I have to admit this is the first book I have read by Cecelia Ahern, and I could not put it down. A Thousand Different Ways tells the story of Alice who has synaesthesia and is seen as been different and difficult as she tries to navigate her way through her life with her mother and brothers.
This book from the very first page drew me in and made me want to know more with every page turn I couldn’t recommend this book highly enough.

Cecelia Aherne seems to write about people who are ‘different’ and she does just that in this novel. Alice sees people’s auras swirling around them and can judge if a person is good or bad by their colours. The story follows Alice from childhood through her difficult life and alights here an there on a particularly challenging or emotional episode. I enjoyed the book overall but found it unsatisfactory somehow. It never really seems to settle into a rhythm and I found the end chapters too disjointed and rushed. A good read but not a great one.

I adored everything about this book! Alice has a special gift and can see people's auras in colours and sense their moods and what's going on for them. A true empath, who has to learn how to live with her gift so that she doesn't become overwhelmed by other's emotions. She "knows" strangers just at a first meeting and scans them like an x-ray to discover who they are.

This is a book about love, trust, mysticism, family, acceptance, humanity, compassion and so much more

"And I now know that if you don't feel your own pain, you cannot recognise it in others. Our own suffering can cultivate the ability to help others"

What an unusual concept. Alice sees colours, colours that represent the moods of those around her. She grows up in a difficult houses with an unpredictable mother, so her abilities are at best ignored and at worst, used as a weapon with which to taunt her.
This novel follows Alice growing up, dealing with the family and her own struggles. It's fascinating and I loved the character of Alice.
The only thing I struggled with was that the last part of the book is very rushed. Suddenly we have the next 40-50 years of Alice's life in one chapter. I was so confused by the opening of that, that I had to go back and re-read to figure out where we were in the tineline. But I did enjoy the book, although it is a difficult read in places.

Alice is a character vividly brought to life, alongside her desperately flawed mother & very different brothers. The descriptions of the colours that she sees throughout her life & how other people affect her is well explained. I loved this story & don’t hesitate to recommend it - I’ll be buying it for friends.

Absolutely incredible; from the toxic parent to the troubled and troubling brother and the girl with the strange power the characters are well balanced and tell a story of triumph and strength over adversity.
My only complaint would be that the latter half of the book moved way too fast for me, bounding through the adult years of her life where I really wanted to linger hour by hour with Alice.
5 stars are not enough!

Imagine a life where you get to know someone at first glance, their current mood and inner depths. Then imagine how that person’s ‘mood’ can transfer over to you if you get too close, let them in. This is Alice, a child and young woman growing up in pitiable family circumstances who lives her life seeing people’s colourful auras. That is until she eventually spies someone who has no colours.

A journey from her home in Ireland via Liverpool and London. A journey to uncover and rewrite herself.

Alice’s character is well written, the settings are detailed and dialogue is authentic. There is however a little too much jumping from one time frame to another or brief revisits to previous characters who are then just as quickly forgotten. And I would love to have had an explanation as to why one character in millions (bar a brief encounter in New York) has no colours whatsoever unlike everyone else. I think I know why this person was introduced but it isn’t obvious - not to me anyway - and so I’m left wondering if I’m just not astute, perceptive or clever enough to really understand what the author wants me to take away from this novel not just from Alice’s point of view but for the standpoint of all of the rest of us.

For those who don’t know, I am a huge Cecelia Ahern fan having read every book on release from P.S. I Love You, which still remains one of my favourite ever books. So it is safe to say that as soon as a new title from Cecelia is announced quite a lot of excitement follows which was accelerated further this time due to receiving an advanced readers copy of the upcoming 2023 release.

‘In A Thousand Different Ways’ tells us the story of Alice, a woman who has had to deal with a multitude of emotions her entire life, thanks to her ability of seeing and feeling everything that other people around her are experiencing. From happiness to cautioned, to anger and sadness, life can be more than overwhelming at times for Alice who thinks that staying away from people would be the safest option, or at least find a way of limiting contact to live her life as she wants.

Once again from the very first chapter, as so often happens in Ahern’s books, you are drawn in from the very start, wanting to know more. The concept of seeing colours to represent emotions is genius, to have the main character be able to see and absorb these feelings and how this insight into others might not be a ‘gift’ is just captivating. On several occasions through the book you could relate to how you really don’t know what is going on with others around you, life seemingly perfect on the outside but possibly something that couldn’t be further from the truth.

