Review: A quick and lighthearted novella
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 26, 2013
A quick and lighthearted novella, this story was, for me, very reminiscent of other story lines.  Julie is a smart and bright woman, a reporter who is personally addicted to the `firsts' in a relationship: first kisses, first dates, and the potential they provide.  Far less invested in a `relationship" she writes a column on dating firsts: first dates, first contacts, first kisses.  Content with her column, it isn't until she is assigned a story to document the steps of a relationship that her personal cracks start to show.  Working for Stiletto (think Cosmo ) she and her two best friends have a feel of Sex in the City to me, with a touch of advice columnists thrown in.Mitchell was a cleverly penned character with the ability to push every one of Julie's buttons and still manage to show her where the woman's magazine advice was less than useful, if not downright ridiculous.  Still, he managed to play coy and keep her off balance, which made for some terrific banter between the two.  It wasn't until the very last quarter of the book, however, before their connection started to feel at all real or plausible.The story has good and bad points: emotional investment in the characters was uneven and hard to come by early on.  Perhaps that was part of the familiar feel to the story and plot, the only big twist coming in the protagonist's feelings and assertions about relationships. It could also be that they both felt very immature, despite their obviously older than early twenty year old selves.  Secondary characters popped in and out, adding some points for conflict in the main story and maintaining the banter, and the conversations were beautifully written with a pacing and imagined delivery that felt natural and real.I received an eBook copy from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.