Annie Hollerman thought the past was behind her. She left a rising newspaper career with humiliation and regret. Fifteen years later, Annie has moved on, dissolved a rocky marriage and maintained a successful literary agency.
Jack DePaul is the features editor of the Baltimore Star-News. He swore off women after a painful workplace affair several months ago. He prefers a solitary life and time with his college-age son.
Laura Goodbread is Jack's co-worker and Annie's best friend. She grabs the chance to play matchmaker and sets the pair up on a blind date.
The first meeting is a success and attraction is mutual. Jack and Annie proceed cautiously. Busy schedules force them to fall in love via email. Jack pens a romantic series of travel narratives featuring the couple. These essays are his attempt to help Annie rewrite her past and they are the heart of the Thief of Words.
This John Jaffe novel is a quick romantic read. The plot is predictable, giving readers the ending sought in this type of tale.
If "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail" mated, Thief of Words would be their offspring. Annie Hollerman is Meg Ryan in book form. Jack DePaul should be Tom Hanks. However, Jaffe fashions him into a Steven Speilberg/Richard Dreyfuss look-a-like "with a good ass." It's a mental image that just doesn't work, in my opinion.
This is an ideal book for hopeless romantics who like to escape into the story. Jaffe builds anticipation well, though his intimacy scenes are brief. Readers graduated from the Danielle Steel school of romance should enjoy Thief of Words.
