It’s a long time since I read anything by Cecelia Ahern but I didn’t expect this.
In a Thousand different Ways made me think about how people live with unusual conditions and how they’re seen.
Beautifully written a story of one woman’s struggle against family and friends and finally finding love and accepting her condition.
Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this lovely book

Good, but I think the ending was rushed, and very last bit was a bit of a let down for me. Loved the premise, but I did not like the regular jumping between past and present. It seemed abrupt, possibly because of the way the ARC was presented. With thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I always go into a book blind. I never read blurbs, if the title catches me, cover catches me or it’s one of my favourite authors I’ll read it. In this case Cecelia is an auto buy author of mine and this book caught me off guard, my mind was 𝗕𝗟𝗢𝗪𝗡.

Looking at the cover and the title I immediately thought romance.

𝗪𝗥𝗢𝗡𝗚.

While the book has specs of romance in it. The story is mainly around Alice and her peculiar and tough journey through life.

There is a heavy touch on mental illness and abuse that Alice experiences through childhood and adulthood. To the point she struggled socially and mentally. This is where it threw me. I wasn’t prepared. I wasn’t prepared to be propelled into how deep and emotional this story was. How much it affected me to the point it took me longer than a week to read because I had to process what was going on.

Did I enjoy the book I hear you say? 𝗔𝗕𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗨𝗧𝗘𝗟𝗬! Once I’d gotten my head around what was going on and I understood it more I wanted to know how Alice coped, how she got through things and finding friendships and actual romantic relationships! Yes I 𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗗, I was so happy for her!

Reading Alice accept the hand she was dealt with in life and discovering how she turned all the negatives into positives was heartwarming!

Cecelia Ahern is a well known storyteller, this beautiful heartwarming story captures the reader from page one
Alice sees people’s colours, can feel their aura, she wears sunglasses from an early age to prevent her from seeing so much, she has a troubled time at school, is sent to a boarding school, she has few friends.
When her mother takes ill Alice steps up to being her full time carer, this is a thankless task some days but Alice takes her mother out in a wheelchair, the walk all the parks and being close to nature every day Alice realises she can also see the plants, she knows what ails them and they flourish under her care.
Unexpectedly Alice encounters a man on the tube who has no colours, she is intrigued, she spends weeks trying to find him again. They do eventually find each other and their story although not all plan sailing, is magical. Alice had always thought of her gift as a curse had never envisioned herself being married and having a family,
This is a beautiful intriguing story of a girl who is different, she battles with herself, she learns to allow herself to be herself. The story made me laugh, made me feel sad but is such a good read, it’s very atmospheric, I could almost see the colours myself.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Harper Collins UK for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.

This book is the life of Alice Kelly who has the rare condition of Synesthesia (dubbed Aura Migraine) whereby she can see the colour of people's aura and lives in a dysfunctional family. It is not clear if she was born with it or developed it later, but she is suffering alimentation and feels cursed. Ollie her younger brother soaks in his mother's blue and red (Depression and Anger) while Hugh her older brother with his Pink (Love) manages to be the beacon of sanity for Alice.

When she goes off to school for difficult children (with anger issues and lack of concentration) due to her mother and later come back home as a carer for her now invalid mother - the events are more fill in the blanks. I was waiting for critical events to happen - but they never did except for when Ollie gets released from Prison and she is forced to go out.

I know the adage it is not the destination but the journey that matters, but Alice's journey is more of the same. It felt a bit like a mega serial (soap opera) with an extraordinary person since the mini-events happened to be nothing life changing or from a novel form story line altering. I did admire the author's conviction to see the world in it's colors and some of it's passages around light and prism to demonstrate maturity. Some parts like wearing a shield or her sales roles through aura mirroring seemed a bit stretched. The last part of her family was in super fast forward mode like done around the publishing deadline.

The book is a laudable effort and appeals to you if you are patient and want to understand a unique life.

ARC: I would like to thank HarperCollins and Netgalley for the ARC of this book.

Another great Cecilia Ahern. I couldn’t help but love the main character in this book. I felt her pain along with her and really wanted things to improve for her.

