Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Landline by Rainbow Rowell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I absolutely love Rainbow Rowell's previous novels so it really pains me to give a novel of hers 3 stars. I kept waiting for Landline to get better but it just never did. It was truly middle of the road - not great, not terrible - just in the middle all the way. I am tempted to give this 2 stars but I didn't find it to be below average, just AVERAGE. So, I went with a 3.

I was never bored during reading this but I just didn't find it nearly as engaging as her other novels. I didn't love the characters as much as I've loved the characters in her previous novels. The magical realism aspects of this novel were fine but nothing outstanding. I loved the narrative voice in this novel but I just never connected to it as I usually do with her work. There was something missing that is usually there with Rowell's work. I can't seem to identify it but I noticed it was missing!

If you haven't read Rainbow Rowell, I highly recommend you start somewhere else ... her other novels are much better than this one. But, even not great Rainbow Rowell is better than a lot of good books. So, if you're a Rowell fan, you may want to give this one a go but know that it's not nearly as good as her best!