Name: How to Fall in Love
ISBN: 9780007481583

Cecelia Ahern

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...?

How to Fall in Love

An emotional, captivating and ultimately uplifting novel from this uniquely talented author Christine Rose is crossing the Ha'penny Bridge in Dublin late one night when she sees a stranger, Adam, poised to jump. Desperate to help, she talks him into a reckless deal: if he gives her two weeks -- till his 35th birthday -- she'll prove that life is worth living. But as the clock ticks and the two of them embark on late-night escapades and romantic adventures, what Christine has really promised seems impossible... A novel to make you laugh, cry and appreciate life, this is Cecelia Ahern at her thoughtful and surprising best.

Jane Keal

4.5. 

I guessed the end within the first 50 or so pages and normally that is a massive no for me in a book, but fell so in love with the characters that I didn't care! In Fact it was a relief, as a different end would have left me longing!

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 ...?

How to fall in love

Siya S

1 star 

Unpopular opinion: DNF because there're so many things that are fundamentally wrong with this book. Most of those many things, as I came to the realization, seemed to be related to the being of our heroine, Christine Rose. 



Christine is possibly one of the worst characters I've ever encountered in a very long time. Where do I begin? First, she's incredibly selfish. Hers was the worst kind of selfishness because she didn't even seem to acknowledge it. She married her husband and found him boring, so she filed for a divorce (just because), and then she'd been trying to justify her action by playing victim ever since like, page 1, claiming she didn't know what she wanted. Well played, Christine, have you ever heard the word "communication" and "compromise"?, I guess no. Just played with someone's heart based on whatever you wanted at the time alright. Fucking asshole. 

Second, she lived her life based on how-to books. Dude, seriously...

Third, she basically fell for Adam almost instantly simply because he was handsome (and rich). I mean, that's the only impression I got from her because it happened so fucking suspiciously easily, Christine. 

Fourth, she's incredibly dull. I mean, we're talking about a person who got married because someone else did it. Who read how-to books and followed whatever things somebody did base on the subject because she wouldn't know how otherwise. Who had zero sense of humor (I find her family, on the other hand, hilarious and charming). This person had neither characters nor imagination. She's a fucking identity thief.....the bland kind!

Fifth, the last and the worst one. She's one of those people who seemed to jerk themselves off by spreading "kindness". Hah. She did "good things" to feel better about herself without really think of long term consequences or sustainability. I mean, here she followed Adam around instead of getting him to see a fucking professional therapist! And then made him do things based on a fucking paperback how-to books! she was so terrible with people in a way that implied that she never actually cared about humanity before, only imposed kindness on them as a mechanism to make her feel better about herself. That's some psychopath energy right there. Most of the things she made Adam do...left me shivering in cringefest. As if this wasn't enough, she was also stubborn about it as well, insisting that she cared and was kind and did well. Dear lord. 

Trust me, I'm dealing with depression myself. Everything Christine did to Adam made me wanted to die sooner on his behalf. She's a doe-eyed cruelty personified. 

Annnnnnnnnd every friggin time someone mentioned how "kind" Christine was, I just wanna hurl this book across the room because....
1.) marrying her husband and keeping his heart hostage because she didn't know what to do with her life wasn't kindness. 
2.) Leaving the said husband because he bored her (without trying to communicate or anything at all) wasn't kindness. 
3.) Trying to justify herself by chanting about her boring life with the said husband only to fall for the more handsome guy almost instantly right after separating from him wasn't kindness. 
4.) Peppering suicidal Adam with "positive quotes" wasn't kindness. 
5.) Following Adam into the toilet wasn't kindness. 
6.) Helping him winning Marie back wasn't kindness. 
It's cruelty sugarcoated with good intention and ignorance. It's manipulation. 

So I guess there's the sixth after all. She's MANIPULATIVE. The innocent kind. Long story short, by being in charge of Adam's life, Christine found her place as a savior - it gave her purpose possibly for the first time ever in her dull, colorless life. I bet she would dump him in no time in the future when Adam regained his former personality. Since Adam wasn't an improved character compared to her. I didn't actually care much about the guy, to be honest. 

Anyway, that's how much I loathe this sorry excuse of a fictional human being named Christine. I DNF this book because I couldn't stand her. She's one dimensional, dull, selfish, manipulative, and dumb. God, I should just get a life and move on.

Saima A

Super cute romance, a little predictable but a good read to get your mind off things.

But trigger warning: suicide

Joleen

This was interesting, in the sense I have never read a book that had this sort of concept before. It was very cliche, as I knew exactly what was going to happen. But I enjoy a cliche story every now and again.

‘A tender, funny and romantic drama’ Marie Claire

Jess Wragg

** spoiler alert **
           Sometimes you read something which really hits home....I loved this story and the characters. It shows a side of life everyone can relate to, and the importance of people that make up your life story. 

It’s covers the sensitive topics, without making the reader feel vulnerable and exposed to the darker side. Keeping that chick-lit feel through the whole book. 

Just remember...

“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 senseless, senseless to allow a single thought to inhabit a mind because thoughts are like guests or fair-weather 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.”

Liv Gliese Johnsen

I sometimes got annoyed by her language, but that can be because I read it in Danish... 
but even though that was the case this book moved me. It made me feel heart aches, love and happiness. I am laying here in my bed, being sick and all, whising that I had some more Cecilia Ahern books to keep me company