Absolutely adorable and heartfelt.
Wholesome solid read.

After Nora has a NDE where she is reunited with her grandfather and dog , her venture back into her body changes her profoundly.. She creates a reverse bucket list and decides to take chances

It’s truly a sweet story.
Audio was great!

Thanks #netgalley!!!!!

I really enjoyed this book! It was a captivating read that held my attention from start to finish. The story was well-paced, and the characters felt real and engaging. I’m grateful to the publisher for providing an early copy—it was a pleasure to read!

I really enjoyed this one! It comes across as fun and light but delves into some serious issues. It's really entertaining on audio. The narration is top-notch!

The book opens as Nora is awakening from a surfing accident. It's a Near Death Experience (NDR) and it really makes Nora evaluate her life now. She decides upon a "reverse bucket list." She's a lawyer and works at her family's Personal Injury Law Firm but she's not happy there. She vows to get a new job and learn new things and wants to tend to her late Grandfather's garden in his old apartment complex. She also wants to be more supportive of her sister and cousin. Before her NDR she was caught up in a Cornerstore Robbery and met a guy that she connected with. She vows to find him too.

Nora has a lot going on but she's found new strength and really wants things to change. You'll be rooting for Nora (and her mystery man) from the start. I really enjoyed this buddy read with my Darlin' Darla 💜 Please be sure to check out her wonderful review too!

Oh, I really loved the title and how it was mentioned a couple of times in the book. The last time was the best! It's a great book to read this month 😊

What better month to read about a character named Nora November? My reading buddy, the terrific Tina, and I were on the same page for the most part. Be sure to check out her review when it goes up a bit later.

Nora November wakes up from a Near Death Experience (NDE) and decides to make some changes. She makes a Reverse Bucket List:
Learn to cook
Grandpa's garden
Corner store guy (?)
Make art
Be a better sister to Lacey
Support Gus
Play basketball
Get a new job
Now the trick is actually following through. It's hard work and sometimes the "Nice Work" is delivered in a sarcastic way. I had two big questions: 1) How did Nora end up surfing in the Gulf and drowning? 2) Will she ever be reunited with Corner store guy (CSG)?

This has a bit of a "Sleepless in Seattle" feel as we know what is happening with Jack (CSG) and can see where their paths should cross. How long will it take?

There were some fun pop culture references: Darth Vader, Death Star, I Dream of Jeannie, Julia Child, and Taylor Swift are some of my favorites. I also detected a bit of a Where'd You Go, Bernadette vibe. Also kudos to Karissa Vacker for excellent narration.

A big thank you to HarperCollins Focus and NetGalley for an audio ARC and to Harper Muse and NetGalley for a DRC.

I would say this book is 3.5 stars. It starts with a woman named Nora and how she has a near death experience and when she makes it out of her surfing accident alive she realizes she was miserable and crates a reverse bucket list of things she never got to do. Throughout the story she tries to find herself and along the way discovers things about herself, her family and what she wants in life and even some romance

Overall not my cup of tea, overall really hard to get into , and I wasn’t a fan of the narrator. The premise of the book itself was really interesting she falls in love with a guy from a corner store robbery , it’s a parallel perspective between those 2 characters, however she’s struggling to find herself throughout the book and that common for most people when they go through something life altering, she’s trying to go through a mental and physical rebirth of herself . She’s trying to find herself again with her reverse bucket list where she does everyday tasks I guess you’d describe them , where she wants to learn to cook and play basketball, I understand the story line but it fell flat for me .

Nora November has a near death experience and creates a reverse bucket list. She wants to try and start enjoying life and learn new things and find a man she had a connection with but never called. It was surprisingly moving. Nora has challenges to overcome but with a second chance at life she has motivation to make the necessary changes to make her life one worth living.

I had a brilliant review written in my head, but did not write it immediately. Lovely allergy season. Now, I can't remember most of what I wanted to say.

I really liked this journey of self-discovery that Nora took. She was unhappy with all aspects of her life. Then she clinically died in a surfing accident. When she awoke, she realized she had all of these regrets. She decided to stop wasting time and do them. Much to the consternation of everyone around her.

