The Yellow Telephone That Changes Life: Landline

I love reading Landline.

It's not normally the opening line I'd choose for a review, but love seems befitted. As simple as it is, the story itself is also magical. 

Written by Rainbow Rowell, the author who wrote the best-selling Eleanor and Park, which I've reviewed here before, the novel sets its story around a heroine, Georgie McCool and a magical telephone.

Georgie is a TV writer, married to Neal, a stay-at-home dad, with 2 kids. Their marriage was fine, more or less. They weren't perfectly happy, but they were okay, still in love with each other, and they have a house with a nice front porch, and Georgie has a decent job that unfortunately takes up most hours of the day, even holidays. But Georgie knows something about their marriage isn't right, that it's in trouble. 

2 days before they were supposed to go on Christmas holiday to Omaha, Neal's hometown, Georgie decided to stay. She had a pilot for a TV show she's been working on for years to write. But she had never expected Neal to go without her. Neal packed for Omaha with their 2 kids, leaving Georgie at home to finish her work. 

When Georgie thought their marriage might be over, she found a way to connect with the past-Neal, 18 years ago, through a magical yellow land line in her parents' house. 

It's Rowell's trademark, somehow, to create a simple love story and transform it into something special, sewn neatly to make a solid reading. I found my self leafing through its pages at midnight, not wanting to close it, until my eyes finally have given up on me. Less than 3 working days, were all the time I needed to finish Landline, satisfied with its ending. For a romance fiction book, Rowell clearly chose simple, less ornate words, definitely easier for me to comprehend. Not that it's a bad thing. 

Written in everyday words and slight dry humors, Landline is the perfect summertime reading for everyone who digs a fresh love story without many extravagant flairs. Even if it sounds simple, it's not ordinary. Up until the end of the page, Rowell managed to insert one extra surprise, one final touch that makes the story whole. It is magic.

I wish I had a magical phone. If I had one, I wanted to call my 12 year old self. Afer all, don't we all have something in our life we'd like to fix? Big or small.