Life of Her
Elizabeth Conte
Jane Writes Press (2025)
ISBN: 979-8992893106
Reviewed by Stephanie Elizabeth Long for Reader Views (05/2025)
Everywhere I go, I don’t exist. No one sees me anymore.
Abby Kent is lost after dedicating nearly two decades to being a dutiful wife and mother. She doesn’t recognize herself. She feels invisible to her husband, her teenage son, and the rest of the world. Moreover, Marcus seems unbothered by the distance growing between them and acts more like a roommate than a romantic partner.
When a health scare puts things into perspective, Abby feels compelled to make a change. Does she want to spend the rest of her life feeling unloved and rejected? On a whim, she books a trip to Scotland, knowing in her heart the only way back to herself is by creating distance between the life she knows and the one she needs to explore. Abby stays in Perth, a quaint town thousands of miles away from her home in Chicago. That’s when Thom walks into her life—lovely, charming Thom, whom she feels she’s known forever. Is this her awakening?
But when Marcus shows up in Scotland, demanding Abby come home, she finds herself at a crossroads—should she return to the life she’s run away from or stay in Scotland and embrace the new woman that’s emerging?
Life of Her by Elizabeth Conte is a stunning women’s fiction novel that every woman approaching middle life needs to read. It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes a special book comes into your life exactly when you need it most—I call it a literary kismet. With a raw and unyielding narrative, Conte delivers a story brimming with urgency that demands your attention and captures your heart. The kind that you know is going to change your life.
To say this is an emotional novel would be an understatement. Conte’s prose awakened feelings in me that had been bubbling, threatening to spill over for some time— unrest, resentment, and anger. Like so many women, here is someone who has spent her life catering to others and putting her dreams on the back burner. She’s lost that spark and has no idea how to get it back. Abby’s sense of irrelevance struck a chord with me as a woman approaching middle age. It’s like I turned forty and became invisible to the world.
But it isn’t all doom and gloom; Abby’s story is a transformative one. It’s about taking risks and jumping headfirst into uncharted waters. Sometimes, it takes hitting the proverbial rock bottom for your soul to be awakened. In the beginning, Abby is reserved and insecure, a shell of the woman she used to be. However, as she begins to fill her life with new people and experiences, that spark is reignited; a new Abby materializes. One that is confident and vibrant—someone we all aspire to be.
If you love novels that are multilayered and rich in character development, Life of Her is the book you’ve been waiting for. Elizabeth Conte highlights the challenges of family life, marriage, and identity while making us laugh and filling us with hope. Whether reading alone or with a book club, this novel is the perfect choice.