Review: Just One Year by Gayle Forman

Just One Year (Just One Day #2) By: Gayle Forman
Release Date: October 10, 2013
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Source: Borrowed ARC from friend
Reviewed by: Jenn
Links: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Goodreads / IndieBound

My rating: 4.5 stars out of 5 stars

Synopsis:
Just One Day. Just One Year. Just One Read.

Before you can find out how their story ends, remember how it began...

When he opens his eyes, Willem doesn't know where in the world he is - Prague or Dubrovnik or back in Amsterdam. All he knows is that he is once again alone, and that he needs to find a girl named Lulu. They shared one magical day in Paris, and something about that day - that girl - makes Willem wonder if they aren't fated to be together. He travels all over the world, from Mexico to India, hoping to reconnect with her.But as months go by and Lulu remains elusive, Willem starts to question if the hand of fate is as strong as he'd thought...

The romantic, emotional companion Just One Day, this is a story of the choices we make and the accidents that happen - and the happiness we can find when the two intersect.

The Plot:

- Just like in Just One Day, I found the plot to be a bit slow but also realistic. Both Willelm and Allyson go on a self-discovery journey which takes time.

- I guess because Willem was always traveling, it didn’t feel like it had the slow pace of Just One Day.

Secondary Characters:

- I love every person Willem meets while traveling and living at home.

- I just love how they all made an impression on him and how he grew as person because of it.

- He may always be traveling and never settled down, but he has people who really cares about him and who want to help him and in doing so, pushes him into action.

- Meeting Yael, his mom, really was a great way of learning about Willem. He’s so closed off, even to the reader, but meeting his mom helped me understand him better.

Willem:

- Early on the book, I noticed how little we knew of him in Just One Day. He mentioned some people, who we later learned that it was his parents, but I realize that he told Allyson so little about himself that it was like I wasn’t reading part of a series.

- He may feel alone since his father and grandfather died and his mom is so far away and they don’t really talk but he does have a family: his friends. He hasn’t realized it yet but his friends are his family since they pushed him into searching for "Lulu".

- When he went to India, it saddened me a bit at how his relationship with Yael was so severed. However, I loved that they managed to reconnect and are working trying to be in each other life.

- My favorite scene was the end when he realized that Allyson’s and his relationship “beginning” is just like his parents. Their missed connections and how they got to that point. Weeks later, I still get the fuzzy feeling of that scene.

I loved Just One Year a lot more than Just One Day and I hope that Allyson and Willem got their double happiness. But I like to think that they did ;)