If Only It Were True

This book reads like an immature male's fantasy of himself - a poor, pitiful rich kid with somehow amazing spirituality and integrity. Several pages are devoted to love letters from the main character's dead mother, and none of the characters or relationships are well developed.
The fanciful, spiritual rescue plot is by far the best part of the book, and I was quite disappointed by the author's inability to explore the issues the premise (coma victim "detaches" spirit from her body) raises in more depth. The author mentioned the TV series "Bewitched" a few times - obviously an inspiration to him - but the writers of that series did a much more thorough job of exploring the options within its self-imposed magical limits. There are plot holes one can drive a truck through. For example, the coma victim/spirit and the protagonist can't seem to figure out how to communicate to others who can't see her, but the average reader will envision many ways it could be done that the characters don't think of. And the issues of coma and spirituality aren't really explored at all.
It was a quick read, with some stilted but good San Francisco imagery, and I did read it all the way through. If you're still tempted, go ahead. Just don't pay full price for it.

Paranormal love story written by first time French author, Marc Levy. Story of a young female doctor who is involved in a car accident and ends up in a coma. Her "spirit" is discovered by Arthur in a cupboard in the flat that he has just rented from the girl's parents. He is the only person who can see and touch her. The story goes onto to show them falling in love and then Arthur has the task of preventing her life support machine being switched off. There is a twist to the ending and whether you find it a sad or happy ending depends on your interpretation.
I liked the idea of this book but I felt that it could have been written better. However, not bad for a first time author.
"Where are you?" and "Seven days to Eternity" are his latest books but as of date have only found them in French.

In a San Francisco apartment, a man hears a noise, opens up his closet, and finds a beautiful woman inside who claims she is a ghost. Arthur thinks she is either crazy or part of a practical joke. His thoughts are revised when she escorts Arthur to a nearby hospital where her comatose body lies.

Arthur desperately wants to reunite her soul with her body, but his investigations prove futile. Her situation turns desperate when her distraught mother decides to pull the plug. Arthur, who is falling in love with Lauren, kidnaps her body in a last ditch effort to save her life.

IF ONLY IT WERE TRUE is a beautiful love story that will appeal to fans of romance, supernatural fiction, and adult fairy tales. The hero turns into a modern day Don Quixote willing to fight windmills to save the woman he loves. The heroine has the spirit of a warrior as her mental well being allows her to accept a bleak future as long as she can enjoy today with Arthur. Marc Levy is a talented author who provides his readers with an uplifting work.

Harriet Klausner

This book was so so. Only after I started reading it did I realize I'd seen the movie a while back. I did find several parts of the book comical, but it was all too mushy and goody goody, no conflicts between the main characters Lauren and Arthur. I felt the book going off into Arthur's life with his mother didn't quite fit. Good lessons and all, but I don't know, it just quite didn't click for me. I also didn't care for the parts where dialogue was replaced by summary. It just seemed like the author got tired of dialoguing and then just summarized the rest of what was said. The book wasn't terrible. There was some cute parts in it. But truthfully, I preferred the movie, which is rare for me.

I actually give this book an A+. The title caught my eye while reading an article in PREMIERE magazine that Spielberg had purchased the film rights to do a movie based on the book. It was a fun "what if" kind of book that explores an 'almost' loss of life and moments that occurred during a comatose state. It's an original romantic novel with a lot of meaning intertwined. A lovely book. Some of the tricks that the main character, Lauren, did reminded me of "Bewitched" the old TV sitcom that I usd to love and watch as a child. This book also helped me personally during a difficult time of grieving in my life. One favorite line: "How many realize what a privelege it is to wake and see, feel, touch, hear?"

This is a tale of love and committment beyond the spectrum we know of.
I liked the way I'm teleported to another place where a normal life is changed by a single magical element - the spirit of Lauren Kline.
The language and prose of the story was soothing and easy to drink in albeit a lack of development links seemed to mark the story. This caused "little bumps" in the tale which made me think "sounds a bit strange there" which prevented a smooth flow of events in the story.
Even though there was a predictable turn in Arthur's and Lauren's relationship, I was sucked into their whirlwind of great joy and couldn't suppress a smile.
A very enjoyable read that would keep you holding on to the end.

