Book Review - The Book Keeper by Julieann Wallace

The book is writing itself as we speak....
A mysterious book appears and must be returned to the Keeper. As boy meets girl to exchange the aged leather embossed book, their destinies are sealed. But she holds a secret that will change his life, and his secret will end hers.... 

MY THOUGHTS:
This is an intriguing novel that moves along at a cracking pace with no predictability. Cohen Darcy's life has sudden complications in both the work and social fronts. His new boss insists that he spend all his time working on a top secret job - a device that may enable people to read minds when implanted in the eye. And why has his apartment been furtively fitted with several surveillance cameras?

About the same time, a weird book shows up in his apartment. It appears to belong to a young woman named Georgia Harrison. Although the pages look blank to Cohen's naked eye, that's not the case. And he finds out that he's elected as the new 'book keeper' even though he's clear that he 'doesn't do books, and doesn't do girls'.

Julieann Wallace writes with flair and panache. The story is told from Cohen's first person point of view. It's clear that he's young, smart and fit, and the reactions of other characters soon tell us that he's also stunningly handsome. I guess this is reinforced whenever another character refers to him as 'Mr Darcy'.

Georgia possibly sheds enough tears to drench an army, but it's all part of the fun of the story and seems to work with Cohen, by turning him to mush every time. Plenty of romance (sigh). For anybody who professes to accurately predict story lines, I'd challenge you to have a try at this one. One of the most refreshing features about it is that the reader will genuinely have no idea. Julieann Wallace has admitted to being more of a 'pantser' than a 'plotter' herself, so the storyline may have surprised even her at times. She has such a fertile imagination, I'm sure that must be the case.

My only gripe was that the book ended without answering all my questions. I would love to have known more about the background of the book and the history between Cohen and Ethan, not to mention the fate of the mind reading device. Is he just going to keep it to himself and tell no-one? There are some typos, as is sometimes the case with kindle books, but I found it very easy to turn a blind eye. A sequel would be most welcome. In fact, maybe she's left it open for one. I'm looking forward to reading more from Julieann.

Paula Vince is the South Australian author of award-winning titles such as 'Picking up the Pieces' and 'Best Forgotten'. She likes to set her contemporary drama novels in the beautiful Adelaide Hills which she loves. Her ninth novel, Imogen's Chance, will be published in April 2014.