What Nora Knew by Linda Yellin

Synopsis: Self-professed cynic Molly Hallberg navigates the tricky waters of New York romance with help from the advice found in Nora Ephron’s romantic comedies.Molly Hallberg is a thirty-nine-year-old divorced writer living in New York City who wants her own column, a Wikipedia entry, and to never end up in her family’s Long Island upholstery business. For the past four years Molly’s been on staff at Eye Spy, covering all the wacky assignments. She’s snuck vibrators through security scanners, speed-dated undercover, danced with Rockettes, and posed nude for a Soho art studio.

Fearless in everything except love, Molly is now dating a forty-four-year-old chiropractor. He’s comfortable, but safe. When Molly is assigned to write a piece about New York City romance “in the style of Nora Ephron,” she flunks out big time. She can’t recognize romance. And in her own life, she can’t recognize the one man who can go one-on-one with her, the one man who gets her. Mainly because he’s a well-known player.

But, with pointers from Nora Ephron’s romantic comedies, Molly learns to open her heart, suppress her cynicism, and find her very own fairytale ending.

Review: When I saw the release of the novel, the summary attracted me right away. It’s very nice to find a little romance like that from time to time. But even if I had a good time, I think I expected a little more.

Molly is a young woman who thought to live quietly with her husband, until he cheats on her and divorces, leaving her to start a new life. Our reporter has to cope with her new bachelorhood and her new lover to move forward. But is Russell the man of her life? This man who allows her to have a secure relationship. Her personal life is not the best, but it’s not over because it is the same for her professional life which seems to stagnate in a quite difficult way. But while she tries to find a place, it seems that many problems begin to happen.

It was a nice play but I admit that I struggled to really get into the story or attach myself to the heroine who lacks of a little something for me. But in any case, it was an enjoyable read and I was quite pleased to discover the pen of the author. We see Molly evolving, wanting more, and well, she deserves more, that’s why she is finally ready to do many things to get what she wants. We meet other characters but it’s true that for some I found them a little too erased, which is a shame. But Cameron was still quite intriguing and I was curious to learn more about him.