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| ★★★✰✰ |
Synopsis: Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble; it has been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems beside the point now. Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything. That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts... Is that what she’s supposed to do? Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?
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Review: One of the only Rainbow Rowell books I hadn't heard mentioned anywhere, I liked the premise of this and thought I'd give it a go. I have reservations about Rowell - I read Attachments and liked it but found it quite unlikely and fluffy, which are not things I generally like in my real-life fiction novels. This one implies a magical mcguffin from the outset, which it nevers plans to explain even as much as Frequency did, and which I could get behind as a plot device for making this novel a little less realistic than a standard real-life fiction novel.
I did enjoy it, but I suppose the thing about a book which is entirely founded on the fate of a marriage, is that you really need to care about the characters, and want the marriage to succeed (or, I suppose, if it is destined to fail, to want them to move on happily with their lives?) I found it difficult to buy into the romance between Georgie and Neal. I was kind of rooting for them, but I wouldn't have minded all that much if Georgie decided Neal would be better off without her - he probably would be, to be honest, and found his dedication to her somewhere on the credibility scale with Edward fancying Bella.
Still, Rowell's writing is always a joy to read I must say. While I may not be a huge fan of her style or her characters, her books seem guaranteed to always make me smirk with amusement or agreement when the inevitable odd gem shows up every few chapters. Worth a look if it sounds like your kind of thing.
Rating: 3/5
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