I seem to be in the minority here - there are so many raving reviews for Waiting to Begin, but the protagonist spoiled the story for me, and I didn't enjoy it at all.

This story is told in two timelines, both taking place on Bessie's birthday. All you really need to know, though, is that Bessie is a massive narcissist.

It's 1984, Bessie is turning sixteen, and she's excited to find out how she did in her school exams and to make the boy she's secretly been having sex with her actual boyfriend. Of course, everything crumbles and falls apart (otherwise, this book wouldn't exist), but all of the things that happen are Bessie's fault or the direct consequence of her own actions, and she just blames everyone around her. But sure, she's only just turned sixteen - no one's expecting her to be a mature adult, even if she is making very adult choices for her life.

In 2021, the only thing that's changed is Bessie is married with two adult children; she is still the vain, selfish prick she was at sixteen. She only cares about her presents and how many people post a public birthday greeting on her social media. She's very aware that she hasn't been the best wife for many years (and has actually been keeping a secret from her husband and the rest of her family for most of her life) but only cares that he's not the best husband despite her years of neglect. But don't worry, she'll almost cheat on him and decide to change her base personality in an afternoon because gasp, she loves him! But wait, he doesn't want to bow down to her and accept she's going to turn into a different person overnight?! How rude! But she's going to tell him her deep, dark secret that she should have told him decades ago! That will fix everything! What a crock of shit.

There's a bit of an emotional payoff if you actually make it through the whole book, but it's not worth dealing with Bessie's toxic personality.