What Nora Knew

by Linda Yellin

Molly Hallberg is a thirty-nine-year-old divorced writer living in New York City who wants her own column, a Wikipedia entry, and to never end up in her family’s Long Island upholstery business. For the past four years Molly’s been on staff for an online magazine, covering all the wacky assignments. She’s snuck vibrators through security scanners, speed-dated undercover, danced with Rockettes, and posed nude for a Soho art studio.

Fearless in everything except love, Molly is now dating a forty-four-year-old chiropractor. He’s comfortable, but safe. When Molly is assigned to write a piece about New York City romance "in the style of Nora Ephron," she flunks out big-time. She can’t recognize romance. And she can’t recognize the one man who can go one-on-one with her, the one man who gets her. But with wit, charm, whip-smart humor, and Nora Ephron’s romantic comedies, Molly learns to open her heart and suppress her cynicism in this bright, achingly funny novel.

• ISBN10: 1476730083
• ISBN13: 9781476730080
• Publish Date: 21 January 2014
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Gallery
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[kimbacaffeinate]

Molly was a fun character and her sassy; snarky comments made me laugh. Determined not to join the family upholstery business she sets out for a career in journalism. Her resume of jobs to pay the rent are hilarious, and I loved how she described them. After her marriage failed it left her jaded regarding soul-mates, marriage and love. Molly experiences a lot of growth throughout the novel as she goes from someone who settles to taking chances. Cameron is charismatic, and I loved how conversation with him pushed her buttons. The relationship develops slowly and at times dragged for me but in the end it felt genuine. A lot of the humor and conversations between them are hilarious, but I fear those that aren’t familiar with the movies referenced might find this flat.

What Nora Knew was slow to develop with a lot of back-story before the juice of the romance began. Fans of Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail will enjoy the references. All of the characters were likable, even boring and stuffy Russell, her chiropractor boyfriend. It felt like Molly was talking to us, and I couldn’t help but draw comparison to Carrie in Sex and the City. In fact, a lot of this is similar to movies, and a few scenes were almost identical to those in Bridget Jone’s Diary giving me a sense of déjà vi. Yellin beautifully captures New York single life, from apartment life to speed dating. She creating a fun character with Molly even if she is pieced together from other characters we know and love. The ending was wonderful and just what you would expect from a fan of Nora Ephron. A tribute in part I enjoyed this quirky, hilarious walk down memory lane.


Copy received in exchange for unbiased review​. Full review originally published @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer​​

[tweetybugshouse]

I am total fan of romantic comedies, not such a fan of reading romance novels. This novel goes hand in hand with my love for romantic comedies and just a touch of romance in a book. You knew where the story was going but the joy in reading is how it the ending comes about. You laugh, you hope, this book is a delight and the perfect book to read when your ready for something not very serious and that will make you smile and enjoy life again.

[Leah]

Linda Yellin first came to my attention a couple of years back with her non-fiction novel The Last Blind Date. I haven’t actually read the book, but I do have it on my shelf and it is one I am rather desperate to read because it sounds amazing. So when I spotted What Nora Knew on Netgalley, I remembered the author, and remembered the book I already have of hers, and remembered she’s meant to be a really funny writer, so I requested it and was super pleased to be accepted for it. I couldn’t wait to get started on it, and I knew I was going to enjoy it as soon as I had read the Prologue, which described Molly’s failed marriage to divorce-lawyer (and douche) Evan Naboshek.

Before I start my review proper, I must first confess something. Nora Ephron is an enigma to me. I haven’t read any of her books, I haven’t seen any of her world famous movies, I don’t know exactly what it is the world loves about Nora Ephron because I have yet to discover it myself. I know, I know, that’s quite shocking. I just haven’t yet had time to watch Sleepless In Seattle, You’ve Got Mail or When Harry Met Sally. Something that will be rectified, so I was slightly worried that all the Nora references would fly straight over my head, but I know enough about the movies to ‘get’ it, so that wasn’t really an issue, but I do suspect I’d have loved the homages even more if I had seen them and loved them like Molly does. It would have taken the enjoyability factor sky high, I’m sure.

I really enjoyed What Nora Knew, I love that American writers aren’t afraid to make their heroines snarky and commitment-phobic, something I feel British writers are afraid of, but which American writers excel at. Molly was a fabulous heroine, and considering my views on love are somewhat similar (I’m not nearly as cynical, but in this day and age I do find it hard to believe true, proper, forever love really does exist outside movies and books), it made me love her even more. I adored reading about her job at EyeSpy. Molly was basically the do-anything girl, including jumping out of planes, and sneaking objects through security, so when she bombed the Nora assignment I was gutted for her. But it definitely allowed her to grow, and to perhaps for the first time in her life find out what true love really feels like.

I was quite torn over Cameron Hamilton. He was described as someone with not-attractive features that made him attractive and I just couldn’t get a picture of him in my head at all, which was super strange. But, he grew on me as the novel wore on and as he stopped being as smarmy as he seemed in the beginning. I loved getting to know Molly’s friends Angela and Kristine, who were a bit wacky, but were lovely with it. I even liked Emily, Molly’s frenemy at work. I loved the writing, too, Linda’s a fantastic writer, full of warmth and humour, and I stayed up until well past midnight finishing the novel. It had SUCH a satisfying ending, and even as a non-Nora fan I could enjoy it. This is a fantastic read, one I really enjoyed and I look forward to more from Linda Yellin in the future as What Nora Knew was delightful.