Pillow Talk - Freya North

I liked this book. From the beginning all the characters feel real and contemporary. I particularly liked Petra and her work colleagues. I like the fact that we see both Petra and Arlo at work, and that we can see they’re good at their jobs. I liked the fact that it’s not generally misunderstanding that keeps them apart, but feelings and past experience. I liked that all the characters are believable and none of them are simply bad – even Miranda the teacher is quite sympathetic, and although she behaves badly, we understand why.

I liked the fact that the plot is not a simple story of them getting together, but has other elements driving the characters: Petra getting to grips with her work and Mrs. McNeill’s legacy; Arlo learning to forgive himself. The story has more twists and turns than the classic model of the characters meeting, falling apart and coming together at the end.

I don’t like that it shares the modern sexual morality that any kind of romantic relationship between adults must involve sex. However, I do like the fact that most of the sexual relationships depicted in the piece (Arlo and Miranda, Rob and Petra, Petra’s parents with other people) are shown to be quite distructive.

There are a couple of coincidences in the book which feel a bit artificial. Petra getting on so well and so quickly with Jenn, and in particular, Arlo’s ex-bandmate happening to have Petra’s old parental home on the market. However none of these are central to the plot so they’re forgiveable.

I like that neither find in each other a miracle-cure either for past traumas or for their differing sleep problems. They have to continue to live with these problems, but at least they can help each other through them. For me, that’s far more realistic and romantic than a magical resolution. It comes from the fact that both of the characters are properly three-dimensional: both have other things – perhaps even more important things – in their lives than just finding a partner.

I like the way one or two characters move in or out of the novel; Rob disappears, Jenn appears. Again, like in real life, where the cast isn’t so tight that people can’t move in and out.

It felt to me reading it like the author actually knew about and was passionate about what she was writing about: London, North Yorkshire, Jewellery; perhaps also music and teaching.

And it’s also kind of encouraging for me that this novel contains major plot elements that are very similar to those in two of my NaNo novels (The Stranger, Home). They’re obviously not dumb ideas – although I have to hope they don’t become clichés!