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    Just One Year
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    Just One Year
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    Just One Year
    Audiobook8 hours

    Just One Year

    Written by Gayle Forman

    Narrated by Daniel May

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Just One Day. Just One Year. Just One Read.

    Before you find out how their story ends, remember how it began....

    When he opens his eyes, Willem doesn't know where in the world he is-Prague or Dubrovnik or back in Amsterdam. All he knows is that he is once again alone, and that he needs to find a girl named Lulu. They shared one magical day in Paris, and something about that day-that girl-makes Willem wonder if they aren't fated to be together. He travels all over the world, from Mexico to India, hoping to reconnect with her. But as months go by and Lulu remains elusive, Willem starts to question if the hand of fate is as strong as he'd thought. . . .

    The romantic, emotional companion to Just One Day, this is a story of the choices we make and the accidents that happen-and the happiness we can find when the two intersect.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 10, 2013
    ISBN9781101631782
    Unavailable
    Just One Year
    Author

    Gayle Forman

    Award-winning author and journalist Gayle Forman has written several bestselling novels for children and adults, including Not Nothing, the Just One series, and the number one New York Times bestseller If I Stay, which has been translated into more than forty languages and in 2014 was adapted into a major motion picture. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family.

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    Reviews for Just One Year

    4/5

    180 ratings22 reviews

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    • 3/5
      It's a cozy romance from the point of view of Willem, a young Dutchman traveling the world and discovering himself while obsessing about the Just One Day with Lulu.
    • 4/5
      I liked it better than I thought I would.
    • 5/5
      Wahoooo! I waited a long time to know what happened. And the wait was so worth it. This sequel to Just One Day explains what happens to Willem after that day in Paris with Allyson. Both are on a journey of maturation and seeking while doubt encroaches on their dreams. I loved this story as much as Just One Day. Recommendation tags: relationships, journeys, self-doubt, YA (HS only), college
    • 5/5
      After accidentally being separated from Lulu after their epic day in Paris, Willem is left with no way to contact or find her. He doesn't even know her real name. Already at loose ends due to family tragedy, he now begins searching for her and for himself. Sequel to Just One Day.
    • 5/5
      Double happiness!
    • 5/5
      Willem has always been a lover and a leaver, and he doesn't necessarily loathe his life...until, one day, he met this girl, whom he called "Lulu." All they had together was one day, but that day changed his life.

      Now, almost a year later, he is lost without her...and worst of all, he doesn't even know her real name. His journey to find the girl, ends up allowing him to find himself, and mend bridges he didn't know could be mended.

      Just when it seems that he can accept that he will not find his "Lulu," and decides to move to the US to pursue his acting, there is a knock at the door..."Hello Willem, my name is Allyson."

      The theme isn't so much that these lovers reconnect, because that seems the obvious outcome, but the journey they each take in trying to find themselves and each other.

