Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Creepy Covers



Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at The Broke and the Bookish

This week's edition is creepy covers.  I'm just going to post the covers because they speak for themselves. 











And there they are.  I'm looking forward to seeing yours.  Happy reading and Happy Halloween! 


Monday, October 28, 2013

Review: Just One Year by Gayle Forman

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Publishing Date: October 10th, 2013
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 323 pgs
ISBN: 9780525425922
Source: Bought



Summary 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.

My Review: 

**** This review contains spoilers as this is a companion book****

Well I have to say that I have been waiting for this book for soooo long.  Just One Day was one of my favourite books last year and I was dying to see how it concluded.  There was a lot of debate about Just One Day among our Ottawa bloggette group.  Many felt that Willem must have had a very good reason for disappearing but that being said, I was of the opinion that there is no way he should have left Lulu alone in an unknown city especially after recently being attacked.  I get that he was going for breakfast but this was a very poor choice if you ask me.  
That being said, going into this book I felt that Willem had a lot of making up to do.  I will say that while I was slightly annoyed at Willem's short sighted decision to leave Lulu, he still won me over in the end.  You can't help but like this character.  He is charming, but flawed and I really liked to see him in his relationships with his friends and mother.  I like how Forman shows Lulu's point of view in the first book and Willem's perspective in the second book.  It gives us a well rounded view of the situation.  I love how close Lulu and Willem come to meeting each other at New Years but it just wasn't the right time.  Willem had more growing to do before he was ready to see Lulu again.  You have to wonder if things would have worked out if Lulu and Willem kept going from that one day.  Willem still had a lot of growing to do and Lulu still had to figure out who she was before things could work.  
Overall I quite enjoyed this novel but I have to say that I was slightly disappointed that it ended right when they meet each other again.  I want to know more about their relationship together not just as two individuals.