Just One Day

Just One Day
Gayle Forman
368 pages

"We are born in one day. We die in one day. We can change in one day. And we can fall in love in one day. Anything can happen in just one day.” 

Allyson Healey has just graduated from high school, and is now embarking on a post-grad tour of Europe with her best friend. At an underground performance of Twelfth Night in London, she meets Willem De Ruiter, a young and charming Dutch actor. Allyson immediately detects a spark between them, and after spending just one day together, she is surprised to wake up the next morning in Paris, without Willem. Over the next year, Allyson will start college with her mind still lost somewhere in Europe and soon she begins a journey to find Willem. With the help of Shakespeare, friendship, and self-confidence, Allyson discovers more about herself along the way than she ever thought possible.

Gayle Forman, the bestselling author of If I Stay and Where She Went has created yet another YA novel that will surely enrapture it's readers. Just One Day is the perfect travel read. Readers will experience the tulip-smelling streets of Amsterdam, the mysterious back alleys of Stratford-Upon-Avon and the cafés and artist squats of Paris. Forman brings to life Europe's most well-known cities in a way that will have her audience feel as if they are there too.

Just One Day is broken into two main sections, although I don't feel as if doing so was very effective. I would have preferred two separate books to be honest, as I feel more story could have been told in each section.  For example, as a reader, I would have loved to have seen more of Stratford-Upon-Avon given that this was where Shakespeare wrote and performed most of his plays.

Overall, this was a worthwhile read about love, friendship and self-discovery.

Just One Day is the first book I have read this year for 2013 YA Contemporary Challenge. As of now, I have read 1 of my 10 book goal.