Just One Day

by Gayle Forman
Penguin | January 8, 2013
Reviewed from ARC
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Allyson and her best friend, Melanie, are on a big pre-college trip around Europe that their parents paid for to enlighten their minds. Melanie's been living it up, enjoying their young guide's frequent bar trips while Allyson's been playing it straight like she always does, never taking chances or risks. When the girls see a version of Twelfth Night performed by a Shakespeare street theatre troupe called Guerrilla Will, Allyson notices Willem, a handsome Dutch guy. Next thing she knows, she's going with him to Paris for just one day, leaving Melanie in London with a promise to keep the secret from Allyson's parents.

A series of events in Paris lead to strong feelings between Allyson and Willem and doesn't end well. Allyson returns first to London and then to the U.S. and back to her controlling mother's arms. She begins college on the pre-med track her mother has had her on since she was 13. And everything slowly starts to come apart.

Just one year later, Allyson decides she must find Willem and learn what happened that night in Paris. In true Gayle Forman style, the book grabs the reader from the start, moves along at a fast pace, and invites the reader to think and feel right alongside Allyson. This, like Forman's other books I've reviewed: If I Stay and Where She Went, is part of a planned duet. I'm really looking forward to the second one!