Series Review: Just One Day & Just One Year

Title: Just One Day (Just One Day #1)

Author: Gayle Forman

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary Romance

Publication Date: August 20, 2013

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Allyson Healey's life is exactly like her suitcase—packed, planned, ordered. Then on the last day of her three-week post-graduation European tour, she meets Willem. A free-spirited, roving actor, Willem is everything she’s not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: 24 hours that will transform Allyson’s life.

A book about love, heartbreak, travel, identity, and the accidents of fate, Just One Day shows us how sometimes in order to get found, you first have to get lost. . . and how often the people we are seeking are much closer than we know.

Title: Just One Year (Just One Day #2)

Author: Gayle Forman

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary Romance

Publication Date: October 10, 2013

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Just One Day. Just One Year. Just One Read.

Before you find out how their story ends, remember how it began....

When he opens his eyes, Willem doesn’t know where in the world he is—Prague or Dubrovnik or back in Amsterdam. All he knows is that he is once again alone, and that he needs to find a girl named Lulu. They shared one magical day in Paris, and something about that day—that girl—makes Willem wonder if they aren’t fated to be together. He travels all over the world, from Mexico to India, hoping to reconnect with her. But as months go by and Lulu remains elusive, Willem starts to question if the hand of fate is as strong as he’d thought. . . .

The romantic, emotional companion to Just One Day, this is a story of the choices we make and the accidents that happen—and the happiness we can find when the two intersect.

Review

I honestly think Gayle Forman’s Just One Day is pretty good, considering the high expectations I had for it. The story is a bit typical, but there’s something deeper about it that makes it different, as well. At the beginning of the novel, we meet Allyson Healey, a smart but shy girl who’s always had her life mapped out for her. During a trip to Europe, she crosses paths with charming actor Willem, and too soon, she finds herself daringly risking an adventure to Paris with this man she knows close to nothing about. What follows is a journey of love, heartbreak, and finding oneself amidst it all.

One of the reasons I love this book is because at some point, I found a bit of myself in the character of Allyson. She’s the kind of person who rarely, if ever, steps out of her comfort zone, and I face that same problem. When she met Willem, though, he kind of became the force she needed to push her to venture out, and being able to do that is something I find admirable. Willem is this Dutch actor who’s a bit enigmatic. He thinks so much but says so little. It was interesting to see these two people interact and fall in love despite not even knowing each other’s full names. It made me happy to see that they found the person they could fully confide in in one another. The characters were developed well, but I would’ve liked to see more of Willem (which makes me all the more excited to read the next book) and Dee, who is probably my favorite character out of them all. He was always there to support Allyson even when she tried to push him away, and I found it cool that he had all these different personalities to him. 

Now, while Just One Day is about Allyson’s story, its sequel Just One Year takes us through the story of Willem, which occurs in the same time frame as Allyson’s. We see Willem travel through different places meeting different people, all while he tries to figure out a way to get his life back together. I think I somewhat prefer this book to the first, because it centers a bit more on the topic of family.

Just as Allyson felt lost in life, we find here that Willem did too. Willem spent most of his life just bouncing around, never really caring about anyone or anything.  He didn’t communicate much with his mother, and he always had a sense of loneliness even when he was surrounded by people. He believed in what he called “accidents”, things that are just meant to be. Gradually, though, he realized that there was so much more to life than these “accidents”, that one can’t rely on fate for everything. I actually felt happy for him at this point, because knowing that, he could finally start doing something that would really make him happy, like reconnecting with his mom. I admire Kate, whom he met during his travelling, because she was able to break through the walls Willem built around himself. It was great that he was able to speak with Yael (his mom) even after all those years, and together, they were able to slowly start mending their relationship. It reminds me that life is hardly perfect, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still find happiness in all that mess.

The one thing that irritated me about this book is that it ends at almost the exact same moment that Just One Day did. I mean, seriously?! I was looking forward to see what would happen after Allyson and Willem met again, but there was nothing?! That was a huge disappointment for me.

Nevertheless, I still recommend these two books to anyone looking for something a bit deep, something that will make you think about life. Hats off to Forman for two amazing novels!

Rating

Review+Giveaway: Across the Wire

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Title: Across the Wire
Author: Stella Telleria
Publication date: November 4th 2013

Genres: Adult, Science Fiction

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When Mia Mitchell, a hardcore but lonely former Marine, steps into an alley to pull some thugs off an unlucky foreigner, she walks into a fight she expects. What she doesn’t see coming is the foreigner making her a job offer any sane person would refuse. So, she takes it. She thinks she’s headed for some third-world country; instead she’s mysteriously transported to an Earth-like parallel world. That’s a mad left-hook.

Mia discovers a matriarchal dystopia where freedom doesn’t exist and fighting for it means execution. Lethal force bends all to the law; women fear for their families and un-wed men suffer slavery. Mia’s job is to train an underground syndicate of male freedom-fighters for a violent revolution. However, the guys don’t want a pair of X chromosomes showing them the way.

