Just One Day

Forman, Gayle. Just One Day. Dutton, 2013. 

Allyson is a good girl whose life has been controlled by her mother, who has planned all of her classes and extracurricular activities. Amazingly, Allyson's mom allows her to go on an educational tour of Europe.  While in London, Allyson meets a boy at a rogue Shakespeare event and decides to spend the next day with him in Paris.  She spends an excellent day with him touring Paris and spends the night with him, only to panic the next morning when he's gone.

For the next year, Allyson pines away for her beloved Willem. By the time summer arrives, she has decided to take charge of her own life, changing her college major and planning to return to Paris to find Willem.  After some amazing adventures, Allyson travels to Willem's hometown and sees him ... with another girl.  She's been warned that his adventure with her was just a one-day thing, that he went through girls faster than anyone can keep up with, but she is still convinced that things will be different when he sees her again.

This book seemed very similar to The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things or Ask the Passengers. The protagonist begins the story being totally controlled by her mother's dreams. Also she has no backbone. But she changes throughout the story, and by the end she is becoming her own person instead of the person her parents want her to be. I ended up enjoying this book more than I thought I would, until the very end of the story. I hate, hate, HATED the ending. The ending cancelled out all the wonderful growth and change I'd seen in the main character.  Argh.

Nonetheless, it was a lovely story.  If you do read it, I recommend stopping before you hit the last three pages.  The rest of the story is excellent.