Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Title:Landline
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Pages: 310 pages
Publisher: St. Martins Press
Pub Date: July 8th 2014
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Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble; it has been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems beside the point now.
Maybe that was always beside 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 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?

When anyone says Rainbow Rowell I instantly perk up. In  my eyes everything she writes is genius, even her twitter is gold (No seriously, do yourself a favor and go read it). Which is why I’ve owned this book for almost a year and I’ve been saving it up for a rainy day.

I knew that the story had to do with a magical phone and a chance at fixing her relationship by meddling in the past. So far the Rainbow Rowell books I’ve read have all been contemporary so I was wondering how she would fit the magical phone into this book and it was seamlessly done.

Georgie McCool is a working mom who has been neglecting her family. We start right on the fight that might end her marriage. Most romance books start at the beginning so it was refreshing to read a book that starts at the beginning of what might be end. Georgie realizes that her putting work first was straining her marriage but she didn’t do anything to stop it. As Georgie thinks of the past she realizes that love has been in her marriage for a quite a while and it might be too late to start over.

Neal sounds like a great husband on paper, as in he gave his dreams to make sure Georgie could follow hers. He would cook, clean, and take of their daughters and he was good at it. Yet when Georgie would describe him he didn’t seem like a catch. He was miserable, didn’t laugh, and didn’t have friends. His whole life revolved around Georgie. He seemed pretty pathetic to be awesome. I guess love is weird that way, you never know who you’re going to end up with

.

There was Seth, her best friend and writing partner. They had been best friends since college and Seth was the kind of guy to flirt with everyone including her. He adds a twist to the story, if Neal and Georgie were so miserable, what would happen if she had ended up with Seth instead? Now she had the chance to find out. In between her trying to fix her relationship (or not) in the past we also get to meet Georgie’s family. Since she had been working she had a strained relationship with them as well.

The only thing I would change about this book is how gross Georgie is. She went almost a week wearing the same shirt and sweatpants and not taking a shower. What’s worse is that she makes it normal that she has a bra that’s falling apart just because she’s scared to go bra shopping. The only thing that made her go buy one was the fact the other one literally fell apart. Taking care of yourself is an important part of any marriage, which might be one of the themes of the book.

Overall it was a beautiful love story. What happens when you find the one but you don’t have your happily ever after?