Landline

Author: Raimbow Rowell

Genre: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary.

Editorial: St. Martin’s Press 

Year: 2014

Ranking: 4/ 5

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. Maybe that was always beside 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 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?

The Author

Rainbow Rowell is an American author of young adult and adult contemporary novels. Her young adult novels Eleanor & Park and Fangirl both received a great deal of critical acclaim in 2013.

Rowell's first published novel was Attachments in 2011, a contemporary romantic comedy about a company's IT guy who falls in love with a woman whose email he has been monitoring. In 2013 Rowell published two young adult novels: Eleanor & Park and Fangirl. Both were chosen by The New York Times as being some of the best young adult fiction of the year. Eleanor & Park was also chosen by Amazon as one of the 10 best books of 2013, and as Goodreads' best young adult fiction of the year. Rowell's fourth novel is a contemporary adult novel about a marriage in trouble; it is titled Landline and was released on July 8, 2014. 

Personal Experience with this Book

I read Landile while I was traveling and I read it a lot faster than other books. I consider Rainbow Rowell as an author I like to read as light reading. His writing gives you the feeling that you can read one of her books quickly and easily.

I love her writing because I always find in her stories and characters something that makes me feels nostalgic. It is a feeling that only she gives me. The romance that she always presents in her books, the ones I've read so far, is not a cheesy romance. It is usually a more realistic romance, yet giving that feeling in your heart you do not know how to explain. That makes you feel like tenderness and you feel like you want, no matter what, those two characters together.

For Landline, I can say that I loved it. The story is very beautiful. I think that makes you think hard about the matter of fate and how we value the people we love only at the time that we do not have them with us.

I loved Georgie’s Family; the fact that Neal is a man devoted to his daughters and does not feel bad for it. That man whenever interacting with his daughters, as Georgi said, was the sweetest in the world. Also, the fact that even though Georgie was not fully present in the lives of their daughters for their work, their daughters adore and love her and they prove it every time they see their mom.

Gerogie’s character, however, was too stressful at times. She keeps saying that everything is wrong and that Neal is angry at her but actually as a reader you will see that he does not react to what she does or says most of the time. But that's just Neal’s personality. The point is that it often seems to be paranoia instead of reality. She gave me the feeling that she was more worried than she had to.

As for the other characters, who you met through Georgie, I think my favorite was definitely Heather. Or maybe the relationship between her and Georgie. She reminds me of me and my sister together, I think a conversation between them would be a perfectly consider as one between me and my little sister.

I loved Neal; I think he is a great man, a great husband, a great father, etc. Seth gave me a lot of anger, he knew long ago his feelings for Georgie but still he did not say or do anything about that. Moreover, he got completely in the middle of her marriage through her work and the dreams she had. 

The book is a very good book; the truth is that I personally really liked it. As I said, I read Rowell Raimbow when I want something light to read so I never feel that "I LOVE YOU" feeling with her books but, they always leave me feeling that I liked them a lot. I recommend it to people who like contemporary or pure and simple love stories without any other fact (Magic, Action, and Tragedy).