I just struggled to invest as much as I wanted to in this one--I was hoping for a stronger romance element as well and that very well was on me for having differing expectations going in, still very well written and an engaging premise for the right reader!

An amusing book from a great author. Very much worth the time, although in a very different vein than some of her other books such as "All Clear" and "The Doomsday Book." Time travel themes are replaced with 'mind-bending' new phone technology and tone is much more comedic..

It was a rocky start for me with this book. I was fed up pretty quickly with the main character, Briddy Flannigan. She came across through much of the book as a whiny doormat. It was very difficult for me to empathize with her. I had a much easier time with the character C.B. He made this book work for me. He had an understated heroism that I admired. The plot was interesting. The examination of privacy and oversharing in our society was clear and cogent. The anticorporate message was one I could get behind. If you can slog through the first quarter of the book, the rest picks up and gets much more entertaining. If I could give half stars, I would go as high as 3.5.

This has potential, and it could be charming, and if it were by anyone but Connie Willis it would be worthy of mention. It feels, compared to some of her other romantic comedies, a bit phoned in. A minor work. Nothing wrong with it, but it's no To Say Nothing of the Dog.

Ten years ago, when I didn't know any better, I really enjoyed romantic comedies. Then I developed a lot of opinions about gender politics and they weren't fun anymore, so I cancelled them. I was always a little sad about it, but then I would remember the time I was on a transAtlantic flight and forced (forced!) to endure "How Do You Know?" and I knew it was better this way.

But. Y'all. It is my great pleasure to announce that romantic comedies are un-cancelled. Even ones about straight white people, somehow! Connie Willis did this for us.

This is a thrilling, heady book in which life doesn't go according to plan and the male romantic lead has a bone-deep undying respect for the female protagonist (even when she's being irrational). That's imperative, for me, in 2017, when the best most male characters can aspire to is "not be too offensive"; I *loved* this man. I loved the way the characters spoke to one another. I loved how the later plot developments are well-set-up by early events. If some aspects seem predictable or weirdly literal, it's not in any way that detracts from the pleasure, at least not for me.

In fact, it was so good that when it got to be 11:45 and I was well and truly sleepy even at the heightened pitch of the climax, I was disheartened to find there were over a hundred pages left (it doesn't feel like it, but it's a long book). Okay, I told myself, I'm too tired. I'll finish this chapter and go to sleep, and finish tomorrow. Friends: this did not happen. I kept reading that book straight on through until I finished at 1 AM.

Early on, I described this book as a mixture of Sarah Rees Brennan's Unspoken and the movie Timer. (The sense of whimsy and the telepathy angle are Brennan, the technology meddling in love stuff is Timer.) I stand by that assessment, but this is a stronger piece than either of those (full apologies to Unspoken, which I loved, but no apologies to Timer whatsoever). There's a fast-paced humorous crackling chemistry and a claustrophobic worldbuilding that are both entirely Willis's own (although somewhat reminiscent of Robin McKinley's Sunshine in its inventiveness, which is high praise indeed).

Unfortunately I had to deduct 7 points for two instances of Getting Science Wrong, but a 93 is still a very high score, and most people don't have a degree in genetics and evolution, so it won't bother them in the slightest that, like every superhero movie and a few books about witchcraft, this book doesn't really know what those words mean. That's a special pet peeve of mine (it's the reason I once threw a book! a precious book!) but even that didn't take this book below an A. Very well done.

An instant favorite.

I love Connie Willis' work and have read her for years... which turned out to be a drawback in reading this book. I was expecting a solid science fiction story with a romantic element, when it turned out to be more or less the opposite of that.

Briddey's perfect boyfriend convinces her to get minor neurosurgery for an EED, which allows people to sense each other emotions. Who wouldn't want that? Only Briddey's goes wrong and she starts reading minds, and not Brent's. From there a book filled with anxious urgency gets even more so, and Willis explores the dangers of oversharing in today's society.

I'll be honest, I probably would have enjoyed this more from a new author. I had certain expectations here and about halfway through the book I had to stop and reset myself. This is a light, breezy (if anxious) book that reads quickly, a romantic comedy that just hints at the dangers of the cyberpunk future. If this becomes a movie, Sandra Bullock would be in it.

