I've Got Your Number: Romance Via Texting

I have already used this blog to wax rhapsodic about the novels of Sophie Kinsella. So it should come as no surprise that it's time for me to do so yet again. The NYPL kindly took me off the hold list for the e-book version of her most recent novel, I've Got Your Number, and I devoured it. Apart from the annoyance of having to click back and forth among the amusing footnotes (which is the only trouble I've had with the e-book format so far), it was a thoroughly delightful read.

The plot of any Kinsella novel can be summarized as follows: thoroughly lovable yet insecure heroine, who may or may not be involved with successful but horrible man who does not appreciate her true worth, runs into Darcy-esque dark-haired wealthy businessman and initially misjudges him for being cold and calculating misanthrope, only to discover he is in fact a romantic knight with heart of gold. The fact that this basic storyline remains unaltered among all of Kinsella's novels might suggest that they are predictable and boring fare. But you would be wrong. What makes each of her novels stand out are the worlds and circumstances that the heroine and her hero inhabit. Every novel presents a brand new wacky and inventive situation and a series of seemingly insurmountable obstacles that will, of course, be surmounted. Just because you know how this will all end, it doesn't mean you have any clue how you're going to get there.

This novel's heroine is Poppy Wyatt, a physiotherapist who is engaged to Magnus Tavish, a handsome academic who deals with symbology (this might be a dig at Robert Langdon). Poppy loves her job, loves Magnus, and is furiously planning for her wedding that is just 10 days away. For a variety of reasons, she desperately needs a phone, since her own has been stolen and replacing it would take too long. She spies a phone that someone has thrown in a trashcan, which she claims for her own since "possession is nine-tenths of the law." Turns out it belonged to the PA of a top executive, a man named Sam Roxton. Enter our hero. Sam needs the phone because it contains vital e-mails and business information but Poppy pleads with him and promises to forward every single message. Sam doesn't like it, but helpless in the face of Poppy's desperate defiance, he reluctantly agrees. And thus begins our tale.

This is a romance conducted almost exclusively via text. Poppy can't help herself from reading Sam's company emails and gradually pieces together a portrait of this mysterious man whose phone she has hijacked. While Kinsella's novels always follow a first-person narrative from the heroine's perspective, this is the first time I was aware of how much that influences my perception of the various characters. I trusted Poppy's every instinct and critique of Sam, and it was with a start that I realized (as she did) that he has a private e-mail inbox that would paint a very different portrait of him.

The novel features multiple intertwining plot lines, including corporate espionage, Sam's relationship with his fiancée and his father, Poppy's struggles with confrontation and her in-laws, and the impending wedding. It is all resolved beautifully at the end and might be the first time that a smiley face in a text is an indication of true love. I've Got Your Number is hilarious and entertaining, so whip out your phones and order a copy today.