Carlotta OKeeffe är lyckligt förlovad och ser fram emot sitt stundande bröllop. Hon har framtiden utstakad för sig, både på det privata planet och när det gäller hennes hektiska yrkesliv. Kanske får Chris inte hennes hjärta att klappa varje gång hon ser honom, men det är väl naturligt att känslorna svalnar litegrann efter ett tag?
Och så, under en resa till Sevilla, stöter Carlotta ihop med Luke Evans. Luke krossade hennes hjärta för så många år sedan att hon nästan lyckats övertyga sig själv om att hon hade glömt honom. Nu är han ingen pojke längre, utan en snygg och spännande man. Och han kan förklara vad som hände den där dagen för så länge sedan. Plötsligt är Carlotta inte säker på någonting längre. Förutom att det beslut hon fattar nu kommer att påverka resten av hennes liv...
As you can see, a Dubliner all my life. My parents owned a grocery shop in the Iveagh Markets, in the Liberties area of the city and I guess city blood runs through my veins.
As a child I enjoyed reading and telling stories and everyone thought that I end up in a job which had something to do with books and literature. But though I applied for a job in the library all of the job offers I got were in commerce.
I turned down lots of them before my mother accepted one for me (I was on holiday at the time). It was in the Central Bank of Ireland and that’s how my career in financial services began.
I started out in administration and then moved jobs until finally I was working as a dealer in a commercial bank. Eventually I was promoted to Chief Dealer (the first female CD in the country). I traded lots of different things – foreign exchange, swaps, options, bonds…all of the kind of things you read about in the papers and that sound very technical and difficult. Of course once you’re doing it, it’s not half as technical as it sounds.
But I still loved reading and writing (which I did in my spare time) and I desperately wanted to write my own book. I guess I never quite got over the fact that I was never offered the library job! In my thirties I decided that it was now or never and I sat down, stuck Chapter 1 on a page, and started. I wrote the whole thing before sending it off.
I was offered a publishing deal (with no advance) by an Irish company but only if I wrote a different book! So back to the drawing board, I started again. It was another two years before it was published. It wasn’t until I’d written a few books and was offered a contract (this time with an advance!) from another publisher that I felt able to give up my trading job and write full time. So, even though it took a long time, I eventually realised my dream of being a full-time writer.
And now I also write a business column for the Irish Times.
When I’m writing a book I want to do three things:
* Tell a good story * Make the reader feel like they know the characters * Make each book better than the last
I don’t write for any particular audience but I suppose I must have people like me in mind – people who have busy lives and who like to escape into someone else’s for a while.
I love writing books. I hope you enjoy reading them.
While I was reading If You Were Me by Sheila O'Flanagan, it reminded me of a Katy Perry's old, cheesy, heart-breaking love-song:
In another life I would be your girl We'd keep all our promises Be us against the world
In another life I would make you stay So I don't have to say You were the one that got away The one that got away
Sheila O'Flanagan, an International Best-Selling author, has spun a terrific heart-breaking as well as deeply moving love-story named, If You Were Me who took me on an emotional roller-coaster ride.
Synopsis: Carlotta O'Keefe is happily engaged, and the wedding plans are coming together. She's clear about her future path, both personally and in her busy career. Maybe Chris doesn't make her heart race every time she sees him, but you can't have that feeling for ever. Can you? Then, on a trip to Seville, Carlotta runs into Luke Evans. Luke broke her heart so long ago she'd almost convinced herself she'd forgotten him. Now, he's not that boy any more, but an attractive and intriguing man. And he can explain everything that happened way back when. Suddenly Carlotta's not so sure of anything anymore.
Since this is the first ever Sheila O'Flanagan book that I read, I am sorry to say that I won't be able to judge Sheila better by her previous books. Hence I can only praise about her and her story-telling. Wow, why haven't I discover this author before? Her free-flowing narrative style completely bewitched me.
