Monday 14 March 2016

Book Review - How To Fall in Love by Cecelia Ahern - Rachel Reads Randomly Book #18

Amazon UK
Title: How To Fall in Love
Author: Cecelia Ahern
Format reviewed: Ebook
Source: Purchased
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: 7th November 2013
Rating: 4 Stars


She has just two weeks. Two weeks to teach him how to fall in love – with his own life.

Adam Basil and Christine Rose are thrown together late one night, when Christine is crossing the Ha'penny Bridge in Dublin. Adam is there, poised, threatening to jump.

Adam is desperate – but Christine makes a crazy deal with him. His 35th birthday is looming and she bets him that before then she can show him life is worth living .

Despite her determination, Christine knows what a dangerous promise she's made. Against the ticking of the clock, the two of them embark on wild escapades, grand romantic gestures and some unlikely late-night outings. Slowly, Christine thinks Adam is starting to fall back in love with his life. But is that all that's happening… ?

A novel to make you laugh, cry and appreciate life, this is Cecelia Ahern at her thoughtful and surprising best.

I've read most of Cecelia Aherns books, and am a huge fan of her earlier works. I've had some mixed reactions to some of her newer books, but this is definitely a good book, not her best, but definitely a enjoyable story, that I loved reading. 

I found all the chapter headings to be quite amusing, as they all could have been titles of self-help books, which is fitting as Christine Rose has a habit of buying how to guides, and wants to write one herself one day, if only she could bring herself to read the "How to write books" book! 

Christine is the sort of person who if she sees someone in trouble she wants to help, and if she can fix a problem for someone, she will try to. And its these qualities that lead to two very distinct chance occurrences in her life. Both of them were suicidal men, and the outcomes were vastly different. 

She manages to stop Adam from jumping of the Ha'penny Bridge in Dublin, but only by inadvertently agreeing to show him life is worth living, in time for his 35th birthday in two weeks time. If she fails, he intends to carry out his intentions. 

As I delved into Christine and Adam's stories, I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the two strangers, as well as understanding of what Adam had been through. 

I found How To Fall In Love to be a fairly easy read, with some great comic relief (some of the threats that Christine's ex-husband makes are hilarious), that does touch on a tough subject of suicide, but not necessarily giving it the importance or seriousness that the topic deserves. 

How to Fall in Love is a very good book, which I feel could stay with me for a while. The story on some levels really reeled me in, although I did find there were some fractured storylines that didn't necessarily add much to the book. 

Thank you to everyone that had their say this week. It was a tie between How to Fall in Love and Past Secrets by Cathy Kelly. I chose this, because as I was creating the graphic with the five books on it for last weeks post, and realised which of Cecelia Ahern's books this was, I remembered how much I was intending to read it when I bought it, unfortunately I intend to read a lot of books and some do slip through my fingers on a slightly longer than temporary basis. 

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