Love Lettering

I truly appreciated the style and quality of the writing and the easy-breezy plot exposition in this new romance by Kate Clayborn. So my inability to give the book more than a 3-star rating has more to do with “It’s not the book; it’s me.”

Our heroine Meg is a popular hand-letterer/calligrapher who does intricate hand-written invitations, cards, journals, etc., for her clients. Meg can’t resist putting secret messages into her designs, but there’s no harm, no foul, since nobody has managed to find them in her work so far.

But that’s until the day that she is confronted by a former client, Reid, whose wedding invitations she had created for his future bride with the hidden message M-I-S-T-A-K-E. Turns out that the wedding never occurred and Reid, a quantitative analyst, had discovered the hidden message and now wants to know how she knew his marriage would have been a mistake.

Meg, at this particular moment, is having a problem with creativity block and Reid is disgruntled with life in NYC and plans to leave as soon as is feasible. So she suggests they walk the city, she to find meaning again in her work and he to learn to appreciate the Big Apple.

Along the way, there are issues in the personal lives of both that are revealed and must be addressed. Meg has had a recent devastating revelation about her past and, in addition, is feeling estrangement from her best friend and roommate. Reid has his own problems, both personal and professional to deal with. And, of course, there is the necessary romance between the two which will develop relatively slowly and fairly well.

Okay. Good enough. The story moves along pretty well. The characters are appealing enough. I should have liked this contemporary romance more than I did. As I said earlier, the problem is definitely me. Lately I am feeling older-than-dirt, disgruntled, disheartened, discouraged and saddened by what’s going on in the country and even in the world. With the looming threat of climate change, the huge inequality gap between the haves and the have-nots, deregulation of protective measures for the environment and for the consumer, xenophobia and intolerance, and on and on and on, I found it almost impossible to relate to the problems of these characters.

Meg, for example, makes her living by catering to rich clients, the ones who can afford more than the usual mass-produced products that most of us middle class and upper-middle class folks can afford. In other words, her chosen career is not in my list of 21st-century professions that contribute to the common good.

Pay no attention to me. I’m just feeling particularly grumpy and picky and annoyed lately.

Once again I’m in the minority and just do not understand all the favorable reviews. If you are interested in lettering and fonts and signs then it is the book for you –there are pages and pages about this. The romance was awkward and unconvincing. The main characters were like cardboard figures moving through a boring story about signs.
There was no chemistry and little humor to lighten the whole thing. Also, the style of writing — long sentences and endless similes — made the whole thing heavy work. Run don’t walk away from this one.

This hooked me in from the very beginning and didnt let up all the way through. An understated and incredibly unique romance, Love Lettering features an adorably nerdy hero and the quirky heroine who complements him perfectly. The intricate descriptions of New York and typography will make you fall for the city as much as you do for Meg and Reid. In any other book, the descriptions wouldve been too much, but its so well written that it just made me that much more absorbed in the story.

Essentially, the story follows Meg, a woman who has become somewhat famous for her handwriting (think wedding invitations and anything else that requires some fancy lettering). The fame has given her a creative block, and it isnt until a former client walks through her door that things start to change. A year ago, Meg did the lettering on Reids wedding invitations, and after observing his interactions with his fiance, Meg predicted the relationship would be doomed to fail. When Reid – a man who makes his living looking at numbers and codes – accuses Meg of voicing her opinion about his doomed relationship via a hidden message on the wedding invitations, shes forced to reflect on what led her to that point. The two forge an unlikely friendship of sorts that heals their broken pieces as they slowly fall for each other.

I loved the slow burn here – these two start out as strangers, almost adversaries, and gradually develop into more. Reids not the easiest guy to like (at least on the surface), but I fell for him in a big way. This is told exclusively from Megs perspective so the reader is left as much in the dark about Reids feelings as Meg is, which made the journey an interesting one. Ill openly admit that Im not one who usually enjoys lengthy descriptions of settings, etc., but typography plays a major role in the story and it totally worked for me. Youll probably either love that or hate it, but it makes it so easy to visualize what Meg sees. I will say that this is such an understated, often serious, read that it doesnt move particularly quickly, but it held my attention from start to finish without any loss of interest. If youre looking for a well written, slow burn romance with characters who are as quirky as they are lovable, this is definitely worth your time. I was lucky enough to receive an ARC via NetGalley (then purchased it for my collection) and am voluntarily leaving a review of this charming romance.

I really like to try new author’s and this book sounded good to me .I loved the premise and for the first 20 percent of the book I was hopeful but than it just started to move too slow .The book focused to heavily on the secrets of the characters that took way too long to divulge in my opinion and I lost interest. It went from so promising to underwhelming and it was a shame because the read really had promise but it just lost it’s momentum sad to say for me. The main character’s went from unique and quirky to uninteresting for me . The author held too much back for too long in my opinion and it hurt the whole read for me. Hopefully next time the author writes she will keep a steadier paced read with interest and character connection.I would try this author again because the first part of the book interested me and it was engaging it just didn’t stay that way throughout.

When I started this book I was a little bit confused. There was a lot of artistry description and reference to lettering that seemed a bit too much technical for a first chapter. The first meeting was again not very straightforward with a lot of hinting and subtle flowery avoidance of a definite storyline. Thankfully, this eased up as the book progressed. The artistry and subtitly was still there but not all packed in together. There was balance between whimsy and seriousness. The plot twist was good (no spoilers). Sometimes I really wanted to give Meg a good shake but her character grew and developed well through the story. Reid’s character had less development and more of a subtle opening up to show he was more than the original description.
Overall, I’m glad I persevered with the book and very much felt this story left me with a content and happy smile.

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