I found Nora relatable and enjoyed her journey. I could sympathize with a lot of her feelings.

Karissa Vacker narrates the audiobook and is, as always, perfection.

I received an advance audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

Nice Work, Nora November is a heartwarming story of second chances and self-discovery. After a near-death experience, Nora awakens with a determination to reclaim her life, making a "reverse bucket list" to accomplish what she left undone in her past. From quitting her unfulfilling job at her father’s law firm to restoring her late grandfather’s neglected garden, Nora embarks on a journey to reinvent herself.

Julia London skillfully blends humor and emotion, making Nora’s attempts at transformation both relatable and endearing. While the book touches on deeper themes like family expectations and the weight of past failures, it never loses its lighthearted charm. The quirky characters, especially Nora’s garden community, add warmth and levity to her path of self-growth. With moments of sweetness, particularly in Nora’s budding romance with Jack, this is an enjoyable and uplifting story of learning to live authentically.

Nice Work, Nora November by Julia London is such a good read. Nora November is inspiring, and I so appreciated the journey she went on in this book.

I appreciate that there was a romance, but that the romance was not the focal point of the story. It did not overshadow the very real and serious topics of addiction, depression, and suicide.

The audiobook narrator (Karissa Vacker) did a beautiful job! Bravo!

This is a really good story. You follow Nora, who has a renewed excitement to build a good life after an NDE. She tries to hard to do the things she never did and tries so hard to reach out to her friends and family. Unfortunately, many things go wrong, and she gets blamed and confronted with how she was before her NDE. You really feel for Nora in every way. You get excited when she has new motivation for fun things, and you get hurt when people throw her past at her. I think it does do well in showing how life can be with depression, and i never thought of what happens when you're not depressed anymore, and coming back from it seems just as hard.

Overall 100% recommend!

Thank you to netgalley and the author for sending me the book in exchange for an honest review

In "Nice Work, Nora November," the titular character, Nora November is dealing with the after effects of near-death experience. She views her life as the Before and After time, even though she doesn't remember the exact circumstances behind her drowning.

What she does know is, everything about the Before makes her anxious and depressed. But in the After, she realizes there are many things she regrets not doing when she could. So she makes a "reverse bucket list" to tackle those things she wants to do after she died (and came back).

It includes simple things, like learn how to cook and paint, tend her grandfather's garden, and play basketball again. But the most important item on the list is to find "the one who got away." Jack is someone she met while they were both being held hostage during a convenience story robbery by a very inept thief wearing a Darth Vader mask. Jack and Nora found something about the whole situation hilarious, even though they knew they should probably be a bit more concerned. But their shared quirky sense of humor bonded them in a way no one else had ever come close to before.

Soon after, though Nora's depression took over and convinced her that it was all in her head, and he couldn't really be as in to her as she was to him. So, she never calls him. But that's about to change... if only she had his number or knew his last name!

In this story of self-discovery and learning to stand up for oneself, there's a lot of pain to overcome, not just for Nora, but for those who love her as well. But her mental illness is tastefully and realistically handled in such a way that you have to root for her as she strives to find the good in life and all the very many reasons there are to live for.

Thank you to Julia London, Harper Muse and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

good book. It was a funny quippy read. but it is also not great for my anxious soul, if you catch my meaning. great book though.

This was a good one even if it made me a bit anxious 😂 I loved the concept of it and I've never read one like it before so it was fun and different

I'll be honest, the first couple of chapters had me wondering if this was just a rehash of the book, The Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh, as the premise is vaguely the same. But once you get past those first few chapters, you realise it's not that at all.

<spoilers>
There are some minor things about this book I could complain about it, but they're mostly at the beginning.

It's an emotional book, dealing with a woman who has a terrible relationship with her parents (mostly due to her father being an absolute asshole) and has a near death experience and decides she doesn't want to just spend the rest of her days doing what's expected of her.

Nora ends up quitting her job, tending to a garden plot left to her by her deceased grandfather.

Before her near death experience, she spent hours with a man in a backroom of a store during a robbery. They had a connection but Nora chickens out contacting him and he loses her number.

Nora has decided she needs to find this man and see if the connection they had is still there.