Okay, so we know from other reviews that this book is on its way to Hollywood (I personally see Lauren played by Mira Sorvino and Arthur played by Michael Vartan), but read the book before the movie comes out.
Some people seem to try too hard to make this novel something it is not: a complicated, hard-to-read book. If Only It Were True is a charming love story revolving around the death of a San Francisco doctor and her predicament of being stuck between life and death.
The leading man, Arthur, is the only one that can see the comatose woman in her ghostly state. They embark on a journey to find out how to get her soul back into her body. The tale is sweet and memorable. Read the book.

This small book can easily go unnoticed in any big bookstore. I discovered this little book by happenstance and needless to say, there are no regrets. A small very readable fairy tale story of Laura & Arthur with a backdrop of selfless love, commitment, purposeful life and beautiful San Francisco. It is very difficult to write a review about such a book. Reading this book invokes a deep, quintessential and subliminal feeling that is best experienced rather than written or reviewed. An impressive debut by Mark Levy. He already writes like a seasoned campaigner and I'd looking forward to his other forthcoming books.

i remember going to the booksinging for this: me and maybe one other person had shown up. mark had become so disgusted that he cancelled the signing. when i asked him to sign the book, he rudely took the book from me, scribbled his john hancock and handed it back to me like it was a turd...
i waited almost a year before reading this book. i shouldn't have bothered. typical sitcom tripe. a guy who's a crub moves into a house haunted by the ghost of a woman in a coma; she reveals herself to him, tells him " only you can see me " she pleads for his help, the usual calamity ensues, they fall in love,yada, yada, yada...one of the reasons i haven't watched t.v. in a year was because i wanted to read more, to strengthen my mind. i didn't expect to find books to be this dumbed down...levy proves that all you need to do to aualify as an author is to compose a complete sentence...i was not moved at all by this story...i gave up after the first third, then later sold the book. i could write a better novel and i'm a poet. maybe i should try writing a book. i couln't do any worse than he did. my second nominee for the golden shovel for the worst book i ever read...

I just finished this book, and though it may have been terribly innovative to the readers in Europe, it seemed like just another formulaic American romance novel to me. Formulaic, but without the sparkle of the best of the romance genre...Spencer, Phillips, Mittman, etc. The story didn't seem to make the unbelievable believable. The premise and the potential were the, but the characters never grabbed me, I knew the ending all along, so I wasn't terribly motivated to turn the pages. If it hadn't been so short, I'm not sure I would have finished it at all. However, the author has potential, and I would not discount further works by him.

The idea behind this story is a good one. However it could have been so much more with a more accomplished author. The love between Lauren and Arthur is not believable. There's no foundation for the depth of commitment it would take to commit the crime and therefore run the risks that he did. The friendship between Paul and Arthur was not believable. Again, why would Paul take the risks he took. Relationships are not well built, dialogue is strained. Past memories are just thrown in to accomodate the next chapters. The tough cop ends his role out of character. So many things wrong that, with more planning, more thought, more devotion to character development, could have made and awesome trilogy.

If the book were indeed written in french originally, I can understand why the writing seemed a little flat and akward, especially in the beginning. Sometimes the scenes jumped a little too much to make too much sense.
But the plot was very good and there were a couple one liners that were very memorable. A story on the theme of "living every moment". The writing settles in after a few pages and I was hooked till the end.
I think it'll make a great novel if someone like Jude Deveraeaux wrote it. The book needed to be a little longer and the characters a bit more developed.

