LOVE LETTERING
If you haven't read Love Lettering yet, drop the book you're only sort of into and pick this one up. I promise you won't regret it.
Love Lettering was sublime. It had everything I love in a contemporary romance: a funny and smart female lead that's not a weak spirited little bish, a male lead who's also smart, not a dick, and completely swoon-worthy (or swoonsh, as she says in this book). Both had issues that they overcame without teenage dramatics AND I didn't guess where the plot was entirely going. Honestly, that's a feat these days.
Meg Mackworth is known as the Planner of Park Slope and for good reason: her hand-lettering skills are outstanding and she's built a business out of creating custom journals for New York's clientele. But she also reads signs–literal and figurative–in a way that most people don't, and sometimes that causes a bit of trouble. When she accidentally weaves a message into Reid Sutherland's wedding programs, she's sure no one will notice. But when Reid turns up, unmarried, a year later with questions about the message he'd found, Meg admits the truth, but also seizes an opportunity: she's looking for inspiration to pull herself out of a creative slump, and Reid insists that there aren't any signs left for him to stay in New York. Good thing Meg can read signs where others can't, including the ones between her and Reid...right?
Let's start with Meg. She struggled personally and professionally and in ways we can all relate to.I loved that she had her own business and that she struggled with it. It wasn't perfect, she wasn't sure how she'd pay rent, and some opportunities you just have to push through. I really enjoyed the friendship she had with Sibby and how it wasn't perfect either, that they'd drifted apart and Meg struggled with making things right or letting things go. And then, I loved her relationship with Reid and how she wasn't petty or dismissive, she wasn't too good to admit when she was wrong or offer help when he was wrong. And I loved that when it came down to sexy time, she was honest about an insecurity that I think a lot of people feel.
Reid.....whoooo. All time favorite male character? Definitely in the top 10. Look, I like an alphahole just as much as the next person. But you know what I like more? Smart guys who are sexy but not using their sexiness to get anywhere in life. Guys who are a little awkward but wholly themselves and not perfect, who can admit their mistakes and try to Do The Right Thing. And that's Reid's character in this book. A math guy who sees a problem and tries to fix it, even if it's hard, even if it hurts, but never to hurt another person intentionally, who might be a little misunderstood by most of the population but he's not by the people who matter the most.
I want to gush over this book. It was cute, funny, romantic, hot in just the right way without being too much. It had characters I'll remember and it reminded me of how much I love a slow-built love. This book took it's time and when you read it, you will too.