27 January 2016

Review #328: Two Across by Jeff Bartsch



My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.”


----Oscar Wilde


Jeff Bartsch, an American author, has penned a heart-warming tale of two intelligent minds who not only ruled the National Spell Bee together, but also ruled a con together, in his debut book, Two Across, unfolding the journey of two teenagers to their adulthood. This is a love story between two smart individuals but layered with academic, politics, lies, scam and career and lots of crossword puzzle.





Synopsis:

Highly awkward teenager Stanley Owens meets his match in beautiful, brainy Vera Baxter when they tie for first place in the annual National Spelling Bee-and the two form a bond that will change both of their lives.
Though their mothers have big plans for them-Stanley will become a senator, Vera a mathematics professor-neither wants to follow these pre-determined paths. So Stanley hatches a scheme to marry Vera in a sham wedding for the cash gifts, hoping they will enable him to pursue his one true love: crossword puzzle construction. In enlisting Vera to marry him, though, he neglects one variable: she's secretly in love with him, which makes their counterfeit ceremony an exercise in misery for her.
Realizing the truth only after she's moved away and cut him out of her life, Stanley tries to atone for his mistakes and win her back. But he's unable to find her, until one day he comes across a puzzle whose clues make him think it could only have been created by Vera. Intrigued, he plays along, communicating back to her via his own gridded clues. But will they connect again before it's all too late?



Stanley and Vera, when they were fifteen, together conquered the National Spell Bee championship. Stanley and Vera decide to con a few wealthy people on the pretext of their marriage before joining college, when they were eighteen, since Stanley wanted to pursue his dream job: making crossword puzzles for newspaper, instead of attending the Law School of Harvard. Two smart minds devoid of any emotion or attraction towards one another, could easily rule anything whatever they felt like. Sadly, their fake marriage made Vera fall for Stanley, but she never uttered a word about her feelings to Stanley. And when Vera could not take it anymore, she ran away without informing Stanley about her further plans. Consequently, Vera's absence made Stanley realize that he too had feelings for him, but will he be able to find Vera through the crossword puzzles?

The story, honestly speaking, could have been much better and even more realistic. Firstly, the story opened very slow and it progressed at snail's pace, until Stanley realizing his love, near the end and the climax is way too rushed. Other than that, I loved the way the story unfolded, especially the author's carefully chosen eloquent words makes the plot very richer. The author's writing is sharp and layered with humor and funny anecdotes but from an emotional standpoint, the plot lacks some serious emotions, considering the fact that this is a love story. Moreover, the narrative is not that catchy or alluring to keep the readers glued to it till the very last page.

Now the characters which are developed strongly yet they lacked the basic feature of making the readers feel for their situation, not to mention the main characters always followed the same pattern of events, thus making the plot bit dull and boring. Whereas the supporting cast are much better than the main characters, who make the plot interesting.

The story is set in the 1960s, but not once it felt like the vents are unfolding in the era of the 60s. The author have failed to capture the historical time frame, even though he have included some of the most remarkable historical moments of that period.

This love story did not feel like a love story maybe it's the love between two most intelligent human beings, but a basic love-making scene too missed that kind of deep emotion. The plot is very unique, only problem is, it could have been much better.

Verdict: Not so promising historical-based YA book.

Courtesy: Thanks to the author, Jeff Bartsch, for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
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Author Info:
Jeff Bartsch grew up in Milwaukee, where at the age of 14 he delivered newspapers before dawn on the city’s coldest day on record, at 26° below zero. He pursued the primarily indoor study of creative writing at the University of Wisconsin, and held the Katey Lehman Fellowship in the MFA program at Penn State University. He is an award-winning copywriter who has worked on campaigns for many major brands. When not writing, reading, or drinking beer, he enjoys riding his fancy Italian road bike as fast as he possibly can without hurting anyone, himself included (one broken collarbone was more than enough). He lives in New York.
Visit him here


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1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the honest review! The premise sounded interesting but if the characters and plot aren't quite up to par, I might give this book a miss. :/

    Thanks for sharing!

    Obsessive Compulsive Reader

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