Book Review: Just One Day by Gayle Forman

"When sheltered 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." 

My Rating: 4 stars

When I first saw that this book was written by Gayle Forman, my expectations of it rocketed, having read and loved If I Stay and its' sequel, Where She Went. I had not expected this book to be better than those two because they are nearly perfect but this one is still pretty damn good.

Firstly, Paris. Yea, that about sums that up. The Parisian scenes in this book are described so amazingly, I had the urge to hop on a flight to Paris (but my lack of funds kept me in my place). Forman really did justice to the beauty of Paris, making it feel as though I were there. 

Anyway, moving on to the actual story. I liked the character Allyson as I found her slightly relatable with her being unsure of herself. I also liked it being told from her perspective because I saw her personal growth throughout the course of the novel. She did, however, dance on my nerves at times especially when Willem would talk to other girls and she felt jealous. Come on girl, you've only known him for a day! 

As for Willem, I didn't mind him but he was shrouded with too much mystery for me. Yes, a certain amount of mystery is healthy but this was just too much. I didn't know what to make of him as there wasn't much for me to deduce what his life story could be. The next book though, Just One Year, is going to be told from his perspective so I'm looking forward to that and hopefully, I'll grow to like him. 

The character I loved the most was Dee. He was funny and provided insight into Allyson. I really do hope Forman publishes a novella or something told from Dee's perspective. 

The writing in this novel, as is the case of Forman's other novels, is beautiful so I thought I would share with you some of my favourite quotes. 

• We are born in one day. We die in one day. We can change in one day. And we can fall in love in one day. Anything can happen in just one day.
• He showed me how to get lost, and then I showed myself how to get found.
• But what if Shakespeare― and Hamlet― were asking the wrong question? What if the real question is not whether to be, but how to be?
• I clap so that I can hold on to this feeling. I clap because I know what will happen when I stop. It’s the same thing that happens when I turn off a really good movie—one that I’ve lost myself to—which is that I’ll be thrown back to my own reality and something hollow will settle in my chest. Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie all over again just to recapture that feeling of being inside something real.

That's pretty much all I have to say about the novel. I would recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed Gayle Forman's previous work or anyone who is into contemporary novels. It's a good read. 

Until next time, toodle-loo kangaroo :) x

Book Review: Requiem

*WARNING- This is my first written book review so I apologise if it isn't up to par*

"Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.

After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor." 

Requiem by Lauren Oliver is the third book in the Delirium trilogy. This was probably my least favourite book in the series which could partly be due to me having very high expectations of it...VERY HIGH! What can I say? I couldn't help it, Delirium and Pandemonium were both amazing. 

Not many other young adult series have kept my interest as well as this one. In the dystopian world, the idea of love being viewed as a disease genuinely enthralled me.Whilst I have enjoyed other dystopian books, such as Skylark and Wither, their dystopian world never fully captivated me. 

The other thing about this series that I loved was the love triangle. Generally, in other books, I don't "get into" the love triangle; don't get me wrong, I still take a firm stance as to who I want the protagonist to be with but I never fuss about it. And I can normally predict who the protagonist will end up with. This series was different. I loved both Alex and Julian and could have easily imagined and enjoyed Lena with either of them. Oliver really is quite clever in how she creates the triangle. In Delirium, we are introduced to this insanely good looking, loving and slightly dangerous guy who we instantly loved. In Pandemonium, she gives us a sweet, gentle and caring guy who had the potential to be annoying  but instead the reader can't help but fall in love with him as well. 

Anyway, back to the nitty gritties of Requiem. 

It alternated between Hana and Lena's perspectives which I did quite like. It was good because Hana and Lena didn't have a whole lot of interaction in this book so you still got to see both of them and also because you got to see how life was in the wilds and also in Portland. 

The other major discussion area in this book was the ending. I'm still trying to decide whether or not I liked it :/ Me, with my very high hopes of this book, and being all "Team Alex!" wanted some sort happy ending with Alex and Lena but instead it was an open ending leaving a few questions unanswered. I guess what she wanted to achieve was that sweet feeling of 'everything is going to get better.' Instead I ended up pissed and wondering where the heck the rest of my book was. 

Overall, it was a good book and if you loved the other 2 books, you have to read this one! :)

Until next time, toodle-loo kangaroo :) x

Hey there :)

Hello there, how are you doing?

I'm really quite nervous about writing this, so bear with me. 

I suppose since this is my first ever post, I should probably begin by introducing myself. I am 16 year old girl from a tiny little island commonly known as Barbados. I've always been, what I like to refer to as an "internet observer". This basically means that I read a few blogs, watch and subscribe to a lot of youtubers, constantly re-pin stuff (the list goes on)but I've never actually been one of the persons contributing my two cents worth of information or opinion on the inter webs. 

So in a nutshell, I've decided to take a quite a big step for a shy girl and create a blog which I hope to consistently post on, irrespective of whether anyone out there actually reads it or not. Since there's nothing particularly fascinating about me and I have no special talents, I shall post randoms snippets of my life, thoughts or any fun stuff that will vary from books to adventures to beauty related stuff. 

I really do hope you made it to the end of this post and continue to look out for more. 

Until next time, Toodle-loo kangaroo :)