Just One Day by: Gayle Forman

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Romance 

Published: August 20, 2013 by: Speak

Pages: 369

Rating: 2/5 stars
*highlight white text to reveal spoilers*

Just One Day was the romantic and adventurous story about a girl named Allyson, who is a high-school graduate gone on a trip to Italy. There, she meets Willem, a dutch actor who convinces her to go to Paris with him for just one day until she leaves. She accepts, and the two go on the adventure of a lifetime. But just like fate brought them together, fate also splits them apart which leads Allison to wonder if they really had something special, or not.

One word to describe this book would be: underwhelming. I just couldn’t connect with the characters, the plot was boring and pretty much everything annoyed me. It’s a shame because it’s from an author who I really love. 

The only thing that I pretty much liked about this book, is the writing in general. The plays of Shakespeare play an important role in the book, so I liked how Forman incorporated a lot of quotes from those plays. However besides the quotes, the plot was uninteresting.

I thought that the plot to this book was so uneventful. Nothing really developed besides at the end of the book, and I just thought that the book dragged on forever. The climax was practically non-existent, and everything was just so slow.

I also hated the characters of this book. Allyson was typical cliché romance girl: ditzy, girly and geeky, until a bad boy sweeps her off her feet and teaches her to live more. I just have one burning question: why on earth would you go to a strange city with a man you just met, supposedly "fall in love" with him, and then get all surprised when you guys are torn apart? I completely saw it coming, and Allyson was so stupid to have actually thought that she will be forever with a man she just met. Who are you, Anna from Frozen?!

Willem was so stereotypical. Bad boy, charming, goes after the good girl. While he may have loved Allyson was well, I found him to be so ditzy as well, and I feel like they weren’t even right for each other. It just seemed wrong.

Overall, a cliché romance novel which was not realistic one bit. It’s a shame, because I love Gayle Forman’s other book, but this book felt like it was from a completely different author. Not what I expected at all.

Have you read Just One Day? What did you think? 

Emily @ Paperback Princess