It's not every day that a toy store saleswoman and a puppeteer fall in love. But that's just what happens in Kerry Winfrey's Very Sincerely Yours. Their meet-cute? Theodora "Teddy" Phillips starts stalking local kiddie TV show host Everett St. James. Maybe stalking is too strong a word. After all, it isn't Teddy's fault that her dud of a doctor boyfriend dumped her instead of proposing, forcing her to seek comfort in emailing an entertainer best known for curing emotional boo-boos.
Now may be a good time to point out that Teddy could've been tiresome. The woman wore nothing but neutrals because her boyfriend told her to, then made him dinner post-breakup just because he texted her he was hungry. Need I say more? A wussy-woman-scorned-turned-needy-fangirl might've made for a soggy last straw. But Winfrey's pitch perfect prose paints Teddy as more sympathetic than sad sack, rendering her epistolary relationship with Everett as a step forward rather than a leap back. Because there's something about pouring your heart out to a stranger. You can tell them things you'd never tell people you know, and writing is more cathartic than speaking. Maybe that's why I liked Teddy and Everett better on paper than in real life.
Which may say more about me, an incorrigible introvert, than it does about Winfrey. After all, I've read and loved three of her other books: Waiting for Tom Hanks, Not Like the Movies, and Love and Other Alien Experiences. They checked all my fiction boxes, i.e., overflowed with the kind of colorful quirkiness and trigger-quick dialogue that make storytelling special. What's more, I recently read another rom com about a couple who met through letters, and it left a much be desired. (Can't remember that one? That's because I never blogged about it. Exactly -- and also, you're welcome.) So although Very Sincerely Yours doesn't top my Winfrey list, I still sincerely enjoyed it. And anyway, there are lots of other books in the sea.
Like Winfrey's Just Another Love Song, which will be out in August.