Just One Day - Gayle Forman

TITLE: Just One Day

SERIES: Just One Day #1

AUTHOR: Gayle Forman

GENRE: YA, realistic fiction, new adult, chick-lit, romance, contemporary, travel

PAGES: 308

PUBLISHER: Dutton Books

FORMAT: EBook

TIME (to read it): 4 days

LANGUAGE: English

RATING: 3/5

            

            Just One Day is the new series by the well-known contemporary author Gayle Forman, known for her series “If I Stay”. I’ve actually wanting to read this book since last year, when it came out, as it became really popular and everyone seemed to love it. Finally, this month I decided to go on and read it for the chick-lit book club. If you don’t know this is a read-a-long book club created by several bookTubers; they, also, host a book discussion each month for the book chosen.

            Just One Day is the story of Allison. Allison is the typical rational, mature, responsible girl. The kind of girl who never takes crazy chances, the one who always do what it is expected from her. She graduated last year from high school and she was about to start college. However, first she had gone to this group trip to Europe her parents had given to her as a graduation present. Along with her went her until that moment best friend, Melanie. The trip went well, she enjoyed it for most of the part. On the last night Melanie and Allison decided to skip the Hamlet play at a theatre and went to an alternative show of Twelfth Night on the streets. That’s how they met Willem, who played Sebastian in the play. Next Morning on their way to London Allison and Willem’s paths connected again, at the train. They talked for quite some time and all the sudden decided to travel to Paris. They will just spend the day there and went back to London to catch her flight back to the States. What she doesn’t expect is that this day will mark her first whole year of college.

            Just One Day was an enjoyable read. The premise of this book sounded amazing, and there were some amazing parts, on the contrary there were soma parts in which the book became tedious and I had to push myself to read the book.

On one hand, I kind of identified myself with Allison, for several reasons. Mainly her personality, but also I did the trip London-Paris but backwards using the Euro tunnel. Also, I ‘ve been in a dark place without knowing what was happening or what to do with myself. Nevertheless, I couldn’t connect with her. I found her really annoying most of the times; therefore the things that could have made me connect with her made me unable to understand her even more. In addition to that I felt disappointed about the day in Paris. I found it not romantic at all, and not even especial. Afterwards, I founded myself not paying attention to the book, just reading between lines. Also, and one of the most important things why I got disappointed with this reading is the unsolved ending. The ending was a let down, because it leave everything without a solution. It really frustrated me; it was like the whole purpose of the book was lost. Moreover, it wasn’t like a cliff-hanger because on those endings you get an ending in which something more could happen afterwards. Nevertheless, here I felt I didn’t even have an ending.

On the other hands, the adventure till that open ending was quite enjoyable. Also, the day on Paris was funny, odd but really engaging.

To sum up, this was an enjoyable read. However, I don’t think I will be reading the second book any time soon. In addition to this, I don’t think I would really recommend it to everyone. Even though, I don’t really regret reading it I wouldn’t have read it if I have known about the ending.