Looking Glass Friends by E.L. Neve is a novel inspired by real life love letters. The story revolves around two unlikely friends and the love story that unravels between them. Neil is a man troubled by depression and guilt, who toys with the idea of suicide and has seemingly withdrawn from his wife and the world around him. In contrast, Ellie is a highly intelligent young woman who loves Ayn Rand novels. The two cross paths at the bakery where he works and she visits weekly, and Ellie buys him a copy of Rand’s Atlas Shrugged as a form of thanks after he sells her the cream puffs he had set aside to take home. Like so many books do, the novel changes Neil’s life and he reaches out to Ellie via a letter scrawled on yellow notebook paper. They find kindred spirits in one another; despite both of them being married each finds they no longer connect with their spouse, and Ellie and Neil grow close over the course of their correspondence.
With rich language and vivid description, fans of romance should look no further than Looking Glass Friends to quench their thirst for passion and matters of the heart. One of the things that I loved about this book was it reinforced that a relationship and the bond that you create with your partner should make you strive to be better, to never cease learning, and above all, to grow together. In addition, Neve forces readers to confront uncomfortable truths in regards to the consequences of their correspondence, a realistic touch that grounds readers whilst they fall for the love story of Ellie and Neil. For instance, while Neil is happy because of his e-mails with Ellie, his wife Fay is conflicted; although she is happy that he is slowly coming back to life, she knows that it is not her doing, but another woman’s. This sense of inner conflict repeats itself in other characters in the novel, as they must decide whether or not the chances they take are worth the risks they pose.
The author wrote an incredible story that tugged at the heartstrings without making it seem outlandish or over dramatic.
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