This book was just ok for me. I wasn’t to invested in the setting or the characters , something was lacking but I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

In the near future couples hoping to prove their love for one another, and wanting to increase the emotional bond between each other, can have a simple medical procedure that increases the empathy between partners. Good-looking billionaire Trent Worth has insisted that he and the lovely Briddey Flannigan (hey work for a mobile phone manufacturer and they are currently working on a new model to finally rival the giant Apple) have the procedure to prove to one another how much they care about each other.

But something seems to go wrong. Trent and Briddey don't show any signs of being better able to understand one another's feelings, but Briddey begins to pick up people's' thoughts and the one that comes through loudest and clearest belongs to the IT tech nerd guy at the office. More voices continue to come through, making life difficult for Briddey to concentrate and the only one who can help her through it is C.B. - the tech nerd she could never fall for. Or could she? He's kind, helpful, and gives her his full attention, unlike the handsome business-running tycoon Trent. Still...just look at them!

But C.B., despite a very Jewish sounding last name, happens to be Irish, just like the red-haired Briddey Flannigan, and there's something in the Irish gene pool that predisposes them to having the ability to read minds. (I KNEW my wife was too good at knowing what I was thinking!) But it's also possible that the new phone Trent was planning to release would enhance that mind-reading capability. Suddenly Briddey doesn't think it's such a good idea.

I've never read a book by Connie Willis before, though I've seen her name around on the bookstore shelves for some time, and this struck me as an interesting premise and worth reading.

I definitely had a lot of fun here and it was a quick read - much quicker than I was expecting, given its page count. So quick, in fact, that at the end of Chapter 2 I made a note in my book: 'I'm exhausted!'

This is a beach read sort of book. There's nothing that will make you sit back and reflect on what you've read. It doesn't open any new doors of thought or adventure, but it's light fun, even if a little ridiculous at times and heavy-handed at others (with lines such as: "He's gorgeous, he's willing to commit, and he's romantic! Do you know how rare that is?" you get a pretty good idea of what you're going in to).

We spend waaaaay too much time learning that C.B. is Irish - practically an entire chapter. Of course we learn later why that's important, but we don't know why he's spent so much time covering up the fact.

We also, later, spend too much time in a library - a nice, quiet space for someone who is being bombarded with people's thoughts, but by the end of the chapter, I didn't understand why we'd spent as much time, and as much secret time, as we did.

All in all, a fun read, and if someone asked for a recommendation of a fantasy romance for reading at the beach, I'd suggest this title.

Looking for a good book? <em>Crosstalk</em> by Connie Willis is a light, entertaining fantasy/romance read that moves along much quicker than the 500 pages might suggest.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Crosstalk started off with an intriguing premise, but the plot's drive petered out halfway through and I found it a slog to make it to the end. Willis' exploration of telepathy had its high points, but I found the fact that <spoiler>only Irish people have telepathy</spoiler> to be a weird concept and thought the part where <spoiler>every one of Briddey's relatives is telepathic (and her co-worker/love interest) and have been for years</spoiler> meant that Briddey didn't really have a lot of agency - she did a lot of reacting instead of acting.

This read like young adult literature, which is not what I was looking for.

Marking as "Did Not Finish". I made it about a quarter of the way through, but couldn't get over the frustrating characters and completely inaccurate perspectives on technology.

Briddey has minor surgery to enhance her ability with her boyfriend to emotionally connect. Unfortunately, Briddey is connected to C. B. Schwartz, a super nerd. What will her boyfriend do? Will her family understand why she did this surgery? She also finds herself able to hear people thought -- something she couldn't do before. At first she thinks she is crazy. C. B. Helps her learn how to block these thoughts. Will C. B. And Briddey get together? Or will she stay with her boyfriend, Trent who encouraged her to have this surgery?

The author surprised me with the humor and romance in this book. I didn't expect it. It is an enjoyable book. The author contrasts views of historical telepathy with the use of cell phones. Technology is making life public, privacy may disappear is the message I got from this novel.

