A delicious book that I picked up and just couldn't put away. I love every Rainbow Rowell-book and LANDLINE (which was until now the only one of hers I hadn't read yet) did not disappoint. There is humour, there is friendship, there are wonderful characters, and of course there is also plenty of romance. 
 Georgie is a successful comedy writer with two little girls and a husband who suddenly sees her marriage falling apart around her and isn't sure what to do about it. Her husband Neal, tired of her always choosing work (and her work partner and best friend, Seth) over him, travels to Omaha with the girls to spend Christmas with his mother, leaving Georgie behind in LA to work on the script for a new show that could turn into the deal of a lifetime. Georgie, who misses him more than she thought she would and isn't sure anymore about where they stand, spends some nights at her own mother's house. As she tries to call Neal with her mother's landline, however, something strange happens: she realises she is not talking to Neal, her present-day husband; but to Neal back in 1998, who was in Omaha for a week for Christmas then, too, and with whom she'd had a fight before he left. Since Georgie can't seem to reach present-day Neal (or maybe he's avoiding her) and misses him so much, she starts talking to younger Neal, trying to sort through all the things wrong with their marriage in the present and trying to figure out what she can do to fix them. 
 As always, Rowell's characters are so good because they are so realistic. I've always loved the fact that hardly anyone in her book is perfectly gorgeous. The people she depicts are lovable and usually not ugly, but they do have flaws. They have wide hips, or ugly glasses, or greasy hair, or they look like chubby hobbits. They make mistakes and do stupid things. That is what makes them so real and that is what makes it so enjoyable to read about them - for me, at least - because it's so very easy to relate to them. 
 The story itself is nice and sweet - nothing heavy, but entertaining nonetheless. Some things, such as how it is possible in the first place for Georgie to be talking to her husband fifteen years in the past, are never explained; but I didn't mind that so much. It's nice to have some things left up to the imagination. Not everything is always resolved at the end of Rowell's books, which is also something that, although sometimes a little frustrating, I do like about them because it makes the stories seem more real. Real life doesn't have a happy ending, either - or any ending, for that matter. It always keeps on going. 
 I do wish the ending had been a bit more elaborate, because although it is implied that Georgie and Neal will work through their issues, I would have liked to actually read about it and see how that played out. It wasn't an abrupt or open ending, but I personally would have loved to read some more after Georgie and Neal's reunion. All in all, though, it was a wonderful book that I loved reading.