I just finished reading this book in the original French version, so I know that my disappointment was not due to a bad translation. I had heard that this was the best-selling book in France a couple of years ago and I'd read some good reviews, so I was expecting much more.
What an amateurish mess. Although the central premise could have been interesting, the book doesn't really work on any level. The writing is extremely pedestrian: the cops eat donuts, the sidekick makes wisecracks, and all the cliches appear just where you expect them. The characters don't behave like any human beings I know. There are huge, careless gaps in the plot (for example, why does Lauren's "soul" bother to hide in a bathroom closet if no one has been able to see her?) and the author doesn't even bother to get the geography of San Francisco right -- a quick look at a map would have shown that it is Post Street, not Polk Street, that runs along Union Square.
Of course, none of this really matters because the book reads like a sketchy proposal for a throw-away romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant. And I have a feeling that's exactly what we're going to get. *sigh*

Oh my... what a love story. The premise maybe improbable - a young architect finds the ghost, or spirit, of a young woman in his closet. Her comatose body residing only a few miles away in the hospital. After he believes her, how can he help her ? I loved this story and can easily visualise it in celluloid before the year is out. The characters feel real and the story has a nice, easy flow to it. This is a romance cut from a different cloth than the usual repetitive pap. I yearn to see more like it.

I admire the author's imagination; how he turned an 'Impossible' situation into a 'Could-happen' one. There are smart jokes, and the ending is unexpected. Right when you think it has come to an end, you are surprised and relieved that there's a final twist to spice up the 'epilogue'. I recommend this book for people who like smart jokes, and simple romance. Of course, you should keep an open-mind as you read this. It could happen to any of us! Marc Levy is brilliant.

This book, about lonely young man who acquires a phantom girlfriend whose physical being is lying comatose in a hospital was an overwhelming success in its french edition, and yet is a genre not frequently seen in english. I haven't yet seen the french edition but suspect that the transalator did much more than "merely paraphrase", and has transferred the story and its characters into modern San Francisco, and with some success. The second half of the book is a little less successful. The protagonist steals the actual girl from the hospital to prevent their withdrawl of life support, and one wonders how the young man can manage to carry this off by himself. And a further and somewhat unlikely complication, a rather intense policeman who has come to suspect that someone is hiding a dead body rather reduces the story to low comedy rather than involving any suspense. The character development is well handled giving the reader a real interest in the outcome. While reading the book I felt the young woman must be very similar to the actress Laura (Reese) Witherspoon, and was later surprised to find that some movie producers felt the same way when the novel was filmed.

At just 216 pages, this book rocketed to the best seller list and made me wish I had written it myself. As a reader, it was one of those books that I just couldn't put down. A heart-warming love story about a woman who meets a man, while in a coma, when he moves into her apartment after her friends and family give up hope of her ever coming out of it. This story will make you laugh, make you cry, and will undoubtedly make you question the most powerful force of all...the human mind! A great weekend or beach read.

There are good books, bad books and original books. I have never read a book like this before. I do not read romance novels, nor did I think this was one, as another reviewer did. I believe in ghosts, and in the spirit, the soul. I intimately know life and death.
Although not a romance novel, this book is about love. About sharing and compassion. About an obsession about life. And retreiving one's life. It is about death, and the fraility of humans.
If you have a curious mind, if you are open to the different realities, if your soul soars, you may love this book, and you may cry. It is a walk I am glad I took.

After reading a fabulous review of "If Only It Were True", I rushed out to buy myself a copy. Unfortunately, after reading it, I was a bit disappointed. It's the story of Lauren, a young beautiful doctor (I couldn't get Julia Roberts out of my mind)who gets in a terrible car accident in the first chapter of the book which puts her in an irreversible coma. In the second chapter, Arthur, a young, relatively unhappy architect (who is renting Lauren's apartment) finds Lauren hiding in his closet one night. Lauren is suprised he can see and hear her, Arthur is suprised there is a strange, but beautiful, woman in his house. Lauren proceeds to tell Arthur that she is actually in a coma on the other side of town. Arthur has a real life human ghost on his hands! Should Arthur believe her? Will Lauren ever wake up from her coma? Will Laren's mom take her off life support, and if she does, what will happen to the human ghost that Arthur has fallen madly in love with? Doesn't this sounds like the plot of a day time soap opera? The book does have a romantic feel, and it touches on the theme of living every moment to the fullest, but I found it to be a bit on the cheesy side, and the realtionship between Lauen and Arthur to be unrealistic and trite. If you're looking for a summer "no-brainer" and if you love daytime soaps, I'd say give this book a whirl!

