Books by Cecilia Ahern always give me food for thought and this story was no different. I liked the main character Allegra and was invested in her journey. She follows the rules and thrives on structure. The characters were well developed and I especially liked the idea of the 5 people closest to you being your main influencers. This is a book that will stay with you long after you put it down. My only small gripe was the lack of speech marks! Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I found this book to be a bit of a slog but the characters were developing and interesting enough to keep me going.

The last few chapters are absolutely wonderful and now I'm thinking all about who are my 5 and I'm off to tell them how much I appreciate them.

I found this really slow I’m afraid. I was surprised as I had enjoyed the author’s previous books. My friend has enjoyed her copy, but sadly it wasn’t for me.

It took me a little while to get into this book but I am so glad I did.The main character Allegra (Freckles) develops beautifully throughout the story leading to a heartwarming end.

I enjoyed reading about Allegra Bird aka Freckles. This is a story about isolation and loneliness and how one young woman has her life transformed by the kindness of others and by acknowledging her own worth. It’s sad, funny and at times uplifting. Allegra is a traffic warden very set in her ways and her daily routine. She encounters Tristan on her rounds and from that point on, her life begins to take a turn for the better.

I recommend it to fans of Cecelia Ahern and to anyone who enjoys a lighthearted, feel good read.

My thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read and review Freckles.

I've never read a Cecelia Ahern book before, but this was delightful, following Allegra on her own journey of discovery, working out who she was, and where she belonged. Gentle, funny and quite emotional at times. I'll definitely read more by this author.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publishers for a copy of Freckles in return for an honest review.

In this book we follow Allegra Bird as she goes through life as a traffic warden, who is trying to meet their mother and is dealing with the day to day throws of life, friendship and whether she knows who she is.

The beginning of this book was great as you come to know Allegra as she goes through boarding school and how she gets her nickname Freckles.

The middle of this book, I will be honest I almost gave up, as it was for me very mundane, however, I came to realise that this was Allegra. She is a woman who likes to have routine and stability, she isn't great at interacting with people and picking up on social aspects. So eventually I came to find it charming and a really deep dive into her character. Tristan aka Rooster, was a great character also as he is the polar opposite of Allegra, so much so that they help balance each other out. Tristan is surrounded by yes people whilst Allegra because of the above, is very forward and says it how it is. There interactions, really made this book.

I loved the ending of this book, everything was so heart warming and just lovely. I won't say much more, because I don't want to ruin it. But I do feel like everything ended how it should have.

I have never read a Ahern book before, but will definitely be trying one again in the future.

Thank you so much for granting me this ARC!

I enjoyed this book a lot, it was different for me abs I felt for the characters in his novel. The story was gripping and every time I put it down I was left wanting more!

Some parts of this did fall a little short for me but overall a fab read!

Thank you to @Cecelia_Ahern and @HarperCollinsUK for this advanced copy of Freckles in return for an honest review.

Description 🔖

Allegra Bird (Freckles) hasn’t had a conventional upbringing and when she reaches her early twenties, she decides to make the bold step and move from her small town to Dublin. Failing to get her dream job she settles for becoming a parking warden and when on her patrol, a stranger tells her that she is the average of the five people she spends the most time with.

This hits a chord with Allegra; who were the five who made her who she is today and who are the five who will shape who she becomes?

General Thoughts 🤔

This book turned out to be nothing like I expected which is a bit odd because I don’t know what I expected. What I do know is that I really enjoyed it. It was a story about being human and vulnerable and putting yourself into situations that involve risk and bravery.

Freckles was a slow burner but I felt it was right for the story. The story is about Allegra and her journey to find herself and her five and that isn’t something that can be packed into two chapters. I thought that her story was uplifting and heart warming but also heart breaking at the same time.

Characters 👭👬👫

Allegra is obviously the main character and I liked her straight away; awkwardness and all. No matter what other people told her or how they judged her, she continued on her mission with her head held high (most of the time). She was understandably troubled and I don’t think I would have been as brave as her if in her shoes so I had the upmost respect for her.

There are lots of other characters in the story that either help or hinder Allegra but my favourite one was Tristan. I love books where there are characters that don’t turn out to be anything like how you expect them to be. Tristan was that for me. From an outsiders perspective, he seemed to be arrogant and ignorant but once the layers started to peel back, it became clear that he was just as vulnerable as Allegra.

Writing Style ✍️

Freckles is written completely from Allegra’s perspective and in her voice. I loved her voice. The back and forth of her internal monologues was fantastically written and made me giggle at even the moments when she wasn’t her happiest.

I enjoyed that that story was hinged on the “five people” phrase and at times dictated Allegra’s actions before coming full circle and concluding the story with the five people theme. It was a lovely way to conclude.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖️

I really enjoyed Freckles and loved her character. There are certainly things that happened to her that I can relate to in my own life and therefore empathise with her. I laughed and felt sad during the course of reading this book so it was a little bit of an emotional rollercoaster, but I’m glad that I went on the ride.

