Review of Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Release Date: July 8, 2014

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Page Count: 308

Format: Hardcover

Genre: YA/Contemporary

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it’s been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems besides the point now.
Maybe that was always besides the point.
Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her — Neal is always a little upset with Georgie — but she doesn’t expect to him to pack up the kids and go home without her.
When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.
That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts . . .
Is that what she’s supposed to do?
Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

I was lucky enough to meet Rainbow Rowell in NYC for the Landline launch party but I hadn't read even a single one of her books at the time. While waiting for the event to start I decided to start reading Landline and was hooked within a few pages. I finished it within a few hours and immediately started thinking, why have I not read Rainbow Rowell's books before? Needless to say Landline was a spectacular novel and I enjoyed every single page of it.

  The plot and writing of Landline was masterfully written and everything fit in together to create an amazing story. Rainbow Rowell made each page unique and more interesting than the last, so much that Landline helped me recover from my small reading slump. It wasn't just the plot that was amazing but the characters as well. The characters were so vivid and realistic and fit into the plot so well that I thought I was reading a true story for some parts of the books. All the characters kept intriguing me and I wanted to see their relationships advancing and learn about their backgrounds. Landline basically revolves around Georgie and her family (Neal, Noomi, Alice). It seems as if her marriage has finally been destroyed until she finds a "magic" phone that lets her talk to her husband, Neal several years in the past. At first she's scared to use the phone but as she uses it she starts to realize several important things and how she can save her marriage and get her family back. At the same time we get to read about the first time Neal basically broke up with her and how he eventually came back and proposed to her. Once you read about the two events you see the similarities and differences of the two and how it comes together. Alice and Noomi, Georgie's children aren't mentioned as much but they're a big part of Georgie and Neal's relationship (plus it was really cute how Noomi wanted to be a cat and kept saying meow). Part of the reason their marriage is about to be destroyed is because of Seth, Georgie's best friend since college and work partner. At times it seems like Neal is jealous of their relationship and becomes cold but at other parts Seth helps Georgie and indirectly may have caused them to fix their marriage. There are multiple other characters that are each as interesting as the last such as Georgie's sister, Heather, her mother, and Neal's parents. I don't usually read contemporary since whenever I do it disappoints me but Landline was the complete opposite and gave me new hope for other contemporary books.

After reading Landline and meeting Rainbow Rowell, I can now say that she is as good of a writer as everyone says she is. Landline was a masterfully crafted story that affected me deeply and brought me back to the contemporary genre. Landline is perfect for people who like contemporary books, a mixture of young adult and adult, as well as an amazing story.

5/5 - Amazing book