Book Review: "Love Lettering" by Kate Clayborn
“Love Lettering” by Kate Clayborn
Synopsis: Meg Mackworth’s hand-lettering skill has made her famous as the Planner of Park Slope, designing custom journals for her New York City clientele. She has another skill too: reading signs that other people miss. Knowing the upcoming marriage of Reid Sutherland and his polished fiancée was doomed to fail is one thing, but weaving a secret word of warning into their wedding program is another. Meg may have thought no one would spot it, but she hadn’t counted on sharp-eyed, pattern-obsessed Reid.
A year later, Reid has tracked Meg down to find out how she knew that his meticulously planned future was about to implode. But with a looming deadline and a bad case of creative block, Meg doesn’t have time for Reid’s questions—unless he can help her find her missing inspiration. As they gradually open up to each other, both try to ignore a deepening connection between them. But the signs are there—irresistible, indisputable, urging Meg to heed the messages Reid is sending her, before it’s too late. - Kensington Books
Rating (out of 5): 4
Review: Admittedly, I picked up this one because I saw it on #bookstagram, but I am fully okay with that — it probably wouldn’t have ended up on my radar otherwise, and it was a romance that I truly enjoyed. It also made me realize that I’m not as good as word games as I thought I was, which was a tough lesson to learn. A bitter realization, to be sure.
Meg is a calligrapher in Brooklyn, and she mostly does personalized planners for women with her money (well that, and Instagram videos — what a 2019 job!) and avoids all wedding commissions. She’s somewhat estranged from her best friend/roommate, and she’s definitely estranged from her parents. She’s also feeling a little bit of creators’ block when all of a sudden, Reid storms into the shop where she’s working on a quiet weekend afternoon.
She recognizes him because she designed the invitation suite for his wedding, and he’s angry because she hid a warning message in the program. (in my unsolicited opinion, Reid is totally in the right here). Both Meg and Reid are people that look for signs about how to make the right decision — in some cases, literal signs, as they are both word nerds — which ends up being the basis for a sweet friendship. Meg is looking to be inspired, and she’s trying to convince Reid that New York isn’t as terrible as he thinks, so they start taking long walks, looking for letters and playing word games. If it weren’t so well-written, I would roll my eyes at this conceit.
Not only are Meg and Reid totally charming, all of the side characters in this book are as well. I enjoyed getting to know Lachelle and Lark, and my heart broke at times reading about Meg’s fractured friendship with Sibby. One of the blurbs on the back teases these “perfectly imperfect” characters, and that’s the best descriptor I can think of for the people that Kate Clayborn wrote so lovingly.
As is formulaic in any romantic comedy, there does have to be an obstacle before we can get to the happy ending, and I honestly thought it was going to be either a personality quirk of Meg or Reid. Nope, didn’t see the big reveal coming, at all, and wow was it enjoyable. Let’s just say I was just as blindsided as Meg was, and it’s part of what made me like this book so much. I read a fair amount of romances and watch a lot of romantic comedies, so it was refreshing to be surprised! Not only did I love how real (and flawed) Meg and Reid were, but also the plot itself — post meet-cute — was pretty believable. All in all, if this is a genre of books you like, I would wholeheartedly recommend this one.
Fair warning: it will also make you go down a hand letterer rabbit hole on instagram; those videos are almost as soothing as the ones with people cooking to me.
TL;DR: An utterly charming book about finding love in unexpected places and learning to trust both yourself — and all the signs around you.
If You Liked This, Try These:
