{Audiobook Review} Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Title: Just One Day
Author: Gayle Forman
Narrator: Kathleen Mcinerney
Series: Just One Day #1
Length:  10 hrs 29 mins
Publisher: Listening Library
Publication Date: January 3, 2013
Source: Library
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

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.

The first in a sweepingly romantic duet of novels. Willem’s story—Just One Year—is coming soon!

I've heard so much about these books that I just had to see for myself what all the blabbering was about. I read If I Stay and Where She Went by Forman and enjoyed them so I figured it was worth a shot trying this one out.

I'll be honest, I'm a little torn. There were some things I absolutely loved about Just One Day, and then there were a few things I didn't.

Pros:

- The European Travel! I don't travel far in my real life. Disney and the Jersey shore is about it. Well and various islands from cruising, but those don't count. It's a boat vaca. Anyway, the chances I'll ever get to tour Europe are slim, so reading about it is the next best thing.

- The Shakespeare talk. I feel smarter after listening to this book. I know things I did not know before

- The whole discovering yourself aspect. Allyson becomes her own person, and I loved reading that.

- Friendship. Allyson isn't all that great with the whole making friends thing, but the close friendship that develops between her and a classmate just warmed my heart.

- That romantic day in Paris. <3

Cons:

- I only really have one complaint and that's Allyson and her depression/obsession with that one day and Willem. I get it though. I was that age, and I remember getting hung up on guys and situations and it was the end of the world. So as annoying as it was to see Allyson moping around and being miserable, it was kinda realistic. Girls do this. Heck, guys do this. I've done this, though not to her extent. But yeah, that was the only thing that bothered me, and if I'm honest with myself, it's probably because it reminded me of my own not so shining teen moments.

Overall, it was a really good listen. The narrator was great. I think she fit the character perfectly. I will definitely listen to the next one. In fact, I've already started it. :)

About the author:

I suppose the short version of this bio could simply read: My name is Gayle Forman and I love to write young-adult novels. Because I do. So thank you for reading them. Because without you, it’d just be me. And the voices in my head.

Gayle Forman is an award-winning author and journalist whose articles have appeared in such publications as Jane, Seventeen, Glamour, Elle, and The New York Times Magazine, to name just a few. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.

Find Gayle:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads