From a corner in the library

And I find myself with a little bit of free time in my hands again. Not really, I just don't feel like planning right now... So, I'll try to catch up with the remaining books I haven't posted about :)


A free-spirited, roving actor, Willem is everything she’s not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: 24 hours that will transform Allyson’s life.

I read If I Stay during Easter and I LOVED Gayle Forman. She has that romantic kinda way of dealing with things, I don't know. Secretly, I'm a fool for romantic scenes in books. And this one contained three of the things I enjoy in a book: love, Amsterdam and traveling.
From the beginning, then: part one was amazing. At first, I think Allyson/Lulu is kinda like me. She is careful enough to follow the rules, and the fact that she was expecting her trip to be more than it ended up being really hit home. It was a little weird that she kept going with it after she had so many doubts. But somehow is understandable: a journey that was promised to be amazing turned out to be just a simple trip + a cute boy + so little time = do crazy things because you want to prove something to yourself. Trust me, I know about that.
Willem is cute. I mean, I imagine him like that. But he's confusing. I guess that is kinda the idea, because Lulu didn't know him, so the reader is not supposed to know him either. The thing he had with women... especially with this French one (cannot remember her name, but she was a huge bitch!). The point is that at the end of this part, I hated him with all my guts. But honestly, I knew nothing that had happened was his fault... Come on, all YA novels need that close-to-perfect male character (Think about it: Gus? Peeta? Etienne? yup, it is a key element, the guy cannot be a jerk). Certainly that part of the story was clear, it was a huge misunderstanding... I just wanted to know what really happened. I was hooked.
Part two, where she went to university, is super boring! I almost dropped the book by then (but I can't really do that... I've done it twice, no... three times and I feel terrible about it! I'll post about that another day), but I finished it. I think the character of Dee spiced up things and helped me get through. But it was just frustrated to see how she just...couldn't....forget...him. Oh... well, I think I might understand her. In any case, the can't-stop-thinking-about-him should not have turned her into the zombie she was.
I hated to see her distancing herself from Melanie. It was hard and it was worse to know that all of it started because of a boy, but continued over personal issues. I wouldn't like to lose a friend like that.
And part three, well... he was lost and she found him. I liked the fact that she 'grew up' in that time. Learn from your mistakes and right the wrongs. It's difficult, but doable. She started doing things that scared her.
Oh, and the group of tourists that she talked to on her first night at the hostel! They were amazing!
It is in this part that you get to understand (not "know") Willem. Accidents happen, and they can lead to something good.
It was a good book. The cliffhanger wasn't great. Like, at the moment I went "The heck?!" but later I just forgot about it! So I might read Just One Year later... but I'm not crazy about it. I have the feeling that it will be more about Willem, and I know I'll like Allyson's journey better.

Rating: ★★★★
Favorite character: Allyson (except when she was a zombie)
Favorite secondary character: Hmmm... Dee. I feel tempted to say Willem, because he was pretty cool and even though I hated him, it was.not.his.fault... apparently :P But I'll go with Dee because he was real and he helped Allyson a lot!
Favorite part: That part during the dinner with her family in Miami (I think it was Miami) when she told them she was going on a trip to Europe and everybody freaks out! And then when she starts working at that restaurant... and obviously when she goes back to Europe and meets the shy girl in France and sees her again in Amsterdam. Lots of favorite parts, I guess.
Favorite quote: "There is a world of difference, Lulu, between falling in love and being in love."
#2 "And that's when I understand that I have been stained. Whether I'm still in love with him, whether he was ever in love with me, and no matter who he's in love with now, Willem changed my life. He showed me how to get lost, and the I showed myself how to get found."
Least favorite character: I don't know... I guess it would have to be Celine (I think that was the French girl...) But not so much. And for a while it was Willem, but not anymore.
Least favorite part: I think that boring part when she was zombified during her first semester at the university...