“Landline” is a bit like “Back to the Future”, with the time travelling machine being the phone in your parents house. Using this phone connects you with your boyfriend, many years ago.

Georgie is writing the next big sitcom with her partner in crime, Seth, when the holidays roll around and they’ve been offered a pilot episode. In order to pull this off, it means working through Christmas, and that means disappointing Georgie’s husband, Neal.

Neal doesn’t take the news kindly, and travels to Omaha with the kids, and without saying a proper goodbye to Georgie. She’s feeling slightly guilty about this turn of events, and calls Neal at his parent’s house to smooth things over.

When Neal’s dad answers the phone (who has been dead for a number of years), Georgie thinks she’s losing her mind. Too much sitcom stress!

Georgie’s sitcom work begins to suffer, and Seth senses that something isn’t quite right with Georgie. She’s wearing the same clothes days in a row, and is living with her mum, babysitting prize winning pugs.

Seth and Georgie have a complex relationship. They’ve been best friends since grad school, and there’s a tension in the air there, where it feels like they should have been together, but never got there.

Neal doesn’t make it easy to like him either, and I found myself hoping that Seth came out and blurted his feelings for Georgie, providing a nice alternative to the happy ever after.

Instead I felt slightly let down that Georgie and Neal are able to solve future and past issues through the landline. Neal comes off as gruff, sullen and just overall, the poorer choice of the two.

Rainbow Rowell has written powerful quirky novels before, however this one just doesn’t cut it for me. Can’t get behind Georgie and certainly don’t feel like there’s much worth in Neal, so the connections they establish are inconsequential.