Rainbow Rowell : LANDLINE

Warning! Expect a heart-warming story filled with love, laughter, regret... Would you change your life if you discover a magical phone line to your past?

LANDLINE is the newest, well newish, novel written by favourite author who never fails to put a smile on my face - Rainbow Rowell.


This is the fourth story I have read from the pen of this wonderful writer. As soon as I found out that there is a new book being published, I had to add it to my personal library. The plot is different from others, but I was sure if it comes from Rainbow Rowell, it is worth the reading.

*****

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. It's been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and he still loves her - but that almost seems besides the point now. 

Two days before they're supposed to visit Neal's family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells him 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 - 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'd 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? 

*****

As usual, let's talk about the edition first. I own the hardback published in 2014. 310 pages. 38 chapters long - well 36 chapters plus before and after part... The jacket is mint green and yellow with yellow telephone on the cover. The magic telephone to the past. The main book is light yellow. When I was reading it, I carried the book without its jacket as I prefer the novel without its clothes. Actually, the jacket become annoying after while, it kept sliding so I just took it off.

The writing.. Well, I love Rainbow's writing as I can always count on her to not only put a smile on my face, but she makes me to reach for the box of Kleenex too. This story is similar to her other ones it that aspect. It's funny at times. Entertaining. Intelligent. Smartly written. And it makes you emotional and melancholic in many parts. But it always worth the read.

The story... I have to be honest. At the start, I wasn't sure about the story itself. It didn't strike me with interest as the other Rainbow Rowell's tales. It might be due to the fact that it touches upon marriage going through a rough patch. I am personally still single too far away from a possibility of even thinking about getting married, have children... so I thought I might not be able to relate to the story. And at the start this was the case, I took me a while to really like this story. But as it happens with every Rowell's story, soon enough I fell in love with it and couldn't put it down.

It is a wonderful re-telling of the time when you have been married for years and years. Your relationship is stuck in a loophole of mandatory, boring kind. Mundane things are happening on repeat. You don't know how to communicate with each other anymore. And what if you would discover a magic phone to your past to the exact moment when your life can change forever. Would leave everything as it is ? Or would you take the leap and change your whole life?

Rainbow manages to capture human heart and it feelings, the reasons behind every decision in its own raw form. It's beautiful. It's emotional. And it will leave you breathless.

Although, this is not my favourite book from Rainbow Rowell's pen, it is a very well written novel. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry... Rainbow has the right recipe on how to write a successful novel every reader can enjoy. 

Another well done to my favourite author in YA genre!!! She is the contemporary genre queen. Rainbow Rowell, there is a reason why you are my favourite writer.