Textual Healing by Eric Smith

First, there is Andrew Conner, or as he prefers, Ace. He was once a best-selling author, but now he suffers from a drought of inspiration. He’s neither the hyper-masculine brute nor the silent, brooding type that seems to plague too many novels (of the romantic sort). He’s dorky and quirky and witty and well-read, and even at his lowest, Ace still elicits some smiles—even a few chuckles. Then there is Hannah, a spunky gal from Montana, who makes me wonder why can’t more heroines be like her. She has an insatiable case of wanderlust, and she speaks her mind. She just might be the cure for Ace’s writer’s block. We have a setup for a story that I’m guaranteed to love.

Even though I was a total sucker for Ace and Hannah, my actual favorite characters are the wonderfully written secondary characters. On one hand, I connected with Valerie, a young woman working in Ace’s bookshop. She’s shy, teetering on socially awkward, and she always has her nose buried in a book or her homework. But! She has a secret, which is revealed in time. On the other hand, I loved the Orchid, the ninja who owns the flower shop across from Ace’s bookstore. She only speaks in haikus and she (almost literally) kicks ass. I say almost literally because I don’t think she actually kicked anyone in the rump; she does tie up “evil-doers” though, and she chucks shuriken at people

This only scratches the surface of all the incredible characters readers meet in Smith’s Textual Healing. I was in book heaven since I’m one of those people who crave well-written characters over intriguing plot and world-building and…other stuff.

There were several pop culture references, which might be distracting to some readers. I thought they were tastefully done though and often hilarious. I especially loved the nod to the epic pirate vs. ninja debate. And, although often laugh-out-loud hilarious (seriously, it was), some of the humor was a little…overkill? For the most part though, Smith knew where to draw the line.

I typically avoid romantic comedies/romance novels, but Textual Healing offered a fresh approach to a plotline that can easily become clichéd and full of one-dimensional characters. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it.

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