Reviewed by Sarah Says on
I was in love with this book by the first few pages. I think this is the fastest I’ve ever devoured a book. I got the book that morning and read it all that day. That’s a new record for me. (i’m writing this review two days later). I came up for air, once, to put up a Goodreads update – Page 48: Loving this book and thinking “why have I not read any Rainbow Rowell until now”.
I finished the book late-ish Friday night – Page 322: Love Love Loved this book. I’m jumping up and down and smiling, LOVED IT – review to come :-). I only open it it intending to have a look and reading it later when I was on holidays. Just the first few pages had me hooked and I didn’t go to bed until I’d finished it. I loved Rowell’s writing, her humour, snappy dialogue and devour-able prose.
The Main Characters: Lincoln O’Neill, Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder; I love them all and they are now my imaginary best friends :-P what I wouldn’t give to have a working friendship like Beth and Jennifer’s. The characters are all 28 (my age) and it’s nice to see other people not having there s**t together. It’s a funny, heart-warming story that feels real. My favorite books usually involve magic, mythological or paranormal creatures, but Rowell’s left me feeling happier than any book has in a long time. I was smiling like I’d just won the lotto when I finished the last page.
The story swaps between Lincoln “page shots” of Beth and Jennifer’s emails and Lincoln in the 3rd person. The story is set back in 1999/2000, the whole point being that people didn’t have iPhones etc. back then so we see the two female leads converse using inter office email. Then there is the poor smuck Lincoln that has to monitor those inter office emails. At this time 1999/2000 I was in high school and they did monitor your computer use, I know this because I got in trouble off the librarian once for some “inappropriate” story I was writing.
The girls are immediately like-able. But for me Lincoln became the star of the show. He was lonely and stuck in a rut. He hated his dead end job that made him feel like a perverse nut job. Now I can see why some people mightn’t like this, they might write Lincoln off as a creepy loser. But I love how we get to watch him grow, watch him try to be a better person and succeed. He gets out of his rut, he gets his s**t together and he gets the girl, the right girl! Go Lincoln Go!
I love Lincoln, yeah so what if he fell for Beth while reading her emails –Ah hello, he gave Jennifer his MacDonald’s while he changed her flat tyre in a storm, super hero! – Beth did some Lincoln stalking as well, so meh, all’s fair in love and war. I did some house drive by stalking when I was younger LOL and he married me, my husband the silly man.
So Five Stars. I’m going to leave it at that because if I try to tell you anymore about the story I’ll give it all away.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 15 May, 2015: Finished reading
- 15 May, 2015: Reviewed