““Dear Izzy—I feel certain there’s a book-loving man living relatively nearby waiting to speak bookish to you ’til death do you part. You just haven’t met yet.”
Izzy Edgewood is a wannabe bookstore owner, quote queen, and Lord of the Rings nerd who has been waiting for Prince Charming to sweep her off her sneakered feet. But it’s hard to meet people when you spend more time with fictional humans than real ones. Which is why her pragmatist cousin Josephine decides to take Izzy’s future into her own meddling hands and create an online dating profile for the hopeful romantic.
To Izzy’s shock (and suspicion), Josie’s plan works. Soon, she’s dialoguing with a Hobbit-loving man named Brodie who lives in a small town an ocean away from her home in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But is their shared love of books, family, and correspondence enough to overcome Izzy’s fear of flying and the literal distance between them? And is a long-distance relationship even worth considering when a local author has been frequenting the library where she works and is proving to be a perfectly fine gentleman?”
Series: A sequel about Izzy’s cousin will be releasing in August 2023.
Spiritual Content- John 21:25 in the author’s acknowledgements; A Scripture is mentioned; A few prayers; Talks about God; 'H's are capital when referring to God; Mentions of God, God-given talents, doing what God made you to do, & faiths; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of churches/cathedrals, church going, church groups/ministries, services, & pastors; Mentions of religious persecution & priests; A few mentions of Heaven; A few mentions of Bibles; A few mentions of when Izzy got into a verbal war with a professor about fiction among Christians and parables; A few mentions of church Christmas plays; A couple mentions of miracles; A couple mentions of being Blessed; A couple mentions of Easter; A mention of Sunday school;
*Note: Izzy mentions that she tried to be the “savior” of too many men and it’s never turned out for her, so it’s “no wonder all the “saving” need to be left to a much higher and better power than mine”; Mentions of ghosts, seeing ghosts, & their haunts; A few mentions of Santa & believing in him; A couple mentions of half of the women in a women’s ministry not talking to Izzy because she dressed up as a character from Harry Potter for Halloween (another mention of them later happens by referring to them as ‘nosy”); A couple mention of Medusa & Hercules; A mention of something possible be breaking a biblical law (dating someone much old enough to be your father); A mention of the Easter Bunny; A mention of fairies; A mention of aliens.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘codswallop’, a ‘screwed up’, a ‘shut up’, a ‘sucks’, two forms of ‘blast’, two ‘idiot’s, two ‘stupid’s, and three ‘oh my word’s; Sarcasm & Eye rolling; A bit of pain, injuries, & blood/bleeding; Izzy takes sedatives/a cocktail of drugs to be able to fly; Mentions of Izzy’s parents’ deaths from a plane crash when she was twelve, her fear of flying because of it, & her grief; Mentions of possible kidnappings/being kidnapped; Mentions of someone possible being part of the mafia and/or a gangster; Mentions of pain, injuries, blood/bleeding; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of drinking, drunks, & being intoxicated; Mentions of pipes, tobacco, & smoking; Mentions of tattoos; A handful of mentions of thieves, criminals, & crimes; A few mentions of wars; A few mentions of someone in prison; A few mentions of rumors; A couple mentions of burglary & a break-in; A couple mentions of nightmares; A couple mentions of vomiting; A couple mentions of hunting & dressing a deer; A mention of someone talking about torture techniques in early Rome; A mention of bloodstains; A mention of having to sleep inside an animal to stay warm; A mention of doing a pee-pee dance;