I am a huge fan of this authors work - ive read a lot and this book was written just as well as the others. This book is about Allegra or 'Freckles' as she is known who goes on a bit of a mission to find her five - from the phrase 'you are the average of your five people you spend the most time with.' This was very good. Freckles is quite unique in her outlook on life - shes had some bad experiences and these are very evident in her outlook on life. This book was written without speech - just prose and it took a bit of getting used to but it fitted the character really well. She likes her routine, its very real life and i found her a bit sad and lonely. All in all a great read.

As always, an excellent book from this author, well written with characters you could relate to, loved the plot and the way it played out, I've never read a bad book by this author

In Freckles we are introduced to the complex and unique personality of Allegra Bird, (aka Freckles) . The character is contradictory in so many ways, but still totally believable. She is fragile and vulnerable due to the abandonment by her mother at birth, but works as a traffic warden, diligently handing out parking tickets and taking the wrath of motorists.

She desperately wants to belong and seeks the love of her mother, but despite moving away to be close to her, will she ever get the courage to introduce herself?

She is fascinated by a man who drives a yellow Ferrari and has no respect for the parking regulations outside his place of work. Despite a very rocky start Freckles and Youtuber Rooster strike up a unique friendship. He tells her that ‘you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with’ and this leads Allegra on a journey of self discovery.

The book is told through the voice of Allegra with a strong Irish accent coming through brilliantly. There are no speech marks which could be off putting for some, but didn’t bother me at all.

I like the mix of humour and heartbreak , love and loss, friendship and family. The end is particularly heart warming and the characters are all vividly portrayed.

What a lovely book which had me finishing it with tears in my eyes. Allegra has left her home behind to come to Malahide where she works as a traffic warden. She has order and routine in her life but when an angry car owner insults her she takes it personally and takes a close look at her life and tries to change it for the better. With an interesting cast of characters from Tristan, Spanner and Pops issue trying too hard to find something that is there all along.

As always a clever, interesting read with a twist of quirky.

Freckles by Cecelia Aherne was just WOW!! This is up there with all of her books, I just love this author and devoured this book like every other of her books in one sitting. It captivated me from the first sentence and made me think about how we are all the average of the five people we spend the most time with…. Which five people would you choose? A fab, fab read.

Allegra has made a life for herself in Dublin, working as a traffic warden with a side-line as an artist’s model. She enjoys the routine and the rules, but she’s in Dublin for a reason and needs to pluck up the courage to see her mission through. A chance encounter with an angry driver makes Allegra re-evaluate her life and gives her a new purpose. A light-hearted, humorous tale with some darker undertones, Freckles is sure to appeal to a range of readers.

Allegra Bird is a woman who has spent much of her life being defined for what she has (Freckles) without knowing who she really is. When she meets Rooster, he tells her that we are the sum of the five people we spend time with and that they influence who we are. Allegra has been on the lookout for one main person who has been missing from her life since she was born, but also is struggling to realise that her special 5 might have just been around her the whole time and she was the one who did not realise their value. At times gut wrenching, this novel about quirky Allegra (who you will alternatively despise, love and feel sympathy for), her freckles and her life as a parking warden was very well written and the end left me satisfied with how the story played out.

Thank you for my advanced copy.
I really enjoyed this story. . At times I really felt for Allegra and her haphazard way of managing her life.
Ending was slightly predictable but overall 4/5.

I adored Allegras character and related to her in so many ways especially with having a small circle, the vulnerability, the feeling of loss. She lands herself in some sticky situations and I was almost shouting at the book because you don't want her to do it. I enjoyed going on her quest to find these five people only for the realization that they are right there. It made me reflect on similar situations and Allegra has this missing/empty feeling sometimes that can get so overwhelming that she will fill it with meaningless people and tasks but until she looks closer it might already be there. It got deeper into how we connect to people and friendships good and bad. Also the realisation that not what you always want will be yours.

The author did a grand job with craving such a quirky, complex and relatable character. Some characters you will love some and some not so much but again beautifully crafted that they each hold their own identity and relate to the story really well.



This will be such a good bookclub read choice as you can have so many discussion points and it will curate different types of view points. It is a real emotional rollercoaster of a read but I just loved it

REVIEW
⭐⭐⭐
Freckles by Cecelia Ahern

Allegra simply wants to belong; her mother abandoned her when she was born so she sets herself a task to find her.

But when things don't go to plan she feels more lost than ever.

In this novel, we follow Allegra's journey as she finds herself and comes to a realisation of her own.

I've read a couple of Ahern's novels and this one was very different to what I'm used to. At first, I wasn't sure about it; however, in the end, I found it meaningful and beautiful like all the other books by this author.

At times this novel was sad, so sad I held back tears and at one point had to put it down. But this author has a uniqueness to give us something raw and real and get us thinking at the same time.

It got me thinking (like all of her novels) about 5 influential people around me and to question a lot also. A very deep and thoughtful book.

It took me a little while to settle into this one. Allegra is a traffic warden in Dublin and an encounter with a persistent parking offender causes her to evaluate who are the 5 people who most influence her. She does a lot of soul searching and reaching out and you get to know what has moulded her life up to the present time