Published July 8, 2014
About the Book:
Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it’s been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems besides the point now.
Maybe that was always besides the point.
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. She knows that Neal will be upset with her — Neal is always a little upset with Georgie — but she doesn’t expect to him to pack up the kids and go home without her.
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?
My Thoughts:
It took me 4 days to read this book. I kept finding excuses not to read because I just wasn't feeling it. This is my least favorite of Rowell's books, and I loved all of her other books. I am really shocked by how high it's Goodreads rating is; I gave it only 2 stars personally. It pains me to say that, as I really have loved everything else she's written. She is an author who I will always buy her books; this one being a dud for me doesn't sway that.
The things that she always does well, she does them here. She writes very real characters, authentic dialogue, pop culture references that I relate to, etc. The other thing I think she does very well is write teenagers/young adults. I think she's far better at that than writing adults. The flashback parts when she's writing about the college-aged versions of the characters in this book work far better than the present-day versions of the characters. In general, Rowell's YA books have been much better than her adult ones. I did like Attachments, but loved her YA books much more than it.
My really big problem with this book is it felt like every chapter was the same. It felt like nothing was happening, the story wasn't moving along, etc. It's not until near the end that anything different happens. Before that, she seems to have the same conversations with Seth, the same conversations with her family, the same conversations with Neal, the same internal conversations with herself, over and over. and was just such a slow read. Reading chapter after chapter of the same dialogue, or what feels like the same dialogue, gets old. The dialogue wasn't particularly interesting either, and she just didn't make me care about these characters like I have with her other books. I think that's a big part of what lost me, as if I had cared about the characters, the other issues wouldn't have bothered me as much. I love slow movies as long as the plot is interesting and I care about the characters, so a slow book can work for me too with those element. They were just missing here. I just really didn't care what happened to Georgie and Neal's marriage. I feel terrible saying that and terrible for not loving this book. I still love Rainbow Rowell and look forward to whatever is up next from her, though.
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