Sunday, March 5, 2017

How to Fall in Love by Cecelia Ahren - (Quick) Book Review


How to Fall in Love by Cecelia Ahren
Publication date: October 23, 2013
My rating: 3.5 stars


There was absolutely nothing I did not like about this book. 

It was such a thought-provoking, emotional, wonderful story of two people who meet in the most of unexpected ways and somehow... unintentionally, fall in love. 

But this story is so much *more* than just falling in love. It deals with so many subjects and feelings and sadness and hope. 
It's a wonderful story about what it means to be alive. 
About how, even in our darkest of moments, even when we can't see it for ourselves, there is always hope. 

It's about the power of asking for help when you need it. 
It's about knowing that, despite everyone and everything in the world, there *is* someone out there who'll listen and help. No matter what.
It's about the strength to not give up.   

This book heavily deals with suicide (both the act and thoughts), mental health and death. I'd recommend anyone who is uncomfortable with the subject to think about whether they feel they're able to read it or not. 
Because this book is also about life, and love, and friendship, and laugh, and hope. 
Life is all these things. It's never just this or that. It's a series of moments. Some of them sad, some of them happy. Each moment eventually passes, so when you're sad remember you'll be happy once more. And when you're happy know that you can get through the sad to be happy once more.   

This is an adult contemporary story (I know, not my usual type of read) about a woman named Christine who, one night, finds herself talking a man off jumping from a bridge. She unintentionally finds herself promising him to show him the beauty of life. And so, with only 2 weeks until the final deadline, Christine must save this strange man's life. All the while falling in love.  

As someone who once knew a person who committed suicide, I found this book very touching and important to read. 

I swear, this book isn't all that short and yet I devoured it with hardly any breaks in between. 
It was just that compelling to read. 

Also, did I mention it takes place in Ireland (a place I have never been but am totally in love with)? 

Thank you, Cecelia Ahern, for writing a story I did not want to put down. 
For writing a story that made me feel light and hopeful inside. 





Life is a series of moments and moments are always changing, just like thoughts, negative and positive. And though it may be human nature to dwell, like many natural things it's sensless, sensless to allow a single thought to inhabit a mind because thoughts are like guests or fairweather friends. As soon as they arrive, they can leave, and even the ones that take a long time to emerge fully can disappear in an instant. Moments are precious; sometimes they linger and other times they're fleeting, and yet so much could be done in them; you could change a mind, you could save a life and you could even fall in love.  

4 comments:

  1. Lovely review! Out of all of Ahern's books, this is my favourite. I just adored the characters, the story, and the beautiful mix of humour, romance, and tragedy.
    The characters were my absolute favourite thing, though; I loved their chemistry and the contrast in their personalities <3
    SO glad you loved this!

    Amy @ A Magical World Of Words

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    1. Amy!
      It was all thanks to your post that I read How to Fall in Love.
      I saw you raving all about it and I thought: "huh, I don't have anything to read right now, why not this?"
      So thank you so much for this, because it was a truly wonderful read. I loved those characters and their chemistry deeply too. Simply wonderful (:

      Thanks again, Amy!
      I had such a great time with this book thanks to you (:

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  2. Oh yay! First review here after quite a while <33 I haven't read this book yet but I love Cecelia Ahern's writing and pretty sure I'll like this book! Great (quick) review Zoey <33

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    1. Haha, I know right?! '^^
      Can you believe my last book review was in November 2016? And this is a *book blog* for goodness sake! I shall have to remedy it by reviewing more often this year (:

      You read other books by Cecelia Ahren?
      I picked this one because, as strange as it may sound, it looked like her least tragic one.
      Also, It was the first book by her I was ever recommended to read so... I ought to have started with it (:
      If you loved her other books, I'm sure you'll love this one too! Maybe even more so, since it was truly wonderful (':

      Thanks, Uma! You're the best <3 ^__^

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