Review: "Tuesday Tells It Slant" by Holly Christine

Little does Tuesday Morning realize that when she is fired from her job, working for a literary magazine called The End that she's helped to build, nothing will ever be the same for her. She ventures into the frightening job market and finds work at the eclectic Gordon's Books as an assistant. Gordon's isn't a challenge for her, but a kind of refuge from the parts of herself that remain hidden, and when she coincidentally meets up with Billy, a boyfriend from her past, Tuesday's carefully constructed past begins to unravel.

Years ago, while researching her English lit thesis, Tuesday came across a poem by Emily Dickinson that would change her life. Unable to fully come to terms with the events of her past, Tuesday rewrites her diary, changing her painful memories into pleasant ones. She scans her entries for reminders of her awkward self, as well as the bully who lived next door, and her twin sister Monday and changes them, creating an idyllic, pleasant childhood. She gets rid of her old entries and persuades a hypnotist to help her to forget.

When Billy walks back into her life, and a new relationship begins to develop, Tuesday must decide if she wants to continue with the charade of her past, or if she loves Billy enough to try to remember.

Tuesday Tells It Slant is a unique book, written in an entirely different way from many contemporary novels. It slips through time. One moment we will be with Tuesday in present time, and the next we'll fall into the past, either real or make believe. The shifts through time can be confusing, but for the most part it's easy to understand if we are reading about the present or the past. There was one thing that threw me off, though, and that was the diary entries. We learn later in the book that Tuesday's recreated diary entries are in a different typeface from her original entries, and had I been able to figure that out earlier, certain things would have made more sense to me while I was reading. I did spend a good portion of the first half of the book trying to figure out exactly what was going on, and what it was that I was missing.

If you can overlook the slightly confusing format, Tuesday is a wonderful story about love, about sisterhood, and about being true to yourself despite the obstacles that you may encounter along the way. I read it quickly, curious to find out what would happen to the endearing character of Tuesday Morning. I enjoyed the funny portions as Tuesday leans how to parallel park, I loved the gentle but wise character of Mr. Gordon, Tuesday's boss, and I especially loved the developing romance between Tuesday and Billy. In my opinion, even if it is a little confusing reading it the first time, Tuesday Tells It Slant is worth a second read. Holly Christine's refreshing and unique writing style is worth the second glance.

You can find Holly Christine on her website, www.hollychristineonline.com, on Facebook, or on Twitter.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Recommended to: Fans of chick lit
Challenges: 2010 100+ Reading Challenge, New Author Challenge 2010, 2010 Chick Lit Challenge

I received a review copy of this novel from BookSparks PR in exchange for my honest opinion.