LitPick Review
Two strangers coming to know each other during their shared rides on the B line train and getting off at the same station to go to their workplaces decide to apply for family tickets as fake husband and wife to save the cost of the daily commute as the girl finds the ticket expensive under her current financial condition. An unexpected event of a burglary on the train one day leads to complicacy when police summon them to collect information on the theft. When Piper gets nervous that the police will discover their fake relationship, James coaches her with the options. He suggests they come clean to the police with their fake relationship and face the consequences, or continue their pretense. They decide to meet a few times to get to know each other better so that they can pass as a married couple during the police interview. They pass the police questions safely, and they continue to meet. To learn about the progress of their romance, read the book, a real page-turner.
Opinion:
To begin with, I was startled by two slight strangers, James and Piper, starting their first conversations as they did, but that toned down so fast to assuage me as a reader. I thoroughly loved Mallory Thomas's style of writing, construction of sentences, and expression. The story moved fast, gripped me, and developed with sufficient details and beautiful expressions, such as “her tote bag trailing a second behind her.”
I loved the way Ms.Thomas deescalated the tension after the traumatic smoke-filled incident in the train, which twirled their bodies with impact and unwittingly fast-forwarded their relationship.
The format is engaging: Two people alternate between the chapters to narrate and continue their story in the first person. I got different points of view on the same incidents, which made the tale so enjoyable.
The book is filled with charming sentences like, “If a standard protocol exists for greeting your week-old fake husband, I haven’t learned it yet.” This lovely love story will make you want more.
