Title: Crazy in Love
Author: Annabelle Costa
Series: n/a
Pleasantly surprised
I would like to thank Annabelle Costa, who requested my honest review of her work and kindly sent me a copy to read.
Anna Flint doesn’t care that her coworkers call her Crazy Anna. Her trusty can of Lysol has kept her healthy for years, and how is collecting canned goods any different than collecting stamps or coins? She’s more intelligent than the lot of them, so let them play their little games and talk about her behind her back. She has no need to impress any of them…except, perhaps, Matt Harper, who’s never treated her like she’s crazy.
Matt doesn’t understand why people won’t just leave Anna alone. Sure, a tower of random cans in her cubicle probably isn’t appropriate, but is it hurting anything? He thinks it’s kind of cute, and besides, he’d rather pay more attention to her blue, blue eyes… He wants to ask her out, but it just wouldn’t work. It’s really too bad she’s so weird.
All right, I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure what I would be getting into when I started this book. I thought it would be middling at best, un-finish-able at worst. It had great ratings on Amazon and Goodreads, but a good rating doesn’t guarantee I’ll like it.
To my surprise, while there was beautiful summer weather outside and rocks in the field calling my name, I curled up in bed and did not stop reading this book until I’d finished it. (Don’t tell.)
Matt Harper was a sweetheart. He had a beautiful arc—from a guy who doesn’t take life seriously to a man who has let go of his pride and truly appreciates what he’s been given. While I didn’t care to see him picking up random women in bars and having one-night stands—I hated it, actually, very much—I understand how it was part of his character development. And Anna—I related to her a lot. I share a few personality traits with her, and while I’m nowhere near as OCD as she is, I do feel better when I perform tasks in specific ways or have things arranged just so. I could understand how her mind worked. Neither of them was perfect, at times they were actually unlikable, but that made them even more relatable.
I don’t know anything about multiple sclerosis, never known anyone who had it, but I trust Costa did considerable research in the fifteen months it took her to put this book together. She really seemed to know her stuff, and I was fascinated by Matt’s journey as he became less and less ambulatory. His emotional trauma and frustration with the progression of the disease was so palpable that I had tears rolling down my cheeks several times. And I downright bawled when Anna realized she couldn’t fix him with her prayers. It just broke my heart.
Looking back, I’m not sure how I feel about how they ended up together. I believe that Anna loved Matt completely and exclusively, but while Matt had always thought she was beautiful and interesting and played with the idea of asking her out, I don’t feel he ever seriously considered having a relationship with her while he was healthy. He just assumed it would never happen and blew it off while he went out to find one-night stands, because that was a hell of a lot easier. It seemed to me that he didn’t seriously consider her an option worth any effort until after he was handicapped…after it seemed, to him, that no other woman would have him, or if they would, it would be out of pity. That was when he and Anna really started to get close. On one hand, their getting together could just be a twist-of-fate thing, but on the other, it comes off as if he were settling for her… I dunno. Maybe I’m forgetting a part that would negate this theory. I’m not thinking about it anymore because that would ruin EVERYTHING. I definitely prefer them falling in love with each other because they saw each other as people, not illnesses.
I have to mention, a bit randomly, that one of my favorite things in this story was the halting maturation of Calvin in the background. I kinda hated him and liked him at the same time. He was both hindering and helpful. I like to think he turned out a good guy in the end—and quit coding.
The ending did disappoint me a little. Between years five and six was a space of time I wish hadn’t been fast-forwarded. It wasn’t abrupt or anything, but I’d have liked to watch Anna get better and Matt support her. I was satisfied well enough with how Costa wrote the “epilogue,” though.
I never did figure out why Anna thought she’d hit someone with her car. I mean, I get that it was part of her OCD, but…why? Why that particular fixation?
As for writing and style, Costa displayed great skill. I loved that when she was writing in Anna’s point of view, it read rather like a textbook, with big words and literalness and almost a detachment, because that was how Anna thought and viewed the world! Loved it. At first I thought maybe it was just pretentious writing, like the author trying to sound smart, but then I caught on—Anna’s the pretentious one. Endearingly.
I liked the alternating points of view, that was well done. I had to adjust to the year-skipping, but I think it worked out okay. While I felt a little like I was fast-forwarding a movie and forgot to push play when I meant to, for the most part it was seamless. I understand that Anna’s OCD and Matt’s MS took time to worsen, and then more time to improve (in Anna’s case), and that all that time had to be incorporated somehow.
There was a typo here and there, but I was so into the narrative I barely noticed them.
I get the see-what-I-did-there? of the title, but I think it undermines the story. Anna and Matt deserved something with a little more dignity. Major bonus points for a bright pink cover, though. I love me some pink.
Overall, this isn’t a traditional romance novel—and that’s the best thing about it.
