I've Got Your Number

What's the title?

I’ve Got Your Number

Who wrote it?

Sophie Kinsella

When was it written?

2011

Would I recommend it?

To lovers of the rom-com, yeah. This is the kind of book for those who can watch a Hallmark movie without rolling their eyes, are devoted to the work of Nancy Meyers, and wonder why that nice Katherine Heigl isn’t cast more often.

What's it about?(non-spoilers)

Poppy loses her antique engagement ring and has her phone stolen all on the same black day. Desperate to hear any updates from the staff at the hotel where her ring was last seen, she ends up appropriating a phone she finds in a nearby trash can. It turns out to be a company phone last used by the former PA of a brusque businessman who would like it returned to him NOW. A mutually beneficial agreement is struck with regards to the phone’s custody. Hi-jinks ensue.

What did you think? (spoilers)

First, allow me to provide some context. Last year I came across a few recommendations for a book called The Undomestic Goddess. The consensus was that this novel by the author of the Shopaholic series was a delightful, fluffy read about a career woman who, after a fall from grace, takes a job as a housekeeper even though she had no domestic skills. As a career-minded woman who finds the home sciences perpetually beyond my grasp, the premise caught my attention. I read the novel, but found it, in a word, underwhelming. Sure, it had its moments, but I failed to see how it had garnered as much praise as it had.

Fast forward to I’ve Got Your Number. Again, the premise is what hooked me. I like technologically-facilitated love stories (You've Got Mail directed by Nora Ephron and Attachments written by Rainbow Rowell are both favorites of mine). So while I was wary, given my previous experience with Kinsella, I felt compelled to at least give it a chance. Perhaps it was because of those lowered expectations, but I found I enjoyed Number more than Goddess.

That isn’t to say I didn’t have my qualms with Number. Most, though admittedly not all, of the story’s “twists” I saw coming a good fifty to a hundred pages before the reveal. The heroine’s “misunderstandings” and ignorance seemed almost purposeful. No one, not even rom-com heroines, have any excuse to be that dense. Finally, while I appreciated that the ending wasn’t typical, it still fell flat for me.

All that said, I read this novel in basically one seating. The corporate sabotage element was an improvement from the one in Goddess. (In my limited experience with Kinsella’s novels, corporate sabotage seems to be a hallmark of her work. It feels to me to be an odd addition to the genre, but I’m no expert so I can't say for certain.) Perhaps most enjoyable, there were moments in the novel that I found genuinely funny. So rarely do I laugh out loud with a book, but this one managed to get me to do so, even if it was only a slight chuckle.

For what it is, I’ve Got Your Number does its job well. It’s easy, breezy and fun. Like sucking on a hard candy, reading this book left me with a bit of headache, but was a pleasant enough treat in the moment.

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