Last year, Chronicle Books sent me a box of books for my Little Free Library. Gena/Finn (by Hannah Moskowitz and Kat Helgeson) was one of those books. It’s come and gone and come again from the LFL, so I borrowed it back for a read.

Description from Goodreads:

Gena (short for Genevieve) and Finn (short for Stephanie) have little in common. Book-smart Gena is preparing to leave her posh boarding school for college; down-to-earth Finn is a twenty-something struggling to make ends meet in the big city. Gena’s romantic life is a series of reluctant one-night-stands; Finn is making a go of it with long-term boyfriend Charlie. But they share a passion for Up Below, a buddy cop TV show with a cult fan following. Gena is a darling of the fangirl scene, keeping a popular blog and writing fan fiction. Finn’s online life is a secret, even from Charlie. The pair spark an unlikely online friendship that deepens quickly (so quickly it scares them both), and as their individual “real” lives begin to fall apart, they increasingly seek shelter online, and with each other.

Review:

When I opened this book and saw what format it is in (all emails and text exchanges and journal entries, etc) I almost shut it again. I did not expect to like it. And I admit that it took a little while to get into the rhythm of things. But eventually I did and I largely enjoyed it. I thought the book started out really strongly. I liked the characters and the conflict created by Finn’s conflicting feelings. However, I also thought there was a large leap from BFFs to maybe something more that wasn’t truly shown and felt jarring. 

Additionally, after the big drama I felt like the story telling became very thin. The reader completely loses one character’s perspective and I felt the lack. I love that Charlie accepted the changes in their lives and the tentative happy ending (or happy-to-be), but I feel like it was all just sketched out rather than told. 

All in all, For a quick read I found it more satisfying than not.