Title: Love Defines Us All
Author: Giulietta Gigliotti
Publisher: Little Steps, $14.95 RRP
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780980575071
For ages: Teenage
Type: Novel
About: Nora is in love with Toby, but Toby barely even knows that she exists. Until, suddenly, one day he asks her out and takes her on the most amazing date.
Nora is living her dream: Toby loves her and life is great.
They hit a few hurdles though, as the two eighteen-year-olds come to grips with young love, real commitment and maintaining friendships through it all. Add to all of that the fact that Nora has just learnt she has cancer, and they’re in for a rough ride.
The story is quite familiar; we’ve all heard of and read about this type of romance – girl loves boy, boy ignores girl, boy then falls in love with girl – so many times before. Except that Love Defines Us All presents it with a new voice and from a fresh perspective: that of a fifteen-year-old girl.
Gigliotti is a student who was nominated for a Student Success Program for her writing, resulting in the completion and publication of this novel. She endearingly writes in her thanks to her family: “Sorry for taking over the computer for endless hours and never telling you what I was doing”.
Don’t expect this book to blow you away with brilliance or originality, or even reality, but do read it with an understanding of the author’s perspective and take it for what it is: a great accomplishment for a young woman to have a vision and make it happen.
This book is available online
