Brilliant read - Rated 
This was my first C Ahearn novel and I will now be reading all the others - I thought her technique was good, her characters engaging and her ideas interesting. The heroine's miscarriage was particularly moving and rang true and her relationship with her father was also touching. I couldn't put it down.
Generally a good book... but - Rated 
I have some mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I finished it in 2 days, so there must be something good about it. On the other hand, there were pages I just skipped through, because it really didn't interest me.
In the story, Joyce Conway gets the memories , tastes and feelings of her probable (we never truely find this out) blood donor. But I find it terribly confusing to imaging what will happen after the ending. An open ending is to me a terrror anyway, but here it feels like the writer just didn't truely know how to continue the story, because it's to complicated. It really felt that the end was missing.
But I have to say, while reading I constantly wanted to know how it would continue, so it is a catching story. And at times I was laughing loudly. Especially the father figure is a nice character, that often puts a smile on your face.
I think if you can read this as a superficial story, to spend your time (for instance while waiting at the airport like I did), it's a good book. If you like to think more in depth about the story, you'll come up with questions that remain unanswered. Most noticably, how can this story continue, seeing you have two people together where one is completely aware of the feelings of the other. Can a person live with this breach of his privacy?
Not as good as her previous books - Rated 
Cecelia Ahern is a really engaging author who's books are very hard to put down once you have started however I found 'Thank You for the Memories' not to be as engaging as her other books.
It was a pleasant enough read and the information about the buildings was very interesting. Even the basis of the plot was very interesting. Can you really recieve someone elses memories via a blood transfusion? It created many a discussion with my flat mates.
However this book just did not draw me in like her previous books. I'm only giving it two stars because I thought the ended was very romantic and engaging. I would recommend anyone to read this but do not think of it as light hearted as her other books
Ahern is back on form! - Rated 
I was quite disappointed with Ahern's last offering, A Place Called Here. Compared to her other novels, it was a real let-down. So I had high hopes for this one to change my mind about her again. Thanks for the Memories did just that.
Thanks for the Memories is the tale of Joyce Conway. A slip down the stairs causes Joyce to lose her unborn child, not to mention a lot of blood. After coming round in the hospital, Joyce feels... different. She can't put her finger on what it is, but she knows that something has changed. Devastated about the loss of her child, Joyce starts thinking about her life and knows that things have got to change. Drastically.
After calling time on her long-dead marriage, Joyce tries desperately to look to the future, whilst still grieving for her baby. But the strange feeling she has since waking up in hospital persists. She's able to speak languages she's never learned, spout out endless information about architecture and dreams about a mysterious little girl with blonde hair.
When Joyce bumps into an American man she's never met before, she has a disturbingly strong feeling of deja vu. And from there, the pieces slowly start to come together. Joyce may have lost a husband and a child, but she's gained a new side to her that makes her more positive than she's ever been before.
This book is excellent. I thought perhaps the reason I didn't like the previous one is because it was far-fetched. However, Thanks for the Memories isn't exactly realistic, and yet I was hooked from start to finish. The characters are so loveable, particularly Joyce's father. His terrible memory and batty Irish witticisms made me laugh out loud on many occasions. He was so well portrayed that I could really imagine someone like him being in existence, and if he was, I'd want to know him - he's great!
Overall, I'd say if you loved Ahern's previous novels, but like me, were disappointed with A Place Called Here, give her another chance. She's proven with Thanks for the Memories that she's back on form and ready to make us laugh and cry once more.
Modern Fairytale - Rated
I really enjoyed this book, I think that many of Cecilia Ahern's books have an element of the fairytale in them and I think that you have to accept that before you begin. The characters are really well developed and the fact that you want to see what happens when the two protagonists meet means that you keep turning the pages. Really good book.
|
