P.S. I Love You Book Review [NO SPOILERS]

A new book review! About time ay? Today's post is a review for P.S. I Love You by Cecilia Ahern. This book was on my TBR for a little while and I finally got around to cracking it open. I decided to read it last month since it was the month of loooove. I tend to read at least one romance novel in the month of February since it's pretty fitting. This book is slightly different though, as it's not like your generic romance novel. It is more about letting go of your past love and going through grief. If you want to know more about it, then just keep reading. 

What is it about? 

As always, here is a quick synopsis from goodreads: 

A novel about holding on, letting go, and learning to love again.

Now in paperback, the endearing novel that captured readers' hearts and introduced a fresh new voice in women's fiction Cecelia Ahern.

Holly couldn't live without her husband Gerry, until the day she had to. They were the kind of young couple who could finish each other's sentences. When Gerry succumbs to a terminal illness and dies, 30-year-old Holly is set adrift, unable to pick up the pieces. But with the help of a series of letters her husband left her before he died and a little nudging from an eccentric assortment of family and friends, she learns to laugh, overcome her fears, and discover a world she never knew existed.

The kind of enchanting novel with cross-generational appeal that comes along once in a great while, PS, I Love You is a captivating love letter to the world!

My Thoughts

I had heard so many people talk about the movie but I didn't know much about the book. People don't talk about it the way they talk about the book and that is a real shame considering the book makes the film look like GARBAGE. I decided to watch the movie after I finished the book and I've never been so disappointment by a movie adaption. I couldn't even finish it. It was like a completely different story (not in a good way). Don't get me wrong, the book hasn't become an all time favourite but I did thoroughly enjoy it. It was endearing and heartfelt. I liked that we had a good understanding of her relationship with Gerry prior to his death, because it helped us to understand why it was so hard for her to let go. The movie fails terribly in that department. 

I expected to only know about Holly and what was going on in her life but I loved that we got to see the lives of those around her too. I believe every character had their own story and I loved that. It gave me an opportunity to root for other characters besides Holly and it was also lovely to see how Holly played a part in their lives too. In so many narratives, side characters are solely there to support the main protagonist but Cecilia did a wonderful job of giving each character a life of their own, which Holly fit into too. Holly has a big family and we get a feel for all of their personalities. It made it that much more heart-warming when we saw how they individually played a role in her grieving process. I felt the same way about her friends too. Holly and Gerry were high school sweethearts, who kept the same friends from their youth. It was interesting to see how they dealt with Gerry's passing too and how they encouraged Holly when she felt like nobody understood. 

I think my favourite thing about this book is that you can clearly see the different stages of grief. It's very realistic. She isn't hurting one day and then suddenly healed, it's a constant cycle. One minute she is on cloud 9, laughing and enjoying life with her friends, and then she's back to being in bed dreaming about the life she wished she was living with her husband. I like that Cecilia didn't pretend like grief and heartbreak is a steady process. She really captured the waves and turmoil. 

The letters weren't what I expected at all. I guess I assumed they would just be letters about their lives and maybe memories of their time together but it was so much sweeter than that. Somehow despite Gerry being the reason for her hurting, he helped her to heal and that's truly beautiful. He gave her reasons to keep going and to see that she was OK without him. You see how much the letters mean to her in the book and again, this is one of many (and I mean MANY), things the movie got wrong. 

Overall, I would give this book a 3.5 out of 5. I did like it, I've just read books within this genre that I prefer. Despite the nature of the situation, it is quite a light-hearted read and I would definitely say yes to the book, but a massive no to the movie. It didn't do Cecilia's writing justice at all. It's always such a shame when movies taint great work. In fact, there's a future blog post idea - I could do a whole post about disappointing movie adaptions. I have a few in mind haha. 

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this post. If you've read P.S. I Love You, let me know your thoughts in the comments. 

Thanks for reading,

Have a great day x