Cecilia knows how to give enough attention to detail to make you feel everything the characters are feeling. The way she describes the colours that surround different people throughout this story is so clear, it felt like I could see them too

Highly recommend

I received a free digital download of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this book. Amazing concept. Beautifully described what life would be like if you could know people's emotions reflected in colours, their intentions and feelings. Sometimes a blessing, sometimes a curse. With realistic characters throughout. A great book to escape and melt into.

Cecelia Ahern is a most talented and beautiful writer. I don’t think I’ve ever read one of her books and not had a little cry and this book is no exception.

When a young girl suddenly realises she can “see” her mum’s mood by the colours she is giving off, which soon develops to seeing everyone around her, her life changes. She is different and life can be very difficult for anyone who is different.

A fantastic book that you just won’t want to put down.

Another unique and magical read from this amazing author, how does she manage it. Took a little while for me to get into the story but then I was hooked, a complete page turner, thankyou

The story is based on an interesting premise that Alice sees the emotional auras that people emit. She doesn’t understand her gift when she is young and is seen as a difficult child with behavioural difficulties. As she ages this gift has many effects on her life.
Making allowances for the way this book jumps about all over the place it is an unusual, interesting read. However the final chapters are a gallop thru births, and deaths in quite unseemly haste and spoil the overall effect of the novel.

I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I have read lots of Cecelia Ahern's book but this one I just couldn't get into, just too much jumping around to know what is going on and too much talking about aura's that it bored me.
Sorry not for me.
Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC

This novel’s main character, Alice, comes from a dysfunctional family. Her single mother, Lily, is a troubled soul who’s overwhelmed by her circumstances, has unpredictable behaviour, and a tendency to neglect to care for her three wary children.

As a young girl, Alice senses a blue cloud in the house that leads her to her mother’s bedroom. It gradually dawns on her that she is sensing people’s moods, motives and emotions in varying colours that indicate what is happening inside them.

The synesthesia helps Alice discern how others are feeling because of the colours/auras they unknowingly project. The downside of this is the way their negative emotions in particular can pervade and overwhelm her.

Alice tries to protect herself by wearing sunglasses and maintaining a physical barrier between herself and others. Later on, a Reiki instructor friend in London shows her how to safeguard herself by means of an aural shield. This works brilliantly yet considerably drains her energy.

Although her younger brother, Ollie, goes off the rails and spends time in jail, her elder brother, Hugo, and his wife, are a supportive, stable presence in her life. When Alice encounters Andy, she’s puzzled and inexorably drawn to him because she cannot detect any colours surrounding him.

Lily eventually becomes sick with cancer. With Ollie in prison and Hugh in Dohar, Alice is forced to return to Dublin to be her mother’s carer, a role she resents until nurturing plants becomes her saving grace and future career.

This is a well written book with an intriguing premise, sympathetically drawn characters, an empathetic approach to the subject of synesthesia, and a compelling protagonist whose challenges tug at the heartstrings.

It is let down a little by being written predominantly in the present tense which can be quite irksome, a slow-burn storyline, no clear demarcation between past or present storylines, and an ending which felt unsatisfactorily rushed. Grateful thanks to Harper Collins UK, Harper Fiction and NetGalley for the ARC.

As always Cecelia Ahern never fails to captivate the reader with a unique story - Alice has a gift - she can read people by their colours - the auras they give off this in turn is both a blessing and a curse . Detailing a difficult childhood with a mother who doesn’t care and siblings Hugh and Ollie this book offered the reader a heartfelt story of love and loss in a special and unique way

A truly magical and thought-provoking read! Luckily its school holidays so I could indulge in a whole day of reading . It made me wonder how we’d all look if we had colours representing our thoughts and feelings visible for the world to see. I loved Alice’s relationship with her older brother, her plants and the people in her life who loved her for who she was.
Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read and review this heartwarming read ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️📚

From the age of 8 Alice Kelly realises that she has a unique gift: she can visualise people's thoughts and emotions as colours surrounding them. She is not sure why she has this ability, but she suspects it is related to her mum Lily, who struggles with depression. Perhaps she has developed this as a coping mechanism so that she can read Lily's moods more effectively and protect her younger, more impressionable brother Ollie, so that the darkness doesn't rub off on him.

