I liked “The One Thing” because it was a reasonably fast paced read, but I didn’t love it. It’s not even close to being one of my personal favorite contemporary romance books that I’ve read so far this year, but I still think it was a decent book as a whole. Most of my issues came with one of the main aspects of the plot, which I don’t want to completely spoil. However, this is a sweet book filled with a lot of heart and extremely likable characters. I have a feeling that this is a story many people will connect with right away.
Maggie Sanders lost her ability to see six months ago due to a nasty illness. Her life has totally changed since then. She no longer can play soccer, a sport that she loved, and she’s also lost all of her friends. She’s spent the majority of her time listening to her new favorite band. A strange thing happens to Maggie when she meets a ten-year-old boy named Ben who she can actually see and she can also see things around him. She strikes up a genuine friendship with Ben and then happens to discover that his older brother is the lead singer of her favorite band. What follows is an adventure as Maggie discovers the one thing that is her “thing.” This is something that Ben brings up to her and he means the one thing that you love and that makes you happier than anything else. This is an interesting concept that comes up repeatedly in the book.
Maggie is the highlight of the book for me. She’s filled with a hilarious amount of sass and sarcasm. She’s just a likable narrator and she’ll have you laughing out loud more than once while you read this story. I also really loved Ben, the ten-year-old that Maggie can see. This kid is seriously mature for his age and I love all the random and awesome topics that he brings up to Maggie. It’s hard to describe it here, but take my word for it that there are plenty of humorous moments from him. To balance the humor out, of course there are more than your fair share of sad and heartbreaking moments as well.
The romance in the book was something that I had some trouble with. As already said, Maggie was obsessed with this band and she was taken by surprised when she learned that Ben’s older brother Mason was the lead singer. She develops a relatable and sweet crush on Mason as she learns more about him as an actual person and not just the lead singer of this band she loves. I really wanted to see more of a relationship between the two instead of just a few scenes. There wasn’t much of a build-up considering that they really didn’t talk that much.
I’m not going to launch into serious details, but my main drawback to the book was the reason behind why Maggie can see Ben. I just feel like it could have been handled in a more realistic way. I mean, obviously every scenario involving a blind person temporarily gaining sight back is going to involve fiction, but I just had a hard time understanding it and felt like there should have been more to it then how it was left in the end. Anyway, this is still a book filled with beautiful and memorable characters with a fairly unique story that young adult contemporary fans will likely love.
Rating: 7/10
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