Yeah, Sheila completely made me feel what Carlotta was feeling from the page number #1 to page number #389. In some way, I felt myself as Carlotta. I felt that sting of pain on seeing an old flame after a long time in a whole new country. I felt the sting of pain when my best friend started hating me. I felt everything and I think I'd like to hats off to the author for pouring out all the correct and rich emotions so sharply in the pages of her book. I got completely arrested by the way the story started to unfold in front of my eyes.
Thank you Sheila for giving us a taste of Seville in Spain by showing us live flamenco performance so vividly and by describing the landscape of Seville so intricately.
The characters that Sheila created are all very well-developed and very skillfully molded. Carlotta, Sive, Dorothea, Chris, Luke- these are the characters I loved the most and they will all strike you as someone you already know. Carlotta's demeanor and her emotions completely captivated my heart. And I feel whatever way Carlotta was behaving in the crisis period of her life; I think it was totally apt and justified. Carlotta's decisions were very brave and strong and she showed us that sometimes being all career minded doesn't hurt much. The chemistry between both Chris and Luke with Carlotta are painted very warmly. The inevitable attraction between Luke and Carlotta will keep you hooked till the very last page of the book. This book completely made me a die-hard fan of Sheila.
Verdict: Read this book for your "one-that-got-away" guy/girl.
Courtesy: I'd like to thank the publishers from Headline Review for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.
Review: I struggled with this book a little bit. I enjoyed it when I was reading it but It really didn't stick with me and I didn't feel driven to pick it back up again after I'd out it down. I think the premise behind the story is an interesting one, but not much is done with it really. There are some interesting relationships and some interesting friendships but I didn't find any of them sticking in my head and didn't particularly want to find out more about any of them. I just feel a bit like nothing happened in this book, I suppose. Quite clearly things did happen but I feel like it could have been written a lot more dramatically.
Carlotta was an interesting character. I found her very difficult to like. She was pretty indecisive and yet selfish at the same time. She starts off the book with a bang, a big presentation, she is very much career driven and successful and yet she looses this passion and drive somewhere along the course of the novel. I really didn't like her fiancé and couldn't see how they got together in the first place, they didn't seem compatible and the other love interest in the story had been a childhood sweetheart but now I couldn't see how he was going to fit into Carlotta's life. Her best friend is also fairly dislikalble although she does make Carlotta see sense in the end and so I am grateful for that.
There are some interesting scenes in the book, Carlotta does go through a stage where she rediscovers her drive for work and sorts her life out a bit but these are peppered with little anecdotes that I don't think really gave anything towards the storyline. I enjoyed the ending but just wished the book could've been a little more like the ending rather than sort of meandering it's way there via a series of linked events and semi-interesting flashbacks. This book wasn't really for me but wouldn't stop me picking up another book by this author again.
Although I'm a big fan of Sheila O'Flanagan, I was utterly disappointed by this book. I couldn't wait to finish it, as I haven't warmed up to Carlotta. Her character doesn't make any sense in her personal & her professional life. She was acting like a teenager who couldn't make up her mind, and the end is disappointing too - throwing away all her work when HE could have come with her if she was so important.
How could I have forgotten, ever so briefly, what a delicious novel Sheila O'Flanagan writes!! I enjoyed this one immensely, so satisfying to curl up and devour this book from one of the best queens of chick lit. Carlotta is soon to be married to Chris. Other than a snooty future mother in law, her life is perfect. Chris is an ophthalmologist and the love of her life, she has a very lucrative powerful job she excels at, and a wonderfully close best friend. But then a chance meeting with someone from her past throws her into a tailspin and she thinks maybe her life isn't all that she thought it was. Luke lived next door, they were best friends for years until they found themselves moving on from that to having their first date when they were 15. And to Carlotta, it was magic. Luke said "I'll call you tomorrow". And then he and his family were gone the next morning. What happened? Where'd they go? A part of her always felt unsettled, the teenage love she remembered is intense, but she moved on. At least she thought she had. What is it about teenage love and the one that got away? Was it all in her head that she's glorified over the years or is Luke really the one. Is she going to risk everything for something that may not even be real. I kept returning to the title "if you were me". I think what I would do might be different than what I would do say 20 years ago. Life is short, do we deserve to go after our happiness at the price of someone else's, when is it just cold feet? I loved this juicy book. I loved Carlotta's drive, ambition and strength. I did not love Sive. Best friends are supposed to be there to support, and what about the girl code? I am pretty sure my reaction would not be the same as Carlotta's, long term friendship or not. I think this book will appeal to a lot of women. It's fluffy, yet there's more to it than that. I need to go to my tbr pile (well, maybe not tbr pile, more like a room) and fetch me some more of Sheila's delights.
