ONE DAY | Book Review

Title: One Day
Author: David Nicholls
Genre: Fiction / Contemporary
Published by: Hodder 

Originally Published: 2009
Page Count: 435

Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows? 
Twenty years, two people, ONE DAY.

(Source: Goodreads)

My relationship with this book is a rather fond one. It will from now on remind me of long soaks, train rides, and my time in the Lake District last summer. I've been reading it for so long in theory; having had to put it down after I initially started it as it belonged to the cottage I was staying in. 

Although the storyline is one of cliché, I still enjoyed it immensely. The character of Emma is incredibly likeable and reminded me of myself a great deal. It's scary at how much, I just hope I don't have the shitty jobs she seems to end up in, although, I feel that is an inevitable part of my upcoming future. She was fresh and witty, with strong emotions and a definable personality. She has an identity crisis, almost, at the end of the book, which shows how life changes you. Dexter was infuriating at times and sometimes a boring cliché, it was a little predictable the paths he would take. Dexter probably typifies the male lead in this genre of romance or chick lit, but because I've not read much of this genre he's predictable but not something I have encountered often. I can see why avid romance readers are a bit bored of the Dexters in romantic fiction. 

The writing was colloquial and perfect. It wasn't overly pretentious or stupidly simple, it had the right balance that related well to its protagonists. The main issue I had with the book, inevitably, was its premise. It is 'one day' of this couple's life, the same day, year after year. And like normal people, not every day is interesting, it becomes tedious and sometimes infuriating that we did not get to witness the immediate impact of the events. The chapters that stood out came at the beginning and the end of the novel. The book is split into five parts and the last part was brilliant, if not a bit too sentimental. 

Overall, a fun read for someone uneducated in the genre. 4.5 stars.