I was offered this book by the publisher back in March because I’d read Emily Kerr’s other books, “Meet Me Under the Northern Lights“, “Take a Chance on Greece” and “Her Fixer-Upper” – they’re reliably well-written and reasonably chaste (sometimes you don’t want sex scenes over the Shreddies, so you) novels that work well plot-wise and have interesting details. This was no exception and I enjoyed it as the aspect that slightly bothered me was smoothed away by the story.

Emily Kerr – “The Typo”

(5 March 2024, NetGalley)

When I’d first arrrived in the city as an eager music student, making friends had been so simple. Everyone was in the same boat, keen to hang out and bond over shared passions. I had taken it for granted that there would always be someone around to go out or stay in with. Now I missed that comfortable vibe, and battled to ignore the growing fear I was getting left behind while everyone else moved on with apparent ease.

Amy is living very much her second-best life, working in theatre admin with a behind-the-times boss and not thinking about the violin case in the corner of her sitting room, her music career lost thanks to a mysterious incident and her friends all moving on into coupledom and babies. So when she receives an incorrectly addressed email offering a photographer and exhibition, tracks him down and starts emailing with him, her life becomes more interesting – mainly because she makes it so by claiming to be not quite what she actually is.

Beseiged by guilt and falling in love by email, she sets out to adjust her own life to match the illusion she’s created and in turn opens up her vulnerability to make new friends in a lovely colleague and a sweet older neighbour (he has two cats; the cats remain fine through the book). Will Amy and Cameron ever meet, is there more to his Antarctic adventures than he’s letting on, and will her half-truths catch up with her?

I love the theatre setting and the details of Amy’s work to turn its fortunes around; as usual with Kerr you get well-researched background details as well as romance and plot.

Thank you to One More Chapter for offering me this book to read via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “The Typo” was published on 3 May 2024.