I love Sheila O'Flanagan's books. I get enraptured in her story telling usually. But this one was good, its was OK, light reading but nothing like I haven't read before in this kind of instance.
The page starts with Carlotta realizing she is running an hour late for her day, this leads on to all kind of domino effects of plans she had.
Carlotta is also due to marry Chris. Chris doesn't make her heart flutter but he's solid, he's trustworthy and he's there for her.
She has a good career, she knows where her path is leading in life and she's self assured until.......
The man who walked out of her life many years ago as a boy has not returned a man. When she bumps into him she is catapulted right back to the past. This hunk of a guy has now stirred up a hornets nest inside her heart and her mind.
Its a good read, I am glad I read it and I do recommend it, its just for me, too much of a sameness to other stories I have read.
So Carlotta is quite successful, engaged and all around happy young woman. She is making her wedding plans and expects to be happily married for ever after just in a little while... She goes on a business trip to Spain, misses her train and ends up bumping into her first love, Luke... yeah, see Luke's father used to be a con man and the had to relocate to Spain to avoid the tail of "glory" that he had attracted. But anyway, here we have Luke.... they really had just one date years ago, and used to be more friends but then everything came to an abrupt halt, as Luke's family just got up and went away without warning.... Carlotta's family stayed in the same address, but no it didn't occur to Luke to write a letter or anything...
Anyway, one kiss and Carlotta all in love again, though Luke seems to behave lukewarm towards her.... but it's enough for Carlotta to go back to look for him again and to try and see if he feels the same...
I was looking forward to reading this book and expected it to be one of those quick reads that you finish within a couple day without putting a book down, because it's so easy to read.... I thought it would be a fast paced fun read... But it honestly was a disappointment.
It took me about a week and a half to get through the book, and at the end I just forced myself to finish it.
First third of the book was just like an intro.... slow, nothing happens, tonnes of unnecessary going back and forth in times, nothing major, nothing exciting. Then it eventually comes to a point when things start happening, yet again, it's all too slow, too boring, lack of passion and excitement....
I would credit writing itself, but the composition and the detailing were just failing me all the time, and I've give 3 stars rather more out of respect to the author than out of pleasure.
I wouldn't mind, the book had good idea for the twist, but the characters were too flats, lacking drive and passion, their feelings made yawn instead of making your heart beat faster and guess what's gonna happen next...
This is another amazing book by Shelia O’Flanagan, and is one of my favourites.
Carlotta is more focused on being successful both in terms of her career and personal life than what will really make her happy. But having a chance encounter with Luke, her childhood friend has left her with a feeling that cannot be explained. Suddenly Carlotta is aware that there are some things in her life that are not quite perfect. Soon Carlotta has a big decision to make.
Is she just in a muddle because of wedding stress? Can she really put it down to wedding nerves or is it something more? Or such she throw everything away based on a feeling from a long time ago? And can you really plan your future?
This is an extremely enjoyable read (much like other novels by Shelia O’Flanagan), while there is some predictability in the story regarding some aspects of the plot, there are also some unexpected twists. Throughout If You were Me we see different aspects of Carlotta – Lottie to Chris, friends and family, Carlotta in the office and Carly to Luke. She also acted differently with different people making you wonder how much she is being herself in these relationships – who is the true Carlotta?
