The Open Book

The book starts out well with a charming curmudgeon of a protagonist, and I quite enjoyed the first half, but the story loses itself a bit right around the point where the romance picks up. A.J. is a widowed bookseller, content to spend his days at the bookstore and his nights drinking until he passes out. He's clearly still in mourning for his wife, bitter and apathetic, until something forces a change. A.J.'s passage through grief at this point feels rushed, and the passage of time flies by, skipping years at a time, and I felt a bit cheated by that. The character's are all likeable, and you get a decent feeling for the town and town life, but not enough to really immerse yourself in it. It's thin underneath the charming veneer and runs fairly heavily towards the cliched. On the plus side, it's a very quick read and the author clearly loves books and book people. I did find myself smiling more often than not, for whatever that's worth. :)