Just One Year (Just One Day #2)

To say the only thing I thought about was reading this book wouldn’t be a lie. I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened that last day in Paris and why Willem disappeared and we found out what happened, more questions were eating me alive.

What was Willem doing this whole time? Was he looking for Allyson? Did he give up? Did he ever get to go to Holland? What is it in Holland? and you know how it is.


I was pleased this book answered most all of the questions but it’s such a bittersweet feeling. It was a surprised I actually liked this book more than I liked Just One Day because I found Willem and I repressed things the same way and we used the same kind of distractions so it was a great thing to read how he overcomes all of that and becomes an stable guy but I have to be honest here:

I completely hated the way the book was divided.

I wouldn’t have minded a larger book if that meant we had that the first half that’d be all about Willem and how he re-discovered himself and how he came back to his family and friends and had a new purpose and the other half that’d be about he and Allyson getting finally back together and they’re going to make it work and I really wanted to read more about how they told each other what happened during that year but we didn’t get the whole thing and I felt robbed somehow.


Well, what I did like about the book was pretty much 80% of it. I didn’t know I was going to care about Willem this much but considering I didn’t like Allyson until the very end, that shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise.
The first four chapters, I think, were ones of the best. They were chaotic and messy and full of fear, confusion… I mean, I felt heartbroken while reading them. Willem was in such a frenetic state, it was really painful to read. At least for me. He was trying really hard not to lose Allyson but he didn’t know why he would lose her or who she was exactly so, like I said, chaotic. Then he remembers but he doesn’t know what to do so he tries to move on but also don’t give up on looking for her and it’s all really interesting and sad to see.

The whole thing with his parents is such a mystery until it isn’t anymore but still what was going with his mom... he’s angry at her and he misses her and he misses his home and his dad and how things used to be and you can feel it through the paper. Everything he does is to escape. To be someone else, to live a different life. He wants to remember but he doesn’t want to live it again.

I loved it all. I loved how lost he was, how he continued to “move on”, how he lived his life without any prove of living at all. It serves the purposes of the book and it was well delivered.

Willem is a very likeable character but also there are his friends who are absolutely adorable and I want to have friends like them.

If there’s something I loved about Forman’s books is the character development. It’s so progressive and palpable. Her characters and the readers found things out together. Like how short Willem was selling himself, how used every trick to avoid getting his feelings involved, how he created this persona and that was the one living and it was all quite good to read.

I was enjoining the book and also getting really fucking frustrated when he and Allyson were in the same fucking place without bumping into each other and how all these little “coincidences” were tangling each other to get those two reunited and all the people who helped with and without knowing.

I think that was the aspect of the two books I loved the most. The accidents, the coincidences, fate, will, luck or whatever you want to call it.

If it’s meant to bet then, no matter what, it’ll be.

And I liked that a year went by. I liked it because I don’t think they would’ve made it otherwise.

One couple met in London, one different couple spent the day in Paris and one different, better couple was reunited in Amsterdam.

I liked it. How they found each other’s wounds but healed on their own. I feel like it couldn’t have been better.

Over all Allyson and Willem’s story is one I wouldn’t mind reading again. I like how they found each other and themselves in every possible way and the message is clear: Own yourself. Love yourself. Be more, be better and be happy.

It's not often that when I finish a book I need the sequel immediately. Normally I can be (relatively) patent enough to wait the year or so until the next release. This was both the case and not the case for the Just One Day series. I immediately needed to read Just One Year after Just One Day, but unfortunately for me, the paperback had not yet been released and wouldn't be for another six months. (My copy of Just One Day is paperback so I needed the same for Just One Year. It's a sickness - don't you judge me)

So I waited for my email to come that my preordered copy had been mailed and when it did, I was thrilled. When it came in the mail on release day, I couldn't have opened the package quick enough.

Just One Year begins with Willem in the hospital not really knowing what's going on. He'd just been attacked my the skinheads (something we learned in Just One Day) and knows he has to be somewhere, just not where. He has vague memories of the day before and of Lulu (aka Allyson) but by the time he remembers everything it's too late.

Willem lives the life of "accidents" that lead him on amazing adventures and introduces him to a rather interesting cast of characters. He meets a woman in Mexico who runs a theater camp out of New York, specializing in Shakespeare. He visits is mother in India and winds up playing the villain in a Bollywood movie.

I love learning more about Willem and watching him life is life for this year helps us understand who he is while giving us peeks into his past, family relationship, and friendships; we get a larger picture of this wanderer. I love that this novel is a romance, but at the same time it's not. It is so much more than that. Yes, Willem is searching for Allyson as he finds trouble getting over her, but it's also about him searching for and finding himself. His search for her is a bit tricker as he doesn't even know her first name and despite his almost giving up a few times, he realizes that he can't stop and most likely never will. Something in him kept looking for Allyson and through this search he finds himself and his double happiness.

Gayle did an amazing job of introducing us to these two characters and allowing us to spend a year with each of them after the events in Paris. I don't think I would have truly appreciated Allyson's story without Willem's or vise versa. I know that I definitely would not have appreciated Just One Night without Just One Year (but that's a review for next week).

I do wish I had read these two books closer in sequence, because while one scene was obvious that they were like 50 feet from one another, I have a feeling Gayle entered more little hints and nods to Just One Day that I missed since I hadn't read them closer together. I guess that's what rereads are for!