Goodnight Tweetheart, Teresa Medeiros

When Abigail Donovan’s publicist creates her Twitter profile, it is with the intention of helping Abby reconnect with her diminishing fan base. And her fan base definitely needs replenishing because it’s been awhile since that first bestselling book made Oprah’s list. To make matters worse, Abby is struggling with a crippling case of writer’s block, and is perilously close to becoming another one-hit wonder of the literary world.

Abby’s very first tweet is answered by @MarkBaynard. Mark tells Abby he’s an English Lit professor on sabbatical and traveling the world as he writes his own novel. The two make a pact not to Google each other and their online relationship develops through prolific tweets of 140 characters or less.

Ms. Medeiros carefully constructs Abby and Mark’s relationship through short snippets of conversation that are so entertaining, they never seem to last long enough. She brilliantly illuminates the story with both characters’ intelligence, sense of humor and vulnerability. We are swept away, just like Abby, to the faraway locales Mark describes perfectly, albeit succinctly. And just like Abby, we begin to like Mark – really, really like him.  But when he balks at having a “real” conversation via cell phone,  she (and we) begin to suspect that perhaps things aren’t really as they seem.

Goodnight Tweetheart is not your typical romance. Most of the dialogue is written in tweets and, short of giving too much away, the ending is not what usually constitutes a happily ever after. That being said, it was one of the most emotionally engaging conclusions I’ve ever read.

I should mention that I met my husband online in the fledgling days of large public chat rooms, way before E-Harmony and Match.com. We were “hanging out” in the same AOL chat and mutually decided, through instant messages, to meet the very next night (in a crowded, public place of course). Our first “in person” date lasted six hours – we closed the restaurant at 2 AM and got married a short year and a half later. That was twelve years ago. So needless to say, I am a true believer in the power of technology-inspired connections.

Read Goodnight Tweetheart and I promise you will be too.