Review: Great Debut Work!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 5, 2014
Unexpected’ was a great “slice-of-life romance” and frankly, the kind I prefer, whenever I read that genre—flawed people with a fair amount of baggage finding each other and navigating a new relationship while carrying around a lot of stuff from the old one. Maya, the female lead is, by her own admission cautious by nature. Her profession as an accountant means she is all about checks and balances, making sure things make sense and add up. Given her unluckiness in love, she’s determined to make sure her next attempt ‘makes sense’.Roman, also an accountant, is all about taking managed and measured risks in relationships, with the hopes of reaping the big reward. He has his criteria and for the most part sticks to it. But he’s got baggage too—the memory of a relationship with a woman who met all the criteria but came at too high a cost—clingy, stalker-like behavior that made him feel stifled. With that baggage, Maya and Roman meet in the most conventional of ways and start a relationship the way all adults should—slowly, gradually and responsibly. And then their “issues” rear their ugly heads.What I liked most about ‘Unexpected’ was the author’s very clear sense of who the characters were to their core. And as a result, the way they reacted to each other and their growing relationship was consistent with how you would expect those people to behave. There were no double-take moments where someone switched things up and became someone else, thank god, with the exception of one minor hiccup. When at the pivotal moment, Roman ends the relationship in anticipation of drama (that’s his issue) and Maya gives in without a fight (that’s her issue), it made perfect sense given who they were. But when Maya, with her penchant for ‘no-drama’ gave in too easily when Roman apologized, I was somewhat confused. Roman wanted a show of emotion when he threatened to leave, but as a reader, I wanted that show of emotion upon his return. That, to me was where her cautious nature would have made it more difficult for him to penetrate her defenses a second time.I did however love that there was no HUGE blowout or colossal crisis, no contrived plot device to make us gasp—just the kind of dumb misunderstanding that has torpedoed many a potential relationship in the real world. So I nodded and thought, ‘yeah, I could see that happening.’ And likewise with the ending. **SPOILER AHEAD** I would have been annoyed if there was a wedding or even an engagement after the reconciliation, because the writer did a good job letting us know that this novella wasn’t about that—it was about two people working through their stuff and opening up in spite of it. Kudos for not kowtowing to the romance genre’s demand for rings and white lace at the end of every single book.What I had some challenges with in this story was that while there was a great deal of detail (I now know how to cook a mean salmon dinner!) it seemed to be the wrong detail at times. Every movement and action of the characters was catalogued in painstaking detail, but their inner dialogue was sometimes incredibly sparse, given that the story was written in the first person. Where there might have been more about their thoughts and feelings, particularly during their bonding period and later during their separation, we got a lot of information about where they went and what they did. For a short piece, I think as a reader I would have liked the writer to be more economical and thoughtful about where they gave detail, and felt that it made me ultimately somewhat less invested in the characters. I wasn’t indifferent, but felt like they were friends of people I know, rather than friends of mine.But all in all, this novella worked for me. I look forward to reading more from this new author!