Cecelia Ahern - How to Fall in Love

 

If you watched Pride of Britain the other week - rephrase - when you were watching Pride of Britain the other week, you will have heard a story about a man stopping on Waterloo Bridge to talk another down from the edge. Amazing stuff, and the two have since become friends.

Coincidentally, a few weeks before, I had read How to Fall in Love  - the latest venture from Cecelia Ahern. Perhaps most famous for her novel turned film PS I Love You, Ahern's books never fail to move you and warm the heart. How to Fall in Love is no exception, and I think in time can grow to be bigger than the aforementioned.

It questions everything we know about ourselves, humility, humanity and the human race. What would you do and what on earth happens next?

As much as the storyline ends predictably, that is not the point of the book - at least in my opinion. Through helping others discover what is good about life, we discover more ourselves. This novel demonstrates all that is good about the world and that these struggles happen to everyone. (Everyone's heard the tale of Pagliacci the clown!)

It has undeniable echoes of one of my favourite books, Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. It really makes you question how far you'd go to help others, how you are as a person and how much our regrets affect us in the short and the long term.

The main thing I took from this book is the importance of being kind and thoughtful. You never know what someone is dealing with, and you never know what could push them off the edge - or indeed bring them round.