I’m sure every girl has dreamed of a guy who could read her mind … well here he is, ladies.
College student Avery Waldorf suffers concussion during a snowboarding accident. When she wakes up, there is someone else inside her head with her. A voice from who knows where, as confused and indignant as she is with the bizarre situation. A voice that turns out to named Marcus, with a strong personality and an appreciative eye for the ladies. The story revolves round Avery’s growing relationship with the disembodied but very vocal visitor and their efforts to firstly get some sort of ‘working relationship’ going, and secondly to discover who he is.
I really enjoyed this book. It is a reasonably unusual premise, and very well carried through. The development of Marcus’s character, the well-timed exposition of the various discoveries Avery makes about her mystery mind guest, their developing friendship, is really engagingly carried through. The story unfolds very naturally and certainly had me hooked very early.
The meeting of minds and the friendship that grows as they get used to each other and become more involved in each other’s thoughts, is very romantic, counterbalanced by a great deal of humour as Avery manages Marcus’s increasingly overt appreciation of her assets. He is a very physical, sporty, footloose kinda guy and she is a bit more of a thinker, and they have to work out compromises that work for both of them.
There is a bit of sensual touchy feely stuff, which is quite an achievement really, as the guy doesn’t have hands – not his own anyway. But in the context it is very romantic, not gratuitous, works well and is part of the story. In fact there is rather a good, healthy tone about girls and first relationships and I liked very much the delicate handling of Avery’s shame over an earlier incident with a former boyfriend. Marcus’s sensitivity to Avery’s reticence about physical intimacy (is modesty too old fashioned a word to use?) despite his ‘jock’ persona is very appealing. He is a very cool dude.
Lovely likeable central characters, with nicely three dimensional, interesting personalities. The dialogue is sparkling when it should be, and other times hits the right emotional notes. Side story threads of the minor characters are well held together and don’t mess with the good pacing. Every aspect is geared towards moving that plot forward to its resolution. It is well written and a good clean edit; altogether a nice piece of work structurally.
My only minor quibble, and it seems to be a quite common one with contemporary romances, is that it ends too suddenly. In the space of a few pages, the mystery is unravelled and resolved. I prefer to float slowly back to earth during the denouement rather than descend with a jolt, and the end felt a bit too rushed. But maybe that’s just because I am a phenomenally fast reader!
I am not one for series, and usually I like an HEA with loose ends nicely tied off. However, I was quite expecting a cliff hanger at the end, and there was justification for a sequel. If you read it you will see why, but if I tell you it would be a spoiler. I would have paid good money for a sequel, too, because I liked this one so much.