ONE DAY (David Nicholls) - February 5/11

For a while there, One Day had established itself as one of the best books I'd ever read. It's just so entertaining and brilliantly done, as Nicholls does an amazing job of establishing the two incredibly vivid characters and their yearly exploits. It just feels real and authentic, and the book often made me laugh out loud. But then Nicholls decides to kill off Emma. I mean really, WTF. (I actually said "what!" out loud following her death.) It's a stupid ending that really diminishes the book's overall impact, though I was happy that at least Dexter found love with Maddy. Very frustrating. And we never found out what Emma's inscription to Dexter on his copy of her book was! What up with that? ***1/2 out of ****