I am not sure about this book to be honest, it's weird. The main character is weird the rest are not really very nice. The story is weird. A traffic warden is just not the most exciting topic on the planet.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I really like this author and although I enjoyed this book, the characters and the storyline it was not her best hence the lower rating. Sorry

I’ve loved all of cecelia aherns previous books so was excited to read freckles

The story is well written, freckles is a great character and the back story, current job, new challenges and observations from freckles is great

Took me a few chapters to get in to the story but when I did I devoured the book in a day!

Fantastic as usual
5 stars
Must read

Freckles by Cecelia Aherne


I’m giving ‘Freckles’ 4 stars. It is an engaging, uplifting read. The main character, Allegra Bird is well-drawn and interesting one. While she doesn’t always make the best choices, I was always rooting for her. We get to know her well over the course of the book, as aspects of her life and character are revealed to us through flashbacks, and her interactions with those around her. The setting of the book is very real too, as the action moves between the remote Valentia Island in Kerry and the affluent south Dublin suburb of Malahide.

The concept of the ‘five people’ is thought-provoking and gave me plenty to ponder both as I read it, and afterwards.

One gripe I have is that the dialogue in the book can be a little hard to follow at times as there are no quotation marks and it is interspersed with Allegra’s own observations.

All in all, a recommended read.

I received an advanced copy of ‘Freckles’ in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

A book about Allegra brought up by an eccentric father, her mother has had nothing to do with her since she was born. Allegra is an individual character, currently working as a parking warden, we read about her deepest thoughts thoughts and little by little come to understand what has shaped her life choices. Meeting Tristan a software developer,, she starts to think about the five most influencial people in her life. Some encounters are better than others for her. Is she too naive ? It took me a while to get to know and like her character, though by the second part of the book I was hooked and it became a real page turner.
I have enjoyed most of Cecelia Ahern's books, though they are not always an easy read.
Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Half way through I was thinking 3 stars but now I have finished I am giving it 4

I could not decide whether or not I liked this book! I found it slow to absorb me - it was not until I had read two thirds that I felt I embraced Allegra and wanted the best for her. She was a strange soul - unable to make real connections with people - brought up by her eccentric fathers and sent away to boarding school at 5. She wants a connection with her birth mother but does not know how to make it. She has a disparate number of links with people but she does not really open up to any of them.

One day she is asked who are the 5 people who have influenced her character and development - she is made to think and reevaluate her connections with those around her.

An interesting story about the value of friendships and social connections.

Freckles by Cecelia Ahern is the moving story of Allegra Bird, aka Freckles, a young woman who has moved to Dublin, away from the father who raised her solo, in search of the mother who abandoned her as a baby. Freckles has always felt a little out of step with the rest of the world, struggling to make sense of social cues, and award to the point of rudeness. She likes her job as a traffic warden, making sure people follow the rules plays right into her need for order, but a troubling encounter with a young man who seems to have no regard for the parking laws sets her spinning. His idea that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with causes her to pause and re-evaluate her life and question who and what matters most.
This is a slow paced gentle book, with moments of humour counterbalanced by moments of heart breaking poignancy. It is not a traditional love story, rather it is the story of a young woman's coming to terms with herself and her family and I know it gave me reason to pause and think about who I am choosing to spend my time with, and why. Freckles may not be the most likeable of characters, but she is one that many readers will relate to. I also really enjoyed the setting of the book, having lived in Malahide for several years it felt very nostalgic to revisit it in the pages of this book. Ahearn has excelled in the cast of secondary characters that populate Freckle's story, they are vividly sketched even when we only meet them briefly, and she manages to make them believable without resorting to stereotype. Overall a book with a lot of heart and a very enjoyable and rewarding read.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

A heartwarming story of friendships and connections.I enjoyed reading this book although it took me quite a while to get into it, l think this was because l personally didn’t take to Allegra.

Allegra Bird’s arms are scattered with freckles, a gift from her beloved father. But despite her nickname, Freckles has never been able to join all the dots. So when a stranger tells her that everyone is the average of the five people they spend the most time with, it opens up something deep inside.

The trouble is, Freckles doesn’t know if she has five people. And if not, what does that say about her? She’s left her unconventional father and her friends behind for a bold new life in Dublin, but she’s still an outsider.