I waffled on this for a long time. I read a good review and got excited, then saw the cover and was terrified of slogging through a door stopper of New Adult Angst. I took it home and parked it on my night table for a month, to get myself used to the idea. I finally cracked the cover, giving myself advance permission to put it down after two chapters if desired. Chapter one was a bit iffy, but I got into it by chapter two and sped through the rest.

It's a good book, a solid four stars. There are distracting, messy bits, but overall it's fun and light. The things that bothered me are:


- the first chapter is almost entirely celebrity name-dropping and gossip. I think this was supposed to set the time period and office culture, but I never figured out quite when the story is actually set-- very near future or present-day with one technological advancement? This was a fairly big sticking point for me.

- (spoilery) the main character only falls for her new love interest because he keeps saving her. She can't hear him so doesn't know how he feels about her. I expected her to be a little more conscious of being interested only as a result of being a damsel in distress, or to at least recognize the situation. That seemed fairly important and overlooked.

- there were editing problems throughout the whole book. Specifically, there were no spaces between sentences (sentence.Sentence) everywhere. Very distracting.

The beginning of the book made me a little crazy, but as I reflected on it, I think that was the intent. The main character had so much going on, and tried to please everyone at the expense of her own happiness. Keep reading! It gets better!

Definitely an interesting story with lots of promise, Crosstalk was completely original, with a plot that I haven't read anything like before. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to connect to the characters as much as I would have hoped.

In the near future, a brain implant has been developed called an EED which would allow couples to sense each others emotions – a type of telepathy. Briddey’s boyfriend suggests that they have the procedure done. She agrees, convinced that a marriage proposal would soon follow. But things don’t go as planned, and Briddey ends up with a wrong connection. The law of unintended consequences!

This was a fun book with a bit of a slow start. Like most Connie Willis books, it’s a little longer than need be, but that is her writing style and I have learned to enjoy it. There are lots of characters, including Briddey’s crazy family and co-workers, and a few subplots. Once those are set up, the story takes off.

The plot is clever and timely. Briddey live in a world that already has too much connectedness, and since she got the EED, she can’t turn off the noise. Now Briddey needs to find out what happened, how to fix it, and not let her boyfriend know the procedure has not worked the way they planned.

This is not serious science fiction, it more of a comedy with lots of techy gadgets, a romance, fun characters, and farcical situations.

I was unable to read further than 20% of the book. I put down and picked it up many times but still couldn't get into it. Therefore, I am unable to give this book a proper review. I was annoyed by Bridge with the telepathy and her annoying family.

I hadn't read Willis before (thanks Netgalley for the ARC which introduced us) so I didn't have any preconceived notions of what this novel would be. It's very entertaining, quite well written, and actually thought provoking. Briddey is intriguing as a character because she has a lot of the hopes and fears we all do and she is able to confront and deal with them in a way we can't- at least now. Science fiction isn't really my genre but this never wandered into a realm I couldn't relate to. Try this one.

Briddey is thrilled when her boyfriend proposes that they get an EED to make each other susceptible to each other's thoughts and emotions, thereby increasing their intimacies, but things go awry with her loner coworker, overinvolved family and the boyfriend. I'm a huge, huge, huge Connie fan, so I had been super excited to get this as an arc. It was all just a little too overkill, though. In lampooning our overreliance on communication and communicating every thought in our heads, she went too far the other way and created some real jerkish protags. I've never felt like if you've read one Connie, you've read them all, but this just felt like it ticked the boxes she normally hit. My only surprise was the very normal secretary not being the sane one. It had funny moments and romp-like tendencies, and I really liked her niece a lot, but I had a hard time rooting for most of the characters

It's a comedy, it's a love story, it's a send-up of modern day culture, etc., but at the end of the day the story just felt so forced and jumbled together. The characters were such archetypes and really did not feel like real people at all, the whole thing read like His Girl Friday in a bad sci-fi film. The best parts were the romance I guess? But even that was pretty meh. I think the poor handling of the technological aspects really derailed this book for me and made it hard to take anything in it seriously enough so that I could enjoy it. I cringed anytime Apple came up, it was just not fun. NetGalley provided a preview copy of this title, but all opinions are my own.