by Rainbow Rowell
This is my second book by Rainbow Rowell, and I now realize that I am a fan! Her other book was young adult, but this one is considered adult (although so much of the backstory of the couple is right after college so some readers may even consider it quasi young adult).
Technically, this is a romance. And yet it doesn’t feel like one. And I mean that as a compliment! It’s so edgy, witty, and with great dialogue. Boy can she write dialogue! She digs so deep into the relationships that she covers in her books that it’s almost like she’s excavating them for you. And when the relationships are going well, you almost feel giddy and high. And when the relationship is not going well, you feel frustrated and anxious and cranky.
This particular book is told from the perspective of a female protagonist who is a television writer in Los Angeles in modern day, married, with two kids. She and her husband are not necessarily having problems… And yet they’re not totally happy either. She visits her mother over the holidays and uses an old landline phone and somehow winds up calling her husband in the past. And they’re able to talk about so many things in their relationship early on that they never really talked about before. It’s fascinating!
If you like books that really go deep into a relationship, and even deal with some time travel, you’ll very much enjoy this one!