Book Boyfriends and Girlfriends are a major incentive for reading but no one has made my heart flutter quiet like Willem from Gayle Foreman's duology Just One Day and Just One Year, and the novella Just One Night.
Amazing Writing + Male POV = Book Boyfriends
At YALLFest I waiting in line to have Gayle sign my copies of this amazing series. If you don't follow Gayle, you should. Anywho, there's the phrase "Book Boyfriends Are Better" and they are, so I bought this up while I was talking to her.
Basically, I said book boyfriends are better in her second books because they're told from the male POV. I know how women think, I am one! I want to know what all the mysteriousness is floating around in his head. Gayle does an excellent job of giving the male POV an authentic voice, balancing what I want to hear with what men actually think/do. If you haven't read Gayle's other duology, If I Stay and Where She Went, it follows the same pattern of the female POV in book one and male in book two. Book two is better. :)
Who is Willem De Ruiter?
Willem is charming and smooth, but he's also very lost. His character building in Just One Day is limited because the story is from Allyson's POV and well it's only one day, but in Just One Year we travel around the world with him since the story is from his POV.
To me Willem is colleged-aged, tall-ish, with darker hair. He's an actor, world traveler, enjoys sports and has some deep seated family issues. He's Dutch and speaks several languages, his mum lives in India, and he grew up in a boat house but now is kind of a wanderer. Mostly because he's busy hunting down a girl whose real name he does not know! Silly and sweet all at the same time.
A few weeks ago Gayle posted on her Tumblr, Twitter's choice for the dream casting of Willem (according to Bustle). These were their picks...
American Austin Butler (Switched at Birth/Carrie Diaries) and Dutch actor Martijn Lakemeier
For some reason I always imagined Willem with darker hair *shrugs* The only actor I can think of that I would add to this dream casting is Daniel Sharman (Teen Wolf/The Originals)
World Traveller
Part of my lust for Willem, aside from his presumable accent, is a couple of things. It reminds me of this night I spent in Paris talking ALL NIGHT with this guy from Finland, and two his sense of wanderlust.
I just really fell hard for this man's wandering spirit, knowing that he has issues and working through all that, and doing it while trying to find the love of his life. *sound of hearts cracking*
Win a copy of Just One Day OR Just One Year.
Open internationally as long as the Book Depository ships to you for free. Check out the full rules here.
Visit the rest of the 25 Days of Book Boyfriends!
December 1:
(Madoc, Rival by Penelope Douglas)
December 2:
(Ridge, Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover)
December 3:
(Bones, Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost)
December 4:
(Perry, Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi)
December 5:
(Chaol, Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas)
December 6:
(Will, Damaged Goods by Nicole Williams)
December 7:
(Connor, Kiss the Sky by Krista and Becca Ritchie)
December 8:
(Warner, Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi)
December 9:
(Cade, Caged in Winter by Brighton Walsh)
December 10:
(Kellan, Thoughtless by S.C. Stephens)
December 11:
(Preston, Pieces of Olivia by Melissa West)
December 12:
(Morpheus, Splintered by A.G. Howard)
December 13:
(Josh, Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins)
December 14:
(Finn, The Collectors' Society by Heather Lyons)
December 15:
(Noel, My True Love Gave To Me Anthology)
December 16:
(Prince Tristan, Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen)
December 17:
(Roth, The Dark Elements series by Jennifer L. Armentrout)
December 18:
(Jackson, The Arcana Chronicles by Kresley Cole)
December 19:
(Titus, The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas)
December 20:
(Gansey, The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater)
December 21:
(Gideon Cross, Crossfire series by Sylvia Day)
December 22:
(Matt Finch, Open Road Summer by Emery Lord)
December 23:
(Adrian Ivashkov, Vampire Academy/Bloodlines by Richelle Mead
December 24:
(Willem, Just One Day by Gayle Forman)
December 25:
(The Darkling, Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo)
