Goodnight Tweetheart Review and Giveaway

Goodnight Tweetheart by Teresa Medeiros

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Abby got the ultimate stamp of approval. Oprah picked her book for her book club. That was four years ago. Abby's star is fading fast. Book two needs to be written but she's stuck on Chapter 5. Deadline has passed. She's on the verge of getting dumped by her publicist, bordering on agoraphobia, and quickly heading down the path of no return; the eccentric cat woman. Not good.

Enter Twitter. What does one do on Twitter? So she tweets. Someone answers. His name is MarkBaynard. He's a college English Literature professor on sabbatical, traveling the European continent. At least that's his story and he's sticking to it. Abby accuses him of being a 15 year old adolescent living in his mother's basement with body parts in his freezer.

The relationship develops one tweet at a time or 140 characters or less. He pulls her out of her writing funk, her blossoming agoraphobia but she keeps her cats. Their interactions are hilarious. I dream of being so clever! They also discuss some pretty deep issues and share their true selves albeit he does forget to inform her of one teeny tiny detail of his life. No spoilers here but a dispeller; his name really is Mark, a lit professor on sabbatical. He is not married nor gay.

Every conversation begins with "What are you wearing?" Nearly without fail, Abby replies that she is wearing sweats with coffee stains and - fill in blank -. The fill in blank is usually unusual like a pill box hat from any of Doris Day's movies. Mark also claims he is wearing a combination of clothing from a character from pop culture. Perhaps the black coat of Keanu Reaves from The Matrix and the ghost canister on Bill Murray from Ghostbusters. The dialogue is heavy laden with pop culture references. It's snarky, intelligent, and keeps the reader on her toes.

They sign off with references from a television show - The Waltons, for instance. Goodnight Mary Ellen, Goodnight Erin, Goodnight John Boy, Goodnight Grandma. The Cosby Show, Goodnight Dr. Huxtable, Goodnight Theo, etc. and finally, "Goodnight Tweetheart."

The relationship is built solely on tweets. Both are too insecure to share their pictures with one another (although they are accessible via internet at any time). With growing intimacy, they discover the importance of their friendship and how much they want to be there for each other in times of need.

Very cute, quick but meaningful read.

Assuming Galley will sponsor giveaway, I have 2 copies available.  Or, if I forget to ask and they don't have giveaway copies, I have one gently used copy.  Either way, at least one person will be very happy.

U.S. Only
No P.O. boxes
Contest ends January 1, 2011