Monthly Archives: June 2015

Landline is an adult contemporary novel. I read this in a paperback edition published by Orion Books.

Published: January 1st 2014

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Pages: 320 (hardcover)

Audiobook length: 9 hrs and 3 min

 Synopsis by the publisher

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble; it has been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems beside the point now.

Maybe that was always beside the point.

Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her — Neal is always a little upset with Georgie — but she doesn’t expect him to pack up the kids and go home without her.

When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.

That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts…

Is that what she’s supposed to do?

Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

Rainbow Rowell

***

The Writing

Rowell’s writing is witty and I really did like the dialogue between the characters. Especially the ones between Georgie and young Neal.

There was a lot of easy humor, witty remarks and thoughts on love. And I loved the Tolkien references.

This is the second Rowell novel that I’ve read and I do really enjoy her writing even though I don’t feel as captivated by it as many others do.

The Characters

Georgie was a really ambitious character and I could relate to her in her frustration in feeling like she was trying to fulfill her dream as well as taking care of her family.

Seth and Neal made for two interesting male characters. I really fell for Seth in the beginning and just loved his smart remarks and his humor, but when young Neal came into the picture I had a hard time trying to decide which one of them I liked best.

Noomi is the cutest character in the bunch though! “Meow!”

The Plot

Landline had a pretty even pace and good build up.

It did take me a little while to get invested in the story, but when we got to around a hundred pages the story took a hold on me.

I felt like there could have been a lot more to this story as I did enjoy it quite a lot, but felt like everything got resolved a bit too quickly when there was so many feelings behind the whole plot.

I did like the ending though and it got me a little teared up.

My Thoughts

As I wrote above, it did take me quite a while to  get invested in this story. I was not bored for the first hundred pages, but I did not connect with the characters that much either.

But as the story finally took a hold on me I really did fly through it and enjoyed it very much.

It was an enjoyable and fast read but I didn’t love it.

Would you like your own copy of Landline? Click on the Amazon or BookDepository logo below 🙂