As she gets older Alice finds that although this gift is useful, it can also be ovewhelming as the colours dazzle, distract and worry her and she finds it hard to form relationships. Alice beomes withdrawn and isolated and her behaviour is a problem at school. We follow her journey as an adult - can she find a way to adapt, without being shunned as a freak?

This is a beautiful book, almost poetic, and the storyline is a really interesting  concept. I particularly like how Alice can read the feelings of plants and finds comfort from their positive energy - I suspect a  lot of houseplants would have a longer life if we all had this ability!

Since the age of eight Alice Kelly was able to know what others were feeling just by the colours surrounding them because she has synaesthesia, as a child she couldn't deal with it and was labelled a troublemaker, even being sent away to a school for unruly children, but over the years she has got used to being different, even using it at times to her advantage and for helping others.

In A Thousand Different Ways follows the story of Alice, who is clearly a misunderstood young girl, trying to deal with this special 'gift' and not really knowing why she is different to others. The story is told from Alice's perspective throughout and alternates between her childhood and life as an adult. It is an intriguing story with a unique plot and some interesting characters. I felt it was a long drawn out tale that came to life in the last few chapters, this made the rather poignant ending seem quite rushed.

I'd like to thank HarperCollins UK and Netgalley for the auto approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.

Alice sees everyone in colour . She knows what everyone is feeling and how these feelings affect everyone and everything around her. Sometimes this is pleasant but at other times it isn't. She comes from a dysfunctional family and is trying to find herself in the world.
Will she succeed and at what cost?

Alice Kelly sees colours, or auras, this alone causes her challenges however coupled with a turbulent childhood it is a tough for Alice.

The book follows Alice as she navigates through life, it’s a well written book (as you would expect from Cecelia Ahern) however personally I struggled to warm to Alice - I think that may be the point, I’m not sure!

The book did end well, all loose ends tied up but it was a struggle for me to get there!

Cecelia Ahern has stolen my heart with another wonderful book. The blurb doesn’t give much away so, to give this review a bit more context, the main premise is that at eight years old, Alice discovers can see a colourful aura for everyone she meets. This impacts the rest of her life, both negatively and positively.

Cecelia Ahern often injects more magical elements into her books. There was a time when I didn’t enjoy that and started to move away from her as an author. However, I really got back into her books in the last two years and now I love when she adds something like this. I feel like she has found the perfect balance between adding something unique to her stories and keeping the plot more realistic, for those who enjoy that angle more.

Speaking of unique, I found Alice to totally sit in this category. Of course, her ability makes her stand out from other characters but I also loved her journey from scared child, to navigating a challenging family, and finally making her own way in the world. To be honest, I didn’t think I would become so attached to her (or this book, for that matter), but I ended up feeling very emotional closing the last few chapters and saying goodbye to In A Thousand Different Ways. I’m a sucker for any character who is a bit different. I love finding flawed characters who make us feel we aren’t alone in the world.

This is rare for me to say but I think I would certainly read this again in the future. I also think it would be a great gift for someone looking for a little hope in their lives right now.

In a Thousand Different Ways by Cecilia Ahern is a character driven book that will tug at the heartstrings while completely engaging the reader.
Ever since she was ten, Alice knew that there was something different about her, she could see peoples emotions as colourful auras that surround them and if she is not careful she draws those emotions, be they positive or negative towards herself. This makes life very difficult, any situation involving crowds simply overwhelms her. Her negligent and abusive mother sees it as attention seeking , her father abandoned the family years ago and her little brother Oliver is too young to understand , only her older brother Hugh tries to understand and make things easier for her. Over the course of the book we move back and forward in time, seeing the struggles Alice faces while growing up, her difficult years acting as a full time carer for her mother and then her blossoming freedom as she moves away and finds a job she loves, a friend who can help her deal with her abilities and even a man who will love and understand her in a way she never even dreamed of. This is the beautiful story of an extraordinary and complicated woman's life, exquisitely told. I enjoyed the way the narration moved between the past and present, giving me as a reader a chance to better understand Alice. This is a gentle read in many ways, despite some difficult subject matter at times, and readers who enjoy fast paced action packed books may find that this is a little too slow for them, but if you love to sink into another life experience this will be perfect for you. I have read several of Ahern's books and this is my favourite to date.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher ,all opinions are my own,