A fantastic chick lit book! (PS, I Love You - Cecelia Ahern)

Member Name: dippykitty

Product:	PS, I Love You - Cecelia Ahern
Date:	17/06/09 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good characterisation, easy to follow writing style, well written

Disadvantages: None for me

I am one of the few people (or so it seems) that haven't seen the film version of this yet so I don't have that to affect my take on the book. I've read one other book by Cecilia Ahern (Where Rainbows End), which was her second book after PS, I Love You. Of the two, this was my favourite.

***The Plot***
Holly's life is thrown into chaos when her beloved husband dies from a brain tumour. As a devastated Holly tries to regain control of her life, she discovers a series of messages that Gerry had left for her to open on a monthly basis to see her through the next ten months. Each of the messages contain motivational instructions to help Holly get on with her life and stop her wallowing in self-pity, along with the ending line of 'PS, I love you'. These messages range from going shopping to taking part in a karaoke contest. Will Holly do as Gerry advised, and if so, how will it help?

***The Characters***
The central character is Holly, whose situation inspires a lot of sympathy from the opening sentences of the book. I can't imagine being in Holly's shoes but Cecilia Ahern perfectly captures the emotions that I imagine someone in that situation to go through. From the very start of the book, we go through a range of emotions with her as she struggles to pick up the pieces of her life and do as Gerry's letters had instructed.

Other characters include Holly's friends Sharon, John (Sharon's husband) and Denise; her brothers Jack, Richard and Declan and Jack's girlfriend Abbey; her sister Ciara; and club owner Daniel, who becomes the obligatory will-they-won't-they love interest. The most annoying character of these is Richard, who is a bit of a know-it-all and likes to lecture others on various things. His wife Meredith is equally uninteresting and they make their son Timmy (Timothy to them) stand in the corner for pretty insignificant things such as running to the front door. The other characters are fairly likeable for the most part, and the supports

***The Writing Style***
It is written in a very chatty form as is quite typical of chick lit style books in general. The story unfolds in the third person but is still told from Holly's perspective for the most part.

***Overall Thoughts***
I really enjoyed reading this book and thoroughly recommend it. I haven't seen the film so I can't comment on how true that stayed to the book. Parts of the book were sad. especially in the beginning, but there were also some humourous parts to balance things out, such as the karaoke incident.

Summary: A great debut novel from Cecilia Ahern