Review: When the World Was Flat (And We Were in Love)

When the World Was Flat (And We Were in Love)
by Ingrid Jonach

Plot Summary:

When sixteen-year-old Lillie Hart meets the gorgeous and mysterious Tom Windsor-Smith for the first time, it’s like fireworks — for her, anyway. Tom looks as if he would be more interested in watching paint dry; as if he is bored by her and by her small Nebraskan town in general.

But as Lillie begins to break down the walls of his seemingly impenetrable exterior, she starts to suspect that he holds the answers to her reoccurring nightmares and to the impossible memories which keep bubbling to the surface of her mind — memories of the two of them, together and in love.

When she at last learns the truth about their connection, Lillie discovers that Tom has been hiding an earth-shattering secret; a secret that is bigger — and much more terrifying and beautiful — than the both of them. She also discovers that once you finally understand that the world is round, there is no way to make it flat again.

An epic and deeply original sci-fi romance, taking inspiration from Albert Einstein’s theories and the world-bending wonder of true love itself.

Review:

The highlight of this book was the atmospheric mystery of the romance.  Why Lillie is so drawn to Tom and what do the disturbing dreams and hallucinations mean.  I love writing that evokes a sense of fascination and fear and knowing that there is a connection between Lillie and Tom and waiting for the details of it to manifest made this an enticing read.  

Lillie's small town life - with her little group of friends, her eccentric mother, and the obligatory collection of mean girls (or one girl) added a nice touch of routine realism to the tale - it's not very inspired, but the snarkiness of Lillie and her friends made it entertaining enough for me.  There are enough little dramas to enhance the simple main plot of who Tom is and where did he come from.  There's not a whole lot of depth to the characterizations, but I was more focused on the central plot so I didn't mind it as much.

I think the reveal of the story was very intriguing, yet the details of it didn't make it believable enough for me.  I recently read a science fiction book that dealt with some of the science in this one, and I felt that the other was more informative and realistic than this one.  While this book does have a dollop of sci-fi, the romance is really the core as well as the atmospheric development of the main characters' relationship.

There are moments of wit and suspense, and I was very invested in finding out what happens next, and this is a simple and lovely tale with it's own charm.  I very much enjoyed it, but I would have appreciated more depth to the characterizations and perhaps more of a solid foundation to the romance. 

(I received this book from the publisher or author for a fair and honest review.  I was not compensated for this review.)

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