Teddy finds the courage to write to him, feeling slightly like one of the children who write to him on his show. He always gives sound advice and seems like he has everything figured out—and he pretty much does: Everett has a great support system, wonderful friends, and his dream job. But there is still that persistent feeling in the back of his mind that something is missing.
When a woman named Theodora starts writing to Everett, he is drawn to her honesty and vulnerability. They continue writing to each other, all the while living their lives without meeting. When their worlds collide, however, they must both let go of their fears and figure out what they truly want—and if the future they want includes each other.
Comment: This book caught my eye because of the letters/emails exchange mentioned in the blurb. I tend to like stories with this element and, of course, wanted to see how it would play out on the novel.
Theodora "Teddy" Phillips is a young woman who isn't yet certain about her path in life. She works at a toy store and likes what she does but others around her think differently, especially her boyfriend Richard, who dumps Teddy very suddenly. While trying to figure out what she can do with her life, she moves in with two friends, decides to try new hobbies to see what she likes and gives in to send an email to Everett St James, the responsible for a puppet show for children, which is quite famous locally and on TV. Everett sometimes answers letters by kids on his show and Teddy would never dream he would reply to her, an adult, but he does and they start exchanging emails frequently. At the same time, fate seems to find ways for them to suddenly be in each others' sphere... is there hope for them?
This is the first book I try by this author and, like I said, I was sold on the premise thus I was not expecting any special outcome except a HEA, since this is a romance novel. I liked the writing and the "vibe", and I might feel tempted to read more by the author if the blurb appeals to me.
The story/plot is quite interesting and grabbed me because the initial set up had plenty of ingredients to make it charming, such as the fact the heroine had to "discover" herself and the hero had a very unique work and interests. Such a mix should not really matter if we think these are adult people but somehow the author made things feel well done. Until a certain point in the novel, I was more than eager to keep reading and seeing the main characters interact with others and with one another.
I liked the email exchange, it was made to work in a very cute way, which reminded me of pen pals of old, only with computers. While they were doing this, we got to learn about them as characters and how their lives were shaped to be the way they are. Everett has always wanted to work with puppets, which is way odd, but kind of worked for this novel. I also liked how his relationship with his parents and his much younger sister were portrayed.
Teddy is the main character for certain and a lot of the focus is on her. I've found it easy to sympathize and to connect with her because she felt out of place, she felt she had to be easy going and wasn't always recognized for who she is. I liked her vulnerable side and, of course, was immediately furious on her behalf when her conceited boyfriend dumped her. It was very easy to see what the author was doing with characterization and plot and how these two might work out as a couple.
The romance was more cute than passionate, although I wasn't much bothered by this. I liked it that they were taking things slowly and that took their jobs seriously. I also liked it that they had other things to focus on and not just on each other. However, things were going on a steady pace, a positive one to me in fact, and then the romance details were more or less solved and the book was not yet close to be finished. I started to fear what might be ahead of them for certainly a conflict had to happen if things were so well already and we still had so many pages to go...
Well, it was true that things weren't done. The big conflict happens due to Everett's dedication to his job. We kept having hints at how this could become a problem but I've always expected things to not go into unnecessary discord but, I suppose, page count had to be fulfilled. I won't spoiler things but I will say that this part felt like an imposition almost, as if something had to happen, but to me this was not really important for the set up and development until then had already done a good job explaining things to the reader.
No comments:
Post a Comment