If you were Me is about dilemmas, uncertainty of the future and how everything does not have to be perfect. Sometimes only by taking a chance can you experience something memorable.
Dit is het eerste boek van Sheila O’Flanagan dat ik tegen vind vallen. Sommige stukken waren echt saai. Carlotta blijft maar over haar jeugdliefde Luke dromen. Die passages duurden mij te lang. Op een gegeven moment wist ik het wel. Daardoor heb ik me soms echt door het verhaal moeten worstelen. Ook voelde ik niet echt een connectie met de hoofdpersoon. Daardoor bleef het verhaal op afstand. Zo tegen het einde gebeurt er eindelijk wat. Maar het einde vind ik weer tegenvallen. Het is maar goed dat dit niet mijn eerste boek van deze schrijfster is, want ik weet niet of ik dan een ander boek had geprobeerd. Gelukkig schrijft Sheila O’Flanagan normaal leukere boeken. Dus ondanks dat deze tegenvalt, is het zeker niet mijn laatste. Toch zou ik deze niet aanraden.
An easy read, nice storyline that’s easy to follow and get invested in.
Only thing I found was I waited most of the book for Carlotta and Luke to find each other and be together … it happened and the book abruptly ended! As a soppy romantic who wanted some of that happy ending feeling I was like nooooo I need more haha.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Yet again Sheila O’Flanagan has won me over with a new set of characters and an intelligent but romantic storyline. It’s heart-warming, has some fab locations and a lively pace that kept my attention from beginning to end.
First Line of If You Were Me:
When I open my eyes and focus on the clock beside the bed, I realise with absolute horror that I should have been awake an hour ago.
My Thoughts on If You Were Me: Well I think the 5 star rating is a bit of a giveaway that I loved this one. My favourite thing about this is Carlotta who is the main character. She is an intelligent, career driven woman and her life seems charmed. She is engaged to a handsome man who on paper seems to be her Mr Perfect, her career is on the up and up, she has close ties with her family and her best friend is always there to lend her rock solid support.
However the only problem with Mr Perfect is that the chemistry is ok but it’s not sizzling. They have a good relationship but you see very early on that Carlotta is settling for ok and thinks that is enough. Her career is important to her and she puts a lot of her passion and creativity into succeeding at her job and into carefully manoeuvring her way through the tricky environment of office politics. I love reading about focused women who are ambitious and dedicated but who are still warm and frivolous. I’m all for bursting through the glass ceiling and doing in a pair of kick ass trendy heels.
When reading, I felt that her fiancé Chris was stifling her. It was his way or no way and even though Carlotta’s career was every bit as successful as his, you just knew that he saw her job as far more trivial. As did his meddling mother! A future mother-in-law from hell which made me groan in sympathy and frustration for Carlotta.
The book starts off in Spain as Carlotta is on a work assignment there. And it is obvious from this book (and lots of Sheila’s other books) that Spain is very dear to her heart. She always describes the settings so well that you are wrapped up in warm haze of Spanish sunshine. And it’s never the obvious tourist places instead it has the authentic Spanish off the beaten path feel to it.
And in Spain she runs in to her long lost friend Luke. As a teenager, he was her best friend and her first love and when he disappeared overnight from her life, he smattered her heart. In the relaxing Spanish setting; the sizzles that were missing from Carlotta’s life are finally exploding around her like fireworks. And it means she has a lot of thinking and re-evaluating of her life ahead of her. She needs to dissect all parts of it and see what’s really important.
I did find that the direction the story was heading in was predictable however that didn’t detract from my love of it in the slightest. It is such a character driven book that the journey to the destination is what matters. And the theme of finding balance between work and personal life is one that I’m sure one that lots of people will relate to and engage with.
Overall this book is warm, romantic, and full of emotion with characters that spring to life before your eyes. I love that it’s not just a fluffy read but it has a great mix of serious and relevant topics alongside the fluff so that it an attractive and compelling read. It has summer read scribbled all over it and just screams to be added to your beach bag.
