If You Could See Me Now - Cecelia Ahern (1 of 23)

More than a decade since I read her 'P.S.I Love You' which had turned out to be one of my favorite, which made me grab this one many months before.  This book sat on my bookshelf for quite a while, waiting for me to be ready to read it. May be I lacked the imagination and creativity to read it in between the huzzle-buzzle of daily life. Finally New - Year was time. With new imagination and less work pressure, I flew through the book unable to set it aside. The story is so sweetly touching. It's playful and lighthearted yet full of deep emotion and caring. This is a story about coming into your own and letting go of the deep seeded beliefs and fears that get in your way. . You finish reading to realize so much  ways you have or haven't been truly living, or the ways your fears have held you back and suddenly you can see no other way to live other than laughing in a field making wishes. 

Comming to the story, this is a breezy romantic comedy/fantasy, but what you might not expect is the emotional punch. It will floor you.

Elizabeth Egan lives in a small Irish town and takes care of her nephew Luke. She's an interior designer and her life seems perfectly organized, but hectic. Into their lives comes Ivan, a sort of "professional imaginary best friend". They usually show up to help kids, but it's Elizabeth, who seems to have forgotten what it's like to imagine and dream, who needs him. What follows is a series of hilarious scenes of misunderstanding fueled by Elizabeth's "sleepwalking" through her life. Interspersed with these are episodes of breathtaking emotion. Cecelia Ahern's writing is very good, but in these scenes it is simply brilliant. This is the kind of story you totally disappear in. It's about letting go and finding your imagination, but then you stop and think that it is the imagination of one person - the writer - who has created this wonderful story. Ahern is the kindest of writers.  

Reading here first book, I was spell bound and though that is my favorite, and more realistic, this was a little fairytale kind.

Kindness is something  we crave the most, and all too often it doesn't show up. This lovely book blazes with it.  May be a lesson to be kind and be like Ivan to all this New Year.