CBR Bingo: ‘I’
I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, this hasn’t affected the contents of my review.
I pretty much only decided to read An Introvert’s Guide to Life and Love by Lauren Appelbaum because it starts with an ‘I’ and I’ve really been struggling to find anything that fits that square for bingo. I didn’t know anything about the book, and I’d never heard of the author before.
Mallory Rosen is a self-described “Gollum”—she works from home at her Seattle tech job, has a set routine, and only regularly emerges from her apartment to retrieve her packages. When her grandmother dies, she inherits her cottage and has to travel to Florida to get it ready to rent out. She initially plans to stay there a few days but keeps extending as she grows closer to both her also-introverted grandfather as well as the cute redheaded property manager, Daniel, she’s hired to help find a tenant for the cottage.
This isn’t the type of thing I’d usually read, but I ended up really liking this. Mallory is extremely relatable to me, a single, introverted, work-from-home tech-job having 30-something, and her awkwardness and struggles really hit home for me. Her developing relationship with Daniel was cute, but the romance wasn’t really a major focus of the book. Some of the moments with her grandfather made me tear up a little bit (there was a dog involved, okay).
I really liked the writing in this; my only complaint is that the ending felt a little rushed. I would have loved to see more of what happened after Mallory makes her decisions.
Mostly, this book made me want to go outside and talk to people (not something I usually enjoy doing)!