, 2024
This was a quick, fun read. Not a bad concept for a book and there were plenty of parts that made me laugh. There's a handful of sentences that don't make any sense and I really wish she has a better proofreader/editor.
October 15, 2024
Read for book club
November 14, 2024
DNF. Was bored and uninterested in the plot. Not a fan of Jilly 🙄
January 31, 2025
This is such a sweet story. I laughed out loud several times. I enjoyed the audio. Easy to follow. Clean.
February 4, 2025
Cute story. Easy read.
February 18, 2025
Cute, quick to read( few characters and not a complex plot)- enjoyed!
April 5, 2025
a light, quick, easy read! i loved this!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 479 reviews