Just One Day Series. (Book Review #12)

          In the first book of the story, Allyson is the protagonist, which helps the readers know about her aspect of life during that one day and the rest of the year. The beginning is where the love story enfolds. For both of them, just one day was enough to fall in love. But the next day, she thinks that he ran off. She grows to despise him as she gets depressed and can’t focus. Soon, she leaves for college. She’s aloof most of the time until she changes some subjects. She takes the class ‘Shakespeare Out Loud’ where she befriends Dee. Their friendship is unique. It was him who makes her realise that maybe Willem is not who she thought he was. After that, she decides to track him down. Her family is opposed to her decisions and doesn’t help her on this. A year passes by, learning Shakespeare, working in a restaurant, and she sets off for Paris. She sets off to find her true love. She goes from place to place. And after all the ups and downs, destiny comes in when she sees him after an entire year. She goes to find him at his home and that’s where the first book ends on a cliffhanger.
          You’d hope that you’ll get a lot of romance in the second book and that it’ll take off from that cliffhanger. But it doesn’t. Willem is the protagonist in ‘Just One Year’ where he tells his part of the story until the time Allyson is at his doorstep. As expected, he didn’t just run off but instead got beaten up. It’s kind of a reverse story to ‘Just One Day’. The reader knows what might happen but isn’t sure exactly how it will. This is a brilliant way of thinking by Gayle Forman. Further, his year is spent in a lot of travellings. He goes to Mexico, India, Amsterdam. I absolutely loved the part when he’s in India. (Maybe because I’m an Indian!) Willem patches up the long lost relation with his mother Yael while in Mumbai. I loved Prateek’s role. Especially the way he showed his pride for the nation by stating some quick facts. Willem finds a small role in a Bollywood movie. Then, he goes back to Holland. I loved how he meets Kate. It’s like every tiny detail had fate written over it. Willem becomes an understudy at a theater in Amsterdam, but then actually plays the main role of ‘Orlando’ in ‘As You Like It’. And then the book ends when she is at his doorstep (again.)
          ‘Just One Night’ is when Willem and Allyson meet after a year and just want to be with each other. It’s the closure a reader needs. In this, Willem gets to work with Kate in New York City, which is so close to where Allyson lives. It’s all about those accidents after all.

Source.

          I’ve rated all the three books at four stars!
Even when I didn’t like the whole Paris thing, I was soon glued. It’s not a story where you have to think. It’s simple and serendipitous. Literature nerds will love it because of the whole Shakespeare effect to it. You’ll be amazed at how everything just falls perfectly in place at the end. It feels like you’re actually there. When you say, “She’s right at that beach! Just find her already!”, you know how attached you’ve become to the story. When you read that they play music by ‘Adam Wilde’, you just smile at the genius mind of the author. When you read words like ‘stained’ and ‘accidents’, you know you’ll always remember the book then. While you finish the series, you hope something as amazing as that should happen to you. You just fall in love with the story. You are in a state of double happiness.