A Love Story for the Non-Romantics: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Landline by Rainbow Rowell is really a book about second chances, as the tagline 'If you got a second chance at love, would you make the same call?' tells us on the front cover. This is a love story for the realists and the non-romantics which kicks off many years after most romance stories take place - after the fireworks have subsided.

Georgie McCool's marriage is in big trouble. After one too many work commitments taking precedence over their family, Georgie's husband Neal packs up their family and leaves to spend Christmas day in Omaha. In the week before Christmas, alone and fearing for the break up of her marriage Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. She has one week to not only write a full season's sitcom script (her reasons for staying behind in LA over Christmas) but to figure out how to either fix her marriage in the future or make sure it never happened.

Georgie and Neal are two people who fell in love once, long ago and have slowly drifted apart. Through conversations with Neal in the past, Georgie paints a not-so-pretty-picture of how their relationship has ground to a halt. The characters for me are what really cemented this novel as top-notch. Neither Georgie or Neal are perfect - Georgie has often neglected her family for work and has a close relationship with her male writing partner Seth which adds to the tension in her marriage while Neal has given up a career for their family but is directionless in his own life wants and needs. 

It was refreshing to read about two people who weren't the answer to each other's problems and didn't need saving. For a romance story to focus on choosing whether to stay together (or not) and to make a relationship work is a lot closer to the reality of love for many people and what made this book so relatable. 

I'd love to know if you've read this book and what you thought of it?!