Love Virtually, by Daniel Glattauer

Love Virtually, by Daniel Glattauer on Goodreads

Original Title: Gut gegen Nordwind
Release Date: February 3rd, 2011
Publisher: MacLehose Press
Age Group: Adult
Categories: Contemporary, Romance, E-Mail Format Novel
Source: Gift
Overall: 4 Monkeys
Read on December 2010

Summary from Goodreads:

'Write to me, Emmi. Writing is like kissing, but without lips. Writing is kissing with the mind.' It begins by chance: Leo receives emails in error from an unknown woman called Emmi. Being polite he replies, and Emmi writes back. A few brief exchanges are all it takes to spark a mutual interest in each other, and soon Emmi and Leo are sharing their innermost secrets and longings. The erotic tension simmers, and it seems only a matter of time before they will meet in person. But they keep putting off the moment - the prospect both excites and unsettles them. And after all, Emmi is happily married. Will their feelings for each other survive the test of a real-life encounter? And if so, what then? Love Virtually is a funny, fast-paced and utterly absorbing novel, with plenty of twists and turns, about a love affair conducted entirely by email.

My Opinion:

What a most original and fresh book! I hadn't known that it was written in e-mail format before buying it. I had read posts about the excitement over its the second part, Cada Siete Olas (something like Every Seven Waves), on several Spanish blogs, but not a book review. I thought it was a YA book. Another error. This is clearly an adult book.

Emmi Rothner and Leo Leike begin their story by mistake, she sends an email to him by mistake. What begins as something formal (they write emails like "Excuse me, I believe you've got the wrong e-mail address.") slowly turns into friendship, which rises in pitch and becomes something else.

You'll want them to get together -and they make several attempts to do so- but there is a problem. Emmi is married. "Happily married."

They make it clear they will never see each other, move onto a stage of joking about meeting, and reach the point of wondering whether what they are doing is having an affair, without having met!

The ending leaves you aching for Every Seven Waves. What a cliffhanger! Bad author!

I expect things will work out for them!