This (relatively) new series is made up of Just One Day, Just One Year, and I guess you could also include the little novella, Just One Night, which reveals what happens at the end of the two books.
In Just One Day, soon-to-be College student Allyson is given a graduation present in the form of a tour of Europe, along with her best friend Mel. When, in England, Allyson and Mel run off from the rest of the tour group to see an outside production of Hamlet, their trip takes an unexpected turn... Soon, Allyson finds herself swooning over Dutch actor Willem, who takes her on a whirlwind day trip to Paris she will never forget... But for the wrong reasons. After a day of travelling and romance, Allyson wakes up to find that Willem is nowhere to be seen. Lost and alone, she leaves Paris, but Willem never leaves her thoughts. She knows she must find him, but with only a name to go on, this proves to be more challenging than anticipated...
SPOILER ALERT!!!
Beware - Spoilers Ahead!
The If I Stay Duology had left such a huge impression on me and I was actually slightly worried about reading this series, just in case it didn't live up to my expectations. I must say that it didn't quite live up to the amazingly high standard left by If I Stay, but nevertheless, it was still such a lovely book to read and made me experience 'All. The. Feels.', as was described!
I thought it was so interesting reading from the point of view of an American visiting England, and it was really funny to read about how differently they view our lifestyles and traditions, since I don't tend to think twice about them! I loved how the book started off in Stratford Upon Avon, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, as I have visited there on a few occasions and could relate to where the characters were and could picture all of the settings, which is quite a rarity.
The whole 'Lulu' persona thing that Allyson took on kind of frustrated me. I know it was a huge part of the story- in fact, there probably wouldn't have been a proper story if it weren't for this factor, but I could tell from the start that this would be make more trouble than it was probably worth. Through the whole of their day, I just wanted them to reveal more about themselves and get to know each other properly, but this never happened.
Despite this, I felt as if I knew the characters, particularly Allyson, quite well. This was probably due to the amount of back-story we were given on her, which I found to be a great part of the story. I didn't feel as much of connection with Allyson as I previously had with Mia, but I still related to some parts of her, which made me like her a lot.
I didn't personally feel all that connected to Willem though. It may have been to do with the fact that, in this book, barely anything was revealed about him other than the fact that he had many female 'friends' all dotted around the world, and acted like a bit of a player! I did find him a little arrogant at times, and felt sorry for Allyson after some of his actions. It also really confused me when he disappeared.
I really liked how much Allyson develops as a character throughout this novel. It was really nice to see the transition from her moping around over Willem, to being confident and going to look for him.
Overall, Just One Day was a really enjoyable book, even if I was so tempted to throw the book at the wall when it ended!! I needed to know more!!
Just One Year was not what I had expected. It was not a sequel. I did not contain information regarding what occurred after the door closed. It was essentially a rewritten version of the first book, but from Willem's point of view.
Willem wakes up in a hospital, not knowing where in the world he is, but realising that he needs to be somewhere. It doesn't take him long to remember about the girl he has left behind in an artist's flat while he went out to get breakfast- the girl whose train is soon about to leave. Missing his opportunity to say goodbye, Willem is forced to seek out this 'Lulu' to tie up loose ends. But there's one problem- he doesn't even know her real name, never mind anything else about her. Will the same fate that brought them together keep them separated forever?In the first book, nothing much was revealed about Willem as a person. This book revealed so much about him and made me think twice about being judgemental towards him, as I had been in Just One Day.
Again, I didn't really feel as connected to Willem as I had Allyson, and I didn't enjoy reading about his side of the story as I had hers, but it really did help me to understand more about him as a character, and it all meant more at the end. I was really on edge towards the end of this book, when I recognised some of the scenes from the previous book, so I was able to realise how some of the choices Willem made, and some of the events that took place, would lead up to how the story ended.
One of my favourite parts of this whole book was the Adam Wilde reference!!! I had to do a double take when I read his name on the page, and it quite literally made me squeal! If you're confused at this reference, did you not understand me when I asked you to read If I Stay?! When you've read it, you'll understand!
The ending of this book made me more than frustrated! I really wanted to know what happened after they found each other, so to end the book like that was torturous!
This leads me on to the novella...
Just One Night had everything that I needed in it. If I hadn't have been able to read this minutes after closing Just One Year, I don't know what I would have done! This book gave me (and the characters) the closure that I had been desperate for since the ending of the first book!
I was beyond happy with how the story ended and was so grateful for being able to read about it!
Overall, while it wasn't exactly what I had been expecting, I did still really enjoy this series. I would definitely recommend it to fans of If I Stay, because even though the two stories were completely different to each other, the writing style was similar, and I'm a huge fan of Gayle's writing! In all honesty, I thought the this series would be more similar to If I Stay than it was; it wasn't nearly as sad and even though I shed a few happy tears after Just One Night, I didn't end up sobbing my head off!
I think most fans of cute romances, contemporary or young adult novels will enjoy and take something away from this book- I know I did!
That's all for now, but I'll be back with more reviews soon!
Bye!
Charlotte xxx
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