    • 5/5
      Willem is one of my all-time favorite characters, contributing to the reason I downloaded this audiobook. I read the book awhile ago, but when I revisited it as an audiobook so many subtitles came out, making me like the story's fascinating premise (likewise for Gayle Forman's Just One Day) even more on the second time round. Very good narration by Daniel Thomas May, which greatly enhanced my enjoyment and the overall experience.
    • 4/5
      I don't know if I've said this before but Gayle Forman can write romance with feelings more than any author I've seen. Not only that, she manages to write a romance that makes me love the characters and believe in the power of their love when the characters are rarely together. I loved Willem's story and seeing what he was doing the year after he and Allyson parted and how, like Allyson, he grew and changed and found himself in that year. This is a terrific story with lots of feeling.
    • 3/5
      'It was like she gave me her whole self, and somehow as a result, I gave her more of myself than I ever realized there was to give. But then she was gone. And only after I'd been filled up by her, by that day, did I understand how empty I really was.'Finally. We have Willem's story. Just One Day left readers contemplating what possibly could have gone wrong, why he never came back to Allyson and if they were ever going to be able to find each other again. Just One Year possesses the same melancholy feel as its predecessor with Willem stumbling around in an apparent daze, unable to trust the stability of his feelings for Allyson because after all... they only knew each other for a single day.'...it's Lulu I miss, and I know it must be displaced, my loneliness a heat-seeking missile, her the heat. Only I can't seem to find a new source of heat.'This is a tough one for me to figure out how I feel about. Willem was a tough nut to crack and I went through the majority of the book not feeling any sort of compassion towards him, no pity for his plight, when I think that would have been the regular response. He gave up his search for her very early on and considering we already know what Allyson went through physically and emotionally makes me sad for her. Willem was convinced to start looking for her again by friends and as much as he kept saying he was still looking for her that whole time, it wasn't an active search. It felt like he was simply sitting back and waiting for something to happen, for her to find him.'The truth and its opposite are flip sides of the same coin.'Willem's story became less about their romance and more about him discovering things about himself and becoming a better person because he met her. This is actually what I had originally hoped for her in Just One Day; for Allyson to recognize the incredibly transformed person she had become (and she did) but that even though it resulted from her meeting Willem that she didn't need him to continue to be as such. Willem found the independence and strength their meeting imbued and used it in a positive manner and while I'm glad at least one of them did this, I never quite liked Willem enough in order to root for him. I never saw what appealed to Allyson and I never understood quite why they transformed each others lives in the first place.While I'm glad to have the closure of Willem's side of the story, I still can't help but feel the ending would have benefited from... more. I needed to see Willem and Allyson's transformations being applied since we as readers were only afforded a quick glance before reaching the final page. Just One Year is a tale of transformation, of finding happiness, of finding love and finding yourself.
    • 3/5
      Willem de Ruiter's life has been aimless in the three years since he lost his father but in the aftermath of a chance encounter with a single girl, whose name he doesn't know he begins to really look at himself. Who is he? Who does he want to be? Who are the people he needs in his life? And is he ever meant to find the girl he called Lulu once again?It was lovely to get to see Willem's side of things from the year following his chance encounter with Allyson from [Just One Day]. Willem's growth is just as fascinating and sometimes painful to watch as Allyson's and it satisfies a lot of curiousity to see the near misses between the two characters over the course of the year. Ending But why in the heck didn't I get a more satisfying reunion??? Just one chapter where Willem and Allyson get to talk after that year is all I'm asking. *grumbles* Other than that minor gripe, I really enjoyed the book and would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the first novel.
    • 4/5
      Beautiful story. Enjoyed the journey
    • 4/5
      After reading Just One Day, it is interesting to get the perspective of the boy in the situation. Going through and understanding Allyson's feelings, it's different to see Willem's, because he is a boy and I am a female. I remember distinctly that Allyson was very distraught because Willem didn't even make an attempt to know her real name. During the first book I was mad at him that he didn't try. After reading this book I understand what he is coming from and I feel bad for him. I thought it was interesting how he remembered specific things that Allyson had said and goes as far as going to Mexico because she had said that she goes for winter break. I like this book but I do miss some of the characters from before, I really liked Dee, and I wish he could make a reappearance.
    • 5/5
