One Thousand Stars and You by Isabelle Broom

ONE THOUSAND STARS AND YOU

Isabelle Broom 

One spark will light up both their lives

This was such a lovely book to read over the summer holidays! The writing is gorgeous, warm and heartfelt and it was a delight to be caught up in the world of these characters who were all searching for something on their travels. 

The main character is Alice, about to settle down with Richard who offers stability, a safe future and everything Alice wants- or perhaps more truthfully, everything everyone around her wants for her. She's not quite prepared to accept that she feels a little trapped by her family and by Richard, but when there is a chance to travel with her best friends, she decides to take it. Why not have one last journey alone to feel free and do something full of adventure, risk and excitement? A trip to Sri Lanka is suddenly Alice's last chance to escape into the chaos, colour and heat of a country thousands of miles from home before she settles for a steady, predictable but comfortable life with Richard. 

Sri Lanka is as much a character in this novel as Alice and the other people she meets along the way. I've never been there but it was so easy to picture it all through Broom's effective evocation and descriptions. The location gently emphasises the themes explored in the book and the reader is immediately transported, not only immersed in the sights, sounds, smells and sense of the place, but also feeling the release in Alice and the freedom offered by this country. It's a great way of highlighting the contrasts in Alice's life and the reader is caught up in Alice's emotional journey as much as her physical one. 

Once there, Alice meet Max. The chapters alternate from Max to Alice and we find out that Max is also on a journey - physically and emotionally - as he tries to prove himself after a devastating injury that has left him changed in many ways. He is also in search of adventure, in need of escaping his over protective family, determined to find freedom and rediscover his identity through this trip. 

Both characters are very well created and the reader connects with both of them. Over the course of the holiday, Max and Alice become close and through their time together begin to confront their fears, the things they are trying to run away from and then gradually begin to realise what it is they both really want from life. 

To me this book felt very filmic and it was very easy to imagine the characters and all the scenes that take place. I was very happy to be transported away and watch the characters place themselves in challenging situations, make impulsive decisions and discover their inner strength. There's a great mixture of watching them all enjoy the company of old friends and make new ones. This is a group of young people on an adventurous holiday and in amongst the more serious issues, there is plenty of fun, humour and lightheartedness. Broom captures the dynamics between the friends with conviction and authenticity and she developed the emotional turmoil of both Max and Alice well, revealing their dilemmas, heart ache, fears and concerns as they both try to confront the real reasons they are on the trip.

There's heartbreak, there's drama, there's excitement, tension but ultimately this is a great love story with a truly heartwarming ending. Broom's writing is fluent, easy, polished and full of heart, understanding and insight about people and what it means to love. I really enjoyed it and found it the perfect holiday read. 

One Thousand Stars and You was published on 23rd August. 
My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of the novel.