I went back and forth on the rating on this one, and only because parts of it dragged. However, when Poston got into the rhythm of the book it really came together. How many romance readers among us would not love to be able to step into a romance series we love? It was a great premise and I liked the magical realism parts of the book a lot. I think the biggest issue I had was liking the character of Eileen. I just found her to be aggravating for a good 40 percent of the book, but she did grow on me after a while.
“A Novel Love Story” follows English professor Eileen Merriweather. We know that something happened to Eileen that has caused her to really need to run to upstate New York like she has the previous two years. Her best friend going to Iceland where her boyfriend is likely to propose isn’t helping matters any. Eileen gets stuck in a town in the middle of the night (in the rain). When she wakes up though, she realizes she has stepped into the pages of her favorite romance series that takes place in Eloraton. Eloraton is the town that her favorite characters inhabit that she has been loving for years. However, the bookstore owner named Anders is not part of the series and Eileen is trying to figure out how he and she fit this town.
Eileen was aggravating as I said above. I think her slapping Anders soon after they met turned me off a bit. That and her just flat out expecting her best friend’s life to stay still for her turned me off too. I got it though, we just take a long road to Eileen and what caused her to fall in this romance series and how and why the yearly trek to New York came about.
I thought the character of Anders was very developed and even the characters from the romance series that Eileen loved. I think that was what was fun for me. I imagined how I would react and would I do this or that. But because this romance series was stopped mid-stream, there’s a lot of unfinished lives going on and the feeling of being “stuck” which I think all of us would sympathize with.
The book and Eileen got better and then I felt liked Poston did a great job of showing us how Eileen is a stand-in for tons of us romance readers. When a series ends for whatever reason, it always feel like a little death. And Poston did a great job of showcasing just how awesome romances are and why readers love them.
I read this for CBRBingo 17, square “N”. That is row 3 and space 3.