*Note: Izzy realizes towards the end that *Spoiler* she felt like an outsider in her family all this time, always doing what she thinks they would like her to do for fear of rejection or being unheard (her cousins are quick to reassure her that she is family and they love her) *End of Spoiler*; All about many, many mentions of books, fictional characters, authors, celebrities, actors/actresses, musicals, movies, & TV shows (along with quotes and many references, including (listed in the order first mentioned) ‘The Lord of the Rings, Disney’, ‘Legally Blonde’, Julie Andrews, ‘The Hobbit’, ‘Wizard of Oz’, ‘Jane Eyre’, ‘The Secret Garden’, ‘Dracula’, ‘Sherlock’, ‘Pride and Prejudice’, Dr. Doolittle, Keats, Tolkien, Meg Ryan, ‘You’ve Got Mail’, Nancy Drew, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, ‘Harry Potter’, Anne Frank, ‘Frankenstein’, ‘Anne of Green Gables’, Dorian Gray, Walt Disney, ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’, Lewis Carroll, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, Mr. Rogers, Jack London, ‘The Sound of Music’, The Joker, ‘Annie’, Dr. Phil, Chris Pine, ‘Wuthering Heights’, Bass Pro fishing show, Agatha Christie and characters, James Barrie, ‘Peter Pan’, ‘Emma’, Louis L’Amour, Oscar Wilde, Annie Barrows, Bill Bryson, Andy Griffith, C.S. Lewis, Moby Dick, ‘Animal Farm’, ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, ‘She Loves Me’ (musical), L.M. Montgomery, Clark Gable, Narnia, P.G. Wodehouse, Jane Austen, Avengers, Patrick O’Brian, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘Austenland’, Sandra Bullock, ‘Dead Poets Society’, James McAvoy, ‘Bringing Up Baby’, ‘Some Like It Hot’, ‘The Andy Griffith Show’, Robert Frost, ‘Star Wars’, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare, Indiana Jones, Maya Angelou, William Blake, Rhett Butler, ‘Brigadoon’, Mary Poppins, David Copperfield, Terry Pratchett, Homer, Dr. Seuss, Tom Sawyer, ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, Aladdin, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Hercules, Arthur Dent, ‘Alice in Wonderland’, Spider-Man, Stephen King, George Orwell, ‘Catch-22’, ‘Bridget Jones’ Diary’, ‘Don Quixote’, Arnold Schwarzenegger, ‘Terminator,’ ‘A Christmas Carol’, Patrick O’Brian, Calvin and Hobbes, ‘Little Women’, ‘The Scarlet Letter’, King Arthur, ‘Cinderella’, ‘Wicked’, ‘Poldark’, ‘The Office’, Lemony Snicket, ‘The Voice’, ‘Father of the Bride’, The Grinch, ‘The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe’, Stella Gibbons, ‘Lord of the Flies’, Debbie Macomber, Kate Middleton, Miley Cyrus, ‘Charlotte’s Web’, E.E. Cummings, ‘The Princess Bride’, ‘The Blue Castle’, ‘Jaws’, Robert Fulghum, ‘Gone with the Wind’, ‘War and Peace’, ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’, ‘Middlemarch’, Lao Tzu, Sopper Westbrook, James Herriot, ‘Cranford’, H.P. Lovecraft, ‘Waverly Novels’, ‘Hamlet’, ‘Great Expectations’, ‘The King and I’, ‘My Fair Lady’, Audrey Hepburn, ‘Fiddler on the Roof’, ‘Robinson Crusoe’, ‘North and South’, ‘The Alchemist’, ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’, and ‘Daddy-Long-Legs’); Mentions of Hallmark movies; Mentions of social media sites (Google, Pinterest, & YouTube); A few mentions of games (Minecraft, The Legend of Zelda, Mario Cart, & Pictionary); A few mentions of vampires; A few mentions of Halloween & cosplays; A few mentions of brand names & items (Rose d’Amour perfume and Mathlink cubes); A couple mentions of when Izzy was young and tried to resurrect a hamster in a microwave than died too young (she adored Frankenstein and Dracula); A mention of a hinted reference to the 'Outlander' series (“tips on how to meet your dream Highlander through time travel”); A mention of Boy Scouts; A mention of pimples; A mention of (there not being) dead animals on a person’s wall.
