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Save as Draft by Cavanaugh Lee

Not too long ago, I gingerly accepted a review request for Teresa Medeiros’s Goodnight Tweetheart, a novel made up mostly of Tweets. I say gingerly because I thought, “Tweets? How could readers understand and connect with characters by reading their Twitter thoughts?” I gave the novel 4 ½ stars.
Proven wrong, I now eagerly accepted to read the debut by Cavanaugh Lee, Save As Draft. This novel is written mostly in email messages, along with a few tweets, texts, and Facebook updates along the way. The story follows Izzy Chin as she tries to find love. She joins E-Harmony and connects with Martin, and they have an instant connection. Through technology, they decide they could meet in person. One wildly successful date later, Izzy dumps Martin after deciding to take a chance on her best friend Peter. Peter and Izzy fall in love, as readers can depict from the sappy emails and TMI Facebook status updates, and quickly get engaged. But when Peter starts acting like he is married to his job, Izzy feels lost in the shuffle. She knows it may be wrong, be she drifts back to Martin, who is overly hopeful he can make a relationship with Izzy work. Readers can see how different the outcome could have been, if only some of the characters would just hit send.
The ending I think will shock everyone. I actually started shouting after I closed this book. But in a good way, a way that made me think. What if we were just honest with each other? What if we didn’t have technology allowing us to censor our thoughts and emotions? Save As Draft is definitely on my Favorites List. I loved getting to know characters a different way, and the added friendships of Izzy’s and their take on marriage brings in the comedic relief. The subjects touched in this novel are actually very serious, and I appreciate how this story is told with such honesty and validity in the technology crazed world we live in. I highly recommend this book, and looks forward to more from newcomer Cavanaugh Lee.
Rating: 5

Author Profile: Teresa Medeiros

Author Name: Teresa Medeiros

Website: http://www.teresamedeiros.com/website_2b_001.htm

Bio: New York Times bestseller Teresa Medeiros wrote her first novel at the age of twenty-one, introducing readers to one of the most beloved and versatile voices in romantic fiction. She has appeared on every national bestseller list, including the New York Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly lists. She currently has over seven million books in print and is published in over seventeen languages.

She was chosen one of the “Top Ten Favorite Romance Authors” by Affaire de Coeur magazine and won the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award for “Best Historical Love and Laughter”. She is a seven-time Rita finalist, two-time PRISM winner, and two-time recipient of the Waldenbooks Award for bestselling fiction.

Teresa is a charter member of the Romance Writers of America Honor Roll, Kentucky Romance Writers, and Novelists, Inc. She lives in Kentucky with her husband and her cats Willow and Buffy the Mouse Slayer.
Current Titles: The Vampire Who Loved Me, Some Like it Wicked, Some Like it Wild, The Devil Wears Plaid, and Goodnight Tweetheart
See my review of Goodnight Tweetheart
Bio Retrieved from teresamedeiros.com

Goodnight Tweetheart by Teresa Medeiros

When I accepted to review an advance copy of Goodnight Tweetheart by Teresa Medeiros, I wasn’t sure what I was in store for. The story was told in almost all Twitter messages, or “Tweets” (meaning 140 characters or less, for those unsure), and I questioned how a meaningful novel could come from that. But during the first chapter, I realized I had nothing I needed to worry about. The story follows Abby, who is struggling to write her sophomore novel after the huge, albeit surprise, success of her debut novel. While stuck on chapter 5, Abby joins Twitter in order to help procrastinate, and immediately meets Mark. Mark offers her tips and advice on how to use Twitter, and they soon begin an easy virtual friendship, which leads to virtual dates, which leads to Abby wondering if she really found that special someone via the Web. But when Mark doesn’t turn out to be who Abby really thought he was, she is left questioning their virtual relationship, and wondering if she possibly lost her true love.
Yes, the book is written in a majority of tweets. But I had no problem becoming involved in the characters stories. If you are looking for a fast read, I would definitely suggest this book. I think it took me two sittings to finish the entire thing. The plot is fast moving thanks to the tweets, and the characters make it humorous and fun to read. I credit Medeiros and her exceptional writing for bringing this story to life with a modern twist that I know so many other readers will appreciate. I would have given Goodnight Tweetheart five stars if it hadn’t been for the ending. It just sort of…ends. I didn’t feel the characters got much of a resolution, and was hoping to find out a bit more about their lives before it ended so abruptly. But otherwise, a fantastic story and a definite recommendation!
Rating: 4.5/5

In My Mailbox: Week of November 21

In My Mailbox: Week of November 21st

Title: Goodnight Tweetheart
Author: Teresa Medeiros
Received: From Ayelet Gruenspecht/Gallery Books
Synopsis: Abigail Donovan has a lot of stuff she should be doing. Namely writing her next novel. A bestselling author who is still recovering from a near Pulitzer Prize win and the heady success that follows Oprah’s stamp of approval, she is stuck at Chapter Five and losing confidence daily. But when her publicist signs her up for a Twitter account, she’s intrigued. What’s all the fuss? Taken under the wing of one of her Twitter followers, “MarkBaynard”—a quick witted, quick-typing professor on sabbatical—Abby finds it easy to put words out into the world 140 characters at a time. And once she gets a handle on tweets, retweets, direct messages, hashtags, and trends, she starts to feel unblocked in writing and in life. After all, why should she be spending hours in her apartment staring at her TweetDeck and fretting about her stalled career when Mark is out there traveling the world and living? Or is he? Told almost entirely in tweets and DMs, Goodnight Tweetheart is a truly modern take on a classic tale of love and loss—a Griffin and Sabine for the Twitter generation.

Title: The Hating Game
Author: Talli Roland
Received: From Talli Roland
Synopsis: When man-eater Mattie Johns agrees to star on a dating game show to save her ailing recruitment business, she’s confident she’ll sail through to the end without letting down the perma-guard she’s perfected from years of her love ’em and leave ’em dating strategy. After all, what can go wrong with dating a few losers and hanging out long enough to pick up a juicy £200,000 prize? Plenty, Mattie discovers, when it’s revealed that the contestants are four of her very unhappy exes. Can Mattie confront her past to get the prize money she so desperately needs, or will her exes finally wreak their long-awaited revenge? And what about the ambitious TV producer whose career depends on stopping her from making it to the end?

Title: How I Learned to Love the Walrus
Author: Beth Orsoff
Received: From Beth Orsoff
Synopsis: When Los Angeles publicist Sydney Green convinces her boss to let her produce a documentary for the Save the Walrus Foundation, the only one Sydney Green is interested in saving is herself. The walruses are merely a means to improving her career and her love life, and not necessarily in that order. Sydney would’ve killed the project the second she learned she’d be the one having to spend a month in rural Alaska if it had been for any other client. But for rising star and sometimes boyfriend Blake McKinley, no sacrifice is ever too great. Yet a funny thing happens on the way to the Arctic. A gregarious walrus pup, a cantankerous scientist, an Australian sex goddess, a Star Wars obsessed six-year-old, and friends and nemeses both past and present rock Sydney Green’s well-ordered world. Soon Sydney must choose between doing what’s easy and doing what’s right.