In this heartwarming, bookish debut, a young widower of a famous children’s fantasy author teams up with a down-on-her-luck MFA dropout to write the final book in his late wife’s series...and find their own perfect ending along the way.Whit Longacre has a monumental task and a looming deadline. After his wife, Helen, died of cancer, she left him with their grieving eight-year-old daughter and a surprise in her the small task of writing the final book in her mega-popular children’s fantasy series for her legions of waiting fans.Whit is the author of moderately successful (but well-received!) literary mysteries. He doesn’t have the first idea of how to complete Helen’s beloved series, and his enigmatic wife seems to have left no clues behind on how the story is supposed to end. Writer’s block is one thing, but to fail in fulfilling his wife’s last wish? Whit is guilt-ridden and dodging calls in the school pick-up line from Helen’s publisher and agent as the deadline fast approaches.Then Whit meets Merritt Pryor, who works at the local bookstore in their small New England town. Merritt has moved back home after a disastrous affair led to her dropping out of her prestigious MFA program. When Whit realizes that Merritt is a superfan of the Greenwood Castle series, they come up with a plan to tackle the book together. For the first time in years, Merritt finds herself falling back in love with writing…and perhaps with the coauthor offering her the opportunity of a lifetime.But when Whit uncovers a buried secret about Helen’s final wishes, he questions everything about what he and Merritt have created together, endangering the tender, electrifying partnership that has transformed their lives.Can Whit and Merritt come up with an ending that feels right…for both a beloved series and for their battered hearts?
This was a good debut. I enjoyed the story, the characters, the writing .... that said, I do think there were a few instances where it was very clearly a man writing a woman's POV and it didn't ring true for me. I enjoyed the ending and will look forward to more from this author. Definitely give this a try!
If Whit Longacre could have chosen the background music for his current existential crisis, it most likely would have been something from the sad dad-rock category. He would not have chosen the soundtrack to the latest Disney movie, but that was where things stood: Annie in the backseat, obliviously belting out every part, changing her voice as she changed roles, and Whit in the driver's seat, feeling, as he often felt these days, on the brink of nervous collapse.
His task, always at hand, was colossal. It was usually soul-crushing, and when it wasn't soul-crushing, it just hung there, at the edges of his awareness, like a fine, anxiety-inducing mist. Like the technique sound designers use in horror movies, playing inaudible but unsettling noises that fill theatergoers with a dread they might not even be able to name. In Whit's mind, his dread did have a name: the Monumental Task.
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