Book Review – It Started With a Click; A Memoir of an eBay Romance By Estelle Wilkinson

I have stated before in some ways I hate reviewing books by people I have gotten to know through blogging and todays is another one.  That is not to say whether the review is good or bad, you have to keep reading to find that out, but I always feel a little bit more guilty expressing any negative points.  There would be no point reviewing any books without being honest so here we go…

The story is told in a series of Emails and Messages between a young woman and a man whom she meets via Ebay when she buys some rugby tickets from him.   The more they find they have in common the more intimate the messages between them become until there is only one thing left to do..meet up.  This book tells the journey from that first message to the first meeting all of which covers a few months.

The romantic in my (yes there is one I just keep her well hidden) really enjoyed the way the romance buds at first from banter, to flirting, to hot and heavy, but in some ways this was also one of the things that made me squirm a little as well.  If this had been purely fictional then I would have thought nothing of the increasingly intimate messages but knowing they were real messages made me feel a little uncomfortable at times and I don’t know why after all the writer was happy to share and as I say had this been pure fiction it would not have bothered me in the slightest.  After a while I think I worked it out and in a way I was proved right.  The book shares every detail of the build up to that initial meeting but the actual meeting itself is an anti-climax obviously all the intimate details are withheld which considering this is someone whom the writer is in a relationship with you would expect but when contrasted against the build up it seems rushed and dismissive.

I think I would have enjoyed it more had the writer started with the same method of meeting but then gone down a purely fictional route leaving the reader to indulge their imagination without remembering these were real people I also think that way the author could have ended the book with far more detail.  I know there is a sequel to come and I am torn while I did enjoy the majority of the book the ending was a disappointment and when I finished it I was not desperate to be able to pick up the next one.

I know the author is a lovely lady and hope she will forgive me for this review I will be honest half way through I would have given this book 4-4.5 stars but at the end the most I feel I can give it is 3.5 out of 5.