Now, in a quest to understand, she must find not one but five people who shape her – and who will determine her future.

What a read you are transported to Ireland where you are engulfed in the people and landscape. The main protagonist Allegra is wonderful although not likeable all the time and is sometimes frustrating!! A heart warming story and one I enjoyed.

Allegra Bird’s arms are scattered with freckles, a gift from her beloved father. But despite her nickname, Freckles has never been able to join all the dots. So when a stranger tells her that everyone is the average of the five people they spend the most time with, it opens up something deep inside.

The trouble is, Freckles doesn’t know if she has five people. And if not, what does that say about her? She’s left her unconventional father and her friends behind for a bold new life in Dublin, but she’s still an outsider.

Now, in a quest to understand, she must find not one but five people who shape her – and who will determine her future.

Told in Allegra’s vivid, original voice, moving from modern Dublin to the fierce Atlantic coast, this is an unforgettable story of human connection, of friendship, and of growing into your own skin.

Thanks to Netgalley for an early review copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. It's been a while since I read a Cecelia Ahern but this one is truly fantastic. I loved Allegra and her, what seemed initially to be, odd ways but as we go through the book you begin to learn why she does the things she does and understand more of her character. It's an easy reading style as well, talking is not marked by speech marks,

Overall a 5 star read and one I'll definitely be recommending to others.

I found this book hard to get into. Allegra Is a 24 year old who was raised by her rather eccentric father. She has had a difficult upbringing, sent to boarding school where she was picked on, so concentrated on her freckles and the star constellations. She doesn’t get her dream job so instead becomes a traffic warden. She settles in a village where she happily knows her route, has order in her life until one day she meets rooster. He says a statement to her about everyone having five people in their life, who have made a difference to her life. But Allegra takes his words to heart and her life begins to change for the better or worse??

You have to love a story about a traffic warden with a heart. This is a quirky and original story about Allegra, nicknamed Freckles, and a quest which takes her to Dublin, far from her rural home and eccentric father. It kept me reading all the way through as she struggles with her job, social life, and seeming lack of friends, before realising that maybe she does have the important people in her life that she needs.

I really enjoyed this book, it was so emotive and I loved Allegra’s character. At 24 and on a mission having moved to Dublin, she is somewhat awkward at times and trying to find her place in the world. She reminds me of Eleanor Oliphant, says it how it is without any filter, unique, endearing and ultimately seeking human connection.
The maternal side of me wanted to scoop her up and take her home but this may also be because she reminds me of my own daughter!

The story is very character focused with the theme of “you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with” running throughout the book - a concept I found really intriguing.

Cecelia has written this in a different way, almost short hand, in the narrative of Allegra herself (does that make sense?!) which enables you to really see things through her eyes.

Finishing this book on my break at 4am on a night shift didn’t make for a pretty face, there was many tears and a fair few snot bubbles!!

Allegra's vulnerability is evident from the outset of this book at boarding school, where she first draws then scratches and scars her skin, joining her freckles into constellations on her arms.
Fast forward to today and she is an equally vulnerable young woman, working as a parking warden whilst trying to resolve one of the biggest quandaries of her life.
Allegra is rocked off her carefully planned axis by "Rooster", owner of a yellow car she has ticketed on several consecutive days who make a throw away comment in the heat of the moment that causes Allegra great angst and a lot of self reflection that ultimately lead her (via some disasters) to a much happier existence.
lovely characters as always from Cecelia Ahern.

Unfairly I think there is a certain amount of snobbery, here in Ireland anyway, about Cecelia Ahern books. I admit I don’t usually pick them up. Of course, like the entire world I was a massive fan of PS I Love You but I never really gave her the credit she deserves a writer until now. Freckles is an incredibly well written book. One of my top five of this year for sure. The writing actually blew me away and it really was a case of not being able to put it down. I knew nothing about the book before I started reading it and I’m glad for that, so I just give a brief synopsis. Freckles is a young girl who is at a crisis point in her life. She has moved to dublin from Kerry and is working as a traffic warden for Fingal county council in the affluent suburb of Malahide. She meets a man who starts her off on a journey of self discovery. I love Freckles and all the minor characters in the story as well. There is one flaw though, that it seems to me quite impossible for her to have made all those connections having only lived in Dublin for six months, but it didn’t take away from the story for me at all and I loved it from beginning to end. I will now always reach for a Cecelia Ahern book when I see one on the shelf.