Who should read If You Were Me: I’d highly recommend this for all lovers of contemporary fiction especially if you like characters that are strong, intelligent and engaging. Also recommended to you if you like Irish or Spanish settings as these were a highlight of the book for me. Fans of authors such as JoJo Moyes, Carmel Harrington and Patricia Scanlan should also appreciate this book.
Thanks to Bookbridgr and Headline Books for giving me a copy of this book in exchange of an honest, unbiased review.
I think this book is a good holiday read. It's not demanding and quite predictable but despite that its OK. At least it made me want to visit Seville!!
This book was chosen by a member of my reading group and certainly divided opinion when we met to discuss it, with the member who chose it (a real fan of Sheila O’Keefe’s novels) loving it, a couple of others finding it a moderately enjoyable, if lightweight read, whilst the rest of us found it rather tedious, predictable and with characters who felt far too stereotypical. Like most of my fellow group members I found the relentless use of the “historic present” tense to be rather wearing, agreeing that it is a literary device which is more effective when used sparingly. The various themes, about the nature of love, friendships, commitment, ambition, the power of families, about facing up to dilemmas and making choices, taking risks and trusting ones own feelings all provided some interesting topics for discussion. However, we struggled throughout with the overall credibility of a story which was so dependent on what felt like far too many coincidences. The recurring references to designer clothes and shoes, to physical appearance, perfectly planned weddings all added to the feeling that this was a lightweight and superficial story. The fact that it was told solely from the point of view of the main character meant that we had to surmise what the other characters were thinking and feeling. This made for a rather one dimensional story – and led most of us to think that Carlotta was self-centred in the extreme! Although we agreed that, at almost 400 pages, this book was overlong, it is certainly not a demanding story to read and we recognised its appeal to those who enjoy the romantic comedy genre. Sadly, for the majority of us it failed to engage our interest because it was too full of clichés and stereotypical characters. Its lack of complexity, and its overall blandness, led one member to reflect that, by the end, it felt as though she’d eaten a meal consisting only of potatoes (or possibly ice-cream), and another to think that he could possibly have been more successful in business had he been wearing the right designer underwear!
It held so much promise... but it disappoint in the end. I found the story was ok.
A few things that just didn't make this book to 4 stars. 1) I can understand that the author wants to keep some kind of suspense and not reveal everything at the start but my god it took forever to actually tell us what happened between Carlotta and Luke all this time ago and there was no reason to keep it from the readers for so long, it didn't bring anything 'wow' into the plot. 2) who in their right mind don't ask someone who disappeared one night never to be seen, what the heck happened? 3) the female role of Carlotta was not as feminist as she could have been, considering how she was portrayed as a whole. She was weak and stupid. I don't understand the appeal of female characters depicted like that. Why on earth would she not tell her 'best' friend of the chauvinistic colleague of hers at the start of her friend's relationship with him. Of course when she did tell her it was too late.
AND what sealed the deal for me was the ending when she has decided her career is more important to her, to drop the important meeting to stay with the 'guy'. DISAPPOINTING. Ideal ending would be to have it all: Fast forward a week, she has gone to the meeting, he has followed her to Dublin and bam! they are together and happy ending. No I don't recommend this book. We can do better female characters authors, please.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This is chick lit and doesn't pretend to be otherwise. I fancied reading something light and easy that didn't require much brain power or emotional heart tugging from me. I picked this up from our Tesco charity book shelf which raises money by £1 a book donation so all for a good cause ad pretty good value too. I then rad and replace the book so they can get a further £1.
Charlotte is a talented business woman engaged to a successful and respected eye surgeon and her life seems to be just perfect.
While on a business trip she bumps into a teenage boy friend and suddenly her life is topsy turvy and she has some decisions ot make.
Her friend Sive is divorced and as started a relationship with a man Charlotte had a major run in with at a previous company and this also causes her stress - should she tell Sive or not?
