The first half of the book was entirely gloomy and kind of depressing, but then I guess that’s (maybe) kind of the whole point.. to show the transition. Lincoln was like the most depressing, hopeless, lost person I’ve come across as a hero in a romance novel. His lethargy was almost palpable and the lost, directionless, purposeless feeling that pulls you back if not completely under at some point in life something that any reader could identify with..that I kept me reading..(its kinda hard to keep reading when it’s making you that morose even if it is literary brilliance). All the characters were just the right amount of fiction mixed with reality. Though I can’t say that I was completely emotionally invested in the book, there was a connection between me as a reader and the characters. Not the wow kind of good but good in a quiet and different way..
The references to the old pop culture and stuff of the old times were a little disconcerting at first, like the time when internet and mobile was still rare, new.. mind-boggling. But there was a certain old world (obvious not that old but still..), turn of the century charm about the book that the author has brilliantly conveyed…it made the likeable quiet and different story to wonderful.. not just Lincoln, but Beth’s friend Jeniffer- you can’t help but care about her story though she’s a secondary character, how Chris is not dumped into a quick terrible-boyfriend category just to move along with the story of Beth and Lincoln, making every character into real, live people who live in those pages, whose gradual progress of their emotions, relationships are not just good or bad, not the author telling you this is right and this is wrong, but seemingly effortlessly conveying myriad shades of grey in the story…its simply wonderful and understated. Never does the plot seem forced, it just flows..reading this book felt like being high on just the fresh, pure air of the countryside..
I wouldn’t want anyone who...