Hello and welcome to NewTitleTuesday, where we take a look at a new book that gets released into the publishing world this week. Today's novel is a love story - well, let me stop right there, as it's not exactly a love story, it's a love story that goes wrong. In the beginning, anyway.
The novel begins with Nick, a struggling novelist, who accidentally sends a furious text to a wrong number. Bee, who works on refurbishing cast-off wedding dresses, gets the text and she, snarkily, sends a message back. They both begin a relationship of sorts over the phone, with both of them feeling the unique safety of telling their true feelings and deepest secrets to a complete stranger. As they reveal more of themselves to each other, they feel that the other person just might be the one they've been waiting for. They eventually arrange to meet.
And then things go impossibly, weirdly, spectacularly wrong.
We won't spoil the plot twist of the book, because there certainly is one. But both Nick and Bee go to their assigned meeting place, and nothing happens. The other person simply isn't there. Bee assumes that Nick has merely ghosted her, but as they try to figure out what exactly happened, they come to realize that the impossible has happened. But what? And how to overcome it? Evil clones? Infinity Stones? Alternate timelines? Different dimensions? Is this novel a romance or a science fiction story? And will Nick and Bee be able to ever meet up in person and see if the person in their imagination - and their texts - is truly meant to be?
This isn't exactly a romance novel, but it's certainly a love story - one with fantasy/sci-fi twist. If you like novel like Blake Crouch's DARK MATTER or HERE AND NOW AND THEN by Nick Chen, you get the feeling of what Sarah Lotz might be going for - a smart feel-good story with a little but of weirdness and a lot of heart. Give this one a try.
See you next week, and thanks for reading!