Eben, an escaped slave, is encouraged by Mia to become a leader among the men. But when he turns his quiet determination on her, it spells F.U.B.A.R. for cynical Mia. Their unexpected connection threatens more than her exit strategy; it threatens the power struggle festering with in the syndicate.

Haunted by nightmares and post-traumatic stress, unsure who to trust or how to get home, Mia struggles to stay alive as she realizes all is not what it seems.

Review

Across the Wire is a novel that just sucked me into the story, and made me feel like I’m always on the go. It felt like I was one of the people that belonged to the matriarchal society they have, which made me feel the danger and pressure always looming over me. There was this great, suspensive feeling in me that wanted to know what’s going to happen next.

At first, reading this novel felt like a chore as I started to get to know their society. I didn’t like Mia at first, and I felt that it was Eben who drove the story. But later on, I learned to appreciate Mia’s character, especially when she’s so strong and kept on moving even though she is chained to her past. She has a lot of nightmares and trauma, but she survived through them all, and it was really admirable of her. Eben is also strong, particularly when he knows what he wants even though the men have practically no freedom in the matriarchal dystopia their society has. The rest of the characters, like Gabriel and Iliya were also amazing.

I really loved the characters and suspense, but I felt that this book was too long to build up the story. They kept on training and preparing for their revolution, but that’s all that happened in the novel. I kept on waiting for something big to happen, but as I continued reading, all I got was more questions that never got really answered in the end. I admit that there’s going to be a sequel to this, and I feel that most of the questions will be answered there, but this book was quite long, and most were still left unanswered. I loved the idea of a matriarchal society though, since it’s my first time reading something like this, and it was refreshing from the books that I usually read.

Overall, Across the Wire is something that just pulls you in and make you keep wanting for more. It ended on a cliffhanger that makes you curious on what’s going to happen next. Can’t wait to continue Mia and Eben’s journey on the sequel!

Rating

About the Author

All my life I’ve dreamed of stories or have had my nose buried in one. I live in Edmonton, Canada with my husband and my weird sense of humor. Across the Wire is my first novel.

I love old war movies, dystopian fiction, and any story with action, a good plot, and characters I'd get into a fight at the pub for. Not that I'm a brawler or anything. Unless you think that out-of-print book or vintage piece at the thrift shop is going home with you instead of me. Then, my friend, the gloves are off. 

Some say if you have your nose buried in a book, you're missing out on life. I say my nose is buried in a book because one life is not enough.

http://www.stellatelleria.com/

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https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7373984.Stella_Telleria

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCip7UJkvhGEwRp-Y8TGYtxg?feature=watch

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Review: Breaking the Reins

Title: Breaking the Reins (The Breaking Series #1)
Author: Juliana Haygert
Publication Date: August 14, 2013
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance, Horses, Abuse

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Horses, mansions, tea parties, and lies are twenty-year-old Hannah Taylor’s life. To others, her family and her relationship with Eric is perfect. But she knows the truth. She lives it.

After a fire takes her grandma's life and kills her horse, Hannah's immaculate life spirals out of control. Her father disapproves of her decision to run her grandma’s ranch instead of focusing solely on learning the family business; Animal Control brings her Argus, a mistreated horse that she can't turn away even though she's not ready for another horse; and her boyfriend, Eric Bennett, a world famous polo player, becomes possessive and authoritarian. Despite her best efforts to disguise it, Hannah grows wary of him.

Then, Leonardo Fernandes struts onto the polo scene. A cocky rookie with a messy life of his own, he’s drawn to Hannah and isn’t afraid of showing it, even when Eric makes it clear she is his and he’ll do whatever it takes to keep it that way. Hannah suffers for Eric’s jealousy. The abuse only gets worse when Leo steals the title of best polo player in the world from Eric.

But the title isn’t enough for Leo. He wants Hannah too, and she can’t deny her attraction to him either. Somehow, she must find a way to break free from abusive Eric before he breaks every bone in her body.

**New Adult Contemporary Romance Novel**

**Contains scenes of domestic violence**

Review

Thank you to Xpresso Book Tours and author for providing an eBook copy of this novel. This in no way affected my views of the novel.

Breaking the Reins is a whole lot different from Haygert’s other novel, Playing Pretend. This wasn’t a light read, in fact, it was very heavy with all those domestic violence involved. However, this gave more power to the story, especially between Hannah’s family and the love triangle of Eric/Hannah/Leo. Although I haven’t read much books that involve horses and polo, they just fit in this novel, and opened me to more books. I’d definitely be more open to read books that involve horses next time! This novel made me feel like I was really in the book, and I was just so engrossed with it and just found myself kept on turning the pages and couldn’t put the books down (even though I was really running late for school by then.)

