Goodnight Tweetheart

While I’m not usually compelled to read romantic fiction, sometimes I get to craving a book that centers around the development of a relationship. A plucky protagonist and an immersion in today’s pop culture were the perfect accessories for me to get pulled into Teresa Medeiros’ new novel Goodnight Tweetheart.

With her debut novel behind her, and its immediate success now fading, Abby Donovan is struggling in the writing process. Yes, she’s been granted deadline extensions for the submission of her second novel, and yes, she’s aware that she hasn’t written anything yet on the blank page of Chapter Five. Perhaps it could be argued that she’s becoming a bit of a hermit, only leaving her apartment for runs to Starbucks, but she’s stuck, simple as that. Her publicist creates a Twitter account for her in an attempt to get her name out there, and Abby soon finds herself trying to decipher the new lingo and wondering what in the world she can talk about in 140 characters or less.

When the first tweet from @MarkBaynard arrives asking “R U a virgin?,” Abby might be a bit surprised, but she employs her sense of humor in her response, along with a reference to a particular predator-catching television show, and Mark begins to offer some instruction to the world of Twitter. (His initial tweet’s intention now clear!) What follows is the beginning of a twitter-romance in bloom. (A twelationship, perhaps?) Abby and Mark engage in some cute and witty repartee, with no awkward twitter pauses, and from the beginning, Abby, and we readers, know that there is a special something brewing between them.

Much of the novel is written in their back and forth tweets, with the rest of the narrative focusing on Abby’s personal life, and it all played out in my head like a movie on screen. There’s something to be said for the fact that the whole of Abby and Mark’s budding relationship is based solely upon their twitter interactions, since they agree not to Google each other or share any photos of themselves. Instead, they share brief exchanges that inspire much laughter, but also touch upon more serious and poignant personal issues. Of course, this is a piece of romantic fiction, so there’s a plot twist that brings about some angst and doubt, but that’s to be expected and readers of this genre will probably sense the path the story is taking before it is ultimately revealed.

With today’s increasingly digital focus in our lives, Goodnight Tweetheart portrays a romance budding on laptop and smartphone screens, mixed with a large helping of contemporary pop culture, two healthy senses of humor, and of course, a whole lot of heart.

Dawn doesn’t really get twitter, but she tries her hand at it occassionally anyway. What she does love is blogging, and she can be found blathering away at my thoughts exactly. In a whole lot more than 140 characters.