Owen Nicholls

At the heart of the novel is a poor, picture theatre projectionist, Nick - who wants to be a writer, but instead is only too aware that he hasn't made anything of his life.

He falls for Ellie ... and that is the plot! There is parallel telling of the past and present - the past begins with when he meets Ellie, the joy of that and then the fissures. The present begins with when Ellie has left him after four years. The reveal of his trying to understand and fix why that has happened follows.

I like that they met on the night of Obama's election in 2008, as that is a night to which we all have a story attached. It pops up throughout the novel to announce unfolding election results.

Through Nick's eyes, the story is told with that typical British humour. Fortunately it's not too silly and though entertaining, humour alone is not enough to fashion a novel. I got some buy-in to Nick's character, but no one else.… (más)

Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.

Ohh boy. This was a drag. I was hoping for a cute chick-lit to get me through a long weekend and I almost gave up a few times while reading. Also there's no damn Happily Ever After (HEA) that I could see so this being in the romance category of NetGalley and Goodreads ticked me off. The main character sucked (Nick) and I didn't really get a sense of Ellie at all. My main issue is that this book jumps around timelines so much I didn't have a great idea of what was going on. If this had been the published book maybe there would be more cues that would help me out. I don't know.

"Love, Unscripted" follows Nick who gets dumped by who he considers the love of his life, Ellie. Nick thinks of his life as a Classic Romance Movie at all times pretty much. Or at least the book is littered with those references. After Nick is dumped, he starts trying to re-examine his relationship with Ellie. Think of Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity" but less good. I didn't really enjoy Nick and Ellie was an enigma.

The book is set up in three I think timelines. I can't recall. Thank goodness for the notes I jotted down. Timeline 1 is 2008 (When They First Met). Timeline 2 is (Present Day which I think may have been 2012 or 2013. I can't recall) and Timeline 3 starts to show the cracks between Nick and Ellie from 2008 onward. The flow was up and down and didn't go together very well.

As I already said, the ending was just a big no no in the romance world.… (más)

Love, Unscripted

I Picked Up This Book Because: Netgalley cover coveted

The Characters:

Nick (never ran across a last name):
Ellie Brown:
A bunch of people who don’t seem to matter in the story. Or at least what I read of it.

The Story:

I was seduced by a cute cover and a clever title and I kinda regret it. Nick is a projectionist at a theater in the throws of an ended relationship and being laid off. This story is told in alternating chapters of the night Nick met Ellie (the relationship ender) and the present. For me the pacing was slow and the story never really got interesting. There were moments like in the garden with the shoe vomiter and when Ellie talked about her brother that captured my attention briefly but they were they were the only two I could remember in the 40% I committed to this book. I did read the final two chapters and I found the ending to be rather “blah” so I decided to call it quits rather than go back and struggle through the rest.

I had high hopes, I’m sad they didn’t work out.

The Random Thoughts:

DNF - no rating… (más)