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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
Cute life lesson... just wasn't too exciting. Just a workaholic who comes across a "homeless man" to find out the true meaning of life.
Lou Suffern is your typical workaholic/egomaniac. When not at work (always the first in and the last to leave), he is plugged into his Blackberry or sleeping with his secretary. It’s almost easy to forget that he has a lovely wife and two beautiful children at home, as he is never there. With the Christmas season approaching and a promotion right around the corner, Lou spends even more time at work, overbooking his already overbooked life, while his family becomes more and more distant from him. He justifies it by saying he’s “working hard for his family,” but what if his family just wants him?
Enter Gabe, a mysterious homeless man who seems to have Lou’s back (when he’s not judging him for being a total prick). Keeping Lou informed about inner office politics, stepping up to help in the mail room when the holiday rush overwhelms them, and being perhaps the only friendly face Lou sees over the holiday season, Gabe also offers Lou some mysterious pills that have him seeing double… literally. The pills clone Lou for a couple of hours so that he can accomplish all the things he’s promised everyone he’d do. From work commitments to family events, suddenly Lou’s able to do it all, but who would he rather be with?
This is your typical feel-good Christmas novel, with a Scrooge-esque lesson to be learned. Cecelia Ahern’s books have always been some of my favorites, but this one fell short of the mark. It felt really commercialized, like she was writing it purely to sell books around the Christmas season, and it lacked the charm of her other novels. The book was still sweet, but it just didn’t grab me.
The characters were also really superficial. Lou’s back story wasn’t really explained, Gabe really is just a strange homeless man who seems to appear out of nowhere, and all the other characters are secondary. With Lou being so unlikable and Gabe being so mysterious, it was hard to really feel too passionate about either one of them.
A short read, the book definitely wasn’t a huge investment of time, but I really felt like the story felt like it was trying too hard and wouldn’t recommend it. Cecelia Ahern has much better work out there (my personal favorites being The Book of Tomorrow and There’s No Place Like Here), and I don’t think it really got me in the Christmas spirit very much for being a Christmas book (and yes, I know it’s April, but I’m the kind of person who listens to Christmas music year-round and petitioned my parents for years to celebrate the holiday in July, as well, so I’m always in a Christmas frame of mind).
Enter Gabe, a mysterious homeless man who seems to have Lou’s back (when he’s not judging him for being a total prick). Keeping Lou informed about inner office politics, stepping up to help in the mail room when the holiday rush overwhelms them, and being perhaps the only friendly face Lou sees over the holiday season, Gabe also offers Lou some mysterious pills that have him seeing double… literally. The pills clone Lou for a couple of hours so that he can accomplish all the things he’s promised everyone he’d do. From work commitments to family events, suddenly Lou’s able to do it all, but who would he rather be with?
This is your typical feel-good Christmas novel, with a Scrooge-esque lesson to be learned. Cecelia Ahern’s books have always been some of my favorites, but this one fell short of the mark. It felt really commercialized, like she was writing it purely to sell books around the Christmas season, and it lacked the charm of her other novels. The book was still sweet, but it just didn’t grab me.
The characters were also really superficial. Lou’s back story wasn’t really explained, Gabe really is just a strange homeless man who seems to appear out of nowhere, and all the other characters are secondary. With Lou being so unlikable and Gabe being so mysterious, it was hard to really feel too passionate about either one of them.
A short read, the book definitely wasn’t a huge investment of time, but I really felt like the story felt like it was trying too hard and wouldn’t recommend it. Cecelia Ahern has much better work out there (my personal favorites being The Book of Tomorrow and There’s No Place Like Here), and I don’t think it really got me in the Christmas spirit very much for being a Christmas book (and yes, I know it’s April, but I’m the kind of person who listens to Christmas music year-round and petitioned my parents for years to celebrate the holiday in July, as well, so I’m always in a Christmas frame of mind).
This book was more thought provoking than I expected, pondering the concept of time and looking at the balance between work and family. I was intirgued by the idea in the book and guessing the next plot twist for the characters.
A Scrooge meets Love Actually type of story. Not a happy tale.
Kind of a modern day Christmas Carol, except that the main character, Lou, is stingy with time instead of money.
Sweet book.
I really enjoy Ahern's writing style and the way she can bring the characters to life without tons and tons of extraneous details.
I really enjoy Ahern's writing style and the way she can bring the characters to life without tons and tons of extraneous details.
The gift of time. Lou is a busy businessman who neglects his family. He met a homeless person, Gabe, who made Lou to slowly realise things he didn't know. Gabe gave Lou a gift of time. The story tells readers the importance of spending time with loved ones, that time is more precious than gold. It's a cheesy and overheard message to me
Wow. This is one powerful book.
I tried reading two books by Cecelia Ahern before but I had never managed to finish both of them. But this one pulled at my heartstrings.
I rarely read Chick-lit but if you add magical realism into the mix, I couldn't say no to this one. I couldn't put this book down for even a second, when I should be packing for second semester of college.
The main character is very flawed that I wonder whether to root for him or what. But in the end, I get it, okay? I get it.
The writing is wonderful, easy to read. Short enough to finish in one sitting. Gives you very good life lessons. Definitely into my Favourites Shelf.
I tried reading two books by Cecelia Ahern before but I had never managed to finish both of them. But this one pulled at my heartstrings.
I rarely read Chick-lit but if you add magical realism into the mix, I couldn't say no to this one. I couldn't put this book down for even a second, when I should be packing for second semester of college.
The main character is very flawed that I wonder whether to root for him or what. But in the end, I get it, okay? I get it.
The writing is wonderful, easy to read. Short enough to finish in one sitting. Gives you very good life lessons. Definitely into my Favourites Shelf.
The book was ok... It went by quickly. Story fairly predictable, I felt like it was an outline of a "morals" story that any high school AP English student could have written, though the author did a pretty good job filling in the details with descriptive language and characters. I feel like this is a book that other people will love and will talk about how well written it was. I found it too formulaic and predictable to merit much praise.