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A review by birdjay
Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn
4.0
For more of my reviews, check out my blog.
Love Lettering was so so close to being as good as Georgie, All Along, but just barely fell short of achieving that goal. Meaning, I really really really loved this book. Our main character, Meg, shines off the page. She’s a delightfully sunny person with a huge huge sarcastic streak. She is a people pleaser who eventually realizes this about herself and tries so hard to change. She wants to be truthful to people without hurting them. She tries her best. She’s also a hand-letter-er? I guess? Is how you’d say that? She’s an artist, who specializes is handwriting, and she’s damn good. I wish we could have “seen” her work, but Clayborn does a fantastic job of describing it. So on one hand, we have Meg, a sunny artist. And on the other hand, we have Reid, a stoic mathematician. Two absolute foils of one another, so of course they fall in love.
Not to compare Love Lettering to another one of Clayborn’s books, Love at First, but what really worked for me this time was how over-the-top these characters were. They weren’t ordinary people. They didn’t blend into the background. They had strong personalities, and reasons for them. I missed that in Love at First, so that’s definitely why Love Lettering ranks above that one for me. The complete contrast between Meg and Reid was so much fun to watch, too. I kept picturing Meg in all these bright colors and patterns next to Reid, in his blue/black/grey suits. Reid does warm up, and open up to Meg, and we do get to know him quite well, but the foil between them remains the whole book. I enjoyed that. Neither one of them change who they are fundamentally, they just sort of…shift enough to let the other into their life. It was perfectly done.
The plot was just interesting enough to keep me interested — Meg has a creative block and is using Reid to help boost her out of it. There’s something going on with Reid, but you don’t find out what until the end of the book in a rather explosive way. (No, there is no cheating, in case some of you were worried!) The side characters are all well done, too, though I think the side-plot of Meg’s best friend was a little…idk. Contrived? Unneeded? I wasn’t the biggest fan of Sibby. You’ll understand if you read! Either way, no matter what, I really really loved Love Lettering. Four and a half stars.
Love Lettering was so so close to being as good as Georgie, All Along, but just barely fell short of achieving that goal. Meaning, I really really really loved this book. Our main character, Meg, shines off the page. She’s a delightfully sunny person with a huge huge sarcastic streak. She is a people pleaser who eventually realizes this about herself and tries so hard to change. She wants to be truthful to people without hurting them. She tries her best. She’s also a hand-letter-er? I guess? Is how you’d say that? She’s an artist, who specializes is handwriting, and she’s damn good. I wish we could have “seen” her work, but Clayborn does a fantastic job of describing it. So on one hand, we have Meg, a sunny artist. And on the other hand, we have Reid, a stoic mathematician. Two absolute foils of one another, so of course they fall in love.
Not to compare Love Lettering to another one of Clayborn’s books, Love at First, but what really worked for me this time was how over-the-top these characters were. They weren’t ordinary people. They didn’t blend into the background. They had strong personalities, and reasons for them. I missed that in Love at First, so that’s definitely why Love Lettering ranks above that one for me. The complete contrast between Meg and Reid was so much fun to watch, too. I kept picturing Meg in all these bright colors and patterns next to Reid, in his blue/black/grey suits. Reid does warm up, and open up to Meg, and we do get to know him quite well, but the foil between them remains the whole book. I enjoyed that. Neither one of them change who they are fundamentally, they just sort of…shift enough to let the other into their life. It was perfectly done.
The plot was just interesting enough to keep me interested — Meg has a creative block and is using Reid to help boost her out of it. There’s something going on with Reid, but you don’t find out what until the end of the book in a rather explosive way. (No, there is no cheating, in case some of you were worried!) The side characters are all well done, too, though I think the side-plot of Meg’s best friend was a little…idk. Contrived? Unneeded? I wasn’t the biggest fan of Sibby. You’ll understand if you read! Either way, no matter what, I really really loved Love Lettering. Four and a half stars.