I feel like this is a book that will stay with me for quite a while, I literally can’t stop thinking about it days after reading. I inhaled this book, every single word of it and I couldn’t recommend more - add it to your To-Be-Read list for 2023 now!

Wow just wow. From the moment I heard about this book on Cecelia's Instragram page I was drawn to it. Now I know why it is a book like I've never ever read before. From the very first line I was hooked, drawn into the world of Alice Kelly, a girl who is so so special.

The book is set in Dublin to being with then moves to Doha, Liverpool and finally London. Alice, at the age of eight, is given a gift that makes her unique, special but also controls her life in so many ways. She sees colours around people. Through there is only three chapters of book, it makes sense why its just three with just chapter titles not chapters. Trust me keep going its so worth it, we see Alice as she's rejected by her mum and younger brother. Her older brother and saviour, Hugh, is always there for her protecting her every step of the way. You can't help but hope she flourishes and succeeds in everything she does. In someway she does but through a wonderful journey of discovery, finding yourself and maybe find true love along the way.

We see glimpses of her past, future and present as she goes to a special school, her life after that as she starts to try and discover who she is and meeting people who accept her. Some who even think she is special in ways she doesn't even known.

Normally it can take me maybe a week to two weeks to read a book, but not Cecelia's latest offering. I have only read one of her other books but like I said something about this drew me in. Wither that was the cover, the description or simply because its Cecelia.

Trust me when I say this is a book that is an absolute must read of 2023! Thank you so much for the publisher and NetGalley for giving me advance access to one of the most beautiful, moving books I've ever read. I hope this one wins some awards that's for sure.

WILL BE POSTED ON www.laurasbookeuphorium.co.uk and Goodreads under the same title.

Wow...what a book.......I have no words!

I've been a Cecelia ahern fan since the early days of PS I love You, before it was a movie.
I believe this book is one of her best yet.
Such an unusual story written in such an engaging way........just wonderful!

Alice sees things differently and it affects how she lives. This book follows her story as she adjusts and comes to know herself.
The most fantastic of tales and so cleverly written.

A must read for fans.

Wow! I can't describe how much I loved this book. Its a story of life and love and how we navigate our way through. I laughed and I definitely cried. Absolutely loved it.

Alice is a young girl who can see other peoples' energies as colours surrounding them. She can tell what sort of person they are, what mood they are in and what their intentions are. Raised by a bipolar mother, Alice is prone to picking up the energies of others and tries to shield herself from them. It's an interesting read and certainly something a bit different.

I don't think any book has ever made me feel this undecided about writing a review and 'awarding' stars.

I love Cecelia Ahern's books - I think I've read them all - and I particularly loved Freckles. Loved it enough to read it twice within a couple of months. Cecelia Ahern is the author I most admire; I think her writing is fantastic. So I had ultra high expectations of this book, which perhaps affected the way I read it. Ultimately I was a bit disappointed with this one.

There are some wonderful things about it. I loved the premise - the protagonist sees colours swirling around people, different colours according to their emotional state. She doesn't want to be 'infected' with these colours so learns to put up a shield around herself, which means she keeps people at a distance. I loved the writing - Ceceilia Ahern conjures up - as she always does - amazing visual images with seemingly effortlessly constructed sentences. It never seems contrived; some authors seem like they're 'trying too hard' but I never feel that with her books.

However, the plot of this one just didn't grip me like Cecelia Ahern's other books have, and it's hard to pinpoint why. I found the jumping timeline a bit tricky. Sometimes it jumped unexpectedly and i was lost for a paragraph or two. I found parts of it very bleak, with little hope or optimism. Parts of it felt slow, then at the end, it seemed to race through decades.

If I had to pick my favourite Cecelia Ahern book, I'd be struggling as I love her writing, but it wouldn't be this one. So if you have never read a Cecelia Ahern book before, I would choose something else.

