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Tuesday, May 8, 2012

READ THIS: WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN ME Yvonne Cassidy Published by Hachette Ireland

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What Might Have Been Me is a heartfelt tale told by someone whom we know is Irish, and you know the reputation the Irish have for storytelling - which makes this novel even more brilliant. For anyone that has lived on both sides of the Atlantic like both Yvonne and Peachy and for anyone simply with a heart, this is a read that confirms that life is full of tough decisions and second guessing them is inevitable to those that are analytical thinkers. Should one get married? Should one be a caretaker? Above all, should one take risks? Not only is the plot thought-provoking but the language employed and the characters developed are striking and will keep you enticed, breezing through these 500 pages. Well done, Yvonne!

If you are looking for a book to fill your lazy Sunday afternoon, look no further than Yvonne Cassidy's novel What Might Have Been Me. I found when I started reading, I felt so compelled to keep reading because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. Taking place in both Dublin and New York, you can't help but be pulled into the main character's coming of age story. Carla has to decide her two lives, the one she left behind in Dublin, or the life she was making for herself in New York. As I kept reading, I couldn't help but identify with the main character, Carla, and could notice friends of mine in other characters. You can tell that she really struggles with making the right choice and you get such a heart-wrenching story in the process. I can't wait to read more from Ms. Cassidy. She really tells a story with love and compassion that you can't help but be pulled into the pages of her book. I highly recommend it! 

The trials of the Matthews family and their friends and lovers brings to mind your own memories of a past that continues into the present. The Mother and her Alzheimer's, the daughters and their dealing with it seem non-fiction. Yvonne Cassidy has plotted a story that may will feel comforting, yet sad. A young woman in the Irish pubs of New York City, her floundering through her emotions and her coming home, whereever that might be rings true as a story, and true as an emotional journey. There's no sense of the fantastic, just a steady flow of reality and it's accompanying disconnect that some of us experience. Mothers, family, but above all, feelings, all tied into a brilliantly written package. Any age, any lifestyle will enjoy this book. An adventure in today's light of communication or lack thereof, placed in today, gives the reader a great sense of knowing these characters and their storyline. Read it, and get a copy for your friends, and maybe, just maybe, some of the lines Ms. Cassidy comes up with will ring truer that you thought possible. 

What Might Have Been Me by Yvonne Cassidy is a great book! First of all I love to read - it's one of the best pleasures in life for me. I love to be able to be taken into different scenarios and be different people. This novel sure does that. I currently live in New York and I think one of the best parts is that this book takes place in New York and Dublin. The themes in the book such as love, family, loss really hit home for me. There is such compassion in the writing! You feel warmed just by reading this book.This book is truly an enjoyable read! 

I love reading while I'm on vacation so I decided to read Yvonne Cassidy's "What Might Have Been Me." I am so glad I chose this book for my trip! It is such an interesting read that really absorbs you into the story. The main character, Carla Matthews does an excellent job telling her story, making this book a very easy read. The book begins with Carla visiting NYC from Ireland and like a few people I know, she decides to stay in NYC with her musician boyfriend and not go back home to her family in Dublin. The story is of her journey through life and the tough decisions she must make. Though she may have physically left her former life in Dublin behind, she never truly leaves it. Yvonne Cassidy's highly compelling novel is a read that no one should miss! This novel is one we can all relate to on some level and is a great read! 

Whom You Know Highly Recommends What Might Have Been Me by Yvonne Cassidy.

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What Might Have Been Me is a novel about love and loss. It’s a story about courage and responsibility – to our family, to the people we love, but most of all to ourselves, to become the person only we know we can be. 

About the Book 



My name is Carla Matthews. This book is about who I was, who I am and who I might have been, if things had been different. It's Eddie's story too. And my Mum's, and my sister Suzanne's.
And after all this time, I'm finally understanding that it's my Dad's story too. 



Like so many Irish students, at the age of twenty, Carla Matthews travels to New York for the summer – to have fun, to have an adventure. But unlike most of her peers, when it’s time to head home to Ireland, Carla stays behind. 



Carla’s decision to stay is an easy one – she’s fallen in love with musician boyfriend Eddie and with the city itself. New York is the centre of the world, somewhere she can go to the best universities, somewhere she can become a real writer, somewhere she can escape the memories that plague her of her father’s death. So what if she’s illegal, that she’s waiting tables? She knows things won’t stay that way for long. 



But as the years slide by, not much changes for Carla. She never did get back to university and little by little she forgets her dream of being a writer. She’s still illegal, still waiting tables, still going to support Eddie playing the same gigs in the same bars. Eleven years on, nothing ever seems to change at all - until the phone call from home that changes everything. 



Now, Carla must return to Dublin, to her mother, her sister, a city she hardly recognises anymore and the shadows of the life she left behind more than a decade before. Faced with some tough dilemmas and difficult choices, Carla begins to draw on resources she never knew she had and to discover what it means to come home to herself. 



A compelling story of family and belonging, What Might Have Been Me explores the idea of identity, how we become who we are, and whether it’s ever too late to become the person we might have been. 



About the author 





Yvonne was born in 1974 in Dublin. She studied English and Economics in UCD. Yvonne has worked in London, Australia and New York, specialising in the field of marketing communications. She returned to Dublin in 2001 and relocated to New York in 2011. What Might Have Been Me is her second novel. 



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