Line by Line

Line by line is a historical romance novel by Jennifer Delamere. It is centered around Alice, a self declared spinster who is loving her career as a telegraph operator and can’t wait to make a life for herself. That starts when she gets hired at a private company, as she can now afford her own house, and with it comes the most adorable cat ever, which she names Mrs. T, after her old school teacher who believed in her. She is very happy with her life, and she hates it when her family and friends seem to think she’s missing something, but she’s not as she choose this path deliberately.

Life at the office is quite different from the huge station she was used to, but she really likes it. Most of the people are nice, except for Mr. Clapper (a fellow telegraph operator), and I loved reading about the work place in that time period! You can see some things will always be the same... Thankfully Alice is not above giving Mr. Clapper a piece of her mind and I admire her professionalism and wit. But, of course, another very attractive employee walks in after months away on business, and she suddenly feels things she’s never felt before. But bend on her own career and spinsterhood, she’ll do everything to keep it that way.

Douglas, the man that causes the sparks, has plans of his own. His career is very important, and in line with that he wants to make an advantageous match to further business. But he gets distracted by his new coworker... especially how he can effortlessly talk to her and how intelligent she is.

So, there are sparks flying from the moment they meet. I personally prefer it to take a bit longer, growing as they know each other this felt like instalove, though the growth was definitely there. I loved all the banter, and to get to know the inner workings of the office! This book was seriously so much fun to read! There is this spinster book to help find love, you know, we now chuckle over those books now. Well, Alice chuckles too, but in the name of science she decides to try a few tricks and well... the outcome is quite unexpected! There are also friends with their own stories and I can’t wait to read more about them in the sequels! And of course, we’re here for the romance. It is very well done, loved all of it! I even wasn’t sure if it would work out as the obstacles are quite high and very diverse, but it is handled in unexpected ways, and the characters experience a lot of growth. I love the antagonist in this story, as we all know someone like him in real life, it’s very realistic.

The only downside, beside the instalove, is that for me sometimes the scenes didn’t flow, the changes of POV or setting sometimes took me out of the story instead of drawing me in. But halfway it got a lot better and I didn’t notice it anymore. All in all, can really recommend this one! It’s a fun and addictive read, but also has some bigger Christian themes on love, friendship, and what’s valuable in life, what do you live for.

I received a free e-copy in exchange for my honest opinions.