Review: Crumpled Love Notes

Crumpled Love Notes by Jen A. Durand
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For the most part, I enjoyed "Crumpled Love Notes" by Jen A. Durand, but it left me with a few questions. For example, we're told that the male lead character, Connor, learned of his daughter Cleo's existence about a year before the story began and has kept it a secret from his fiance, Zoe, ever since. What confused me is how he managed to spend enough time with Cleo for her to get to know him without Zoe finding out what he was doing. Cleo must have known who Connor was and felt comfortable with him prior to her mother's accident; otherwise, why would she have told him that she loved him when he put her to bed after they got home from the hospital? I'm sure Connor was away a lot for workouts, games, and other team commitments, but I would think that Zoe had easy access to the team's schedule. (Most of that information is posted online, so even members of the public can find it!) Wouldn't she have noticed if Connor lied about an event that wasn't on the schedule so that he could spend time with Cleo?

Whether or not Zoe noticed, it's clear that Connor did lie to her, at least by omission, in order to have kept this secret for so long. She seemed to acknowledge that when she told him that they were lacking trust in their relationship and it would take time to rebuild, but we didn't get to see that happen before the story abruptly ended. Instead, Connor and Zoe were distracted by the potential custody battle with Cleo's maternal grandmother, and the second that was seemingly resolved, the story jumped right to the epilogue. We're told that they "had come through on the other side" of the crisis, but how exactly did they do that? Zoe had a lot of valid reasons to be upset and I can't imagine that she just forgave Connor and was able to move on overnight, but that's the way this ending made things seem.

Aside from my questions about the story itself, I noted that there were quite a few typos and missing or disordered words and punctuation in the text. I was mostly able to figure out what the author was trying to say, but there were times that it was both difficult and distracting. It wouldn't be a bad idea for a skilled copy editor to take another look at this manuscript.

Overall, this was a compelling story, and I wanted to keep reading despite the errors in the text and nagging questions I had about the plot. Obviously, the situation described in this novella was very emotional for everyone involved, and the author did a good job of conveying those feelings. I would give another one of her books a try in the future.

*ARC provided by the author. All opinions expressed are my own.

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