Book Review | I Was Here | Gayle Forman

Book Review | I Was Here | Gayle FormanI Was Here by Gayle Forman
Published by Viking Juvenile on January 27, 2015
Genres: Contemporary YA, Suicide
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Source: Bought it
AmazonBarnes & NobleGoodreads
four-stars

Cody and Meg were inseparable.
Two peas in a pod.
Until . . . they weren’t anymore.

When her best friend Meg drinks a bottle of industrial-strength cleaner alone in a motel room, Cody is understandably shocked and devastated. She and Meg shared everything—so how was there no warning? But when Cody travels to Meg’s college town to pack up the belongings left behind, she discovers that there’s a lot that Meg never told her. About her old roommates, the sort of people Cody never would have met in her dead-end small town in Washington. About Ben McAllister, the boy with a guitar and a sneer, who broke Meg’s heart. And about an encrypted computer file that Cody can’t open—until she does, and suddenly everything Cody thought she knew about her best friend’s death gets thrown into question.

I Was Here is Gayle Forman at her finest, a taut, emotional, and ultimately redemptive story about redefining the meaning of family and finding a way to move forward even in the face of unspeakable loss.

[Read more…]

Book Review | Just One Year | Gayle Forman

Book cover for Just One year by Gayle FormanTitle: Just One Year
Author: Gayle Forman (web | twitter)
Series: Just One Day #2
Genre: Contemporary YA
Amazon | Goodreads | B&N | Book Depository
Publisher: Dutton Children’s
Release date: October 10, 2013
Source: Own it

Summary: 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.

[Read more…]

Book Review: Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Book cover for Just One Day by Gayle FormanTitle: Just One Day
Author: Gayle Forman
Series: Just One Day #1
Genre: Contemporary YA
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Release date: January 8, 2013
Amazon | Goodreads
Challenge: YA Contemporary Challenge
Source: Bought

Summary: 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.
[Read more…]