Women trusted their boyfriends or partners with all their life because they felt secured only to find out that they’re trapped in a situation they couldn’t get out.

This is a nice little book that covers the space of a day. (American) heroine and (English) hero end up sitting together on a flight from the United States to England, both ducking across the pond for family events.

Heroine Hadley’s family was torn to pieces when her father fell in love with an Englishwoman and abandoned them, and now she’s expected to attend the London wedding. This story is as much about family as romance.

As for the romance, I think the author managed the culture clash aspects well, and didn’t push things too far over such a short timeframe.

A sweet little book overall, though I’m not sure the father deserved to be so easily forgiven!

german and english review

First things first: I received this book through NetGalley.

Ich muss unbedingt anfangen mehr Bücher der Autorin zu lesen, denn was ich hier gelesen habe, hat mir unheimlich gut gefallen.

Inhalt: Ab morgen wird Clare an der Ostküste studieren und Aidan auf ein College in Kalifornien gehen. Clare ist skeptisch, ob ihre Beziehung trotz der Entfernung zwischen ihnen bestehen kann. Dennoch lässt sie sich darauf ein, gemeinsam mit Aidan all die Orte aufzusuchen, die für ihre Liebe eine Rolle gespielt haben. Können zwölf Stunden Clares Entschluss beeinflussen? Im Morgengrauen ist der Moment der Wahrheit gekommen: Ist es eine Trennung auf Zeit oder ein Abschied für immer?

Fangen wir mit den Charakteren an. Ich liebe Clare und Aiden, getrennt von einander und auch zusammen. Sie sind manchmal Beide unheimlich frustrierend aber wer ist das schließlich nicht. Ich mochte sie Beide jedenfalls von Anfang an und sie sind mir im Laufe der Geschichte immer mehr ans Herz gewachsen.
Ich mochte auch die Nebencharaktere richtig gerne. Wir hatten Riley, Aidens Schwester. Wir hatten außerdem Clares beste Freundin Stella und Aidens besten Freund Scotty. Ich mochte die Beiden wirklich richtig gerne, genau wie Clare und Aiden, waren sie manchmal ein bisschen frustrierend aber sie waren trotzallem wirklich klasse (so als Randnotiz, ich würde gerne ein Buch über die Beiden lesen.)

Was ich auch total mochte, waren die Familiendynamiken in dem Buch. Die super Beziehung zwischen Clare und ihren Eltern, im krassen Gegenteil zu Aiden und seinen Eltern (hier mochte ich die Entwicklung im Laufe des Buches aber wirklich sehr).

Alles im Allen, ja die Bewertung ist kurz, weil ich nichts verraten will, mochte ich den Schreibstil richtig gerne und mochte auch die Geschichte an sich, genauso wie jeden einzelnen Charakter in dem Buch. Ich werde es auf jeden fall nochmal lesen.

***

I really have to read more books from the author, cause I truly enjoyed what I have seen of her writing in this book.

Summary: On the night before they leave for college, Clare and Aidan only have one thing left to do: figure out whether they should stay together or break up. Over the course of twelve hours, they retrace the steps of their relationship, trying to find something in their past that might help them decide what their future should be. The night leads them to family and friends, familiar landmarks and unexpected places, hard truths and surprising revelations. But as the clock winds down and morning approaches, so does their inevitable goodbye. The question is, will it be goodbye for now or goodbye forever?

Lets start with the characters. I love Clare and Aiden, separate from each other and together. They are both really frustrating from time to time but who isn't. I really liked them both right from the start and they grew more and more on me throughout this whole story.
I also really liked the side characters. We had Riley, Aiden's sister. We also had Clare's best friend Stella and Aiden's best friend Scotty. I loved these two a lot, they were also frustrating a few times but they were just amazing (sidenote, I would totally read a book about these two.)

I also loved the family dynamics in this book. The great relationship Clare had with her parents, and then the complete opposite with Aiden and his parents (I loved how this developed throughout the book, though.)

Overall, yes, I'm already done with the review cause I don't want to give anything away, I truly loved the writing and just really enjoyed the story and loved every single one of the characters. I will totally read this again.

I was really hoping that this book would be my next favorite, but it ended up being kind of blah. I'll admit, I was really only interested in this book because the cover is freaking gorgeous. Those colors just spoke to me and I really hoped that the story would be as beautiful as the cover.

The main issue with this book is that it's predictable. Imagine the cliche story about someone winning the lottery and you have this entire book nailed. It has all the elements that someone would usually come up with from the extravagant spending of money, wanting to do something nice for the mom, a gambling father that isn't around, and one best friend in love with the other. Add in the token gay best friend, the fact that the main character is an orphan and I'm sure you could figure out the main plot, if not the entire book.

Unfortunately, the predictability of the story wasn't the only downfall. The main character, Alice, was very hard to connect to. She was perfect in every way imaginable, and not in the good way. She spends a lot of time volunteering at soup kitchens, teaching a child to read, and doing various other charitable things. When she is offered a portion of the winnings, without hesitating she turns it down. What kind of person turns down that kind of money, at least without thinking about it first? She then thinks that she has the right to judge how Teddy spends his money and looks down on him for not immediately donating it to charity.

The romance was also quite bland. You're supposed to root for Teddy and Alice, but honestly I didn't really care for either of the characters. Teddy was not the greatest friend and it was hard to see why Alice was in love with him. As I said before, Alice spends a lot of time telling Teddy what he should do with the money and it almost felt mom-like, which isn't something you want in a relationship that is potentially romantic. 

The redeeming qualities of the book were not many, but they were strong. Strong enough to keep me reading and make me nearly cry. Alice has been through a lot due to losing her parents. There was an underlying theme of belonging throughout the book, that really should have been the center focus. The moments between Alice and her relatives were poignant and heartfelt. Seeing Alice's character develop and accept that she no longer had her parents was something I would have liked to have more of a focus on that.

While this isn't my favorite book, it wasn't bad by any means. I wish that certain things, like the romance was less of a focus and there was more of an emphasis on family.