I've been trying to work out what it is about this novel that I found lacking. It's an interesting topic: synesthaesia. Couple that with a less than easy family, and it really ought to have been a winner for me. And yet... I found it all a bit twee. I should say that this is the first novel of Ahern's I've read, and I've heard good things about her novels, so went in with a high expectation. Perhaps that was it, perhaps I needed to lower my expectations. What I liked was the subject matter, which had massive potential, and the (almost experimental) narrative style, which (I think) went some way to emulate the confusion and off-whackedness of the protagonist's thoughts. Perhaps. What I didn't like: the characters are cliched and the ending was rather unsatisfying. know I'm probably in the minority here, and this will definitely appeal to others. That's the thing about being a writer: you can't please everyone.

My thanks go to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC.

I haven't read anything by Cecila Ahern for quite some time, but when I saw this on Netgalley, I had to request a copy. Thank you to them and Harper Collins for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Alice sees people's colours. A little bit like an aura, the colours allow her to see both the best and the worst in people. The colours swirl and dart around everyone, showing their true self to her. But Alice is also an empath of sorts and takes on the emotions that those around her have. Her story is how she deals with this, first as a child and then throughout her adulthood.

This was a slow burner for me and it took us a while to gel. The stars for the review started out as a 3 in my head but mentally went up as the story progressed. The characters are all well written and beautifully diverse. The way Ahern visualised Alice's colours was gorgeous and I could not help but love her. It's mainly linear, but does jump back occasionally to help set the scene. I think Ahern has a wonderful knack for story telling and I think this will sell really well. It's published in April so I'd 100% recommend you put it on your TBR.

There’s nothing better than settling down with a book you know is going to be great. Cecelia Ahern is one such author. She writes delightfully and her stories are all incredibly interesting.

The main character in this book has synesthesia. Each person Alice meets has their own colour that changes with each mood change. She knows how a person feels before she has time to ask them. Everyone has their own colour until she meets one person who doesn’t. Who is he? Why has he no colours? He is her future husband.

I really liked the character of Alice. I enjoyed finding out about her early life as she struggles to make sense of her “gift”. She struggles to find out who she is and carries us along for the ride.

What a fabulous book. I enjoyed reading it so much. Alice lives in a chaos of other people’s emotions. She has to learn to protect herself from these overwhelming feelings. Alice only wants peace and solitude. The grief, love and violence of other people must not be allowed to offset her own emotions. Her story is twisted and you don’t know where it is going to lead.

Alice is a superhero with a superpower no one knows about. Her world is described brilliantly by Cecelia Ahern. You can understand it through her writing even though you will never experience it. Thank goodness I hear you say.

Eleven-year-old Alice Kelly returns from school with her kid brother Ollie to find her mom lying unconscious in her bed and the whole house covered in blue. Panicked she calls the paramedics. Turns out her mom Lily Kelly was only sleeping.

Alice has an uncanny gift for seeing colors around people. She sees the colors dancing round their heads and their bodies.

For instance her mother gives off blue and red colors, red when she’s angry; blue every other time.

Her brother Hugh, on the other hand emits a pink color which indicates a calm aura. Alice can also gauge people’s emotions from the colors they emit.

Frustrated by her weirdness and her knack for getting into trouble at school, Alice’s mother ships her off to a therapeutic boarding school where she stays for six years.

The story is though provoking, the characters have so much depth. A poignant read. Recommended.

Thank you to Cecelia Ahern, NetGalley, and HarperCollins for the arc of this book

I’m a big fan of Cecilia Ahern but have to admit that I didn’t enjoy her last couple books as much as her earlier ones and I wasn’t really sure about this based on the blurb however this had me engrossed for the start and is every bit as enchanting as her earlier books. Alice’s gift of seeing peoples emotions through colours was far more of a curse for her and the impact it had in her life was painful at times but made for brilliant reading, her challenging background added a lot to the story as there were some very difficult relationships to navigate and it’s easy to see why the combination of both this and her gift made her act in ways that many others couldn’t comprehend. I would have possibly liked the last two chapters to last a little longer but otherwise this was a beautiful telling of a life. 9/10

LOVED this book! Such a unique storyline that had me gripped instantly as we followed the life of Alice. I found it so emotional in parts. I couldn't read it quick enough as I felt so absorbed in finding out more. An absolute MUST read.

This is a stunning, emotional read. Cecelia Ahern is an absolute master at stories that stay with you and I’m really thankful I got the chance to read this ARC. Thank you so much to the publisher.