Early Review – Just One Day by Gayle Forman (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Size: 320 pages
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Release Date: January 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-0525425915
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Just One Day series
Source: ARC from Librarything’s Early Reviewer Program
Rating: 5/5 stars

I got a copy of this book to review through Librarything’s Early Reviewer program in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Dutton and Librarything for allowing me the opportunity to review this book. I have been a huge fan of all of Forman’s other novels and was excited to read this one. This is the first book of two, the second book, Just One Year will release later in 2013 and tells this story from the boy’s perspective.

This was a very well done story about a girl who is on a trip to Europe over the summer with a teen tour program before college. She meets a boy named Willem and takes a chance by going off by herself with him to Paris for a day. Then he’s gone the next morning and she is pissed, but moves on with life.

The second part of the book she is in college and depressed with her pre-med schedule. As the school year goes on she realizes she needs to know what happened to Willem and needs to get a grip on what she wants to do with her life.

This is an excellent coming of age story. I loved the locations London, Paris, Boston, and New York…they were fun to read about.

Forman captures emotions perfectly. Allyson is funny, sincere, and absolutely life-like…she is so easy to relate to. She has doubts and fears like many of us do and is struggling to figure out who she wants to be.

The ride we go on in this book is an emotional rollercoaster during which Allyson finally starts to figure out who she wants to be.

I absolutely loved this book and just couldn’t put it down. I lost way too much sleep reading this because time just zipped by and I was so engrossed in the story.

Loved, loved, loved this book. I should mention this book ends at a horrible cliffhanger and is the first of two books. As I mentioned above the second book, Just One Year, is due out sometime in 2013…so not too long of a wait.

Overall a very enjoyable contemporary fiction read about a girl and her search for who she wants to become. Absolutely engrossing and emotionally tumultuous. Forman does an excellent job of creating a situation that is interesting and a character that is easy to engage with. I can’t wait to find out what happens in Just One Year.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– 100+ Reading Challenge