29 November 2014

Review #92: If You Were Me by Sheila O'Flanagan



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


While I was reading If You Were Me by Sheila O'Flanagan, it reminded me of a Katy Perry's old, cheesy, heart-breaking love-song:

In another life
I would be your girl
We'd keep all our promises
Be us against the world

In another life
I would make you stay
So I don't have to say
You were the one that got away
 The one that got away

Sheila O'Flanagan, an International Best-Selling author, has spun a terrific heart-breaking as well as deeply moving love-story named, If You Were Me who took me on an emotional roller-coaster ride.

Synopsis:
Carlotta O'Keefe is happily engaged, and the wedding plans are coming together. She's clear about her future path, both personally and in her busy career. Maybe Chris doesn't make her heart race every time she sees him, but you can't have that feeling for ever. Can you? Then, on a trip to Seville, Carlotta runs into Luke Evans. Luke broke her heart so long ago she'd almost convinced herself she'd forgotten him. Now, he's not that boy any more, but an attractive and intriguing man. And he can explain everything that happened way back when. Suddenly Carlotta's not so sure of anything anymore.


Since this is the first ever Sheila O'Flanagan book that I read, I am sorry to say that I won't be able to judge Sheila better by her previous books. Hence I can only praise about her and her story-telling. Wow, why haven't I discover this author before? Her free-flowing narrative style completely bewitched me.

Yeah, Sheila completely made me feel what Carlotta was feeling from the page number #1 to page number #389. In some way, I felt myself as Carlotta. I felt that sting of pain on seeing an old flame after a long time in a whole new country. I felt the sting of pain when my best friend started hating me. I felt everything and I think I'd like to hats off to the author for pouring out all the correct and rich emotions so sharply in the pages of her book. I got completely arrested by the way the story started to unfold in front of my eyes.

Thank you Sheila for giving us a taste of Seville in Spain by showing us live flamenco performance so vividly and by describing the landscape of Seville so intricately.

The characters that Sheila created are all very well-developed and very skillfully molded. Carlotta, Sive, Dorothea, Chris, Luke- these are the characters I loved the most and they will all strike you as someone you already know. Carlotta's demeanor and her emotions completely captivated my heart. And I feel whatever way Carlotta was behaving in the crisis period of her life; I think it was totally apt and justified. Carlotta's decisions were very brave and strong and she showed us that sometimes being all career minded doesn't hurt much. The chemistry between both Chris and Luke with Carlotta are painted very warmly. The inevitable attraction between Luke and Carlotta will keep you hooked till the very last page of the book. This book completely made me a die-hard fan of Sheila.

Verdict: Read this book in memory of your "one-that-got-away" guy/girl.

Courtesy: I'd like to thank the publishers from Headline Review for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. 
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Author's Info:
A Dubliner all her life. Sheila's parents owned a grocery shop in the Iveagh Markets, in the Liberties area of the city and she guesses that city blood runs through her veins.
As a child she enjoyed reading and telling stories, and everyone thought that her future career would have something to do with books and literature. But though she applied for a job in the library all of the job offers she got were in commerce, she turned down lots of them before her mother accepted one for her (she was on holiday at the time). It was in the Central Bank of Ireland and that’s how her career in financial services began.
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