Love Lettering is artsy, angsty, but ultimately healing, as two characters learn to communicate and fall in love in the process.
Kate Clayborn’s new novel Love Lettering seemed to be, at first, your typical romance novel. It checks off all the boxes: it’s in the first-person point of view of a plucky heroine trying to work through a creative block; it has a rich, mysterious and devastatingly attractive love interest; and it has some great friendships that must come out stronger on the other side.
But the deeper I got into Love Lettering, the more I realized that Clayborn does much more than just give us a cute love story. The novel isn’t just about love — it’s about communication both in romantic relationships and in friendships.
The novel’s heroine is Meg, a young artist who has built a business in hand-lettering journals for New York’s most glamorous. Meg’s art is the backdrop for this entire story, and it’s fascinating to read about. (Since I was reading the electronic version of the book, I have no idea if the printed one has actual calligraphy, but I really hope it does!)
It really contributes to the overall fairytale-like air of the book. Meg mostly wears dresses, and the entire book is basically a love letter to New York, including its food (Reid’s — and my — favorite part of that city). I can already see this book as a Netflix movie and I am so here for it.
Love Lettering is a little confusing in the beginning. It’s not really clear why Meg likes Reid in the first place. From the beginning, he’s rude and cold. He’s attractive, obviously, but everything else about Meg’s character contradicts the idea that she would smitten by a man simply because he’s good-looking.
And yet, Meg’s obsession with him leads her to be passionately against his marriage… to the point that she embeds a secret code in his wedding program, which eventually leads him back to her.
It’s an interesting, tense meet-cute, but it is a little hard to understand why, after constant conflict and disagreements, both Meg and Reid continue to see each other. Anyone else would probably have given up.
However, once the two start to bond a little more, it all makes a lot of sense. As Reid reveals his more loving side and Meg becomes more aware of her tendency to avoid conflict at all costs, they finally begin to understand each other.
And that’s where Clayborn does her best work, with the slow burn and character development where neither Meg nor Reid need to give up major parts of their personality in order to fall in love, but actively choose to work on themselves to be better together.
Reid does check a lot of the boxes of rough-around-the-edges love interest, but he’s distinctly missing the misogyny that a lot of romance heroes have. He’s strong, but communicative. He’s troubled, but kind. When he does mansplain, he’s quickly apologetic about it, and there’s a scene when Meg has her period that will warm anyone’s heart.
That being said, I still can’t get over the fact that Meg describes Reid as smelling like chlorine (he’s a swimmer), or the term Clayborn uses whenever Reid smiles — swoonshing — but I can live with it. Meg is adorable. Reid is adorable. In the end, you’re just happy that they’re together.
Through their burgeoning relationship, Meg begins to identify negative attitudes and unhealthy coping mechanisms that she has carried from her childhood, which affect not only how she communicates with Reid but how she deals with difficult situations with other people around her.
That extends to friends, too. Throughout Love Lettering, Meg has to face an old friend who seems to be on the brink of leaving her behind; a new friend whose toxic relationship threatens to harm their friendship; and potential new friends who Meg has to open up to.
But despite conflict between female friends being a central part of the story, I absolutely love that this conflict never manifests between Meg and Reid’s ex. In fact, they both seem to really like each other, which makes me really happy. Love triangles and jealous exes are so lazy. Mutual respect — and the conflict that arises in the middle of that — is much more interesting.
There is a final twist that is something of a surprise, but I think it ultimately works and makes Reid an even more interesting character. It also gives Meg a chance to shine and prove that she can take charge, even at her most vulnerable, and gives her friendships the conclusion.
In Love Lettering, Clayborn examines the tendency — common among women due to socialization — to just ‘go along’ with things and avoid conflict so as to not inconvenience others. Through Meg, we see the consequences of staying silent in the face of both little things and big things, and the power that facing problems head-on with bravery and sincerity can have to change one’s life.
Sometimes it feels like romance and communication are made to be polar opposites in fiction, so it’s refreshing to find a book where the two intertwine, and both become better due to the other.
Love Lettering is available for order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and your local independent bookstore. Also, don’t forget to add it to your Goodreads “to read” list!
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