Goodnight Tweetheart

Publisher's Summary. Abigail Donovan has a lot of stuff she should be doing. Namely writing her next novel. A bestselling author who is still recovering from a near Pulitzer Prize win and the heady success that follows Oprah's stamp of approval, she is stuck at Chapter Five and losing confidence daily. But when her publicist signs her up for a Twitter account, she's intrigued. What's all the fuss?

Taken under the wing of one of her Twitter followers, "MarkBaynard"—a quick witted, quick-typing professor on sabbatical—Abby finds it easy to put words out into the world 140 characters at a time. And once she gets a handle on tweets, retweets, direct messages, hashtags, and trends, she starts to feel unblocked in writing and in life. After all, why should she be spending hours in her apartment staring at her TweetDeck and fretting about her stalled career when Mark is out there traveling the world and living?

Or is he?

Told almost entirely in tweets and DMs, Goodnight Tweetheart is a truly modern take on a classic tale of love and loss—a Griffin and Sabine for the Twitter generation.

Review. The fall from being anointed by Oprah to holding book readings for an audience of none is a steep, but familiar one for author Abigail Donovan. Four years ago the first time novelist hit the literary jackpot: Oprah’s seal of approval. Fame, fortune, and almost a Pulitzer followed in rapid succession. Nearly half a decade later, fame is a distant memory, the fortune nearly gone, and the publisher has terminated its contract for Donovan’s services. Her fall from literary grace is due to a severe case of writer’s paralysis which renders Donovan unable to finish the new novel.

On the hunch of creating a little social media magic, her publicist opens a Twitter account for Donovan. A timid Donovan enters the twittering world and quickly gains her first follower: MarkBaynard, a globetrotting, divorced, English professor. The Twitter veteran teaches Donovan the twitter ropes and a lot more. MarkBaynard seems to be just what the doctor ordered for the romantic hermit Donovan. Aided by a mutual love of arcane pop culture trivia the verbal sparks (of a 140 characters of less) fly between the singletons. She falls head over heals, but eventually discovers (surprise surprise) that the online man is different than the real one.

Goodnight Tweetheart by Teresa Medeiros is primarily written in tweets between Donovan and MarkBaynard. The tweets reminded me of what Tracy and Hepburn might write if they were on Twitter. I also enjoyed the multitude of pop culture references n the tweets, but wondered how Mederiros pulled herself away from the TV set long enough to author the novel. I was less enamored with the storyline between Donovan and MarkBaynard. Several times I had to actively suspend disbelief with Donovan’s actions as they seemed highly implausible for any woman – much less a known author. This did not, however, prevent me from enjoying the novel.

Goodnight Tweetheart is an engaging read so long as one is not troubled with pesky notions of real life behavior.



Publisher: Gallery; Original edition (December 14, 2010), 240 pages.
Advance review copy provided courtesy of the publisher.