Review by Jessica L Burdin -- Looking Glass Friends

[Jessica L Burdin]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Looking Glass Friends" by E L Neve.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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What happens if you find your intellectual soulmate, but you are already married to someone else? E.L. Neve explores this topic in the book Looking Glass Friends. Neil works at a bakery, is married to glass blower Fay, and is living unhappily. He struggles with suicidal ideation daily and is barely clinging to his existence. He is drowning in misery until he meets a customer named Ellie to whom he sells his stash of cream puffs. As a thank you for his kindness, Ellie leaves Neil a copy of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and so begins a friendship about literature over emails and letters. Over two parts and an epilogue, Looking Glass Friends follows this friendship that slowly develops into much more.

This book asks hard questions. If you find someone who is truly your equal on every level, does that negate vows you have made to another? Neve has done an impeccable job in writing the protagonists in this novel. Neil and Ellie both leap off the page in a way that every writer aspires for their characters. Each character truly develops and grows with every chapter. In the beginning, I found Neil to be a cold, hard man whose unhappiness took on selfish characteristics. However, by the end of the book he had caught my sympathy, and I found him to be a sensitive, intellectual man with a kind heart. Ellie begins as a somewhat oblivious housewife but turns into a strong and unwavering force to be reckoned with.

Secondary characters are also extremely well-written. Neil's wife Fay invokes sympathy, and Ellie's husband Jake is certain to make even the most mild-mannered reader see red. Perhaps my personal favorite of all the secondary characters was Fay's coworker and friend, Anabella. She is a straight shooter with great life advice, delivered with Southern charm and wit. "Crying is about as useful as a trap door in a canoe," is among my favorite quotes from Anabella.

Editorially, this book is solid. A few minor punctuation errors take nothing away from the meaning of the story. If I hadn't been critically reading this book, I very well may have glanced over them without noticing any. Dialogue is written conversationally and flows naturally on the page. It is easy to see why this book was the winner of several book festival awards!

My rating for Looking Glass Friends by E.L. Neve is a resounding 4 out of 4. Although some of the subject matter is on the darker side, such as Neil's initial struggles with suicide, romance wins out in the end. Readers of romantic fiction and women's fiction would enjoy this story. Relatable characters, realistic dialogues, and a fast-paced plot make this book a true joy to read.

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Looking Glass Friends
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