There's a lot here and the ending was really emotional (in a good way).

I loved this one. It was very sweet and charming book. I really enjoyed the family dynamics with Nora's family. I loved seeing her growth throughout the story, The narrator was great as well.

This book started out kind of slow for me and I kept wondering where we were going… I’m soooo glad I stuck it out because right around the 20% mark it really picked up. I loved this book! I think Nora’s growth and persistence of her second chance was so beautiful.

There were parts of this book that really frustrated me on her behalf and I was so happy with the outcome of her relationship with her father. Life is never neatly tied up with a perfect bow with people finding solution and everything having resolve. I loved how realistic this book was!! - Everything just meshed so well together.

Nora November wakes up from an NDE (near-death experience) and has a new lease on life. She creates a "reverse bucket list" with things that she wanted to do after she died (since technically she was dead for a few moments after the NDE surfing accident). This list includes playing basketball, learning how to cook, gardening, and quitting her job... Oh, also-did I mention that her boss is her dad? Nora is a lawyer at November & Sons, established by her grandfather and currently managed by her father. Nora had a twin brother who died when they were very young, so Nora felt a responsibility to be the son her father lost and take over the company from him one day. However, she realized that she didn't like it and decided to do something about that. Nora adored her grandfather, and embraces the hopes he had for her when he was still alive. That's the ultimate plot of this story: thirty one-year-old Nora November growing into the person she wants to be and I loved it.

There was no part of it that ever felt like it dragged for me. I thoroughly enjoyed all of it! I thought that Nora and Jack's side story was sweet! The old neighbors in the community garden were probably some of my favorite characters-the lady was so sassy hahaha! This was a nice, easy story to listen to and I'd recommend it everyone!

I really enjoyed this book. Although a similar story to others in the genre, I appreciate how Nora's circumstances, and life altering accident put her life in the "before" versus the "after". In the before, she was pressured, and lived by, trying to reach everyone else's expectations of her. Struggling with depression, she found she was often not available for the people that mattered most to her. In the after she is determined to be a better friend, but also a better version of herself, but it still takes time for her to realize that means putting her needs and wants first at times as well.

I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoyed books like "the midnight library" or "Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine".

The audio quality of this novel was good, and it was enjoying to listen.

3.5 stars- rounded to 4 because of great audiobook narration!

This story follows Nora as she works hard to reinvent herself in the aftermath of her near death experience. Her eyes were opened to the regrets of the past and she has to work through a lot of emotional turmoil surrounding her major depression, a job she hates, an emotionally abusive family, failing relationships, and her biggest regret- a missed connection with Jack, the one that got away. Throughout the story we got occasional chapters from Jack’s POV as well, and it’s clear he is also managing his own difficult parts of life in a job that surrounds him with death/dying and trying to find a balance that will bring him joy.

There are a lot of very heavy topics in this book, and off the bat I would recommend you go into it while you’re in a good head space. Thankfully, I think I started listening to this story at a time in my life where I could appreciate Nora’s struggles and the overarching meaning of hope and believing in yourself. There is a quirky group of senior citizens interwoven throughout the book who I feel really help bring some light hearted humor. And while these topics are heavy, I also can respect the struggles these characters faced because they are so very real; weather or not you personally deal with them, it’s likely that you know someone who does or has. Julia London does an excellent job with the mental health representation in this story. The romance aspect of this book is extremely light, it’s more like an undercurrent than a highlight, but you can feel it rolling along with you as you follow Nora and Jack.

I most enjoyed how Nora took back the things in her life that she felt she missed out on, or should have tried sooner…like learning to cook, gardening, painting, and basketball. It made me really think introspectively about my life and wonder, what activities do I still have interest in trying that I may have missed out on? I’m not sure I came to any conclusions but the lesson is that it’s not too late! Our lives are only as happy, joyful, and fulfilling as we choose to make them, even when our circumstances aren’t looking positive there is hope.

As for the audiobook- it was superb! Karissa Vacker was excellent at being the narrator, all the characters, and bringing life to the dialogue. I anticipate I enjoyed this book more because of her excellent storytelling.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Muse, and Julia London for this advance listening copy!