Dr. Scholl's® Active Series® Review (Courtesy of Influenster)

Just recently I received my second Influenster VoxBox, which was the Dr. Scholl's new Active Series shoe inserts! Although I'm not an avid runner, I was still excited to receive these because I've recently been trying to live healthier and I figured these shoe inserts would be the motivation to get me outdoors and moving!

(Pictures to come!)

My camera is currently needing new batteries, but I wanted to post about these inserts as soon as I could since I love them so much!

I've heard a lot about Dr. Scholl's, and honestly I was rather skeptical about them. They didn't seem like they were worth the hype. I'm young yet so I didn't feel like I would need these kinds of inserts anytime soon anyways. Then this summer I twisted my ankle pretty badly and I've had to wear sneakers since then. And a lot of times sneakers just aren't very comfortable!

Insert (see what I did there?) Dr. Scholl's into my shoes, and *magic everywhere* my shoes were instantly more comfortable! They were also much more fitted to my feet and I felt like I could really be more active having the inserts cushioning my feet as well as supporting my feet.

I love the fact that the inserts come in these bright colors and that they're customizable to your shoe size! You can simply trace your shoe lining onto the shoe insert and then cut off the extra liner. None of that return hassle if it doesn't exactly fit your shoe!

I've worn these a couple times already, and I'm definitely going to keep these around and buy more for my other sneakers! They're definitely worth the hype.

Just One Year by Gayle Forman (Release Date: Oct 10, 2013)

"After spending an amazing day and night together in Paris, Just One Year is Willem’s story, picking up where Just One Day ended. His story of their year of quiet longing and near misses is a perfect counterpoint to Allyson’s own as Willem undergoes a transformative journey, questioning his path, finding love, and ultimately, redefining himself." publisher description

Just One Year is the compelling sequel to the much-loved and praised book entitled Just One Day in which a young American girl takes a spontaneous trip to Paris with a boy named Willem she's just met for one single day in Paris. Just One Day is written in the perspective of the American girl, Allyson, and follows her past that one day through onto the next year as she goes through a period of self-discovery and re-examination about her life and what she really feels she wants to do in the future.  

Just One Year picks up after that one day (not after the end of the book Just One Day) and is written in the perspective of Willem. Just One Year is another journey of self-exploration. Willem, in this book, goes across the world trying to find this mysterious Allyson (otherwise known as "Lulu" in Just One Day). 

I've yet to read the book myself, but I've read a couple excerpts and a large number of reviews by people who have read advance copies so I'm very excited for this sequel! I've seen many people giving this book a 3/5-3.5/5, and I can see why as many don't find Willem's journey of self-discovery quite as compelling as Allyson's. Many seemed to agree about Willem's character being as follows:

"I went through the majority of the book not feeling any sort of compassion towards him, no pity for his plight, when I think that would have been the regular response. He gave up his search for her very early on and considering we already know what Allyson went through physically and emotionally makes me sad for her. Willem was convinced to start looking for her again by friends and as much as he kept saying he was still looking for her that whole time, it wasn't an active search. It felt like he was simply sitting back and waiting for something to happen, for her to find him." -Bonnie

Others simply found Willem's journey lacking in some way. Since I haven't read the book yet, I'll have to wait and see whether or not I agree, but from reading all the reviews, it sounds like Willem isn't going on a trip to find the actual "Lulu", Allyson, in the physical form, in the flesh, but rather to find her in himself. He seems to be trying to find the goodness, the life, inside of Allyson in himself. He wants to become more like her in some ways, it seems.

The book is released in only a few days, so I'm excited to be able to read it! Once I do, I'll definitely have to think deeply about what I feel Willem's self-discovery journey is like compared to Allyson's.