25 February 2015

Review #150: The Year I Met You by Cecelia Ahern



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“I feel now like I'm living in a goldfish bowl and all I can see and hear from every window in my home is you. You, you, you.”

----Cecelia Ahern


Cecelia Ahern, the Irish best-selling author, has crafted yet another poignant love story, The Year I Met You and I think this book will be your perfect book companion to end/begin a year.



Synopsis:
Jasmine know two things: one, she loves her vulnerable sister unconditionally, and will fight to the death to protect her from anyone who upsets her. Two, she's only ever been good at one thing – her job helping business start-ups.

So when she’s sacked and put on gardening leave, Jasmine realizes that she has nothing else to fill her life. Insomnia keeps her staring out of her bedroom window, and she finds herself watching the antics of her neighbor, shock jock Matt, with more than a casual eye. Matt is also taking a forced leave of absence from work, after one of his controversial chat shows went too far…


Jasmine has every reason to dislike Matt, and the feeling appears to be mutual. But not everything is as it seems, and soon Jasmine and Matt are forced to think again…


Welcome to Jasmine and Matt's imperfect worlds. Jasmine, recently fired, guarding to her wild sister, has never know anything beside her job. So things go haywire when she is forced to have a gardening leave- meaning no job for a year. Matt is the neighbor of Jasmine who is a radio DJ and Jasmine and Matt couldn't stand each other due to Matt's insensitive comment on people with Down's syndrome ages ago. Matt too is on a leave from his job and is finding hard to take care of himself. Eventually a friendship evolves between Matt and Jasmine mainly because of their sad situations. And the author keeps them as friends as long as I can remember until Jasmine falls head over heels in love with Monday! Will Matt be jealous? Will their friendship hit a dead-end on Monday's arrival in Jasmine's life? Read the book to get the rest of the scoop.

Yes, I've read P.S.I Love You ages ago and honestly, I fell in love with the way Ahern writes her stories- gripping from the very first moment. And in The Year I Met You, Matt and Jasmine's friendship will keep you on the loop. Ahern keeps us anticipating till the very end, whether Jasmine and Matt will become more-than-just-friends. The feeling of breathlessness is evident from the way the author unfolded her love-story.

The author's lyrical and eloquent prose will only melt your heart and you'll find losing yourself in their charm of the story. The atmosphere that she created for an eager job-looker is striking, I mean I can relate to each and every situation of being how-you-work-your-ass-off but still you're an under-payed employee of a company. Moreover, Jasmine is a motherly character who cares way too much for her younger sister, and their bond, that the author portrayed in the book, is something to cherish for.

The charterers are all very mature and improvising through out the book. Especially, Jasmine- in the beginning we see her as someone who knows nothing except her precious job and her precious sister, but then life cuts her a bit of slack, and eventually she takes a leap and learns to live a little for herself. Matt, whose inner demons make him a character to hate for or feel sorry for, eventually evolves into someone who you want to adore. The supporting characters are equally strong and striking.

The story is nothing too glamorous or something to die for- a normal regular story and the situations mentioned in the book can happen to almost anyone, but the way Ahern wrote it that it turns out to be something really enchanting. Well, the story doesn't give us a brand new perspective to look at things, instead, you can be able to sympathize with the characters or with the plot. The chemistry between certain characters are strongly and compassionately depicted, which leads me to my next point- the emotional content in this book is vivid and rich, so while reading you can feel the pain from the pages of the book.

Well my money did not go to waste on buying this book. I really loved the narration and how the author manages to keep us on our toes with Jasmine and Matt's "just friends" situation. Yes, definitely grab a copy of the book, and I think it's far better than P.S. I Love You .

Verdict: A must read for all the contemporary romance lovers! And other genre lovers, please read it, since there is no whirl-wind romance or cheesy romantic dates to make you feel bad about it. 
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Author Info:
Cecelia Ahern was born on September 30, 1981 in Dublin, Ireland. She is the daughter of the former Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. On 14th December 2009 it was announced that Cecelia had given birth to her first child with partner David Keoghan, a girl named Robin. She was secretly married on 11 June 2010 in County Kildare, Ireland. Her older sister, Georgina Ahern is married to Nicky Byrne of Irish pop group Westlife. Cecelia was a member of the Irish pop group Shimma who finished third in the Irish national for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2000. She attended Griffith College Dublin and obtained a degree in Journalism and Media Communications.

Cecelia Ahern wrote her first novel, PS. I Love You when she was twenty-one. It was published in 2004, the number 1 bestseller in Ireland for 19 weeks and sold in over forty countries. The book was adapted as a motion picture directed by Richard LaGravenese and starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler and released in 2007 in the United States.

Her second book, Where Rainbows End (US title: Love, Rosie or Rosie Dunne) won the German CORINE Award in 2005. She contributed with short stories to charity books and is also the co-creator and producer of the ABC comedy Samantha Who?.

Her other works include If You Could See Me Now (US title: A Silver Lining), A Place Called Here (US title: There's No Place Like Here) Thanks for the Memories (US title: Desire Lines) The Gift The Book of Tomorrow.

Visit her here 


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