828 Followers
48 Following
deniz

Closet Geeks and Slow Mo

Totally blown away by this one!

Joni, Underway - Jonathan Harrow, Kelly Oram

For me the creation of a good book is a bit like magic. I mean I kinda get how one does it, but being able to put a wonderful boo together? Well, as I said: Magic. I honestly am in awe of many authors and simply baffled by their ability to create wonder. As we all know, I am not a writer, never will be so it's beyond my reach. Why am I telling you this?

Well, simply Joni, Underway is one of those books that left me... touched, in wonderment and awe- and possibly somewhat changed.

It's no secret that I am a fan of Oram's books... But this one is not just hers. This is co-authored with her husband Jonathan Harrow. I never read any of his works - an oversight I shall correct soon. And here comes the reason why I was telling you the latter- I can not imagine how people co-write books! I am fascinated by it. Many collaborations work with dual or multiple POV- makes sense. But see- this one was written from just Joni's POV.. So how I have been wondering do you do that? It's a far cry from my imagination of how authors work- which is alone with their laptop at all hours of the day... Kelly Oram kindly gave us a glimpse on how she and Harrow did it. I shall not fangirl about any longer and get to my review:

 

The writing style is more somber than I was used to by Oram. But the content is more somber as well. I kinda expected cute and lighthearted romance- though I don't know why retrospectively. And I got something much deeper instead. Its had plenty of Oram's wonderful humor and sass - and to my delight it had wonderful descriptions, beautiful moments and such depths it touched me somewhere deep inside my stone cold heart.

I honestly can't tell you how much I loved the prose in this- because I find it impossible to dissect this novel- it became way to personal.

 

At the beginning I was kinda taken aback by how much I actually disliked Joni. I found her selfish, self-involved and melodramatic. I couldn't believe the self-pity party. This huge thing happened and she sat there just feeling sorry for herself. The way she was with her family? Atrocious at best! And then she embarks on her journey... and EVERYTHING changes.

The journey was beyond wonderful. I have no words to describe the trip, the characters and all the things that happen. I just gulped it up and wanted more!

What I can say is, that being someone who met her husband on her travels and has traveled all over the world for several years with said guy, Joni, Underway got it right. The traveling bits- amazing! The changes one goes through, the bonding, the heart all of it is there. And that's why I can't be objective nor make a decent review.. because this is one of the most beautiful and most touching books I have ever read...

Now don't misunderstand me.. It's not mooshy or uber-emo. It simply spoke to me. It is well written and has an interesting storyline. But mostly it has fantastic character building. I fell in love with each and every quirk of the cast. It was amazing to see them bond and to slowly see different sides to each one of them.

The romance is slow and extremely sweet, heartfelt and well swoon-worthy in a very subtle way. Reid -sighs- is a dream, with his faults and all. Joni and Reid are magic.

My only little thing that I found a bit disappointing: the end. Well not the end as such, but it all suddenly just worked out and was sorted.. It felt a wee bit rushed. But it's a teeny little thing and frankly it did not take away the happy cloud I was on.

Joni, Underway left me unable to read anything - I was still stuck in that world and all I wanted is grab my guy and go travel the world again.

 

Incredibly beautiful book! Possibly the best release in 2015 but definitely one of my favorite books ever.