Love Virtually

Just read an ARC of Daniel Glattauer's Love Virtually, set to release (in the U.S.) in April. It seems that the book has been a big bestseller in Europe, and I can see why. Written in epistolary format (via letters, or in this case email. I think the most famous example of this style is Bram Stoker's Dracula.) Love Virtually is the story of a love affair between two people who've never met. An accidental, virtual meeting sparks a year long correspondance between a single man and a married woman. Through the whole book you are kept on pins and needles, wondering, will they ever meet? And if they meet, will the magic die??? 


I cannot possibly say more about the plot without destroying some part of its discovery for a potential reader. Just read it. It's engrossing, it's touching and it's refreshingly real in an age where The Shop Around the Corner -esque love affairs aren't entirely unheard of. Also, it's a quick read, and there is never a "slow" part where the author has to describe the color of someone's hair or the sound of a door creaking, or whatever. I love epistolary stories because they deliver a delicious lack details. You only know what the characters know. You have only what they tell each other and nothing more. It's all a big tease really. I love a good tease.

A bit of advice, though. If you are the type who reads the ending first....

1.) You will burn in literary hell for your sins. (Or at least you would if I were literary god.)
2.) Don't do it with this book!!!! You will ruin it! RUIN IT!!!!!
3.) I advise you to ask a reliably closed mouth acquaintance to tape the last few pages to the back cover of the book.

And fifteen minutes after I finished reading it, the heart palpitations were slowing and evening out to a normal, steady rhythm; and then I noticed the tiny print on the back of the ARC that promises a sequel in 2011. I thought it was over, but I will gladly take more. Please, don't tell me. I am sure that I could go searching and find out what happens in the next book. I think it's already been released in Europe. But I really don't want to know. I just want to see where it takes me. And that's kind of the whole point of this book.

6 (yes. SIX.) toes.

Pale Demon

I love Kim Harrison's gritty Hollows series. The series is about a witch named Rachel Morgan who left her job with supernatural law enforcement to work for herself. In this installment, together with her partners -- the living Vampire Ivy Tamwood and a Pixie named Jenks-- and long time rival Trent Kalamak, Rachel is hitting the road for the west coast. She has to reach San Francisco in time for a hearing with the council to clear her name (she's been shunned and accused of being a black witch), and also get Trent to Portland for a mysterious quest that he won't divulge.

Pale Demon has to be the best book in the series since Kist bit the dust. Rachel finds answers to some hard questions about herself, and about Trent. She can handle the truth, but what about the rest of the world?

5.5 toes