This was a slow burn and I abandoned it several times but ultimately came to enjoy it. Allegra herself is at first prickly and hard to relate to but the more you come to learn about her, the more you root for her. This ended up becoming a thought-provoking and satisfying read.

This book drew me in gradually. I wasn’t keen on the opening but as I came to understand Allegra as a character and how her life experiences had shaped her thinking and emotions, I had to see where it went. It kept me guessing and I like that in a book. I thought the supporting characters were excellent - we all know a Daisy, for example. Overall, I really enjoyed this novel; well written and edited, the more I read, the more I wanted to read. And - the ending was much better than the beginning!

Freckles by Cecelia Ahern didn’t immediately grip me with its somewhat slow narrative. I spent most of the book waiting for something to happen or for Allegra to find a modicum of joy.
It didn’t help that Allegra, or Freckles as she is known, isn’t instantly likeable and makes very questionable and frustrating choices throughout the book. To be fair, her focussed quest limits her options to challenge the equilibrium, including her demanding landlords. Her inability to connect with people and read situations in order to respond in a more socially engaging and measured way certainly seems to be Cecelia’s attempt to give insight into a somewhat autistic and compulsive personality and the challenges which that brings. Allegra’s own realisation that “human interaction is often like a dance I can’t quite catch the rhythm to” goes a long way to explain her social and personal awkwardness, her intransigence with rules and her limitations in reading people’s behaviours. Set beside that is the intense damage caused by her mother’s absence from her life. Never doubting the love from, and for, her very eccentric father seems to be the only constant that allows Allegra to function. She seems to see any other relationship or interaction purely from her own point of view and for the prime purpose of meeting her own needs, from getting her waffle from Spanner to tolerating Paddy, who trained her and clearly supports her, to casual sexual encounters at her art modelling class. It’s certainly an excellent narrative of a journey of self discovery and Cecelia paints some very interesting, diverse characters in Allegra’s orbit. The slow progress delivers more impact once things build to a chaotic crisis. Allegra experiences humiliation from Tristan and his team, cruelty from Becky, manipulation by Daisy, isolation and perceived betrayal as her best friend and ex boyfriend couple up. All of this along with the physical and psychological distance from her dad and aunt are in stark contrast to the genuine connection and care that Allegra eventually realises she has with Spanner, Paddy, Genevieve and even Donnacha. There are so many light touches on deep and dark issues throughout the book. There’s the hurt and struggle from Pop’s unwanted romantic advances, there’s the boarding school girls with their range of struggles with bulimia, sexuality, cutting and theft. There’s Daisy’s false social media persona and Becky’s infidelity.
It’s a somewhat dark read underneath with a shockingly brutal psychological climax and then the eventual (satisfactory) conclusion. Overall, one that might continue to give pause for thought so well done to Cecelia for a thought provoking read. Three and a half stars rounded to four

Nice plot, not sure if it was well executed though, the moral of the story was that there are always five people in your life that you spend a lot of time with and those quality moments make you the person you are.

The idea was decent but not one of the best works of Ahern, her earlier books I've found far more wow factor in, this I felt was a really slow burner and I struggled to want to keep returning to this book, Ahern since becoming more mainstream has struggled to hold my attention. Bring back the magic!

Ahern has really built a name for herself and her writing is faultless but all this means nothing to me as a reader if I can't hold my attention in a book. But the fact that Ahern always writes thought provoking, inspirational stories always brings me back to her like an old friend, so whilst I didn't enjoy this book, I always be coming back to read this wonderful author.

With thanks to Netgalley. publishers and the author for this free ARC in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Such a lovely story about a girl who was abandoned at birth by her mother. Allegra Bird has moved to be near her mum and try and get to know her before introducing herself as the baby she gave up. Allegra is a traffic warden and one of the serial offenders she gives parking tickets to makes a comment about how you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. It makes her think about her life and who her closest friends are. She goes home to visit her dad and friends she knew at school before she went to live in Dublin and soon realises there is nothing left for her there.
It was very sad in parts but by the end Allegra has 5 new people she can rely on.