Recently, I've started a not-so-good habit. Sometimes after work or school I'll stop into Target. That in itself is probably not a good idea, since I mostly just walk around looking at everything. The problem is that I always seem to wander to the back of the store to the book section. It was on one of those spontaneous Target shopping sprees that I found this little book, A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall.
It's a romance (shocker, I know) told from fourteen points of view, which include the creative writing professor, the cafe barista, and even the campus squirrel. All of the viewpoints follow the budding relationship between Lea and Gabe, two college students who like each other, but are too nervous to actually start a conversation.
Now, it could be that I didn't have any homework that day, or I could have just been intentionally ignoring the ever growing stack of impending disaster... Anyway, once I got home I sat on the couch and finished the book in two hours. Which now that I think about it, is pretty sad because the book was super delightful and I probably should have taken my time with it. I guess that's what happens when you take an English Major and drown them in homework and changing work schedules, they eventually break down and spend an afternoon just reading.
A basic summary of the plot is that Gabe and Lea go to the same college, study at the cafe, go to the same diner, order the same Chinese food, but they can't seem to be able to talk to each other. The baristas can see it, the creative writing professor can see it, everyone around the two can see that a relationship could definitely work, except Gabe and Lea don't know how to talk to each other. It's not that they don't want to, it just doesn't happen.
I really liked how I could relate to the characters, like the barista. Seriously, this is one of the reasons I hang out in the cafeteria at school, I like watching people and relationships develop. It's like a real-life TV show.
Of course, Lea and Gabe are super relatable too. The story really brought to life a relationship that both people want but don't know how to start it. It described those moments that everyone goes through, like how even a simple wave or hello is something to be excited about.
A Little Something Different was just that, a little something different in a really amazing way.
