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The Book of Tomorrow: A Novel [Hardcover]

Cecelia Ahern
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (121 customer reviews)

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Book Description

January 25, 2011

From the author of the New York Times bestseller P.S. I Love You comes an "engrossing new novel . . . filled with family secrets, intrigue, and magic aplenty" (Booklist).

Born into the lap of luxury and comfortable in the here and now, spoiled, tempestuous Tamara Goodwin has never had to look to the future—until the abrupt death of her father leaves her and her mother a mountain of debt and forces them to move in with Tamara's peculiar aunt and uncle in a tiny countryside village.

Tamara is lonely and bored, with a traveling library as her only diversion. There she finds a large leather-bound book with a gold clasp and padlock, but no author name or title. Intrigued, she pries open the lock, and what she finds inside takes her breath away.

Tamara sees entries written in her own handwriting, and dated for the following day. When the next day unfolds exactly as recorded, Tamara realizes she may have found a solution to her problems. But in her quest to find answers, Tamara soon learns that some pages are better left unturned and that, try as she may, she mustn't interfere with fate.


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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Sixteen-year-old Tamara Goodwin’s life is upended when her wealthy father commits suicide after realizing he can’t pay his debts. Tamara and her devastated mother are forced to move from a Dublin suburb to the countryside to live with Tamara’s aunt and uncle, Rosaleen and Arthur. Tamara chafes under Rosaleen’s domineering personality when her aunt tries to keep Tamara from seeing her depressed, isolated mother. Frustrated, Tamara ventures out of the house, exploring the ruins of the castle Arthur cares for and meeting the locals, including a sprightly nun and a handsome young man who drives around in a traveling library. Tamara comes across a book in the library that captures her attention. Its pages are initially blank, then they start to fill with Tamara’s own thoughts from the following day. Realizing she is able to not only read the future but change it, Tamara uses the diary to unravel the mystery at work in her new home. A veritable modern-day Gothic, Ahern’s (The Gift, 2009) engrossing new novel is filled with family secrets, intrigue, and magic aplenty. --Kristine Huntley

Review

“[Ahern] takes a more gothic turn in her latest, recasting herself as a lost Bronte sister for the Facebook set. . . . Lovers of stories involving crumbling castles, nefarious family secrets . . . will be ecstatic.” (Entertainment Weekly )

“A veritable modern-day Gothic, Ahern’s engrossing new novel is filled with family secrets, intrigue, and magic aplenty.” (Booklist )

“Ahern’s tale-spinning prowess keeps the reader riveted.” (Publishers Weekly )

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Harper; First Edition edition (January 25, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0061706302
  • ISBN-13: 978-0061706301
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (121 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #687,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Cecelia Ahern is the author of the international bestsellers P.S. I Love You; Love, Rosie; If You Could See Me Now; There's No Place Like Here; and The Gift. The daughter of Ireland's former prime minister, she lives in Dublin.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining but fluffy read January 25, 2011
By LL
Format:Hardcover
The Book of Tomorrow by Cecilia Ahern is told by Tamara, a spoiled rich girl whose life has just been turned on its head. Her money-oriented father has just committed suicide, leaving Tamara and his mother with a mountain of debt. They sell their fancy Dublin mansion and go to live with Tamara's uncle Arthur and his paranoid, micromanaging wife, Rosaleen. As Tamara deals with the loss of her father and all her creature comforts, her mother's catatonic grief, her strange relatives, and her absolute boredom, she discovers a blank diary that describes what will happen tomorrow. As she reads the diary and acts on what happens, she uncovers a dark mystery involving the Kilsaney castle nearby.

Before I write about the actual book, I need to give a moment's appreciation to the cover. I think it is beautiful. And yes, I am quite familiar with the adage to not judge a book by its cover, but it does make a book more appealing. This one is my favorite cover of 2011 (Okay, so 2011 hasn't been very long, but I love it!).

The actual book was an entertaining, albeit fluffy, ride. I read this book over a period of two days. I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. The plot was interesting, full of unexpected twists. One of my biggest pet peeves in a book is predictability. In a book where a diary tells you the events of the next day, The Book of Tomorrow could easily have fallen into this trap. However, the story succeeded in being entertaining and unexpected.

The characters didn't quite live up to the plot. Some of them were well developed, but a few were flat and seemed almost out of place in the book. I found Tamara to be delightful.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Hard to Put Down January 26, 2011
Format:Hardcover
Well written and hard to put down. After each chapter that I finished, I was left wanting to read more, wanting to figure out what was really going on. Is this family she's staying with crazy? Is Tamara crazy? And where did this magic come from? There are many aspects to the story that make you go ah-hah when the pieces start to fall together and I love moments like that. The little bits of information the author slips in and ties it all in at a later moment - those are the best. Ahern certainly has a way with writing and many pieces of the ending were a surprise, yet made complete sense. The book is funny, it's sad, and overall it's charming.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Forgettable August 20, 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm writing this review mainly to warn off readers like myself -- readers who come to chick-lit curious about the genre but uncertain what to expect. I googled "best chick-lit" and came across this title. Is this really the best of the form?