This is a brilliant book - mixes proper happy-ending romance with some fairly steep ups and downs on the way - and in true French style, a fair few comments on life, the universe and everything on the way. Like a couple of the other reviewers, I read it in the original French (it's an excellent choice if you're learning the language at a sort of A-level/pre-university level - settle down with this and a dictionary and it'll keep you riveted enough you won't even realise you've just read a whole book in a foreign language); I therefore didn't suffer the inevitable translationitus. The follow-up is just as good, as are his other books. Interesting to find a French author writing commercially viable books about non-French people and set in a country other than France. Fabulous stuff - cannot recommend more highly as these books are some of the best I've read for ages.

Before the movie's release...I read Just Like Heaven. I can now say the movie has to be better than the book. I know it was originally written in French and published there, but the American/English publisher seems to have commissioned a literal French to English translation with horrible results. There is a complete lack of understanding for spoken American English and general American life. The errors make it seem as if the author "just doesn't get it" and would have been much better off setting the book in France with French characters. Street intersections are "crossroads." EMTs are "doctors" who answer calls from the hospital. Doctors and technicians are interchangeably referred to as "medics" (although no one is in the U.S. Army in this book). I could go on.... If only a decent translation had been done, reading this book would have been much more fun. The twist at the end is sweet, but it's painful to get there.

I picked up this book because it was advertised as a best-seller in France, but I was quickly disappointed. The author seemed to be in a hurry to finish, picking up speed after the introduction of Lauren and gaining speed at a rate that provided no motivation to buy into his plot. Dialogue is trite and attempts at humor are very 1950's.
Maybe the movie will add some depth, but I'll definitely wait for the video to find out. I should have remembered the French like Jerry Lewis movies, too.

This book is a very spectacular romance/mystery.I recommend this book to anyone who loves phenomenal romances.Before I read this book,I thought it was going to be boring.But after the second chapter,I knew this wasn't so.Levy's characters really play well with the story.Their actions make the book more alive.The book is so extraordinary that it makes you feel every emotion,especially the accident in chapter two.Whenever I read that realistic accident scene,it causes me to stop breathing.Toward the end of the book I was crying so hard that I just couldn't read anymore.After I finished the book,I figured out that life is a mystery and anything strange can happen when people least expect it.

When I heard about the concept and the Hollywood bidding war that ensued for this book, I thought that I was going to be in for an interesting read. I am still impressed with the concept, but this has to be one of the clunkiest things I have ever read. A story with the cast of perfect characters and sugary platitudes that just doesn't cut it as worthwhile reading. The first two chapters showed immense potential but the dialogue when Laurel and Arthur got together was cloying and unnatural. Much of the "life live to the fullest" content was the same old same old and I read parts of this in spam emails that I DID NOT forward to my friends. If this thing is going to be made into a movie, the dialogue has to be thrown out the window and somebody has to cut the sugary sentimentality out of it.

Summary: An okay book that eases away a few hours. Although the story and writting is substantially better than Nicholas Sparks' "Message in a Bottle" it would still make a poor movie.
Strengths: Moderately interesting storyline. Nice touches of San Francisco.
Weaknesses: The writing is trite and uninspired. The relationship dynamics between Arthur and Lauren are largely superficial and left me wondering why they were so much in love. Many key details were incorrect, e.g. a 1961 Ford "Woody" station wagon? with a V-6? Woody's were made 10-20 years earlier and V-6's didn't appear in Ford until many years later, bringing into question the integrity of other aspects of the story. Simple research would have tightened up the facts.

I thought the premise of this book was interesting, but it turned out to be a little trite and with awfully large holes in the plot. I might be being stupid, but I expected a sort of metaphysical mystery, how to get Lauren back into her body ? It smacks of something that was written in order to be sold to Dreamworks and star Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. But if you would like to spend a day reading a very undemanding book then this is for you. (I'm still confused, why did she go back?)