      I believe Gayle Forman is a wonderful writer. I loved Just One Day and couldn't wait to find out what happened next. I was elated when Just One Year was revealed and couldn't wait. Now, after just finishing Just One Year, I am still wondering, what happens next? I spent months waiting to know and under the impression I would come this book...only to be told just exactly what Willem was doing the entire time they're apart. I know, I know, you're asking why the 4 stars? While the book didn't meet my expectations exactly, my expectations were in fact wrong to begin. No where in the writers dialogue did she promise me that I would know what happened after, she only stated I would get Willem's side of the story and I did, and I loved it! Well written, lovable characters (in fact, where is my Willem?), wonderful look into other cultures and life styles. If I could live in a book, this would be it!
    • 4/5
      LOVED it. Loved this one even more than Just One Day.
    • 4/5
      This was a great contrast to Forman's other novel Just One Day. I really enjoyed Willem's journey to discover himself and stop being 'lost'. This happened with Forman's other series too, If I Stay and Where She Went: in the first volume from the perspective of the woman, I was never too into the guy. Then the second book from the guy's perspective puts me straight and I'm sometimes even fonder of the guy afterwards. The same is true here. It just goes to show how only seeing one side of the story can make you biased and judgmental about the other person, until you see his side of the story and realize there was a lot more going on. I like how Forman pulls that off. I also really enjoyed all the travel the book had. You could see the different cultures Willem was traveling through. Great story. Recommended if you like romance or/and Forman's books.
    • 4/5
      Willem spent one day in Paris with a girl, and it's messing with his head. Willem has spent a lot of time with a lot of girls, but this one girl, Lulu, is the one he can't forget. The problem is that he went out to get breakfast after their one night together, and got beaten up and hospitalized and just generally delayed, and he lost her. He doesn't know where she went, or even who she is -- "Lulu" is just a nickname he gave her. Over the course of a year, Willem spends a lot of time alternately trying to find Lulu and trying to forget her. Along the way he reconnects with the family he's tried to put behind him and the friends who have supported him all along, rediscovers a passion for acting, and starts to find his way in life. But will he ever reconnect with his Lulu?As with the last book, I found this one just okay. In the last book, I couldn't get a real sense of Willem's character, so I had a hard time understanding Allyson's fixation on him. Now that I have read this book, I actively dislike him, so it makes it even more difficult for me to root for him to get back together with Lulu/Allyson, a character that I actually did like. Because, let's face it: Willem is kind of a jerk where women are concerned. A charming and apparently handsome one, but a jerk, nonetheless. On the other hand, stepping back from my opinion of the character, this does mean that the writing in this book is good enough to make me care about the characters, and I did find it a quick and fairly engaging read. Fans of realistic YA fiction will probably enjoy these two books, and readers who liked the first book will want to read this one in order to get the other side of the story.
    • 3/5
      [Written in just-finished exasperation] I'm not sure I want to devote any more of my life to Willem. I wasn't entirely sure he was worth my time in the first book. He didn't grow on me all that much in the second. And I felt tricked when I realized how it would end.
    • 5/5
      great story. loved the narrator
    • 3/5
      Just One Year is Gayle Forman’s follow up to Just One Day. It picks up his story after he leaves Lulu – or Allyson - after their lifechanging day together. Finally we get to find out what happened to him, where he went, whether he really just did a runner because he’s an arse (but did we ever really think he was?). This book follows him over the year until his (let’s face it) inevitable reunion with Allyson and tracks a jaunt through Mexico, to a reunion in India with his mother, and back to Holland – his home – again to face his past.I mentioned previously how I loved If I Stay and Where She Went, and the raw emotion each book conjured in me. Hours of crying, and just feeling it all right there in my chest. Even though I know not all books by the same author are going to live up to that, I still expected to feel something more than nothing. But I’ve just closed Just One Year (which having read Just One Day I knew how it was going to end, more or less) and my reaction is just a bit like ‘meh’. I don’t feel any joy, hope, sadness; no pangs or stirrings of love, loneliness or anything else. I read the last sentence and was already looking for the next book. It really sucks when you realise an author you loved before has delivered something you can’t get excited about as you read. I put it down for two days and barely even thought about it. So why and how did this happen? What was it about this one that didn’t sit right with me? I think it’s because, after reading and in the end enjoying Just One Day, I considered Allyson and Willem’s story to be done with - even with the looming question of what had happened to him that day. I know that at the end of Just One Day, you could consider their story to be just beginning, blah blah blah but bookwise I thought it was pretty much over. I liked what I thought was the ending, then it changed up a bit, and I accepted that new ending. I knew there was another book, but to me Just One Day could have been a standalone. Even though we got a new insight into Willem, it didn’t feel like any new ground was being covered. I’m normally good with slow moving books as long as I get something else out of it – a deep plot, a greater understanding – but this one just didn’t do it for me as I watched Willem’s lacklustre search through Mexico for Lulu and through India for a relationship with his mother that he’d never had.The one great thing about this book was the travelling. Forman