An internet security officer falls for a woman whose emails he is paid to monitor
Falling in love by reading someone's email
It is 1999, and Lincoln O'Neill has a strange new job at a newspaper: he is the internet security officer, paid to read employees' flagged emails and send warnings to anyone breaking the rules. Lonely and stuck, he works nights and still lives with his mother. Two coworkers, Beth and Jennifer, constantly send each other long, funny, personal emails, and he cannot bring himself to report them.
Who will enjoy it
Readers who enjoy funny, warm romantic comedies with witty dialogue, likable characters and a gentle, nostalgic setting.
What you will get
A sweet, funny and warm romantic comedy about friendship, loneliness and finding the courage to start living, told partly through charming email exchanges.
Attachments Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Romance · Office romance · Email · Late nineties
Length
336 pages · ≈ 10 h
More about this book
Beth, the paper's film critic, writes about her musician boyfriend who will not commit, and Jennifer, a copy editor, writes about her marriage and her doubts about having children. Their emails are witty and full of life, and as Lincoln keeps reading, he begins to fall for Beth without ever having met her. He realizes that what he is doing is wrong and that he can never introduce himself as the man who has been reading her messages.
The novel alternates between the women's emails and Lincoln's life, as he slowly starts to change: he joins a gym, makes friends, spends less time with his tabletop game group and learns to move on from an old heartbreak. The late-nineties newsroom, with its worries about the millennium bug, adds nostalgic charm. The humour is gentle, the characters are kind, and the romance builds slowly to a sweet, satisfying ending. There is little drama and no explicit content.
Charming, cosy and funny, a perfect comfort read for anyone who likes slow-burning romance and kind, believable characters. About 336 pages in the Plume paperback.
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