I need a half-star. Because this book was fun, and cute, and enjoyable. It was really, really good chick lit. But chick lit doesn't really deserve four stars... I think my ratings are very dependent on what kind of book it is, and for chick-lit, this is a four-star book. For literature, three. So I'd give it three and a half, except I can't.Funny, sweet, awkward, quick read. What more can you ask in a budding romantic relationship? And it's a little predictable. (Show of hands: who thinks the ma...

I would prefer to have given this 3.5 stars, but whatever... it’s a strange series of sad and complex love stories, which build up a horrific image of who these two people are and how strange a route everyone takes to get to adulthood. Did I enjoy it? Perhaps. Were the stories realistic? Maybe somewhat. Was it outrageous and slightly upsetting to think that this is actually pretty realistic... definitely!

Crappy premise. Didn't like the style. Everything doesn't have to be about sex. Give it a rest. Reaching too hard. (The author would have tuned that last line into a sex joke and run with it.). Amateurish.

I have always thought the opening sentence of a book is the author's best pickup line pitched at the reader. More so, then, in a book where well-constructed paragraphs hold the explicit promise of intimate relations--that, at least, is the premise of this post-postmodern epistolary novel where the two hyperarticulate protagonists agree to reveal the nasty bits of their romantic pasts in letters before meeting up again in real life. My former colleague Craig Stoltz put it best, I think, when he r...

They meet at a wedding, almost hook up in the coat room, but he slows down- why don't we exchange letters, learn more about each other, and meet a year from now? What follows is each letter, telling their romantic history to date, from awkward teenaged first love/sex to the soul crushing missteps along the way. Do they meet up at the end? You betcha. Will they make it as a couple? Who knows.Realistic, well written, reminds you that there is pain and heartbreak for both sides.

In a nutshell: two strangers almost hookup at a wedding and spent most of the rest of the book as pen pals, confessing all of their terrible secrets from past relationships. The majority of the story is told through letters back and forth. I’ve read other books that used this same writing device where it’s worked great. It didn’t work for this book. It felt more like a collection of short stories, since each letter was usually about a totally different situation from the previous ones. At first,...

There are portions of this book that remind me of a certain romantic blunder so stupefyingly painful and embarrassing I will likely never confess it to anyone. Still, I found myself able to push that aside long enough to gobble down this confection of an epistolary novel.I am not, however, able to push aside the embarrassment of liking something a reviewer below calls "chick-lit." I've got a lot of hang-ups, man.

This book reminded me of long ago days when all you had available for long distance communication was a letter. Words had to be chosen to convey just the right mood or emphasis. Our hurried, technology-filled lifestyle of today has robbed us the joy of opening a hand-written letter, pouring over every word, reading it again and again.Character development was great but the story lacked an absolution; yet, I guess life and relationships are like that.

I loved Steve Almond's Candyfreak. However, this is navelgazing, pretentious tripe in an epistolary format. Good light reading, hard for me to relate to since I did not grow up as a privileged suburbanite or a kid with supportive/hippie zen-no restrictions parents. I actually keep forgetting that so much shit that gets published is from contrite liberal-y folks that adopt cynicism as a response to their poverty of... poverty. It seeks a certain audience -- I'm not it. (Still, it's light chick-li...

This book was recommended to me by the Bklyn BookMatch. I enjoyed this story, told epistolary-style between two people who meet at a wedding and then decide to confess their life stories to each other through letters. It has a lot of great elements to it (I love epistolary novels) and I like that there were two authors, so they each get to bring their own style to either side. The characters are devastatingly self-aware, but given the circumstances it mostly works.It was published in 2006, and

John and Jane meet at a wedding and find themselves instantly attracted to each other. When their attempted tryst in the coat room goes awry, the two decide there could be something more to them than just a post-wedding fling and decide to try something different -- writing confessional letters about their various relationships to each other.Once they reach the end of the confessionals, they can decide if a long distance relationship between the two of them is worth pursuing. And so we're treate...

Ok, I almost gave a five-star to this chic-lit of a book that was written by two different authors. Was what made me read this book in the first place and it worked so well, actually! But I thought to myself, I can't do that! Remember, you are a dude, a diesel mechanic who works with only men. Can you imagine, if they actually read, knew what you were reading and throughly enjoying it?! It'd be like those old Pace Picante salsa commercials: From New York City (aka a chic-type of a book)...? Get

I don't recommend this book.

Jane and John are about to get it on in the coat room at a wedding when he suddenly stops – maybe there could be more to this relationship than just sex. So they part with only each other’s address and a vow to confess the details of important past relationships to the other. And so the letters begin - the gory intimate details of two lives. Once all the baggage is out of the way, will Jane and John have a chance at long-term happiness together? Or will their letters only prove that they have no...

Fun read - written by two authors, the book is a series of letters written back & forth between the two characters after they nearly hook up at a wedding but stop themselves. The letters are about their past relationships and what they did. I like the idea of beginning a relationship this way - here's all my past shit, here's what I did, do you still like me? And, I love that they chose to write letters, as I miss that anticipation of receiving a response back after writing a letter in these imm...

Two strangers meet at a wedding in a coat closet and almost get it on - until they stop, thinking they might have something more. This is when they decide to write letters to each other, telling of past relationships and confessing why they didn't work out.This was a fun book to read, but the end had me wanting more. I did think about revisiting it and have thought about it a lot since finishing, but there wasn't anything else I could gather from a second read. I would read a sequel if the autho...

This one of those books that really sticks with you - I kept thinking about it for a long time after I read it, even though I did find it a bit annoying in places. I didn't like Jane as much as I liked John, I thought she was a bit of a weirdo (and obviously a bit PROUD of being weird, like she obviously thought normal people were boring and stupid and were all secretly bored with their dull, ordinary lives). I enjoyed John's bits more, he told more interesting (and funnier) stories and describe...

Boy meets girl at wedding; they get naked in coat closet together, then decide, hey we might have something here - I might really like you for reals. So they agree to write letters - real pen and ink letters - to each other, "try getting to know each other first, telling each other everything, aiming for honesty over seduction."So WE, the opportunistic readers, to read their "traded confessions - of their messy histories, mistakes, flaws, and passions, the ones they've bruised,the ones who bruis...

The premise of the novel seemed interesting. The first few pages before the exchange of letters were promising: 2 damaged strangers unusually refraining from casual sex at a wedding and instead go on a 6-month long affair carried out via the post. They were to be confessions; bare honesty.There were some tidbits of great writing, wonderful phrases, but overall, this book- the confessional letters- were boring. I was expecting some pretty heavy things to be written about, and what I got were some...

Maybe a quick coat closet hookup at a wedding isn't the best way to start a relationship--but Jane and John can't quite let it go. Deciding to slow down and get to know each other better, they embark on a series of letters in which they divulge their true, flawed, messy pasts and selves. All these hilarious, mortifying and recognizable tales of lost loves bring them back to the present--maybe ready to take a chance on the most honest and mature relationship either has had.I really enjoyed this "...