The Romantics by Galt Niederhoffer

First line: ”Laura sat in her car at the foot of a dirt road, clutching her cell phone and map.”

I’ll admit I’ve had The Romantics for a while. Every time I went through my TBR pile, I’d pick up the cover, ponder it, remember the good reviews it had received, and yet choose another book instead. I believe, as I’ve talked about numerously on this blog, that it was the cover that gave me pause. I have nothing against romantics, so it wasn’t the title. In fact, I’d venture to say I’m one myself.

On the one hand, the cover is artfully done. It looks like a ripped page, the rose split in two, and covered by three pieces of tape, which glisten in the light, like real tape would. However artfully done, it didn’t grab me and say, “read this now.” What were the publishers trying to say about the book? The art gave it an early 19^th century feel, a classic, something that would require a bit of effort to delve in to, and effort is normally the last thing I have in spades at the end of the day.

For my trip to Colorado, I wanted to pick five books to accompany me on the long car ride, and there it was again, the rose beckoning me to pick it up. I did. And, because I partly felt guilty for making it wait so long to be read, I began reading on my sojourn to Kansas. I’m glad I did. The Romantics is nothing like the cover imagines it to be. This is not a slight to the wonderful illustrator or designer, but everything to do with marketing the book to the right audience.

It is women’s fiction. I’m sure it could find some male readers, but the topic is a wedding and the story of friendship and love forked in the road has its greatest appeal to women. Even though Niederhoffer gives us point of view in the male friends as well, it is the meshing and messing with the relationships between this circle of Yale grads that women who love to read women’s fiction will admire most about this book. We can also ashamedly relate to the mother-of-the-bride in her vain attempt at perfection on the wedding day. How badly do we want it to rain, just to spite her?

Yes, it’s also a book about class and external identify versus authentic love and longing, but the deeper I got into the novel, the more I wanted readers of Emily Giffen’s Something Borrowed to know about this tale. It has eerie similarities, not only in the theme of the gorgeous friend vs. girl-next-door and fiancé entanglement, but it is also fast-paced, something I didn’t expect from the outside packaging promise.

The novel involves a wonderful cast of friends, or used-to-be-friends, still holding on to the ties that bound them in college, as they descend on the bride’s family’s immaculate, expansive property for the weekend wedding. The entire novel takes place in a two-day time span, a feat that pays off, and works in propelling the story to its will they/won’t they conclusion. Imagine it as a great episode of 24, only without the terrorists (unless you count the cranky mom), with wonderful emotional suspense in that ticking of the clock fashion.

Niederhoffer pulls it all together beautifully, stitched to perfection like a couture wedding dress. Don’t do what I did and keep this one too long on your nightstand. Open and read immediately.

For: A well-imagined tale of friendship and messy love, as told by a realistic circle of friends you may have roomed with.

Buy it at Amazon.