Before I begin this review, I should tell you that I don’t read romance novels. Sure, I read some Nicholas Sparks when I was a teenager, but since then the only romance novels I’ve read have been research for editorial assistant jobs I’ve applied for in romance imprints. I like a good love story as much as the next person, but only if it’s relegated to a side plot: if it’s the focus of a novel, I tend to get bored.
I only read this one because 1) I got an ARC of it free through YPG’S Little Big Mouth program (free ARCs were half the reason I wanted to work in publishing, to be honest) and 2) I had just finished Rick Riordan’s five-book, three-thousand-page Heroes of Olympus series and wanted to take a break with a quick, light read, and romance novels are the quintessential quick, light read.
Surprisingly, I enjoyed this one, even breaking out of my pattern of only reading during my morning commute in order to finish it faster. Although, as I expected, the ordinary-but-presented-as-extraordinary romance didn’t grip me, the exquisite descriptions of Europe did. Yup, the narrator’s accounts of her travels heightened my wanderlust - already more acute in the summer, when everyone but I seems to be departing on a vacation - in a big way. I’m glad that the map that led Heather and Jack to each other spanned the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Italy, France, and Bulgaria. In fact, I wish the map to my soulmate, or to anyone or anywhere, really, would lead me through even one of those places. (So that you don’t think I’m totally devoid of romantic feeling, though, I will admit that it occurred to me, while reading, how a salt-mine-turned-work-of-art, a moonlit boat ride, and a bag of freshly baked pastries, eaten while strolling through still, quiet streets after waking from a snooze in a bed of hay, might be more enchanting when experienced with my hand folded into a lover’s and his warmth beside me.)
In defense of the romance between Jack and Heather, I will say that it progressed as realistically as it could have given the constraints of the plot. They fell for each other quickly, but not immediately, their love story logically and emotionally satisfying. High praise coming from me, considering that my biggest issue with genre romances is that they lack realism and emotional authenticity. Sure, sometimes Jack and Heather talk more like characters in a Hemingway novel than they do real people - Heather does worship Hemingway, so I guess that makes sense? - but they also occasionally engage in flirty, witty banter in the same spirit as conversations I had with my ex-boyfriend during our relationship, so I’ll give the author some credit. I’m providing the below exchange as an example:
J: You frozen?
H: A little.
J. Why are women always cold?
H: Because we wear things that boys can look down.
J: True. And we are grateful.
At times the excessive wit, literary allusions, and running jokes in these conversations became just a tad obnoxious for me, but anyway, they were better than the fluff, and as I’m sure you can tell, I’m also, at (all) times, extremely picky when evaluating romance novels. Hey, romance is a genre written and marketed exclusively to my gender, and if I’m going to allow myself to be manipulated into reading it, it’s gotta be worth it.
This book was good but not great, but yes, I do think it was worth the read, even if I had “Following the map that leads to you,” a line from the song “Maps” by Maroon 5, which played incessantly when I worked in retail, stuck in my head during and for days after I finished reading it. There’s a lot to appreciate in this novel: the pretty, evocative prose; the neatly structured plot; and most notably, the last third of the novel, which I think is stronger for the fact that (SPOILER, except not really, because it follows romance protocol) it doesn’t include Jack. Without Jack hogging all of the narrative space, Heather’s relationships with her two best friends and her parents have room to shine, as do their and Heather’s personalities, though Heather is still largely bland and underdeveloped, as female protagonists in romance novels are wont to be. Regardless, she seemed a little more fleshed out in Jack’s absence, and her observations about being a young, single woman in New York - who has settled into a job but is still constantly in transit, and who works hard but works even harder at taking advantage of every opportunity the city has to offer, because she’s contained all of her loneliness and self-doubt in her still moments - felt particularly poignant and relevant to me. I’ll also never look at riding the subway the same way again, thanks to this passage:
So you hustle to the nearest subway entrance, go down into the cave, a mythological creature Constance would be able to identify [...] The subway station smells like panting, you’ve always thought, like the lair of some awful creature whose breath, year after year, painted the walls until no other smell could find a purchase.
I mean, damn.
Why did the author switch to second person for this chapter though? It happens a few times - within a chapter, once or twice, which I’m sure was intentional but struck me as sloppy writing anyway - and I really don’t understand the purpose.
Something else that I understood the purpose of, but still didn’t like, was Heather’s response of “Fuck my job” when one of her best friends, Amy, questioned her decision to extend her trip to Europe so that she could search for Jack at the end of the novel. I get that her out-of-character shirking of her responsibilities in order to prioritize finding Jack is supposed to be romantic, but hey, you privileged bitch, I would kill to have your salary and benefits, and it would’ve taken, what, five minutes for you to call or send an email to your boss at Bank of America stating an intention to remain in Europe longer due to unforeseen circumstances? Maybe this happens off-screen; I don’t know. If it does, though, it’s deliberately not shown to readers, and I think that’s because the author felt that it would somehow cheapen the romance. I’m not entirely sure why, although I can guess, but for me, Heather’s chasing after the man she loves is just as romantic without her stupidly and unnecessarily jeopardizing her career to do it. Then again, maybe I’m an outlier. I am definitely not the target audience for these novels, that’s for sure.
That one line - “Fuck my job” - bugged me even more because what I appreciated most about Heather was her unwillingness to let meeting Jack derail her life and her plans for the future. And Amy for some reason just allows this comment to pass, like, “Welp, she used profanity; there’s no arguing with that,” instead of slapping her, like I and all real best friends would do in her situation. What the hell? I thought Amy was the tough one in Heather’s trio of friends.
That and my other small gripes aside, I found this book a pleasant read, and it served its purpose of giving me a break after I’d completed a long series, as well as the much larger purpose that books have of providing readers with an escape.
Now added to my bucket list: taking a night train somewhere in Europe and falling in love...with the experience. I am not quitting my job, and no more long-distance relationships for me, my friend.