Sexual Content- Three cheek kisses, a jaw kiss, a hair kiss, an almost kiss, a not-detailed kiss, four barely-above-not-detailed kisses, six barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed kisses, six semi-detailed kisses (one told from both point of views and counted twice), and a detailed kiss; Talks about kisses & kissing (up to semi-detailed); Wanting to kiss & Staring at someone’s lips/smile; Touches, Embraces, Hand holding, Nearness, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); Blushes & Winks; Noticing; a ‘sexy’; Many mentions of dates, dating, match-making, boyfriends/girlfriends, cheating, exes, & breakups; Mentions of kisses, kissing, recalling kisses, & the perfect kissing height; Mentions of touches, touching, & smelling someone (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of a book character wanting a man to touch her hands again & cannot stop thinking about it; A few mentions of blushes; A few mentions of crushes; A couple mentions of dating someone the age of their children (which doesn’t sit right with Izzy); A couple mentions of flirting; A couple mentions of jealousy; A mention of a married couple kissing; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: Due to past failed relationships, Izzy has insecurities and feels like she isn’t enough (she also wonders why Brodie likes her); Izzy mentions that she tried to be the “savior” of too many men and it’s never turned out for her, so it’s “no wonder all the “saving” need to be left to a much higher and better power than mine”; Mentions of swoon-worthy clothes on men; A few mentions of a misunderstanding about a woman’s “passion”; A few mentions of pregnancy hormones; A couple mentions of a prank of leaving a bodice-ripping novel in a guy’s car for his work friends to see; A couple mentions of someone making feminist comments about a book character; A mention of a man trying to find a mate who is “not intimated by their superiorities”; A mention of a man being fired from his position at a school due to his relationship with a co-worker going sour; A mention of Izzy feeling exposed when being someone’s muse because she thinks of Renaissance painters; A mention of not liking men’s open-collared shirts when they’re open down to his navel (Penelope adds that there’s something about that look that makes her think of a “drunk pirate” or “loose Spaniard” and blames operas for that); A mention of a Mr. Darcy is not a part of the fantasy genre unless he’s “coming out of a pond in a white shirt”; A mention of a young woman’s shoe fetish (not meant sexually).
-Isabelle “Izzy” Edgewood, age 30
-Brodie Sutherland, age 34
P.O.V. switches between them & through emails and text messages
420 pages
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
The last book I read by this author, I wasn’t a fan of due to all the kissing. So, I was hesitant to reading this book, but once I saw that it’s an epistolary novel—a novel where the story is told via letters, emails, or other messages and such, I was much more interested, hoping that it would be a clean read. And for the majority it was.
I’ve decided that epistolary novels are so fun because of the feeling of snooping.
That probably sounds wrong, but here me out! It’s being a nosy nellie without having to give comments or reactions to another person. It’s the introvert in me that wants the tea loves it, what can I say? :)
I’m not sure if that made any sense at all, but let’s just know that I really enjoyed the emails and text messages writing style throughout this book.
Which would be why I was quite sad when it changed about halfway through to include a normal 3rd person POV writing style. The first 50% of the book was all messages, but then it changed to be about 40% that normal, 3rd person story. Which was fine, I suppose, as I was still very involved—and giggly—at different parts, but I really liked the letters the best.
That said, this did feel like a very long book at times. Which makes sense because it’s four-hundred and twenty pages long, but even though I was really enjoying it, I did struggle a bit to stay focused because it felt so long.
I can easily say that while most of the classics/literature nods and conversations weren’t completely lost on me, I didn’t necessarily relate to the excitement over those books and movies due to not really being a classics fan.
I honestly giggled a lot at the cuteness between Izzy & Brodie. Their awkwardness and connection was so fun to read about. I also really liked how important their families are to them and within this story, particularly Izzy’s cousins and their messages. (I cracked up at Luke’s parts many times and might read Penelope’s story when it releases next year.)
With this novel having the main theme being books and communication, it was really nice to see Izzy & Brodie communicate and any foreshadowings that are taunted to the reader are clear up pretty quick and are handled well. The last bit, I wish would have happened sooner in the story so the ending would have been pure cuteness and less added-at-the-end angst, though.
There were a couple kisses that were a bit much for my tastes, personally, and those kisses were what affected the ratings for BFCG’s target ages. If an older girl wants to skim/read past those parts, it’s up to her (and her family’s views on such content), but the ratings given are for the entire story.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
No comments:
Post a Comment