Landline

By: Rainbow Rowell

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman

Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's Summary

From the New York Times best-selling author of Eleanor & Park and Fangirl, comes a hilarious, heart-wrenching take on love, marriage, and magic phones.

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it’s been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply - but that almost seems beside the point now. Maybe that was always beside the point. Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her - Neal is always a little upset with Georgie - but she doesn’t expect to him to pack up the kids and go without her. When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything. That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts. Is that what she’s supposed to do?

©2014 Rainbow Rowell (P)2014 Macmillan Audio

Relationships are hard

It has taken me longer than usual to sit down to write this review, because I don’t seem to know how to put in words what I feel about this book. I would have to say that Rainbow Rowell does not cease to impress me. I have loved both her adult novels so far because they are very real. She has the kind of magic that can turn simple everyday things into a wonderful story highlighting the beauty that life is. You don’t have to go and live an adventure (although I love those too) to experience true joy and I feel like she captures this marvellously.

This time around the main focus is marriage. I’m not a marriage lady, as you may know, but I do have meaningful relationships in my life, as assume all of you have, and all the lessons Georgie learns throughout the book are applicable to those as well.

I have always felt that love is decision you make every day to stick by a person’s side. Of course it all starts with a fuzzy feeling, let’s say, in your heart, but true love is a decision. Georgie seems to learn this the hard way thanks to a magic telephone that allows her to realize all the mistakes she’d made in her relationship with her husband, which was mainly that she took him for granted. Her priority was work, and she was very good at it, but her decision was always work and never her husband.

It was really a fun journey she goes through and I was a bit nervous along the way to see if she was able to make things right. I loved Neil. He is the perfect lovable husband any working woman would want. I have always been a sucker for good guys, and he is the ultimate good guy ever. He was very real too. With flaws and everything, but he clearly had his priorities in order which I very much appreciated. I did not care much for Georgie’s mum, because she kept telling her daughter his husband left her, which he hadn’t. I didn’t feel she was very supportive.

The same could be said about Seth. He was clearly a great writing partner. He was funny and charming, but he didn’t want to let go of Georgie and he seemed to not know where his place was. They had some mixed priorities in y opinion.

Overall, it was an excellent story that moved me. I loved the combinations of characters, and how the story was switching back and forward between their past and present. It really worked great. I also loved the touch of magic that was added through the phone. I’ve read some reviews that said they didn’t care much for it, but I thought it added something extra that was pretty cool.

The first time I heard Rebecca Lowman narrated a book I didn’t like her that much, so I was a bit worried my apprehensions with her narration would show again. Thankfully, I was pleased to discover I really enjoyed her narration this time around. I don’t know if she was a more suitable narrator for an adult book or if her pacing just sped up and got better. Bottom line, I liked her narration very much. She did some excellent male voices; the only problem was that I felt all her male characters were the same. Such problem didn’t exist with female characters.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Loved this book!!!

Would you consider the audio edition of Landline to be better than the print version?

I haven't read the print version.

What other book might you compare Landline to and why?

This is an original. That's why I loved it so much. It was like I was listening to a story about a different version of me. It's real (well, not the magic phone). It's real emotions. Real relationship troubles. Love is wonderful and awful. It's life.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Its not Eleanor and Park or Fangirl but its good

I love Rainbow Rowell. I stumbled on Eleanor and Park and Fangirl and absolutely fell in love with her. I didn't listen to Attachments because it was impossible with all the email exchange. Not a book to listen to, only read. I was so excited for Landline to come out. So that said, I was disappointed. Not horribly. It was just a bit of a miss for me. It just never came together fully. I still loved her characters which are always brilliant (my favourite part of her writing) but the part of the story with the landline just didn't work for me. The conversations were great but then it just stopped. There was no sense of completion or connection or reason maybe. I am sure there was but I didn't get it. But man do I love her men. All her characters are wonderful but I have fallen in love with all her men!! There is a plainness and realness to the way she writes that just nourishes me.
The narration was perfect. Rebecca Lowmen, because of these books, has become one of my favourite narrators. And she is her best with Rainbow Rowell books. She becomes the characters. I love her female and male voices equally and she just seems to embody these characters and bring them to life. I listen to A LOT of audio books and often I tell people, "this is a good book but I would read it not listen to it because the narration isn't great." With Rainbow Rowell (with the exception of Attachments) I always tell people to listen to them because of Rebecca Lowman. I will still eagerly await Rainbow Rowell's next book but this one wasn't my favourite.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

A Nostalgic Listen With Sweet '90s References

Landline is an awesome late-summer listen, full of nostalgia, sweet 90s pop-culture references (My So-Called Life, anyone?), and a magical time-traveling telephone.

