Hello, My Love!

Elise is a third year law student who is eager to start her career, and Greg is a rich playboy who is about to be married. They make an odd but compelling couple in this story of love, loss, revenge, and triumph. The beginning flips back and forth between the past and present. The scenes from the past tell how the two met at Elise’s parents’ house and how they slowly grew to love each other. The present explores a fateful night in their relationship. After that night, the narrative progresses chronologically, switching back and forth between the two main characters. Unfortunately, Greg’s impending marriage causes trouble for the pair, and the couple must go through a lot of trials before they can finally be happy. It’s a tale as old as time, but some of these particular trials are pretty unusual and make for an entertaining read.

There are a couple issues I have with this book. Firstly, Greg is a thirty-something with lots of experience under his belt, and Elise is a twenty-three-year-old almost-virgin. This pairing is outdated. The age and experience difference lends the relationship the unevenness that you would expect (and that was once normal), meaning that Elise is a rather passive character. Greg does all the initiating in the relationship, and at times, it feels like he’s just pushing her along. This makes their first sex scene especially uncomfortable. Secondly, the timeline is confusing. While I know what happened, I can’t say for certain when anything happened, and the entire middle part is very vague. This doesn’t cause any huge issues while reading, but it does make it difficult to piece things together.

Still, this is an enjoyable love story. While I may not agree with all of the characters’ decisions or motives, they are all distinctly human (meaning sometimes incredibly stupid but always understandable). At their cores, Elise and Greg are good people, and it is impossible not to root for them and their happiness.