Star Audio Book Review: The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern; Narrated by Allie Coffey

     The only other book I have read by Cecilia Ahern was Love, Rosie (aka Where Rainbows End) but I am familiar with her flair for creating worlds filled with magic and fantasy. The Book of Tomorrow is no exception, incorporating something mystical into the reality of life in Ireland for teenager, Tamara Goodwin. After her father commits suicide, Tamara's life changes drastically. Her mother is a mess, unable to even get out of bed. No longer able to afford their posh home in Dublin, Tamara and her mother are forced to move in with Tamara's Aunt Rosalyn, who is as cold as ice. Even worse, something odd is about Rosalyn and ever since they arrived, she won't even let Tamara check on her mother to see how she is doing, always chiding her to “let her be and get her rest”.

     Tamara greatly misses her friends back home and doing all the fun things she's used to – from posting funny pictures on facebook to sending each other messages via Twitter - life is so much more dull in the country. That is until one day, a traveling library comes down the road, driven by Marcus, librarian and book aficionado, but it is one book in particular that attracts Tamara even more than the handsome book conductor. The book appears to be a diary of sorts with a padlock on the cover. Determined to unveil its contents, Tamara finds a way to break the diary open but is left with quite the surprise when she finds all its pages are blank. At least today they are. Tomorrow, all of sudden, the pages are filled with HER handwriting. As if that's not odd enough, the writing isn't about what happened yesterday or even today but the date on the page is always the very next day – The diary is written about Tomorrow.

     Mostly out of curiosity to find out if its contents are real, Tamara begins consulting the diary each day to see what will happen and strangely enough, everything it writes about comes true the next day!

     All too soon, the diary begins to reveal unexpected things and not all things that Tamara likes. She begins to wonder if she might be able to have an effect on their outcome since she knows what will happen before it does but sure enough one way or another, all the vents and circumstances of the diary still come true. Is the book a blessing or a curse? Tamara begins piecing together all kinds of events and secrets that no one wanted her to ever find out. What will Tamara do now that she holds the answers to so much. So soon? Who can she tell and will anyone believe her?

     Cecelia Ahern does a good job tying the fantastical together with some real world tough lessons, as her main character, Tamara Goodwin learns what it means to grow up and start caring about tomorrow. Ali Coffey does a good job narrating this magical tale as she tells it from the perspective of seventeen going on eighteen year old, Tamara Goodwin. She shows a wide range of character, switching voices from that of sinister and malicious Aunt Rosalyn to carefree and jubilant friend, Wesley.

3 STARS