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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
Urgh!!! All style and no substance. Gorgeous cover and lovely name, I bet this was bought for a lot of people as Christmas presents, but the story itself is not good.
Synopsis from Borders.com: Extremely successful executive, Lou Suffern is always overstretched, immune to the holiday spirit that delights everyone around him. The classic workaholic who never has a moment to spare, he is always multitasking while shortchanging his devoted wife and their adorable children. And ever since he started competing for a big promotion, he has barely seen his family at all. One frigid morning in an uncharacteristic burst of generosity, he buys a cup of coffee for Gabe, a homeless man huddled outside his office building. Inspired by his own unexpected act of kindness, Lou decides to prolong his charitable streak and contrives to get Gabe a job in his company's mailroom. But when Gabe begins to meddle in Lou's life, the helping hand appears to be a serious mistake. Gabe seems to know more about Lou than Lou does about himself, and, perhaps more disturbingly, Gabe always seems to be in two places at once. With Lou's personal and professional fates at important crossroads and Christmas looming, Gabe resorts to some unorthodox methods to show his stubborn patron what truly matters and how precious the gift of time is. But can he help him fix what's broken before it's too late?
I really enjoyed Cecelia Ahern's first book, P.S. I Love You. However, in the ensuing years I haven't read anything else by her. I ran across this book while browsing the library shelves (never a good pastime for me as I end up walking out with more books than a reasonable person can read) and figured based on the first book I'd give this one a try as well. I didn't enjoy it as much. I don't know if that's the book's fault or mine. I had some preconceived notions about what it was about, who Gabe was, etc. And I was trying to figure out how it all works together and such for most of the book. So I couldn't fully engage in the story as a result.
Additionally, while the moral is really good, I did have a lot of the plot figured out before it happened. That being said, I still think it's worth the read. Although I caution about some of the language in the book. It's enough to be obnoxious. The underlying message of the book is one that I certainly need a reminder of frequently. Time is precious. I can choose how to use it, but I will never get more.
Dec 2019 reread - Read it for book club. Liked it less the second time around.
I really enjoyed Cecelia Ahern's first book, P.S. I Love You. However, in the ensuing years I haven't read anything else by her. I ran across this book while browsing the library shelves (never a good pastime for me as I end up walking out with more books than a reasonable person can read) and figured based on the first book I'd give this one a try as well. I didn't enjoy it as much. I don't know if that's the book's fault or mine. I had some preconceived notions about what it was about, who Gabe was, etc. And I was trying to figure out how it all works together and such for most of the book. So I couldn't fully engage in the story as a result.
Additionally, while the moral is really good, I did have a lot of the plot figured out before it happened. That being said, I still think it's worth the read. Although I caution about some of the language in the book. It's enough to be obnoxious. The underlying message of the book is one that I certainly need a reminder of frequently. Time is precious. I can choose how to use it, but I will never get more.
Dec 2019 reread - Read it for book club. Liked it less the second time around.
This teaches me quite a lesson on time management. Also included on it one of my best quotes :)
I don't really know how to rate this book or how I feel about it... I would probably give it 3.5 stars. It is a story being told within a story. The "turkey boy" story didn't fly, it just served it's purpose to tell the actual story. The story of Lou and Gabe seemed to be a mix of "It's a Wonderful Life" and "The Time Traveler's Wife." So now I'm left trying to figure out how I feel about it. It wasn't a bad story. It just wasn't what I expected.
As in most of her stories, Cecilia Ahern forms a well thought out storyline with a motto at the end.
It was cleverly worked out, with the idea of cloning although the conclusion to that was not what I was expecting.
It is probably best to read it at Christmas time however to match the season of the novel.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It was cleverly worked out, with the idea of cloning although the conclusion to that was not what I was expecting.
It is probably best to read it at Christmas time however to match the season of the novel.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
A decent Christmas read about the importance of time, and how you don't realize how little you have of it, until it's gone or almost gone.
What do you get when you combine George Bailey, Ebenezer Scrooge, and Don Draper?
You get Lou Suffern.
Lou's the main character in this Christmas-novel-with-a-timeless-message by Irish author Cecelia Ahern, whose books I tend to enjoy. (See my review of There's No Place Like Here.) I'm usually not a Christmas book reader, but I was in the mood for such a novel this past week. When I saw this on display at the library, I grabbed it because Ahern's novels tend to be light reads (guilty pleasures, a little piece of literary chocolate at midnight) and I hadn't realized she'd written a Christmas story.
If you've never read Cecelia Ahern, her stories are almost in a genre all to themselves; they're light reads, but with an element of the modern day and the fairy tale. Picture BlackBerries next to a magic wand. If you like Sarah Addison Allen, chances are you'll like Cecelia Ahern.
