Book Review: Freckles by Cecelia Ahern
By this point, I have completely abandoned my mission to clear books off my TBR, I managed four out of the ten, then new books appeared on my Kindle and I dived straight in and then I bought more new books…..we can all relate.
One of my pre-orders was Freckles by Cecelia Ahern, I always pre-order Cecelia Ahern’s books, I’ve said this many times, I find her books incredibly uplifting and warm. They make me smile and who doesn’t need that in life.
Freckles is about Allegra Bird, a traffic warden, her beat is Malahide. She’s had an unconventional upbringing, she’s never met her mother, she’s been brought up by her loving but eccentric father on Valentia Island.
Allegra gets the nickname Freckles at boarding school on account of Freckles on her arm and it sticks.
When Allegra repeatedly tickets a yellow Ferrari, an angry confrontation with the owner, Rooster/Tristan, leads her on a mission.
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”.
Rooster/Tristan tells Allegra that if she’s the average of the five people she spends the most time with, they must be losers because she is a loser, it cuts her deeply and she can’t stop thinking about the insult.
Allegra starts thinking about the five people she spends the most time with. Having turned her life upside down to move to Malahide (already on a mission, I won’t say what because, spoilers) Allegra finds she no longer has five people.
Allegra becomes fixated on finding her five. Five people who can influence her, shape her life and determine her future.
It’s fair to say, I didn’t get into Freckles immediately, it took me a few chapters and it took me while to connect with Allegra but that’s kind of the point. Allegra is a little strange, she becomes obsessed with things like connecting the freckles on her arm to create constellations, like trying to find her five people and rigidly sticking to the rules of parking enforcement to the point where she tickets a man who’s stopped to help an elderly woman who has fallen.
Allegra sees the world in black and white, she needs to follow her daily routine to the minute, she feels thrown if even the tiniest detail is off. Allegra talks about struggling to understand people; without it ever being said, Allegra has undiagnosed Autism.
That is a stroke of genius.
That is what made Allegra so believable. It is so common for autism to go undiagnosed in girls and women; putting it bluntly girls are better at masking and mimicking, girls are better at picking up on how to act, girls are better at seeing social cues and going with it. Allegra did all of this.
In early chapters, I thought she was rude, a little blunt and then I learnt what her ‘quirks’ were and started to understand how her mind worked a little more. People who barely knew her called her odd and thought she was strange, in reality they hadn’t even tried to get to know her let alone accept her and love her, quirks and all. That’s probably something that rings true in society in general.
I loved Allegra’s brutal honesty; I too would assume the dude driving the bright yellow Ferrari who couldn’t be arsed paying for parking was a posing wanker. I liked that it took me time to understand her and like her; by the end of the book, I adored her as did those who were actually her five people.
It’s a Cecelia Ahern book so obviously there is a romantic element in there, but it isn’t the driving force of the plot, in fact I’d say this part of the story was a little underdeveloped and more could have been made of it.
After I’d finished reading, part of me thought, “well her five seem to have come out of nowhere and are bit parts”, but again that’s the bloody point. Allegra’s hell bent on ensuring her five are all influential people who she doesn’t actually know, she’s that focussed on her mission that she doesn’t realise her five are actually already there and she gives them as much as they give her.
The ending is beautiful, a reminder not to overlook the people really matter and who really care about you – as a reader you can’t help but end this book happy and grinning.
Is Freckles my favourite Cecelia Ahern book? No. I’d still say Where Rainbows End takes the top spot. I enjoyed, Allegra grew on me, I wanted her to find her five people, I wanted her to see how she was loved, who mattered and who her real friends were.
Another heart-warming read that will leave you smiling.
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radiosarahc View All
Journalist, writer, traveller, music lover, collector of hats, news addict, bookworm
Great review! I listened to the audio of this one and enjoyed it. I agree with all your thoughts on Alleggra, I loved her quirks and her way of seeing the world.
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Thank you for reading, she’s a great character. I really liked Spanner and Paddy too actually.
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I’ve heard a lot about this author so I’m excited to try this one day! I think I prefer books that you can get into straight away, but I’m glad this one ended up being a great choice for you x
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Yeah I normally need hooking in straight away and more often than not Cecelia Ahern does that I do get why she held off here and it worked.
She is wonderful author, a lot of her earlier work has a touch of magic in it and they’re lovely.
Thank you for reading x
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Knocking out four out of ten books is still nothing to sneeze at. The comment that “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with” is an interesting hypothesis, although used to be mean in the book, I wonder if the statement is actually something someone proposed as an actual hypothesis. After all, we tend to gravitate towards people with similar interests and tastes to ourselves
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Thanks, I knew trying to knock ten off was a tall order, I’m a mood reader so a list was never going to work 🤷🏻♀️
It’s an interesting theory, it did make me think a lot about who my five people are…there’s probably a follow post in that. Thanks for reading
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Is that a follow-up post you’d write for your blog?
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Yeah potentially but then I think your five probably changes more often than you think. I’ve been giving it a lot of thought the past few days
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When you get older, I think your core five becomes constant
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Absolutely, but interesting that you develop different interests from each other as you make different life choices yet still have that core
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Thanks for this! I used to read a lot of Cecelia Ahern novels but kinda fell out of touch with them but I still think she’s a wonderful writer and I’d definitely be interested in reading this!
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I love her books they’re just so warm and positive. Thanks for reading x
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Great review, I’m definitely interested in reading this book. Thanks for sharing x
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Thank you for reading, it’s s lovely book x
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I haven’t read anything of this author but I liked the main synopsis you gave of the story and the honesty of your review. By the way I do believe that the statement “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with” is true in many ways.
Thank you!
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Thank you for reading, her books are lovely. It’s definitely a statement I’ve thought a lot about since reading this x
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I m going to read your favorite first!
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Enjoy ☺️
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Firstly, this statement – You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with is so true. A popular adage says show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are. This was an amazing review! I haven’t read this book and I haven’t heard of this author before either but the plot summary you gave is amazing and this book sounds like something I would enjoy.
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Thank you for reading, it is an interesting statement and yes true. Her books are lovely, they’re just very warm x
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The author sounds familiar, but I don’t believe I’ve read anything of hers yet. This sounds like a fun book to try. Thanks for the review!
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She wrote P.S I love you too. She’s great if you’re in the mood for something uplifting. Thanks for reading 🙂
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Wonderful review. I love that Allegra has undiagnosed Autism, because like you said, it’s easier to miss in girls.
Lauren
http://www.shootingstarsmag.net
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Thank you, it’s a great book x
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