Goodnight Tweetheart by Teresa Medeiros
Paperback, 240 Pages
2010, Gallery
ISBN: 1439188157
Synopsis
Abigail Donovan has a lot of stuff she should be doing. Namely writing her next novel. A bestselling author who is still recovering from a near Pulitzer Prize win and the heady success that follows Oprah’s stamp of approval, she is stuck at Chapter Five and losing confidence daily. But when her publicist signs her up for a Twitter account, she’s intrigued. What’s all the fuss?
Taken under the wing of one of her Twitter followers, “MarkBaynard"—a quick witted, quick-typing professor on sabbatical—Abby finds it easy to put words out into the world 140 characters at a time. And once she gets a handle on tweets, retweets, direct messages, hashtags, and trends, she starts to feel unblocked in writing and in life. After all, why should she be spending hours in her apartment staring at her TweetDeck and fretting about her stalled career when Mark is out there traveling the world and living?
Or is he?
Told almost entirely in tweets and DMs, Goodnight Tweetheart is a truly modern take on a classic tale of love and loss—a Griffin and Sabine for the Twitter generation.
Review
Goodnight Tweetheart wasn't anything like what I was expecting. A blocked author is forced to join Twitter to connect with her fans. As soon as she first logs in, she meets a mystery man. Over the course of many, many direct messages, they begin a very unexpected romance.
Goodnight Tweetheart is very relevant. Very now. Twitter, now just 5 years old, is at the peak of its popularity and this romance has a very realistic premise for any who've used the site before. Having said that, I think I expected something a little more public. Goodnight Tweetheart is based almost solely in direct messages, as opposed to public tweets. This helps the story move forward, but sort of negates the appeal of Twitter. Once Abby and Mark "meet" on Twitter, their conversations could have continued exactly the same in any private communication, say text messages or emails. Basing the entire book on the concept of Twitter, but only using direct messages really only sets up the exchanges to be less than 140 characters.
The romance itself is surprising. This is more than a gimmick novel. The love story has twists and even a major surprise I couldn't have seen coming until the moment it arrived. As much as the concept of falling in love online is foreign to me (I'm a pick-a-dude-up-in-a-bar type of gal, myself), Goodnight Tweetheart had me fully invested in the romance very early on. There were tears involved.
I loved the banter between Abby and Mark. It felt very natural to me as it's written much the same way as I normally speak. I think the major factor in whether someone will love this book or not will depend on how they themselves interact with members of the opposite sex. The romance is in the banter and it's not flowery and romantic, but rather quirky and lighthearted.
The major thing that makes this book very good instead of great for me is the ending. It's written in a way that resolves the romance while leaving the reader to be very, very concerned about the outcome of Mark and Abby's lives. It's not exactly a cliffhanger, but more of an open-ended ending. I desperately need to know what happens next, but doubt there will be a sequel. There isn't a need for one really. Just one tiny chapter. Or an epilogue perhaps.
Goodnight Tweetheart is an offbeat romantic comedy that will tug on my heart when you least expect it. Any romance that starts with "R U a virgin?" definitely deserves a read.
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