Lynn's Reviews > Surprise Me

Isabelle Rothman is closing in on her college graduation, and with a major in English, her parents expect that she will teach. However, Izzy wants to be a writer. So, Izzy signs up for a tutorial with a professor that everyone says is gruff and unfriendly. Daniel Jablonski turns out to be all that and more. He is now bitter. "Writing for him is a mysterious process, and he has no explanation for the fact that it yielded first two books of wondrous reviews and respectable sales, and then two books that fell of the face of the earth". Isabelle shows up at his office for their first meeting, having previously dropped off three chapters of a potential book, and looks expectantly at this curmudgeon. He has trouble finding the sheets in his disheveled office, and it is obvious that he has not read them. "I'll come back next week", says Isabelle. The next week, determined to tell him that she feels she should find someone else for the tutorial, he cites several instances of her writing that he did not anticipate and found refreshing and then says, "I want you to surprise me some more."

And so begins a lifelong relationship between the two that is nothing short of delightful. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and hope I will be surprised by more by this author.

I read this DARC courtesy of Edelweiss and Nan A. Talese. pubdate 06/21/16