Britin Frazey

A few days ago, I finished the first book in this trilogy, and now I’ve completed the second, both of which are four-star reads for me. Or, should I say, four-star listens? These books in the Love Lines series are exclusive to Audible and are performed and produced compellingly.

In this sequel, which starts a few days before the first book and ends a few months after, by my calculations, we follow Eliot and a mysterious woman with whom he’s been chatting. Eliot appeared in the Call Me Maybe as the brother and confidant of Vera. In this story, we get to see him give her advice and champion her new love as he, too, is falling.

Both characters struggle to sleep at night for various reasons, so voice messaging and eventually calling are good ways to pass the time. This all started when Eliot meant to send a message to Vera, but instead sent it to this woman, who decides not to tell her who she is.

For most of the story, which is just under six hours long, we don’t know why our female main character wants things this way– just that it has to do with her brother. We also have no idea how she and Eliot know each other or what she does for a living, just that she took over for her father. In fact, we don’t even know her first name.

Now, having completed the story, I find it all to be really charming. As I was listening, I knew that the payoff would be worth it, but I was starting to get frustrated with the way that the character would beat around the bush, even within her own thoughts. Honestly, though, I was also impressed with how much she was able to say without giving away any of that information, because it didn’t ever feel like she was withholding information– just at the end of every chapter, I’d recount the details and realize how little she told us about her. Honestly, for a good portion of the book, I thought home girl was running the mafia. So, in order to review it now, I will be spoiling the entire thing, so be warned!

The first thing that I liked the main male character quite a bit more in this one than the first. I didn’t dislike Fred or Cal– whichever you choose to call him, I’m honestly torn at this point– but I just loved Eliot. He was such a sweet and quirky guy with the most unique hobbies and perspectives, and I just really loved him.

On the opposite side of that coin, I didn’t like Jessie as much as I liked Vera, which I feel like comes from the fact that she was so cagey for most of the novel. We didn’t even get her name until there was like an hour and a half left. Whenever we got to see Jessie be her true self, like towards the end of the novel, I liked her way more. It’s a weird dynamic between the listener and Jessie, because she tells us more than she does Eliot, but barely.

So in some ways, it’s also really cool to get to find out along with Eliot when he runs into Jessie while on the phone with her. But equally, it is jarring to learn that this entire time, the secrets hanging between them were that she was his building’s superintendent, and that her brother is the reason he can’t sleep.

I’m on the record saying that I predict every twist and reveal, and I hate to say that I kept that streak strong with this book, though it took me a lot longer. Actually, I think it was in the same chapter, just before it was revealed– if you’ve listened, I’ll tell you it was the time in that phone call when he described drawing his superintendent. I hadn’t even suspected the super until he described her eyebrow piercing several chapters before. Well played, Bastone.

Okay, so she’s not in the mafia– that’s good. Why did I think that, you may be wondering? Well, really just the fact that she talked about taking care of people and doing everything, which, once it’s revealed what she actually does, makes sense. But with the way Jessie describes things, I truly thought she was burying bodies or something. She’s tough enough to pull it off, with her boxing classes– and her brother is always referred to as a wreck, so it didn’t seem too far off.

And speaking of that devil, Jessie’s brother, Jack, robbed Eliot a few months ago. We get some references from Eliot to what happened, but it takes until towards the end of the story to reveal that this was the traumatic event in question. We see Eliot go to the cops, but not come out and say why he’s there, just that he has a case.

Cara Bastone is so uniquely talented, in what I’ve picked up from these two novels, at revealing information just a little at a time– satisfying any immediate curiosity but building up deeper, more burning questions about the characters and their relationships. While I was itching to know the entire time, these answers were only revealed when it became pertinent.

The one exception, in my opinion, is Jessie’s name. Eliot calls her “J.D.” for most of the novel, because those are the initials she was saved as in his phone– which was a jumble of letters he planned to fix later, due to his dyslexia, and never did. It is never stated if he got the first initial correct on purpose or if the last initial is accurate– or if it is, I missed it.

I feel that, at a bare minimum, we could have known Jessie’s real first name. When he runs into her, Eliot doesn’t remember that his super’s name is Jessie– a nosy neighbor reminds him– so it wouldn’t have hurt the overall story or mystery if the readers knew it.

Other than that, it was such an enjoyable story. I really liked the way Jessie confronted Jack about his actions and how he listened. It stuck with me how he essentially told Jessie that he was sorry because the guy he’d robbed was now the man his sister loved, and responded that it shouldn’t matter who loves Eliot– because somebody loves everybody.

Once Jessie comes clean to Eliot about Jack being the robber, he immediately drops his desire to go to the police– knowing that getting true help, like rehab, would be better, given Jack’s circumstances. Eliot is such a good character, just truly kind and sunny through and through.

We got to see some of Vera and Cal/Fred’s new relationship when Eliot met them for dinner, and thankfully, Bastone wrote an epilogue for this story. Several months after they’ve started dating, it shows the most nosy tenant finding out they’re together– meaning that soon, everyone else will, too. Jessie and Eliot are both happy about that, as they look to their future.

Both characters feel so real and developed, like actual people I’ve met in real life. Well, I’ve never met anyone as wholesome as Eliot, but other than that. Jessie is an icon, which is part of why I wish we’d known her name from the start. For a while, I didn’t even know what to call her, which made her feel less real. Once I knew it all, though, she was so flushed out. I feel like Jessie and Eliot make so much sense as a couple– he’s a cinnamon roll, and she’s his eternal protector. It’s adorable, and I hope to see more of them in the next book.

Now, I cannot wait for the third and final Love Lines book, titled Seatmate. If it’s as good as these two, I’ll likely be adding Cara Bastone to my list of favorite writers! I’ve read the summary, and it sounds interesting– but I’m itching to know how it will connect back to these two. Hopefully, Eliot, Jessie, Vera, and Cal/Fred will all make an appearance, but I won’t get my hopes too high. I’ll be finding out soon, so stay tuned for my next book review!