From Publishers Weekly: Lou Suffern is a busy man, and his family’s growing weary of constantly taking the backseat to his career. On a whim, he offers Gabe, a homeless man he meets outside his office, a low-level job, and the uncharacteristically kind gesture plays out in a very unexpected way when Lou learns that Gabe has the power to be in two places at once. As the holidays draw nearer, Gabe tries to make Lou realize the importance of his family, but slow-to-change Lou might not come around to Gabe’s way of thinking until it’s too late.
It's a somewhat predictable premise, and while there are some unexpected moments in The Gift, this one didn't seem as magical to me as Cecelia Ahern's other novels. I didn't fully connect with Lou nor have much sympathy for him, and there were several elements of the plot that didn't quite seem to fit. There's a secondary storyline happening at the same time (a policeman is telling Lou's story to a juvenile delinquent in an attempt to get him to see the error of his ways). I kept thinking there was some way they were all connected ... but other than a shared epiphany of "we all have the same amount of time on this Earth and none of us ever know when that time will end," there really isn't a connection between these characters, which makes for a bit of a disjointed story.
As I said, I went into this one looking for a bit of a lighter read than usual and that's what The Gift is. Sometimes that's OK. Although this one wasn't quite for me, I still think Cecelia Ahern has a literary gift.
You get Lou Suffern.
Lou's the main character in this Christmas-novel-with-a-timeless-message by Irish author Cecelia Ahern, whose books I tend to enjoy. (See my review of There's No Place Like Here.) I'm usually not a Christmas book reader, but I was in the mood for such a novel this past week. When I saw this on display at the library, I grabbed it because Ahern's novels tend to be light reads (guilty pleasures, a little piece of literary chocolate at midnight) and I hadn't realized she'd written a Christmas story.
If you've never read Cecelia Ahern, her stories are almost in a genre all to themselves; they're light reads, but with an element of the modern day and the fairy tale. Picture BlackBerries next to a magic wand. If you like Sarah Addison Allen, chances are you'll like Cecelia Ahern.
From Publishers Weekly: Lou Suffern is a busy man, and his family’s growing weary of constantly taking the backseat to his career. On a whim, he offers Gabe, a homeless man he meets outside his office, a low-level job, and the uncharacteristically kind gesture plays out in a very unexpected way when Lou learns that Gabe has the power to be in two places at once. As the holidays draw nearer, Gabe tries to make Lou realize the importance of his family, but slow-to-change Lou might not come around to Gabe’s way of thinking until it’s too late.
It's a somewhat predictable premise, and while there are some unexpected moments in The Gift, this one didn't seem as magical to me as Cecelia Ahern's other novels. I didn't fully connect with Lou nor have much sympathy for him, and there were several elements of the plot that didn't quite seem to fit. There's a secondary storyline happening at the same time (a policeman is telling Lou's story to a juvenile delinquent in an attempt to get him to see the error of his ways). I kept thinking there was some way they were all connected ... but other than a shared epiphany of "we all have the same amount of time on this Earth and none of us ever know when that time will end," there really isn't a connection between these characters, which makes for a bit of a disjointed story.
As I said, I went into this one looking for a bit of a lighter read than usual and that's what The Gift is. Sometimes that's OK. Although this one wasn't quite for me, I still think Cecelia Ahern has a literary gift.
I don't often read "chic lit" but chose this for our book club to read for our December novel as it appeared on my Amazon recommendations. With that in mind, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it and was very pleasantly surprised not only by the novel itself but by the ending (which I won't spoil here).
In her main character Lou Suffern, Ahern creates a protagonist that is difficult to empathise with at the same time as he is very easy to understand. A driven, work is priority while his family suffers at home man is not the first choice when it comes to a "hero" for the reader to root for. However, by the end of the book not only was I rooting for him, I was convinced by his transformation, introduced through the character of Gabe.
I think Ahern uses Gabe well, there's always an element of doubt about whether he's a real person, whether he's been sent there ala "A Wonderful Life" to show Lou what life would be/could be like or whether he's there with a nefarious purpose in mind.
With the central premise that time is precious and something that can never be reclaimed, Ahern gives us a somewhat updated twist on Dicken's A Christmas Carol which is perfect for the season, even if it ends with a bittersweet note.
In her main character Lou Suffern, Ahern creates a protagonist that is difficult to empathise with at the same time as he is very easy to understand. A driven, work is priority while his family suffers at home man is not the first choice when it comes to a "hero" for the reader to root for. However, by the end of the book not only was I rooting for him, I was convinced by his transformation, introduced through the character of Gabe.
I think Ahern uses Gabe well, there's always an element of doubt about whether he's a real person, whether he's been sent there ala "A Wonderful Life" to show Lou what life would be/could be like or whether he's there with a nefarious purpose in mind.
With the central premise that time is precious and something that can never be reclaimed, Ahern gives us a somewhat updated twist on Dicken's A Christmas Carol which is perfect for the season, even if it ends with a bittersweet note.