I received an advance reading copy of this book in return for my unbiased opinion. 
 Vera and Stanley meet when they tie for first place in the National Spelling Bee, and then they continue to see each other yearly when they come back to watch the following National Spelling Bees. Vera travels around the East Coast with her mom, living out of hotels as her mom works for IBM and hopes to find Mr. Right. Stanley's mom has his life mapped out, from attending Harvard to becoming a successful lawyer. However, what Stanley really wants is to create crossword puzzles. Just as Vera realizes she is in love with Stanley, Stanley comes up with a scheme for them to have a pretend wedding and split the cash they receive as presents so that he can fulfill his dream of publishing crossword puzzles. 
 Every time life gets rough, Vera runs away from Stanley without leaving a clue as to where she has gone, but eventually she creates a crossword puzzle with enough clues for Stanley to track her down again. They reconnect at Cambridge through one of Vera's crosswords and begin a years-long relationship of uncertain status. 
 This was an unconventional love story, and I really liked it. The crossword puzzle themes were cute. It was certainly an interesting tale.