The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon
This book was the first book I was excited about in 2021 and it didn’t let me down! 4 stars!
This book lives and breathes talk radio, Seattle weather, and adopted ugly dogs. I am here for it. Shay has been producing at a public radio station for 10 years and has been annoyed for the last one year about a new hire, journalist Dominic-With-The-Good-Forearms.
The radio station is making cuts and in order to save theirs, Shay pitches a show where ex’s give relationship advice to callers. Her boss goes gaga and insists that Dominic be her ex. They are nervous to lie to their audience, but their jobs are on the line.
This book has A++ banter!! So many good lines! Shay does not miss an opportunity to razz Dominic about his master’s degree or his frequency at leaning.
The Ex Talk is Rachel Lynn Solomon’s first foray into adult romance, coming from the YA world (SEE POST: TODAY TONIGHT TOMORROW). —Ford
——-
This is a re-write. I wrote this review last night, but I kept thinking about how maybe this review was about me and not about how well the dialogue was written or how real the people and places felt.
So here is the re-write, old version in parenthesis.
Shay is a character I am jealous of. I am older than her and though I worked jobs that I loved I have yet to get it together enough to own a house or have enough safety net to job-shop for 6 months. Good on her! (Shay was not a character I could relate to on too many topics. Though I am proud of her for all she achieved. I found it hard to sympathize with her struggles as a 29-year-old with a job she loved and a house, a dog, and a good relationship with her mom. (Again, nothing wrong with any of this, I just had a hard time connecting to her struggles).)
Dominic remains a relative mystery to me, even on a second pass. I appreciate that he is the noob in their sexual relationship, though there is still the troupe of being absolutely brilliant at sexual exploits despite the lack of experience. (Dominic was interesting, not precisely complex, but nice and open. I never caught onto why he was so focused on telling everyone about his graduate studies. It didn't endear him to me.)
This part is still very true. (I appreciated their communication with each other, their relationships with their friends, their love of Seattle and NPR. Side bump, NPR.)
The podcast they produce is one that I would definitely listen to or maybe even produce. (Life imitates art imitates life) Compelling storytelling is an impressive art.
I wish there was a punchier resolution to what happens to misogynists. It was a solid arc and it landed too softly for me.
Shay and Dominic were nice, the book was nice, the podcast was nice.
I do love Rachel Lynn Solomon's voice, so I am looking forward to other stories she has to tell us. - Sky.