has provided us, yet again, with beautiful descriptions of places I’ve never been but can picture vividly in my mind’s eye and I can feel my wanderlust rearing up again. Mexico, Cancun, India, Amsterdam – so many places to choose from! And Willem just lazily hops around the world the way we all wish we could. Funny how money never seems to be a problem for him (Brit, stop hating on rich people. It’s not their fault!). He also rarely seems to enjoy what he’s doing, just wandering around like a lost puppy, but then again maybe that’s the point. He’s got the life and yet he’s unhappy.I found it hard to sympathise with Willem and lacked interest in his story until he got back to Amsterdam and Shakespeare. As we got closer to the end, I was a bit eager to see how the stories matched up but it seemed to me he was just a bit over keen to find exactly what his parents had with a dream girl who it may not even work out with. It’s all a bit romantic and though I have a soft spot, I guess I’m a bit more pragmatic than that so it didn’t strike a chord with me.I just couldn’t feel it but I still love Gayle Forman’s writing. 3 stars.  
    • 5/5
      The perfect companion to Just One Day, this book is simply magnificent.This story isn’t just about finding Lulu (Allyson), the girl he spent one day with in Paris. This is Willem’s story about how that one day with that one girl set so many different things in motion in his life, about how that one day changed everything.It’s about self-discovery and unrequited love.As he continues to travel and to analyze that day in Paris, Willem learns more about himself; how he found something that he wanted more of, that in turn made him want to get away from it. His grandfather would always say, The truth and its opposite are flip sides of the same coin, and he finally understands what that means.And the suspense! Knowing Allyson’s story of the year she spent looking for Willem, it was aching to watch Willem search for Allyson and feel both their hope and dejection in turns. And discovering they were in the same vicinity multiple times, but fate and their choices kept them apart!By the end the suspense was KILLING ME. I knew where Just One Day left off and all the anticipation of both their journeys from the past year culminating in that one moment!That moment was perfect.I am absolutely in LOVE with these books, they are amazing. I wanted more once I finished it, but the way it ended was so fitting for the story that I’m not at all bothered by it. I just love Willem and Allyson together so much that I want more of them! BUT I’ll just have to be content with my own musings about their story’s continuation:)5/5 stars;)
    • 4/5
      I absolutely loved Just One Day and was so excited to hear Wilhem’s side of the story. Well I definitely didn’t like this book as much as Just One Day. It was still engaging and well written, but the whole book made me like Wilhem a lot less.When Wilhem wakes up in the ER after being attacked by Skinheads he knows he is forgetting something. Then he remembers what it is, Lulu. He spends the next year in an attempt to find Lulu. At times he is driven to find her, at others he kind of drifts around trying to find her. In the end what he really ends up finding is his own purpose.This book is from Wilhem's perspective. Wilhem basically has lost any purpose to his life. His dad recently died and when his dad died his mother moved back to India. Apparently Wilhem’s mother wasn’t really the motherly type, and she pretty much left Wilhem to his own devices. Wilhem has money, but what he doesn’t have is any sort of direction. He seriously drifts, from country to country, from girl to girl. As soon as he starts having commitments to anything, he leaves and goes somewhere else.I think this book made me like Wilhem a lot less, the boy is a total playboy and bounces from one girl to the next throughout the story. Wilhem has literally left a trail of broken hearts across the world. Every girl he visits loves him and tries to change him and get him to commit. Wilhem’s only redeeming quality is that he truly seems to be pining for the mysterious Lulu and he really misses her. Wilhem is truly and completely lost both in an emotional and geographical sense throughout this book. I did enjoy reading about him trying to find a purpose to his life and I enjoyed reading about all the different places he traveled. It was also very nice to see Wilhem finally visit his mother and start to mend fences with her.I think the biggest fascination I have with this book is how Wilhem lives his life. He has tenuous ties all over the world but no real ties anywhere. He travels wherever he wants and sleeps on couches and rooms with ex-girlfriends without a lot of thought to how his presence (or sudden absence) affects them.Like, Just One Day, this book wraps up very abruptly and at a huge cliffhanger. It basically ends at the same scene as Just One Day does. I haven’t heard about another book in this series, but it would be nice to get some closure around Allyson and Wilhem. Of course, I would understand if we don’t. These two books seem more about the characters’ journey to find their purpose than about a journey for two characters to find each other.Overall engaging and well written, I enjoyed it. It was a hard book to put down and a quick read. I will say I didn’t like this book as much as Just One Day. Wilhem is quite the player when it comes to the ladies and it made me think less of him as a character. I did enjoy watching Wilhem find some purpose for his life though and I enjoyed reading about his travels. Recommended to those who enjoy contemporary young adult, especially about traveling. I hope there is one more book in this series, it would be nice to have more closure about Allyson and Wilhem.
    • 3/5
      I thought it would pick up where the previous book, "Just One Day" ended. But oh well...it's nice to read about Willem.