This intellectual romance is slow to start but grows into a will they, won’t they romance between two MFA students who keep missing each other at pivotal points in their lives. Romance blooms, conflict ensues, and love seems unlikely until it very much isn’t. The protagonist follows a sometimes frustrating path due to a lack of confidence, but that approach gets the reader into her mindset and makes the returns all the more enticing by the end of the book. 

Best Bits

A Few of My Favorite Things

Structure

The novel didn’t necessarily follow the structure of a typical modern-day romance novel, leaning more toward literary fiction at times. The approach wasn’t offputting, though as an avid reader of romance, I occasionally found myself frustrated that things weren’t happening when I expected. That being said, by the end I fully appreciated the author’s approach. Near the middle of the book, it clicked for me and I was excited to see how the story ended.

I found the long timeline most interesting. So many romance novels put all of the book’s action into a couple of weeks or months, expecting lifelong romance to bloom in a shorter period of time. I’m all for that approach, but this novel spreads out over the better part of a year with occasional flashbacks to points in the prior decade. What we get isn’t a quick romance but a slow simmering acceptance by two characters who have been on each other’s periphery for their entire adult lives. It skirts the middle ground between a years-long romance and a quick timeline, and that fits the characters well.

Style

I appreciated the MFA plot details around both of the characters. We not only see the primary characters’ growth toward romance, but their growth as writers as well. It’s important to note the protagonist and her love interest aren’t straight out of high school or undergrad. They have a few years under their belts and have been out there in the incredibly frustrating adult world, absent of the art they are so desperate to create. While we do get plenty of plot around their past decades, most of it is translated through poetry that the author has written and included in the text. We see their frustrations and the events that formed their personalities – the good parts and the infuriating ones. I can’t recall a romance novel with that meld of poetry and prose and I’d be interested to find more out there.

It wouldn’t be a romance novel without sex scenes and the author takes a literary approach at the start before going more in depth. These aren’t extremely spicy, but her intellectual descriptions and word choices somehow make them more intriguing than the typical fare. William’s passion and overwhelming interest in Leah greatly adds to the experience and, in the end, they are perfect for the book’s style. 

Protagonist

Leah is a frustrating protagonist but that’s what makes her human and compelling to follow. She has the quirks and mental hangups many of us have, struggling to deal with the realities of adult life after four years of college dreaming about how great adult life will be. She follows a fine line between a grizzled adult who sees through the nonsense of modern day corporate life and an immature YA who holds onto grudges and doesn’t know who she is. I struggled to really understand her in the first third of the book but as the author opens up her inner voice and struggles, it’s clear what drives her and why she can’t commit to a life direction, an established personality, and relationships, be they friendships or lovers. She makes for a great protagonist in the end and I found myself rooting for her to succeed. 

William (or Will depending on how well you know him) followed the typical romance novel love interest. He contains multitudes, he has a sexy nerd vibe going on, and he’s attentive and deeply caring at every turn. His primary difference is the confidence in his feelings for Leah and, without that confidence, their story would have petered out multiple times throughout the narrative.