After reviewing this disappointing book for a small local magazine, I called the publisher and had them send me a copy in the original French. It was much better. Editors for the English version (employees of Pocket Books, I assume) had deleted dialogue, rearranged scenes and destroyed Marc Levy's surprise ending. I found the French version a very interesting, very beautifully written book. Unfortunately for those who only read English, reading the translated substitute is like eating Cheez-Wiz instead of Brie.

Unlike many of the other reviewers, I didn't love this book at all.

Although its good qualities included being light, fluffy, and a quick and easy read, I think that's where it stopped for me.

The transitions in the book were choppy, the premises all way too far-fetched, and the descriptions were lacking.

It's a good book to read to escape for a little while (2 hours top) but it lacked substance for me.

This book deserves many more good words then it got so i decdied to let you guys know how wonderful this book really is. I loved this book and all sappyness. Athough you can tell from the beginning what will happen between the main characters, you are interested to see how it will work. The best part is how Lauren seems to give up and Authur wont let her. The ending is a suprise and although it seems to be predicatable it does have a twist which isnt easy to figure out. This book is so uplifting, id recommend it to anyone who just wants a book to enjoy.

Even though the story centers itself on a "classical" theme: "I am the only one that can actually see the ghost", it does not exploit the obvious. Yes, there are "Who are you talking to?" and "I am worried about you, my friend..." kind of scenes, but if you accept the supernatural principle of it, the entire story falls into place in a very sound manner. All in all, it is a metaphor about two people falling in love, without realizing, due to the more pressing matters they have to attend to (namely, one of them is in a state of coma!)

This was something that I do not normally read, and I am still not sure why I picked this book to read. But, I have to tell you that I read this book about a year ago, and it was a wonderful, hopeful story. It was an easy read. I loved the characters and fell in love with them too. I can usually read about two to three books a week, and this is one story that that has stuck in my mind....I usually forget. The book cover said that it was being made into a movie, and I have been looking for it. I never read the romance novels...they just don't appeal to me, but this was very ooooh and aaahh, and touching for me. I loved this book! It made me feel good.

...my title says it. If I wanted something serious I would turn on the news. This storyline is silly, but somehow it works. This is a great book to read on the beach or your comfy couch. Just don't take it too seriously and you will enjoy it.

While the premise of this story is farfetched Marc Levy leads you into it so skillfully that you are totally engrossed with the characters without considering how improbable the story line is. I read it straight through in one day - couldn't wait to see how it ended. Marc Levy has you looking at the world (and relationships) through the eyes of Jessie. It gives you a new appreciation for things you may be taking for granted.

I would like to share my opinion of this wonderful book. I will first point out that I read it in French, my native language. When I was in Paris earlier this year, everyone was talking about his book. I read most of it in a red eye flight between San Francisco and Chicago,...and i could not put it down! There are two key points that make this a must read book: - Its originality - Its humor, which makes you forget how serious the situation is. I found myself many times laughing out loud, almost to tears.

Just Like Heaven is an amazing book. If you find yourself searching for an incredible love story than this is the book for you. Sure some of it is a little far-fetched (being the fact that Lauren is the ghost of a comatose body) but that is what we have imaginations for, to dream the impossible and unimaginable. Enjoy this book, I sure did. I found my self smiling as I read the last paragraph to this now treasured book.

What a wonderful book. I just happened to pick it up at the sale table and have recommended to everyone. I love the fantasy aspects as well as the romantic, and I especially love the surprise ending! This is just a great, feel good, book! Read it as soon as you can!

Patty Engelmann in Booklist says "Levy has managed to make the improbable seem possible".I disagree, being too grounded in reality,but Levy would be pleasedwith her review since an accurate translation of the title is "What if It Were True?"

Please don't read the publishers weekly review, they don't even have the facts of the book right. I don't want to spoil the book for you, but lets just say it is a great love story about some pretty eccentric people. This was a fun and easy read. It is great for a mother of 6 that has to be able to put down a book at in point and be able to resume without back paddling.