Title: Just One Day (Just One Day #1)
Author: Gayle Forman
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Release Date: January 8, 2013
Source: ARC from Publisher
Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository
A breathtaking journey toward self-discovery and true love, from the author of If I Stay.When shelter American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem de Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there's an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines.Just One Day is the first in a sweepingly romantic duet of novels. Willem's story--Just One YearI--is coming soon!
Just One Day by Gayle Forman is one of those books that has been getting a whole lot of hype. Anytime something like this happens with books I start having my doubts as to whether or not said book is going to be able to live up to that hype. But I shouldn't really have worried about Just One Day because it was simply amazing.
Allyson has always been the responsible girl who has everything planned out and who follows that plan. But on one of the last days of an organized Europe tour, she decides to ditch the planned activity to instead see an underground production of Shakespeare's The Twelfth Night. There Allyson meets Willem and so starts a one day whirlwind trip to Paris. In Paris Allyson discovers a whole entire side to herself and that side might even be better than the Allyson she has always known. But that's not all she discovers. With Willem she realizes she can do just about anything, maybe even fall in love. But how much can really happen in just one day?
This book brought on all sorts of emotions while I was reading. I would go from smiling one minute to basically crying the next. And Just One Day definitely brought on a whole slew of tears. That's not to say that the book was sad because there were plenty of times that I was crying happy tears. But beyond the tears, the story itself took me away on a fantastic adventure. Even though it wasn't exactly a story filled with intense action, the story in Just One Day was still one I just couldn't put down. With every page I read I was just dying to know what would happen to Willem and Allyson, especially whether or not they would have the happy ending I was so hoping they would. I just became so wrapped up in the story. The setting also helped with that. Having been to Paris myself, I was able to picture all the places Allyson and Willem were going and it just made me want to go back go Paris myself. And after all the emotions Just One Day put me through I still can't wait to read the story from Willem's perspective in Just One Year.
A lot of people have said this, but I could really relate to Allyson. There was something about me that I could see in her. Just like Allyson I tend to be the responsible person who has everything planned and follows that plan. I wouldn't just take off to Paris with someone I had met twice. So the fact that I could really relate to Allyson made me that much more invested in her story. I wanted her to become the person she had been in Paris and I wanted her to have everything she wanted, but at the same time I also wanted to protect her from heartbreak, because her heartbreak would also cause my heart to break. But mostly I loved who Allyson was with Willem. And I personally wouldn't mind being led around Paris by Willem. Willem was someone I had trouble getting a good understanding of who he as but that didn't stop me from loving him. For the most part he seemed to be this carefree person who just went where the wind took him, but at the same time, there was this other side of him that came out from time to time that showed that there was something more going on with him. And that's the side of Willem that really made me love him, especially when that side came out in relation to Allyson.
Gayle Forman's Just One Day is one of those books that broke my heart. But it's also a book that made me cry happy tears and by the end, my heart was full once again. Believe me when I say that you don't want to miss out on this book, and by the end you will be begging for Willem's story and Just One Year.
Giveaway!
If it wasn't clear from my review, I absolutely loved Just One Day! For that reason, I am giving away a finished copy of the book to one lucky reader because this is a book I am going to be pushing on everyone. To enter, just fill out the Rafflecopter form below. The giveaway is open internationally, wherever the Book Depository ships. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
