First Time Caller by B.K.Borison was the 69th book I read last year, this book was recommended by Lexi AKA newlynova in one of her reading wrap-ups.
A vague summary
Aiden runs a romance radio show but he has a secret, he’s stopped believing in love. Lucie has an unusual family set up, she has a 13 year old daughter with her high-school sweetheart, who now lives next door to her with his husband. When she discovers her daughter on the phone to a man late at night, she jumps to the worst conclusion but it turns out her kid has rung the hotline for a romance radio show, to get advice for her. When Lucie takes over the call and goes on a poetic ramble about being sick of dating apps and wanting ‘magic’ instead, she doesn’t expect to go viral.
Aiden’s boss at the radio spots a goldmine, so she invites Lucie on to the show, with the aim to help her find love. But after a series of mishaps with the dates she’s set up on through the show and a white-night moment from Aiden, the lines about who they are to each other become very blurred.
My thoughts
This book is very slow paced, perhaps a little slower paced than I prefer but I really loved the core premise. Her whole speech and the idea of her not wanting to do the rigmarole of dating apps and going for dates, and how all romanticism is stripped from the process (despite that being how I eventually met my current partner), it really captured everything I hated about modern dating.
I also really liked how the main character literally refuses to have a third act miscommunication and stomps back in and demands honesty. It’s refreshingly different in style to other romance books and I will definitely look for other books by this author.
Antonia Bernardin 