I am a little shocked that I didn't love this book, although I didn't hate it. I adore Jio's writing style, the characters were pleasant, and the novel held my interest, but I was expecting another The Last Camellia or The Bungalow. Instead, this was a fantasy about a young woman, Jane Williams, with the rare gift of being able to "see" love despite never having been in love herself. When she was born during a Christmas blizzard she was gifted with the ability to know for sure whether a couple has true love. Each time she recognizes love her vision goes wonky and, as a result, she has been under the care of a neurologist since childhood.
Twenty-nine-year-old Jane receives a letter from a stranger asking to meet with her and telling her that she needs to identify the 6 types of love before she turns 30 or she will never find true love of her own. Colette, the writer of the letter, gives Jane a journal that she is to pass on after she completes her assignment. Given that Jane's "episodes" can be quite debilitating and that her neurologist is urging her to have brain surgery (based on her "love" visions) before her cognitive function is destroyed, it strikes me as a little bizarre that Jane would ever consider passing her "gift" to anyone else unless her motive is to get rid of it!
Overall, this was a rather sweet novel about a somewhat awkward young woman hoping to fall in love. It was a little to "romancey" for me and I think that the neurologist in the story should have her license revoked for all of her talk of Jane's deteriorating cognitive function, since Jane showed no signs of dementia or progressive physical impairment. There were a few holes in the story, but it was nice that not all of the lovers lived happily ever after together. I'm not sorry that I read this, but I hope that Jio returns to her past/present formula in her next novel!
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