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My Thoughts…

Amira is a teen on the cusp of womanhood and she falls in love. Is there anything more potent, more intoxicating than first love? What I love about this diverse story is that like me, Amira lives in Toronto and also like me, she is Irish. Well, half Irish, and those things made me connect to her on a personal level.

Additionally, I loved the geography of the book, especially that most of it took place in Ireland. It gave the story a magical, almost ethereal quality at times and yet, it was also fresh and contemporary. A very interesting juxtaposition that I quite enjoyed.

I can’t imagine experiencing the intense feelings– love, lust, longing and even pain, thousands of miles away from the person responsible, though that is what Amira had to endure, along with other very complex issues in her life, that most teens don’t have to deal with. She approached all of these things with a maturity beyond her years, and I think that will appeal to older readers like myself.

As I mentioned, the writing is fresh and modern, the story is incredibly relatable, and the characters are dynamic and three-dimensional. All key ingredients needed to create a good novel, which C.K. Kelly Martin has done.

Just Like You said it Would be is an evocative story and I really enjoyed it. The fact that it was realistic and diverse made it even better and I would happily recommend it to anyone.

Rating… B+

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About the Author

Long before I was an author I was a fan of books about Winnie the Pooh, Babar, Madeline, Anne Shirley and anything by Judy Blume. Throughout high school my favourite class was English. No surprise, then, that most of my time spent at York University in Toronto was as an English major–not the traditional way to graduate with a B.A. in Film Studies but a fine way to get a general arts education.

After getting my film studies degree I headed for Dublin, Ireland and spent the majority of the nineties there in forgettable jobs meeting unforgettable people and enjoying the buzz. I always thoughts I’d get around to writing in earnest eventually and I began writing my first novel in a flat in Dublin and finished it in a Toronto suburb. By then I’d discovered that writing about young characters felt the freshest and most exciting to me. You have most of your life to be an adult but you only grow up once.Currently residing near Toronto with my Dub husband, I became an Irish citizen in 2001 and continue to visit Dublin as often as I can. My first young adult book, I Know It’s Over, came out with Random House in September 2008 and was followed by One Lonely Degree, The Lighter Side of Life and Death, My Beating Teenage Heart and Yesterday. I released Yesterday’s sequel, Tomorrow, in 2013 and put out my first adult novel, Come See About Me, as an ebook in June 2012. My most recent YA book, The Sweetest Thing You Can Sing, was published by Cormorant Books’ Dancing Cat Books imprint in 2014 and I’m pleased to announce they’ll be releasing my upcoming contemporary young adult novel, Delicate, on September 16th. Watch my website for more details!

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