A Note from an Old Acquaintance by Bill Walker

Look our for a guest post by the author, Bill Walker, tomorrow on this blog!

This book was offered to me for free as part of a book tour. A signed copy was sent to me by the author.

When I first heard about the book, I was looking forward to reading it, the story sounded good! However, when reading it, I didn’t like it quite as much as I had expected. Still, it was not a bad read!

The story: Brian Weller is going through difficult times. His young son died a few years ago and his wife has been in a coma for 2 years. He lives in Los Angeles as a successful writer, but because of his wife’s condition, has had a hard time writing anything recently. One day he finds an email in his inbox from Joanna, an former lover. They have not been in contact with each other for 15 years but now she would like to renew their friendship.

Brian feels excited about a possible reunion with Joanna, but also guilty, as his wife is still there in a coma. In the end he decides to go and meet her. The book then moves to 15 years earlier when Joanna and Brian met and fell in love. However, there was Erik, Joanna’s fiancé to consider: he was older than them, rich, influential, and not really a nice person. I’m not spoiling the story by saying that Joanna marries Erik and does not see Brian for the next 15 years.

The story then moves back to the current time, with Brian visiting Joanna. What happens then, is the rest of the story.

The story as such was interesting but I had a problem with Joanna: first of all, I didn’t like her too much. I would have liked to understand a bit more why Brian fell for her. It was clear that they were meant to be together but my heart wasn’t in it. Secondly, I was so annoyed with Joanna: why stay with that awful fiancé when she had obviously met the love of her life? Stupid woman!

That really bothered me, so I couldn’t enjoy the story as much as I otherwise might have. I thought the book was OK, but think it would probably make a nicer movie (as suggested by Jennifer of Crazy for Books).

The cover: not only wasn’t I fond of the cover, also I found the cover a little misleading: the note of the title was not a hand-written letter, as the cover suggests, but an email. Also, the Buddha on the cover plays a very minor role in the story. Joanna is a Buddhist but this is referred to only once, if I remember well. So I’m not quite sure what it’s doing on the cover.

My rating of the book: 3/5.

Other reviews:

Tea with Marce rated it 5/5

Crazy for Books rated it 4.5/5

Jennsbookshelves said: I do highly recommend reading this one

Readbookswritepoetry liked it so-so