Landline

by Rainbow Rowell

[liz089]

Read more about this review and others on my blog Freyja Eats Books

REVIEW.
I bought this book on sale on Amazon, because well.. it’s Rainbow Rowell. I really enjoyed Fangirl recently and I see a lot of her coming by, so I wanted to give this one a chance. Plus, the summary sounded interesting, with a magical phone to the past. It gives a “normal” romance more of an otherworldly twist.

I have to say it right away.. I was hooked on this one, but kind of disappointed on the end. I had a lot of free time last weekend and I finished it almost in one day. I loved how easily it was written and the main character was very likeable. BUT. The ending. I found the build-up to this moment (that we all saw coming) come to an abrupt end not living up to my expectations. She has given her relationship a lot of thought during the book and I loved her adventure getting to Omaha, but once she was there it just ended. I did not feel satisfied. I wanted MORE.

I do get, and know, that this is more of a realistic ending. Most of the time people don’t get their happy ending, people have to work hard to make a relationship work. You don’t get an extraordinary big life with an even bigger happily ever after. But well.. this book has a magical phone ! So I damn well wanted a magical happy ending.

And not just that, but even though I really liked Georgie and she was a fun narrator, I got kind of annoyed. We all know she will go to Omaha at the end, to her family and Neal. It will be her big gesture. It is what she needs to do to try and save her family. But come on, she takes way too long to make that choice. She should have gone with them in the first place.. It’s Christmas ! But she didn’t, and I get why. But after she felt so bad about it all, she should have just left for Omaha right away.

Even though I rooted for Georgie, I had some trouble with Neal. He seemed like a very difficult person to be with, and I had a hard time liking him. Especially when he didn’t even pick up his phone when he was in Omaha with their children. She is your wife ! She did not stay home for nothing, but for a once in a lifetime chance ! He acted like a sad little victim, saying that it was okay for her to stay at home, but meanwhile ignoring her.. Yes, it was not the first time and stuff. But don’t say things are okay when they are most definitely not. You don’t help anyone with lying about it. Not you and not you man. I mean wife.. (come on, he really acted like a woman).

I was also not so much in love with Seth.. he acted very selfish and ignorant. They are supposed to be best friends, but when he notices she is in trouble, her marriage is in trouble, he cares more about the show. Georgie goes to the past a couple of times, telling about how she met him and stuff, but I didn’t see it. Why she stayed friends with him. Even though they know each other for a long time, they don’t communicate at all.

That seemed to be an overall theme, the not communicating. Not with Seth, not with her husband. They are the most important and constant people in her life, and she does not talk with them. Luckily she had some revelations at the end that made her see that, but it did bother me throughout the book.

I did like some of the other characters though, Heather was great. She was so cute and a very fun sister. She genuinely cares about her sister and tries to help. Nice change of scenery.

Oh yeah, so I should also talk a bit about THE phone. It was the mystical part of this book that had everybody wondering what was going on. Was it really happening or was it her going out of her mind ? At the end, I’m more sure that it happened, and that it had impact on the past/future. I liked that, how she weaved the past and the future together. To have Georgie think back later on and some things making more sense after those phone calls.

FINAL THOUGHTS.
So for me this was kind of a coincidence to read just before I got married myself. It gave some insights that I can take with me; like to always keep working to make your marriage work and don’t take the other person for granted. But, overall I did not really enjoy the book like I would have thought. The ending seemed kind of abrupt and I disliked some characters that I should like to make the story work for me. But it was easy to read, and the writing style was likeable enough to get right through it. So, I would like to give this one 2.5 Freyja’s, and well.. I don’t know if I would recommend it. Maybe as an easy read in between if you’re bored and don’t know what else to read ?