Georgie McCool is a TV screenwriter who’s about to strike it big with a deal to produce her dream show, the one she’s been plotting with her co-writer Seth since college. But the tight deadline to crank out a pilot means she’ll have to miss Christmas with her husband and two daughters. Things are looking rocky for her marriage when she discovers an old telephone at her mom’s house that can dial her husband in the past.

There’s a love triangle situation in Landline that wasn’t my favorite — that part never felt totally authentic to me. But the story more than makes up for it with a strong female lead who kicks ass and takes names. Georgie is a star for negotiating her role in a male-dominated work place and refusing to be cast as the “secretary” or the “coffee girl.” I loved all the juicy bits about TV land and working in a creative field, too.

Rebecca Lowman’s voice is a great match for Rainbow Rowell’s leading ladies — she performs Eleanor in Eleanor & Park, too. And she nails the parts in Landline where she has to meow like a 5-year-old pretending to be a cat.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Aware

Landline was a realistic love story. I could see myself in all the characters, and it forced me to reflect on my own behavior. It wasn't a fairy tale: it was messy and difficult and frustrating and uncertain. Like reality, the ending was actually just another step along a continuous path, rather than a resolution of story elements.

If you're looking for escapism, Landline will frustrate you despite good storytelling. You'll find yourself writing a review that sounds amazing, but only awards 4 stars.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A Real Romantic Classic

This book takes every raw emotion you have and makes you keenly aware of it. The writing style is real and beautiful, and she depicts the reality of love and marriage and the struggle therein in a magical and still honest way. I loved loved loved this book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

the phone thing is crazy, but it's still worth it.

the story is slow to start, but goes too quick towards the end. I like it.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

If I hadn't liked the B-Plot So Much...

What would have made Landline better?

I think a lot of the weaknesses in the writing (a grown woman mooning over her unsympathetic curmudgeon of a husband, never mind the admittedly ridiculous device by which she decides to reevaluate) were accentuated by the saccharine and plodding narration.

Has Landline turned you off from other books in this genre?

No... I think it's been coming for a while. It's fun to explore coming-of-age, and I can very clearly remember thinking boys were the end-all-be-all, but stories that deal with grown women so willing to set aside their obvious passion and career goals for a dude that's been grumbling along for fifteen years? Pass. Also, how redundant can a book possibly be? It's not like this was a third installment where she needed to remind us who is who.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Rebecca Lowman?

Oh, God. I mean, that's mean. Who knows if it was her, or the director or production people? I have no idea why it was so slow, but I think she has a great voice, and clearly has an ability to flow between characters clearly. Having not googled her, I would imagine she's either been doing this a long time, or has some great voice and speech training. It just wasn't for me. Not with this book.

What character would you cut from Landline?

What? - the characters were actually great. her parents, the silly true-to-age kids, her younger half sis, Seth, her Bestie Writing Partner... I just feel like she would have been happier with him. I didn't get "Neal... (Sigh) Neal, Neal, Neal..."

Any additional comments?

Maybe in five years she can write Voicemail, and it will be all about how she finally leaves Neal and everyone lives happier ever after...

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Don't waste a credit

Boring I made myself finish all the while checking to see how much the was left.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great love story, some of the best dialogue ever!

Would you consider the audio edition of Landline to be better than the print version?

I was blown away by the Lowman's performance of this book, the conversations between Georgie and Neil are brought to life and I loved listening to them fall in love through words. The ending is a bit predictable, but that's okay. This book is funny, sweet, sad, adventurous with a little science fiction twist (don't get thrown off by the magic phone, it's well done and not gitchy)

What does Rebecca Lowman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The conversations. wow. the one on one conversations on the phone and in person between two people; young people falling in love, married adults dealing with life. wow.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful