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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
February was a hectic month. Will read again at a later date.
Romance. But not quite.
Broken heart. But not quite.
This reads more like a quest on finding oneself. Allyson just needed a gentle push to wake up and realise that her carefully constructed life shouldn't really be all that carefully constructed. She shouldn't have to follow someone else's dreams. And, if she didn't know what her own dreams were, she could very easily discover them.
'Just One Day' is more a coming-of-age story than a romance novel. This is a young girl, just turned eighteen, discovering that life has a lot to offer her. So, she grabs it by the horns, so to speak. And, eventually, she finds that love could be a part of it. So she goes out to take it, too.
I feel like I grew up right along Allyson while reading this book. It's beautifully written, emotional, although not overbearing. Carefully avoids being cliche, but without losing that timelessness of romance and falling in love.
I would highly reccommend this book. It's beautiful.
Broken heart. But not quite.
This reads more like a quest on finding oneself. Allyson just needed a gentle push to wake up and realise that her carefully constructed life shouldn't really be all that carefully constructed. She shouldn't have to follow someone else's dreams. And, if she didn't know what her own dreams were, she could very easily discover them.
'Just One Day' is more a coming-of-age story than a romance novel. This is a young girl, just turned eighteen, discovering that life has a lot to offer her. So, she grabs it by the horns, so to speak. And, eventually, she finds that love could be a part of it. So she goes out to take it, too.
I feel like I grew up right along Allyson while reading this book. It's beautifully written, emotional, although not overbearing. Carefully avoids being cliche, but without losing that timelessness of romance and falling in love.
I would highly reccommend this book. It's beautiful.
Fantastic YA book. For 10 years of my youth I wanted to have a whirlwind romance with a European I met on a train. Blame it on the movie "Before Sunrise", I suppose. It never happened for me, but I adore stories like this.
Okay, it’s time for another confession. Until I read JUST ONE DAY, I had never read one of Gayle Forman’s books. GASP I know, it’s an offense. I have IF I STAY somewhere in the Great Paperback Section of Doom, which takes up half my shelves – I think it’s around the entire series of VAMPIRE ACADEMY that I own but have never read. JUST ONE DAY was added to my wish list and forgotten until the amazing April of Good Books and Good Wine graciously offered me her ARC. A few days later, I finished JUST ONE DAY and enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
But few books are without their problems, and JUST ONE DAY had a little nagging issue – the heroine became insufferable. Having been someone who suffered (and still does) from depression and questions over romance, particularly wondering if some guy is an ass and if I should dump him, I found Allyson’s response to be problematic. Not to mention annoying.
THE BEAUTY OF TRAVEL, THE DARKNESS OF COLLEGE
JUST ONE DAY blurs the line between young adult and new adult fiction. It’s published as YA, but ladies and gents, this is as new adult as they come from the big six. Our heroine is a card-carrying high school graduate who we meet the summer before she starts college at what I assumed was Harvard (never mentioned, but heavily insinuated).
The summer before I started college, I just sat around and watched TV and played golf – because I went to college for a year on a golf scholarship before I permanently damaged my ankle. Allyson visits Europe and ends up in Stratford-upon-Avon, where she begins to make some of the most fateful choices in her life. She skips out on a professional show of HAMLET and instead watches an outdoor performing of TWELFTH NIGHT, where fate leads her to meet Willem, a handsome and charming Dutchman. And the next day, spur of the moment, she goes with him to Paris for…wait for it… Just One Day.
I won’t ruin the moment of the next section, but once Allyson got back to the US and started college, trust me when I say that I understood what she was going through. When I was 18, I still didn’t know what I wanted to do in life. My freshman and sophomore years were devoted to figuring that out before I settled into political science with a heavy pinch of international studies, economics, philosophy, East Asian culture and language, and creative writing. Allyson’s helicopter parents, while not reminiscent of my own, were overwhelming enough that I loved their conflict with her.
SOMETIMES HEROINES NEED TO ZIP IT
Allyson, quite frankly, spent half the book in a state of perpetual whining. Since it’s in the jacket copy of the book, I don’t feel bad about telling you that Willem has his way with her and then disappears into the night. Or, in this case, early morning. Allyson is left alone in an abandoned building without her suitcase (left at Willem’s friend’s place) or her expensive watch or the guy she’s fallen in love with, so she panics and gets help from her former tour guide to get home. For all she knows, Willem stole her belongings, had sex with her, and ditched her like the trash, but what does Allyson do?
She whines and moons and dreams of the guy that she thinks ditched her. And then she concocts a ridiculous plan to lie to her parents and cover it up while planning on going back to find him because she is still in love with a guy she knew for less than 48 hours.
Sweetie, let’s have a chat since your best friend seems more concerned with being popular than helping you. When a guy ditches you like the garbage, you need to move on. Your new gay best friend Dee is there to help you get past Willem, but all you do is act like a spoiled brat, convinced that you need answers. When my ex-boyfriend cheated on me, I didn’t follow him around the country to get answers. I said, “Fudge him,” and moved on with my life. Why didn’t you do the same thing? You would have saved yourself a lot of moping time.
JUST ONE DAY TURNS INTO JUST ONE YEAR
Despite my annoyance at Allyson, I quite liked JUST ONE DAY, and after a year of moping and plotting, of course there is room for a sequel that I can’t wait to read. Forman has a way with words that get you into the mood for traveling, and having spent just one day in Paris, I felt myself floating back, even if at times I felt a disconnect. Forman has a new fan in me, though, and I can’t wait to see what JUST ONE YEAR has in store for us next.
But seriously, I have no idea why I thought this would be cute. It was very depressing and dark.
