Always a Booklover

The magic of books just enchants me. I love reading, what more can I say?

The Time Of My Life by Cecelia Ahern

First Published: 10 May 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 484
Format: Paperback
Finished Date: 8 August 2015

Synopsis

Lucy Silchester has an appointment with her life – and she’s going to have to keep it.

Lying on Lucy Silchester’s carpet one day when she returns from work is a gold envelope. Inside is an invitation – to a meeting with Life. Her life. It turns out she's been ignoring itand it needs to meet with her face to face.

It sounds peculiar, but Lucy’s read about this in a magazine. Anyway, she can’t make the date: she’s much too busy despising her job, skipping out on her friends and avoiding her family.

But Lucy’s life isn’t what it seems. Some of the choices she’s made – and stories she’s told – aren’t what they seem either. From the moment she meets the man who introduces himself as her life, her stubborn half-truths are going to be revealed in all their glory – unless Lucy learns to tell the truth about what really matters to her.


My Rating

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My Review

This book was was pretty good! I liked the messages in this book. Like, its just that sometimes we get caught up in things and we neglect our own life. And sometimes we just stay comfortably in our own little rut, and I think this reminds us to step out.

I loved seeing how when Lucy started to tell the truth about things, her life started to slowly fall back into place. Of course, real life isn't that perfect. But I think it was heartwarming to see her slowly fix her life and get things back where they should be.

I enjoyed the different characters in this book, but I did want more of certain people. I felt that many characters were there as fillers and I would have appreciated more character development for the secondary characters. Perhaps one reason was that there were simply too many characters. Still, I liked Lucy's friends, and I loved Riley (her brother). Their interactions were really cute and it was lovely to see how they really loved each other, despite growing up in the type of household they did.

One thing I would have liked was more of the romance. I mean I totally wanted them to get together, its just I feel like there wasn't enough about him (not saying the name so I don't give any spoilers accidentally!). And yeah, I wanted to see how they would really work together.

But I guess eventually the message of this book was about how Lucy put her life back on track. Perhaps she didn't have a direction or a passion, but maybe we don't always need that. Maybe the first step is just getting your life back in order.

How To Fall In Love by Cecelia Ahern

First Published: 24 Oct 2013
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Pages: 327
Format: Paperback
Finished Date: 6 Aug 2015

Synopsis

She has just two weeks. Two weeks to teach him how to fall in love – with his own life.

Adam Basil and Christine Rose are thrown together late one night, when Christine is crossing the Halfpenny Bridge in Dublin. Adam is there, poised, threatening to jump. Adam is desperate – but Christine makes a crazy deal with him. His 35th birthday is looming and she bets him she can show him that life is worth living before then.

Despite her determination, Christine knows what a dangerous promise she’s made. Against the ticking of the clock, the two of them embark on wild escapades, grand romantic gestures and some unlikely late-night outings. Slowly, Christine thinks Adam is starting to fall back in love with his life.

But has she done enough to change his mind for good? And is that all that’s starting to happen?


My Rating

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My Review

I don’t know what to say. But Cecelia Ahern has written a book that just touches my very heart. I can’t exactly say why or how, but I love how she dealt with such a big issue. I loved how she didn’t try to sugarcoat it, but just gave it to us plainly and simply. I can’t really say how much I love this book; I can’t even point out my favorite scenes. It’s like every scene in the book (at least, those involving Adam and Christine) was written in a way that it was amazing on its own but it had to all be put together because they all fit like a jigsaw.

Christine’s determination was impressive. I saw how she wasn’t happy, but she chose to live on and keep trying to fix the problems. And then we see Adam, who is so different from her. It was a very interesting pairing, but it just worked. I loved seeing how Christine was always so positive and trying her best to feel alive, that it just changes the people around her. Some people are just born with a sense of happiness emanating from them, and I think Christine was one of them. She might not have been happy herself, perhaps even depressed, but the way she always looked for the best in things makes one inspired to find that little spark of positivity too.

Sure, there were some story arcs that weren’t fully explored, or that seemingly made no sense. But life is like that, isn’t it? Sometimes it makes no sense. I think that’s the beauty in life sometimes. Its just so random and random things just happen, but you have to find the joy in them.

This story was truly heartwarming. I really enjoyed seeing how they both slowly fell in love – with each other, and with life. It was beautiful how as she tried to heal him, she got healed too. That through the imperfections and the brokenness, they healed each other along the way. And I loved how in this book, love wasn’t a crutch that they leant upon to somehow magically fix themselves, but love here healed and subtly showed them the way to fix things.

This was truly an amazing read, and I’m honored to have the chance to read it.


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