Unfortunately, Cecelia Ahern's best work in this book is her delineation of her main character, Tamara, a bored, snotty, foul-mouthed 16-year-old girl with whom you'll want to spend very little time. Beyond that, everything falls flat. Plot? Practically nothing happens for about 200 pages except that Tamara notices a few things are weird. Characters? Stock. Ever meet the surprisingly lively nun who potters about the garden and endlessly smiles with a mischievous twinkle in her blue eyes? How about the villain -- a plain girl who's jealous of the pretty girl? The love interests are cute boys whose tolerance of Tamara's abusiveness reduces my interest in them, too. Magical realism? The plot device that gives the novel its title is an empty diary wherein is daily (and prophetically) written Tamara's acts of the following day rather than the preceding day. Things like "I saw a dog." Sure enough, she sees a dog. Its presence in the story is random; the thru-line seems to be Tamara's determination to find out whether her aunt is causing her mother's near-terminal lethargy, which doesn't require any magic.

By the end I was skimming very swiftly. There is nary a character, an exchange, or an event in the book that I'll revisit in my imagination.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars disappointed March 29, 2011
Format:Hardcover
Sorry, I could not get past the first few chapters. The premise of the story sounded interesting. The cover is very alluring. I was hoping for a "Calgon take me away moment" but the vulgar language and smutty references turned me off. Maybe the story gets better but I, like many readers (I know because I work in a library), are just tired of the unimaginative language and crude references of many books today. Readers want a good story with artful writing. O woe is me - where are the Jane Austens and Elizabeth Gaskells of today?
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Let Down October 19, 2011
Format:Hardcover
The Book of Tomorrow is about Tamara Goodwin who is a spoiled rich brat who's life is just completely upended when her father commits suicide leaving Tamara and her mother to sell off all they own to pay their debts. With everything she has ever known and loved gone, Tamara and her mother move in with her controlling Aunt and Uncle she has only met a handful of times. While Tamara is dealing with the loss of her father and her ritzy lifestyle she is also trying to pull her mother out of her catatonic stupor all while trying to not die of boredom. Enter Marcus, a handsome college man who drives the traveling library to towns without libraries. Meeting Marcus changes everything for Tamara because it is in the traveling library that she finds a blank diary that upon opening she discovers reveals to her the events of tomorrow.
Through the knowledge the diary provides Tamara begins to unravel family mystery and discovers that nothing is as it seems.

First off the reason I wanted to read this book is because the cover is absolutely beautiful (the picture really doesn't do it justice!) I know you are not supposed to judge a book by its cover but it was too hard to resist when I saw how cute this book looked I had to give it a shot. With that being said this book was a total let down! I was expecting a magical experience and instead I got underdeveloped characters, weird writing, and an overall shallow story. There were some interesting parts, and the ending is a surprise but this might not be worth picking up. It was extremely difficult to get into the book and then when you do it leaves you unsatisfied.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Yet another great book from Cecelia Ahern. She really brings you in to the story, makes you feel like you're there.
Published 5 days ago by kim creek
4.0 out of 5 stars tomorrow is what you make of it
I'm a big Cecelia Ahern fan and this lived up to the standards set by her adult books its a good clean story that teaches us that tomorrow is what you make of it no matter what... Read more
Published 1 month ago by l. gilles
3.0 out of 5 stars Best for Younger Audience
My book group picked this from the 'free' Book group selections on Kindle. We enjoyed the main character - so much that we wished the author had kept it 'real' with the plot -... Read more
Published 1 month ago by KKehler
4.0 out of 5 stars interesting plot ploy.
I enjoyed the book. It used an interesting plot ploy and twist ending. I'd say CecelIa Ahern does it again.
Published 1 month ago by LightMom
3.0 out of 5 stars ok!
Not the best book i've read, but it was all right. Ok for a long train trip when you have nothing else to do.
Published 2 months ago by mac
5.0 out of 5 stars Another Ahern Original
In my opinion, Cecelia Ahern is one of the most original authors out there. In her books, she takes circumstances that are common to the human experience--loss, grief, imaginary... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Joyce Rogers
4.0 out of 5 stars Would you do things differently if you knew what the day would bring?
After about 30%, I finally became engaged in this book and rushed to finish it. In our culture of YOLO, everyone is obsessed with today and "living" it. Read more
Published 2 months ago by CC
3.0 out of 5 stars like Cheddar Cheese Pringles for the thinly concocted characters with...
So it's better than just 3 stars, but not quite up to the 4 star range-- mostly because the ending felt like a rushed, tangled, too-revelatory-after-school-special-to-be-true... Read more
Published 2 months ago by kblincoln
4.0 out of 5 stars wonderful premise
I read this book quickly because I kept thinking about it when I wasn't reading. The main character, Tamara, is snarky but sympathetic, and the story unfolds in a compelling way... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Bella Street
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent couldn't put it down
This book was excellent. I read it in one sitting. Can't wait for her next book. Good job Cecelia Sheen!
Published 2 months ago by Mew
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