Your rating:
Opposites attract when a buttoned-up professor and carefree doorman must restore a magically missing identity in this sparkling romance, perfect for fans of Sophie Cousens and Ashley Poston. For type-A mathematician Catherine Lipton, growing up with a free-spirited single dad who worked part-time as a clown was more than a little stressful. So as an adult, the only place she’ll allow for variability is in her data sets. Everything in Catherine’s life is ordered, from her lists to her lesson plans at her new job as a college professor. Catherine’s carefully calculated life goes awry, though, when the university’s human resources system rejects her employment paperwork. Soon after, her credit card is declined. At the Social Security office, Catherine makes a shocking discovery—she’s disappeared from the government’s records, and there’s no evidence she exists at all. Catherine can’t seem to convince anyone she’s a real person, even though she’s standing right there in the flesh. Catherine knows she can’t count on her dad, and the university is only concerned with who will teach her classes. The one person who offers to help is Luca Morelli, her attractive but aggravating doorman who spends more time flirting with Catherine’s neighbors than he does enforcing the building rules. The older residents might fall for Luca’s charm, but if he can’t keep bikes out of the lobby or put packages in their designated area, how can he help Catherine get her life back? Left with no other options, Catherine reluctantly agrees to enlist the help of Luca’s well-connected Italian family. Soon, Catherine finds herself following Luca into the back room of a smoky bar to meet a Mafia man named Vito, breaking into the records room of a local hospital, doing a little light stalking, and having a surprising amount of fun. She also finds herself growing closer to Luca, who makes her laugh and challenges her well-ordered ways. As Catherine begins to unravel the mystery behind her missing identity, she may discover that the “real” Catherine is someone she never expected.
No posts yet
Kick off the convo with a theory, question, musing, or update
Your rating:
- Melissa Wiesner writes such lovely POV characters. I loved being in Catherine's head and absorbing her feelings and her struggles. Her fear when her identity mishap happens is so palpable and I felt all of her anxiety and inner turmoil so genuinely. I wanted her to succeed and make it through unscathed as much as possible (while having some character growth of course, which she absolutely did!)
- Speaking on her character growth, we absolutely see that from Catherine here. We see her learn to accept help, and love herself and how she got to be who she was, and everything in between. It's really hard to write that and I think it's one of Wiesner's great strengths as a writer. I felt that with Second Chance Year as well
- Luca is a much better written love interest character than her entry in SCY. First, he's on the page a lot more and that helps, but he's also so much more fleshed out. His whole shtick of being from a massive Italian family works so well and is so charming. He's really charming, if not slightly juvenile, but in a way that works. He's one of the most legitimately puppy dog-esque male love interests I've read (so many are not and just called that because it's easy nomenclature)
- The relationship between Catherine and her dad. It's so rare to get a father-daughter relationship like theirs and I loved it
- <spoiler> The surprise of there being another "kooky" math professor at the college. Loved that. Wish there was away to explore that more, but there wouldn't have been without it feeling forced or messy </spoiler>
- <spoiler> When Catherine sends her mother a text about getting her identity back and mother is lackluster, but then she texts Ms. Goodwin who literally just responds with a bunch of "yays" and that made me think of my own mom and how that's what she sends and it was just a really nice small moment that I loved. </spoiler>
- The cover. Beautiful color-work and, in my opinion, doesn't look too cartoony that it reads YA
- I would have loved to have had a few more scenes that really dug into Catherine's love of mathematics and order. We're told quite a few times how much she despises disorganization, but we rarely get to see that in action.
- More conversations/explorations into Luca's art past and desires. We get it a bit, but I think it's a part of what I Longed For in his character development. It was almost there but just a bit lacking
- I always find it odd when MCs in a romance don't have friends, so I do wonder why she had no friends besides her dad's friends.
Loathed:
- I loathed nothing really. <spoiler> I mean, I loathed her mother treating her the way she did, but that was pretty integral to how things needed to play out </spoiler>
- Oh actually, I really didn't like the way that Dr. Gupta became kind of cartoonishly evil when her identity mishap happened. Like, I know we hadn't gotten to know him terribly well, but it seemed like it came out of left field.
Longed For:
- A bit more character development for Luca. I think he ends pretty similarly to where he started. I think there's a bit of growth, but I think really diving into the loss of his grandfather would have been more interesting. Also, I thought we were going to learn something was wrong with his apartment (or that he really didn't actually have one in the building) that would detail why he was constantly sleeping on the floor, but that's just a nitpick.
- I don't need books to be open door by any means, but I've noticed that Wiesner's books always leave me wanting a bit more connection of some kind between the MCs. After they supposedly (most likely) sleep together, it's as if nothing has changed between the two of them. I want there to be an elevation or escalation of some kind to their feelings
- More random Luca family members. They were the best part
0RomCom In A Nightmare Setting. Seriously, the title of the review here is pretty much exactly what you're getting. I don't know how common it is, but I know I've had the nightmare that is a version of the basic premise of this book - that you suddenly find out all of your "government" "approved" "identification" is suddenly found to be fraudulent and/ or non-existent... anywhere. How would you survive in modern America? Particularly if you were just starting a new job? And now you have the basic narrative here.
The romance/ romcom aspects of this tale take a bit of the realism of the premise out of the picture, but then, if we wanted a gritty real world version of the premise above, we wouldn't be looking for it in a romcom, now would we? Instead, both sides of romance and comedy work well, so long as you don't mind absurdist/ "What the FUCK?" comedy. (And seriously, if you can't enjoy that type of comedy at least from time to time, that absolutely says more about you than about Wiesner's writing here.)
Ultimately, this *is* a romcom - even with the initial premise - so yes, things get tied up in nice little maybe more Lifetime Movie than Hallmarkie bows, but said bows are absolutely the pink and frilly kind. In other words, don't let the premise get you too anxious here, just sit back and enjoy the ride - if maybe a touch more pulse pounding than many romcoms.
Very much recommended.
04.5⭐️
Omg I just love her books! This is the 2nd book I’ve read by Melissa Wiesner & I have more on my TBR!
Catherine is a so excited to start her new job as a math professor, something she has worked so hard for, but everything gets turned upside down when she doesn’t exist anymore (well at least in the government’s system). With the help of her buildings doorman, Luca, they go on a journey to get Catherine’s identity back! They have some fun times, scary times, law breaking times & some real talks while on this journey.
This book has self discovery & a little romance, with some magic sprinkled in ✨ & I enjoyed every second of it! I even shed some tears at the end! I loved watching Catherine navigate everything with Luca, & I really enjoyed watching their relationship blossom. The difference in personalities was so cute to read about. Luca was such a sweet guy & I loved learning more about him as the book went on. Goes to show you that you never really know what a person is up to!❤️ and watching Catherine discover what she really wanted in life was amazing to read! There were so many good messages, things to remember & quotes in this book!
I would definitely recommend adding it to your TBR & reading it when it comes out!!
Thank you to NetGalley, Forever Publishing & Melissa Wiesner for the eARC of this book!
0
© 2024 Pagebound