Elaine Gallagher

"My Trip to Adele by A.I. Alyaseer and R.I. Alyaseer is a fictional novel which revolves around the lives of three people living interesting lives in three different cities. They are all destined to visit one attraction, an Adele concert in Verona. This book follows the struggles of these three completely different people who seem to have two things in common; their search for happiness and their love of Adele. It made me relate to how we meet people at certain avenues in our own lives and how it affects us more than we know. These three characters are on a journey to break free of everything that has haunted them. They learn harsh truths about religion, fate, guilt, desire and courage along the way. In the book you are first introduced to Elias who is now living in Rome. Elias visits his hometown in Morocco determined to break a spell that he believes was cast upon him to separate him from the Malika, the one he fell in love with eight years before. Using music and lyrics of Adele, Malika desperately wants to learn to speak English and escape from the trapped life she is enduring. After years of desperately missing the one that got away, Elias travels around in hopes of finding Malika. He discovers that a black magic spell was cast upon him but starts to doubt whether it was the real cause of the break-up between him and Malika. He decides to search for her in the shadows of Marrakesh after eight years of separation. The second of the three characters is Nadia from Jordan. She is a single mother who is doing all that she can to maintain security and happiness in her young son's life. She is divorced from an abusive ex-husband. She has her mind set on taking her son to see his idol, Adele, in concert. Nadia is battling her ex-husband in the courts and doing all she can to secure freedom for herself and her only son. As obstacles continue to stand in her way, Nadia only wants the best for her son, and feels as if everyone is against her. The last character was Yaser, a doctor living in Las Vegas who is suffocating in his marriage and drowning in guilt. While trying to revive his relationship, Yaser decides to plan a vacation with his wife to see Adele. He hopes that this will reignite the spark they once shared. Yaser realizes that his marriage is taking complete control of him like a slow, painful death, so he decides to rebel against his wife. While faith initially brought them together, it is now causing them to drift apart. While reading My Trip to Adele, I felt an immediate connection to Nadia. Her character was displayed as such a strong personality, going against the beliefs of her family and friends in order to stand up for her freedom and the safety of her child. Her character developed into such a strong personality, and her unyielding persistence was evident of a mother's love. I did feel a connection with the other characters as well which brought me back to other phases of my own life, specifically being in a painful, overbearing marriage. The reading of the novel was very smooth for me. I felt perfect pauses when I took time out from my reading, still eager to continue and finish but able to take a break. The characters were all interested in security of love and belonging, as well as, following one's own faith and desires. The story involved three different characters who always held my attention and the author’s words flowed beautifully from one scene to the next. The main addition to this book that won me over was the quotes from different singles of Adele's which seemed to fit so perfectly with each situation. The perspective of character was changed with each chapter, and each chapter ending with a quote that felt as though coming from the character. The quote was something I looked forward to and took note of in my absorption of all the story lines. I was intrigued by the title of this book because I am a huge Adele fan and I also wanted to see if it would touch on the darkness in many of her songs. It did so perfectly, hitting on the darkness in her songs but also some of the vibrant highs of life she sings about. I would definitely recommend that you give this book a read, for its story line as well as its deep, scintillating association with such a fine musician.