Paper Love

By: Jae / Narrated By: Abby Craden

Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins

Pens are sexy?!? Uhm, yeah; it turns out they are…!

Susanne is a 38-year old turd. She’s crotchety, self-absorbed, judgmental. And her mom has banished her to Freiburg to help save her uncle’s stationery store. This has her, well, she’s not seething exactly, but she’s plenty peeved.

Anja (who works at Paper Love, the stationery store) is totally old-school. While Susanne loves anything techno, Anja loves wallowing in the old-fashioned WOW-ness of fine pens, fine paper, everything in Paper Love. She loves where she works; she does NOT, however, love anything having to do with Susanne or her cutthroat ways.

So Paper Love is kinda sorta about “opposites attract” and such as that. But it’s also about learning to relax, learning to be fanciful, learning to appreciate the old even as you stretch yourself to embrace the new.

What I liked about the book was that even tho’ Susanne staaaaaarts as a total turd, fairly immediately we’re able to see a side that maybe, just maybe, perhaps with a little patience, might melt into something warm and loving. Enter a cereal-stealing cat (And we all know that cats are the ones with the greatest say in who they deem to be a worthwhile person or not!), and Susanne’s character started having some charm for me.

Anja starts all right; it’s obvious that she’s the Good Cop in this story. And she stays fairly consistent throughout, doesn’t get mushy or mealy-minded as the story progresses. Which she could because, see, Susanne is only in Freiburg to help out, three months or so, so there’s no possibility here for a longterm relationship. Anja’s not crazy; who the heck wants to get involved with someone who’s about to shove off (Perfect chance for a character to shut down or become whiny, but the author, Jae, doesn’t go that route).

And naturally they do get involved, no spoilers there. And naturally there is some sweating beneath the sheets which, prude that I am, I coulda done without. But the really fun part was where Anja introduces Susanne to great pens and good paper. The way she describes and uses everything is some of the most sensual writing ever. It had me laughing hard because it was ENTIRELY unexpected (Who expects that?!? Somebody eating strawberries and cream? Sure, seen that. But using a pen? Yowza!).

There are some wonderful scenes here as Susanne tries to save her uncle’s store. Anja is forced to dabble in technology, even as she gets Susanne to try some Ancient Art Form, Origami, to create a lovely image for the store (I’ll say no more but shall leave that for you to discover when you listen). Susanne’s uncle grows to be a very kind and sweet character, and Anja has a friend with hilariously wanton practices (uhm, and NATurally, I’ll mention that the friend has a large and fine dog too!).

Also? I’ve really gotta look up more Abby Craden because she has simply the warmest voice I’ve heard in a long time. I didn’t quite appreciate her “husky" tones for Anja (Sounded kinda harsh, to be honest), but she did every other character well, and infused their voices, their emotions with depth and said warmth. MUST find some of her other books, as I’m excited to see/listen to what she can add to any text.

Definitely a charming listen, especially with that chowhound of a cat showing up as a bit-character (He had me at Meow), and oh I dunno. It kinda made me interested to check out Jae’s other books too.

Hmm… 1) Looking up more Abby Craden? -and- 2) Checking out more Jae?

‘Twould appear that I thought Paper Love was an A-okay light listen…!