VERDICT: If you ignore the whiny heroine, JUST ONE DAY is a powerful story about love, loss, regret, and finding yourself under the backdrop of that change from teen to adult. Check this one out.
3.5/5
But few books are without their problems, and JUST ONE DAY had a little nagging issue – the heroine became insufferable. Having been someone who suffered (and still does) from depression and questions over romance, particularly wondering if some guy is an ass and if I should dump him, I found Allyson’s response to be problematic. Not to mention annoying.
THE BEAUTY OF TRAVEL, THE DARKNESS OF COLLEGE
JUST ONE DAY blurs the line between young adult and new adult fiction. It’s published as YA, but ladies and gents, this is as new adult as they come from the big six. Our heroine is a card-carrying high school graduate who we meet the summer before she starts college at what I assumed was Harvard (never mentioned, but heavily insinuated).
The summer before I started college, I just sat around and watched TV and played golf – because I went to college for a year on a golf scholarship before I permanently damaged my ankle. Allyson visits Europe and ends up in Stratford-upon-Avon, where she begins to make some of the most fateful choices in her life. She skips out on a professional show of HAMLET and instead watches an outdoor performing of TWELFTH NIGHT, where fate leads her to meet Willem, a handsome and charming Dutchman. And the next day, spur of the moment, she goes with him to Paris for…wait for it… Just One Day.
I won’t ruin the moment of the next section, but once Allyson got back to the US and started college, trust me when I say that I understood what she was going through. When I was 18, I still didn’t know what I wanted to do in life. My freshman and sophomore years were devoted to figuring that out before I settled into political science with a heavy pinch of international studies, economics, philosophy, East Asian culture and language, and creative writing. Allyson’s helicopter parents, while not reminiscent of my own, were overwhelming enough that I loved their conflict with her.
SOMETIMES HEROINES NEED TO ZIP IT
Allyson, quite frankly, spent half the book in a state of perpetual whining. Since it’s in the jacket copy of the book, I don’t feel bad about telling you that Willem has his way with her and then disappears into the night. Or, in this case, early morning. Allyson is left alone in an abandoned building without her suitcase (left at Willem’s friend’s place) or her expensive watch or the guy she’s fallen in love with, so she panics and gets help from her former tour guide to get home. For all she knows, Willem stole her belongings, had sex with her, and ditched her like the trash, but what does Allyson do?
She whines and moons and dreams of the guy that she thinks ditched her. And then she concocts a ridiculous plan to lie to her parents and cover it up while planning on going back to find him because she is still in love with a guy she knew for less than 48 hours.
Sweetie, let’s have a chat since your best friend seems more concerned with being popular than helping you. When a guy ditches you like the garbage, you need to move on. Your new gay best friend Dee is there to help you get past Willem, but all you do is act like a spoiled brat, convinced that you need answers. When my ex-boyfriend cheated on me, I didn’t follow him around the country to get answers. I said, “Fudge him,” and moved on with my life. Why didn’t you do the same thing? You would have saved yourself a lot of moping time.
JUST ONE DAY TURNS INTO JUST ONE YEAR
Despite my annoyance at Allyson, I quite liked JUST ONE DAY, and after a year of moping and plotting, of course there is room for a sequel that I can’t wait to read. Forman has a way with words that get you into the mood for traveling, and having spent just one day in Paris, I felt myself floating back, even if at times I felt a disconnect. Forman has a new fan in me, though, and I can’t wait to see what JUST ONE YEAR has in store for us next.
But seriously, I have no idea why I thought this would be cute. It was very depressing and dark.
VERDICT: If you ignore the whiny heroine, JUST ONE DAY is a powerful story about love, loss, regret, and finding yourself under the backdrop of that change from teen to adult. Check this one out.
3.5/5
ugh. this book. SO MANY FEELS. This was one of this rare books where I wanted to finish it all in one sitting. I was so absorbed in the story and "the one day" that I didn't want to put it down and get out of the storyline. I wanted to stay in it and never, ever, ever, ever leave. I eventually did put it down when "the one day" was over just to collect myself (and eat) but within in an hour I had picked it back up again and was rapidly flipping the pages. It was just so so good. I loved it because it was so relatable. A girl is striving to be someone more than the person she has always known. She knows there is a different person out there and she travels the world trying to find her. This book makes me want to pick up and fly to Paris tomorrow! I cannot wait to read Just One Year (the sequel). LOVE THIS BOOK
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
medium-paced
At the end of her graduation tour of Europe, typically straight-laced Allyson Healey heads off to Paris on a whim with a near stranger, having a magical day that completely changes her life. Half of the book is about the day itself and half is about what happens to Allyson in the year after.
I feel weird recommending this because I feel like when I describe it, it sounds so silly, but I loved it and couldn't stop listening. Basically, after her one day in Paris wakes Allyson up to getting in touch with what she wants her life to be, and as she heads off to college, she really struggles with that. Like many teenagers, she's had her life neatly planned out and suddenly realizes that maybe she doesn't like the plans that have been made for her. Plus, there's a guy who may be completely amazing, or a total player, or more likely, a little bit of both.
I feel weird recommending this because I feel like when I describe it, it sounds so silly, but I loved it and couldn't stop listening. Basically, after her one day in Paris wakes Allyson up to getting in touch with what she wants her life to be, and as she heads off to college, she really struggles with that. Like many teenagers, she's had her life neatly planned out and suddenly realizes that maybe she doesn't like the plans that have been made for her. Plus, there's a guy who may be completely amazing, or a total player, or more likely, a little bit of both.
The author did such a good job with the character development - I really disliked the main character for much of the book and later realized that was the point. How could I like her if she doesn't like herself. That self realization was the actual point of the story and the romance was just a part of that. But that ending, really??!! Guess I am reading the 2nd one.