Just One Day

By: Gayle Forman

Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney

A breathtaking journey toward self-discovery and true love, from the author of If I Stay.

When sheltered American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there’s an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines.

Just One Day is the first in a sweepingly romantic duet of novels. Willem’s story - Just One Year - is coming soon!

©2013 Gayle Forman (P)2013 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“[Forman’s] very good on travel’s expansive effects, the fluidity of teenage identity and the yearning for reinvention, how fleeting encounters can transform us.” (New York Times Book Review)

“Offering mystery, drama, and an evocative portrait of unrequited love, this open-ended novel will leave fans eagerly anticipating the companion story.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

"Reading like a teen version of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, this tale of romance and mystery engages readers and will cause them to examine their definitions of love and self-identity." (SLJ, starred review)

If you make it to the end...

Not as good as If I Stay series, but if you get to the end, the cliff hanger will most likely trigger a need to read the second book.

Build up....

What did you love best about Just One Day?

I really just like how the story evolved

What was one of the most memorable moments of Just One Day?

Allison's self realization of the person she really was.

What aspect of Kathleen McInerney’s performance would you have changed?

Her performance was good, just high pitch.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Cried, but smiled

Any additional comments?

The start was weird.

Loved the book--the performance is Terrible

This performance fails to capture the intelligence of the main character, she seems unrelatable and stupid. The magic is lost in her whining.

Great book for a summer read!

The book had a great plot, kept me wanting to listen further, it had love, comedy and tragedy.

Amazing

A beautiful story of love and loss and finding yourself along the way. The narrator does a great job at portraying the characters and drawing you deep within the book. I seriously can not wait until fall for Willem's story.

beautiful

i read the book first and now i will be listening to the audiobook to remind me of this beautiful love story and paris.
sometimes i feel that allison is such a whiner, a downer... but i have learned the lesson in real life that a story has always 3 sides, mine, yours and the truth.
life would be much better if we just stopped assuming and searched for the answers to our unanswered questions... i love this story, it is well written, with deep and emotional characters, makes me want to learn french and go back to my Shakespeare books i havent touched in ages...
the narrator was great, she did an awesome job

Gorgeous and Intense

Gayle Forman’s latest book Just One Day explores how your life can change seemingly overnight. A story with mystery, adventure and romance, Just One Day follows Allyson as she gets lost and found again in Paris.

The story begins with Allyson’s trip to Europe one summer before college. She’s always been a girl who follows the rules and doesn’t veer from her chosen path. But in Europe she starts to get a little more adventurous, and her edgy new haircut allows her to try on a new persona.

Allyson meets Dutch actor Willem and makes a spur-of-the-moment decision to abandon her existing travel plans and go with him by train to spend the day in Paris. Willem doesn’t even know Allyson’s real name, and calls her Lulu for her Louise Brooks haircut. Willem is quite mysterious himself and Allyson is constantly second-guessing her decision to go off with him. When she wakes up the next morning to find Willem missing, it sets into motion a new path for Allyson.

Willem seemed like a shady character to me, but I could see how Allyson could be so charmed by him. The sights and sounds of Paris were the perfect romantic backdrop for their adventure, and Allyson enjoys feeling like the leading lady in the movie (or Shakespeare play) for the first time. Part of the appeal is that the reader doesn’t really know if they can trust Willem and it’s easy to get swept up in the romance and mystery of it all with Allyson.

Many of the themes found in Just One Day lend themselves well to the New Adult niche, especially with regards to finding yourself. Allyson is just starting college and living away from home for the first time. The aftershocks of her day in Paris with Willem impact her schoolwork and social life completely. Allyson also has to deal with a new relationship with her parents, especially her mother who is used to being in charge of her life. Even her friend alliances and school focus shifts. But can Allyson move forward with her life if she doesn’t resolve her past with Willem? Or is Willem not the point at all in Allyson’s self-development?

Just One Day has Forman’s trademark dramatic intensity but didn’t make me cry like If I Stay. The book is gorgeously written and made me feel all of Allyson’s changing moods. The nature of the book makes it a good fit to read in one day if you have the time, and especially because you’ll want to see it through to the end. But the weightiness of it all made me want to take little breaks to really digest the story.

I listened to the audiobook of Just One Day, read by Kathleen McInerney, a new-to-me narrator. McInerney got into the character well, and sounded like a young, naïve college student to me. She does get the opportunity to try a variety of accents and age ranges in her reading and makes the most of the audio format. McInerney does the heavy lifting with the pronunciations and foreign words to make things a little easier for the reader. The story does lend itself to audio, but overall I liked both the reading and listening experiences equally (I read the book first). Listening doesn’t make the torturous ending any easier though!

And about that ending, Just One Day is Allyson’s story, and in the sequel Just One Year we get to hear Willem’s side of things. If you enjoy Gayle Forman’s books, or reading about self-discovery or foreign travel, treat yourself to Just One Day.

Wow

It is not often a book moves me like this one did. This is the fourth book of hers I have read and it is by far the best!

Seriously?!

Ok look this is not an awful book. I actually quite enjoyed many parts throughout. With that said are here comes the but. It was about 5 hours toooo long and in my humble opinion had the most unsatisfying ending the author could possibly think of.

Seriously I imagine said author sitting in the study having wrote the whole book and thinking "humm how shall this end....?" "awful?" "YES! it shall be awful!" Then they spent the next two weeks making sure it was perfectly A W E F U L.

To wrap it up my biggest beef with ”Just One Day” is this, I didn’t like the herione. Simple as that. She is ungrateful, has no idea who she is, constatnly second guesses herself, and CRIES CRIES CRIES 90 percent of the book. I don't want to read this person I know enough of these people in real life.

Like I said, not all bad. I was at least 2 parts inspired and 3 parts annoyed. If you love to travel, or want to travel especially of the European variety AND, you don't mind lots of mello drama and teen angst, this is a book for you.

Inspirational.

This is my favorite book. It teaches you so much about life. It makes you want to travel, to step outside of your comfort zone-of the person you think you are. It makes you crave more life. It makes you realize that life can change in a day- Anything can. The only thing I can say about this book is I wish there was more!