Hannah, the female protagonist, was a very realistic character. At first, she seems to be that perfect lady, which was expected of her by her family, but later on, she is just someone very simple and down-to-earth. I love the way she stands firm with her own decisions, despite a lot of clashes. I love the way that she is scared and feels fear, but tries to do things anyway.  I love how she’s just so selfless and tries to help even though she’d just get hurt. However, there were at times that I didn’t like her, most especially when she kept on convincing herself about Eric, even though it was kinda clear that he doesn’t love her. Another time was when she kept on asking Leo to distance himself from her, even when the attraction between the two of them was simply beautiful. I didn’t like it when she just kept on making excuses and reasons, even when she knows the answers deep down.

Eric? He should just go to hell. He was an ass, and I really really really hated him right from the start. He seemed a beautiful character at first, but I can’t really help but feel there’s something off with him. In the end, his true colours show that he is not but a jealous, possessive, controlling freak. Ohmycrap. Go away, Eric. But even with his ugly, despicable personality, Eric gave more intensity to the whole novel.

Leo seemed also to be like an oh-so-perfect boy, especially when he was so sweet, caring, and just simply awesome, that’s why I couldn’t just find myself to get really attached to him. Not to mention that he’s a foreigner that came from Brazil, which was more plus points. However, his background story just shows that he’s just like any person that has his own flaws, too.

The secondary characters were also amazing. They weren’t just mere secondary characters; they gave life to the novel itself. They were just great support system to all the primary characters. The incorporation of Hannah’s grandmother also gave more force to the conflict between Hannah and her family and Eric. I’d love to hear more of the story Bia, Leo’s twin sister, though. She’s just simply amazing, and I’m looking forward to Breaking Fences!

The romance between Leo and Hannah was simply beautiful. It had a slow development, and it was passionate. It was not selfish, and it helped the both of them grow as better individuals, who can find the ability to love and trust again.

It was hard reading the Portuguese words that Leo and his family used because the dictionary was placed at the start of the book, and I’m reading an eBook copy; however, it was nice that the Portuguese language was included in the novel as it gave further emphasis that Leo was from another country. It felt more realistic that way.

I couldn’t give this a five-star rating because it didn’t really get me into a very big book hangover, but Breaking the Reins is an astounding, gorgeous read about family, friends, love and trust despite all the hardships that we’d ever come across with in life. I’d give this a 4 or 4.5 stars. This is a must read to any contemporary romance reader!

Rating

Review: Double Fault

Title: Double Fault (Vortex #2)
Author: Janine Caldwell
Publication Date: March 11, 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Time Travel

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Double Fault is the 2nd book in The Vortex Series where Cassie and Trent’s problems have only just begun. As they fight through the repercussions of creating a parallel world, other dangers are lurking. After years of running, Trent and his orphaned sister, Lorelai, sense the dangerous and power-hungry Dr. Fox is close to discovering their whereabouts.

While Cassie fears for Trent’s life, her tennis career hangs in the balance. Caught between her old and new life, she watches her world slowly crumble until it’s a tragic portrayal of all that she used to know. But worse yet, if her secret is revealed, she might lose what’s most dear to her heart.

Review

Okay. So Double Fault didn’t end up much better than Rematch for me. Maybe this series was more of a it’s not you, it’s me thing for me, but I was expecting a development in the supernatural aspect. This book remained to have little supernatural elements, and the plot just simply became very predictable. Moreover, I didn’t like the characters any better.

Cassie got really clingy, and it was really annoying. The decisions she made are really immature, and OHMYGLOB. What decisions are you seriously making? It’s just so messed up. I liked the way she was trying her best dealing with everything that is happening to her (most especially the family problems) though, but I feel like her best is still not enough.

Spending a whole lifetime avoiding Fox made me thought that the showdown between Fox and Trent will be suspensive, but I just didn’t feel it. I liked the way Fox’s tragic backstory was told though. I also didn’t like the romance between Trent and Cassie because it didn’t seem genuine. The love triangle between Trent/Cassie/Jeff also made me cringe. Maybe primarily because Trent was an over-jealous guy and Jeff was very childish and immature.

This book ended with a cliffhanger, but it didn’t really get me excited for the next book. I don’t know if I’d still continue on with the final instalment. Uh, maybe not.

Rating

2014 Reading Challenge: Alphabet Soup

Click on button to be directed to the sign-up page! :)

Art of Letting Go, The by Anna Bloom

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

C

Defining Destiny by Deanna Chase

Edge of the Past by Jennifer Comeaux

Fighting for the Edge by Jennifer Comeaux

G

Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Just Like a Musical by Milena Veen

K

Life on the Edge by Jennifer Comeaux

Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover

N

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Playing Pretend by Juliana Haygert

Q

Rematch by Janine Caldwell

Solving for Ex by Leigh Ann Kopans

That One Summer by CJ Duggan

U

V

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

X

Y

Z