The main characters are credible as the grapple with life-shattering problems. The secondary characters are strong, but do not overshadow Tony and Nina. However, Love Notes will not appeal to everyone. While the novel does involve a committed relationship between the main characters and a happy ending, Love Notes is more mainstream than romance. It is just as much about the relationships between and among nearly a dozen other people as it is about Tony and Nina s marriage.
Parental advice is given in good, albeit lengthy, soliloquies.
Readers will also see similarities between this novel and the opening of A Home for the Holidays, Esdaile s novella in the Midnight Clear anthology. Love Notes is Leslie Esdaile s first full-length novel in more than three years. It couldn t have come at a better time for me. I have been on a whine of late, complaining about the commonplace nature of the books I ve been reading. I am on the look out for something different.