Review of Sundays at Tiffany's

Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet

What if your imaginary friend from childhood was your one true love?

Jane Margaux, daughter of a larger-than-life Broadway producer, has spent her life in her mother's shadow. As a child, Jane received very little attention--save for the weekly trips to Tiffany's with her mother, who commandeered all attention directly to herself. Jane did have Michael, her imaginary friend, and he was handsome, smart, charming and her very best friend. Her favorite times were eating sundaes on Sunday at Tiffany's with Michael.

Children grow up, though. And on her ninth birthday--perhaps a day she needed him most, he broke the news that he had to leave her for good. The one thing that eased both of their minds was that she would not remember him.

Only she never did forget.

In her thirties, Jane is still lonely. A successful writer now, she still struggles to live her own life and not be just another of her mother's productions. One Sunday, she happens upon a handsome, smart, and charming man--the man she wasn't supposed to remember.

Not understanding how or why they were brought together again, they embark on what seems to be a predestined relationship. Until Michael begins to feel that he was perhaps brought back into her life to help Jane through another of life's transitions, perhaps her final one.

I loved Jane. Absolutely adodred her. She was very believable and likable and really really funny. The story moved quickly and had a few twists to keep me interested. The premise was engaging and the tagline made me squee with joy at the thought of reading the story. I think, though, that I wanted to love this book more than I actually did.

I was a little disappointed with the length, mostly because I wanted more explanation about Michael's life as a childhood companion. Patterson and Charbonnet sort of glossed over the world-building for imaginary friends--and I think that could have been fascinating and would have enriched the story. I also never got over a slight discomfort over Michael being an adult when Jane was a young girl and then becoming her love interest later in life. I had the same echo of discomfort reading The Time Traveler's Wife.

The rest of my hang-ups are a bit on the nit-picky side and are more publisher related than story related. Stuff like: Jane is blonde, but the cover model has dark brown hair; the font is huge meaning the book is actually shorter but we are tricked into thinking it's longer (which is okay for an ARC, but I'd not have been happy to spend that kind of money on the hardback); and I couldn't help feeling that Gabrielle Charbonnet didn't get very much credit (read the back flap and you'll see what I mean).

However, in the end, the impression Sundays at Tiffany's left me with was that love is real, that imagination is tangible, and that I'd probably be happy to be an afterthought on the back flap of a book jacket if I was lucky enough to co-write a book with James Patterson too.