It is a romance so pretty predictable but the characters were quite believable and the story had some nice descriptions of places visited. The writing was good and interesting enough to keep me wanting to finish the book.
Carlotta O’Keeffe is a successful businesswoman with a mega successful fiancé. They’re due to get married in a few months. Only now Carlotta’s managed to get herself stranded in Spain overnight. And who should she bump into but her first love who she hasn’t seen in eighteen years.
I’m sorry but I have to deduct a star for the ending. Honestly I was so happy at the end of chapter 33, and with only one more chapter to go I’d started compiling a mental review. It was all yes we have a strong female character who doesn’t need a man! And praising that I’ve had similar crushes and I just know those fantasy dreams from childhood never work out the way you imagine them.
And then I get the real ending dumped on me and I’m in a bit of a grump about it. Like really? How contrived. I’m just not happy. Like seriously, you’ll notice the level of cheesiness when you read it. You’ll understand my pain and frustration.
And then you’ll thank me for getting you to read a worthwhile book.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book but it really gets 3.5 stars from me. I love how Carlotta takes the time to discover what is important to her in a relationship. I also enjoyed most of the storyline. The reunion between her and Luke at the end was way too abrupt for me but what did removed a whole star from my rating was the relationship between her ex-fiancé and her best friend. The way she accepted it was so unnatural and at the end, made me dislike a character that I actually liked through most of the book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Ljudbok Gillar den fast tycker slutet var ologiskt. Känns inte rimligt att någon ska utebli från det viktigaste mötet i sin karriär för att stanna i Spanien. Tror inte någon vågar sätta sin yrkesmässiga framtid på spel för en förälskelse oavsett vad. Och när hon letade efter honom, så funderar jag på varför hon inte försökte kontakta tjejen vars lägenhet hon bodde i. Måste haft hennes namn ock adress så känns som det första man skulle göra innan man åkte till Marbella och drev runt för att leta.
Trots en del ologiska grejer så var det ändå en trevlig bok. Skulle fått högre om var mer logisk.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This was an interesting story about what might have been written in an easy to read style. I liked the protagonist, a successful career woman who is good at her job and able to navigate the politics of the workplace without flirting or having relationships with male colleagues. This is a good change from how an American author would have handled a contemporary romance novel. I liked the secondary characters and all they brought to the story. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it for anyone looking to read a light modern romance
I don’t want to be too harsh but this is probably one of the worst romances I read… The love of Carlotta’s life shows up in the first 20 pages of the book and again in the last 5 and the whole rest was her daydreaming about what could have been if…! Give me a break! The author try to portray her as if she’s this independent professional woman but in reality she’s nothing more than an adult that still acts and behaves like she’s 15, when she last saw the “love of her life”! Grow up 🤦🏼♀️
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
A story that, once again, I loved. Carlotta wasn't my kind of woman. I found her portrayed the way I see all career-based women. Rather cold and perhaps with a hard exterior. Somewhere in the book she melts into Carly, the warm girl that I hoped she would prove to be. I'd probably have rated it as 4.5 if that had been an option.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Are you sure you are marrying the right person? What do you look for in a life partner?
I loved this story. Interesting characters and easy to read storyline. Beautifully written. Funny and witty. Makes me roll my eyes at times. And I get absorbed into the story, as though I was there with them. I truly enjoyed reading this book.
I whizzed through this book in a couple of days. It's such an easy read and partly set in Seville, a city that I love! The characters were very well drawn and the writing so fluid that I just kept reading on and on. Actually, looking back, very little actually happened but I enjoyed it very much!
This was a great book! I love a book with travel and is set in an exciting locale so this one was perfect. I enjoyed the story line and the characters and the setting in Spain and Dublin. Recommended!
Okay story line but I've read better. The length of time it takes to bring the story back to Luke bothered me. I didn't have much interest in her job. I just wanted the romance and scanned through parts that didn't interest me 🤣