Cassidy Lane

by Maria Murnane

[Leah]

When I spotted Cassidy Lane on Netgalley, I thought it sounded really interesting. I haven’t read Maria Murnane’s Waverly Bryson novels, though they sound ace, so decided the best place to start was with her new, stand alone novel. I love books about writers, it’s my favourite occupation to read about, because writers should know how to write about writers, am I right? As soon as I started the novel, I could tell it was my kind of book, although the ending let it down somewhat.

Cassidy Lane is a writer, with her own apartment in New York City, and a wonderful life that’s missing only one thing – her very own Mr Right. So when she heads back to Cali for her high school reunion and bumps into Brandon, it’s as if fate destined for them to get together, especially when a few weeks later Brandon finds himself in NYC and the two go out on a date. Suddenly Cassidy’s life is like the plot of one of her novels and she and Brandon are spending all of their time chatting and texting, and it seems like she may have finally found The One but her writing isn’t going as smoothly as she would like and it may be the first ever novel she writes that doesn’t have a happy ending, but will Cassidy get one in real life?

Cassidy Lane was a novel I got into right away, it opens on the night of Cassidy’s school reunion, and I was immediately absorbed. I really liked Cassidy, she was a wonderful character, and I loved reading about her job as a writer. Of course all of us readers suspect writers live the charmed life, when that isn’t really the case, but I think Cassidy had a lovely life. I would love to be able to get up when I please, and work in my pyjamas… It would be bliss. Reading about her writing life was so interesting and I enjoyed how her life was somewhat mirroring one of her plots from one of her books, but I felt that should have really forewarned me to the ending. I only caught on when it was too late as to how this novel was probably going to end.

Cassidy Lane was a fascinating read. I loved the characters, Cassidy and all of her friends – the ones in NYC and California! I did actually want a different ending for Cassidy in two ways. First, the ending wasn’t really there… It was left open, perhaps for a sequel, I don’t know, but controversially I didn’t want Brandon to be Cassidy’s Mr Right anyway, because I never felt he was as invested as Cassidy was. I was rooting for someone else, and I felt there was the possibility of something there between Cassidy and Harper. Perhaps it was just me who saw that, though! I enjoyed the novel, though it was very readable, I was just a bit disappointed with the ending.