Crossed Wires (Paperback)

~ Rosy Thornton (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This is the story of Mina, a girl at a Sheffield call centre whose next customer in the queue is Peter, a Cambridge geography don who has crashed his car into a tree stump when swerving to avoid a cat. Despite their obvious differences, they've got a lot in common -- both single, both parents, both looking for love. Could it be that they've just found it? CROSSED WIRES is an old-fashioned fairy tale. It is about the small joys and tribulations of parenthood; about one-ness and two-ness; about symmetry and coincidence; about the things that separate us and the things that bring us together.

About the Author

Rosy Thornton grew up in Ipswich and studied law at Cambridge University. She stayed on to do a Ph.D. and has been a lecturer there ever since. Rosy livesin a village near Cambridge with her husband, their two daughters and a springer spaniel called Treacle.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Headline Review (April 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075534555X
• ISBN-13: 978-0755345557
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,925,224 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Charming. Enjoyable., May 6, 2009

By	Holly (United States) - See all my reviews

A real story, about real people. People with families you could understand. People you could possibly know, and certainly, people you would like.

Mina, a young single mother, works each day at a call center for an auto insurance company. Peter, a widowed, single father with twin daughters, teaches at Cambridge University. Their worlds are miles apart, literally and figuratively, but when Peter calls one day with an accident claim, something clicks. The phone wires cross in such a way that two people who, by rights, should have never met, are unwittingly drawn towards each other.

At first, they simply speak to each other on the phone weekly. Their lives move forward and the supporting characters: Peter's twin daughters Cassie and Kim, his graduate student Trish and two best friends Martin and Jeremy, as well as Mina's daughter Sal are delightful additions to the story. There are small, every day joys and larger, every day frustrations. Then, as their friendship develops, Peter is the one to whom Mina turns when she faces a parent's greatest fear.

Quintessentially English. An enjoyable, moving read. Quite simply, what should be simply an ordinary story is, instead, a charming story about the ups and downs of every day life and the joy you can find in family and friends.

I look forward to reading Rosy's other books.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not (just) the light romance you'd expect, July 6, 2009

By	Debra Hamel (TwitterLit.com) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Peter Kendrick is a charmingly self-effacing Cambridge don who has smashed up his Land Rover's front end at the start of Rosy Thornton's Crossed Wires. The girl behind the phone at his insurance company's call center is Mina Heppenstall, who finds his bumbling and the fact that he'd swerved to avoid a cat charming. From that inauspicious beginning, and after another accident on Peter's part, a long-distance relationship develops between the two, though they're divided by the telephone wires as well as differences in age and station. But they're situations are otherwise similar: both are single parents--Peter's a widower with twins; Mina, now in her 20's, was pregnant at 17.

The above summary of the book, as well as its rosy cover and the brief description on its back, would lead one to expect a light romance--Hugh Grant as Peter in the movie version, maybe, falling for a younger Meg Ryan type. It is a sweet romance, as it turns out, but much more than that as well. In fact the book is more about parenting than dating. For most of the book Peter and Mina's stories unfold separately, though the two update one another in weekly phone calls. They both have concerns about their children's social development, and both of them wind up facing a similar, more serious problem with their kids in the course of the book. What's nice is that the issues they face are very true-to-life. Their children are good kids whose small crises aren't ripped from the headlines material; their problems are realistic, the sort of thing any parent might face, and thus heartbreaking in the small way kids' problems sometimes are.

Crossed Wires is definitely a good read, deeper than you'd expect and as sweet as its cover suggests.

-- Debra Hamel

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A lovely book, July 13, 2009

By	bookfan-mary (United States) - See all my reviews

Crossed Wires is a quiet story of people who are not that different from you and me. They've endured sorrows and have experienced joy. They not only survive their sorrows but seem to strive to find joy in everyday life. Not in big ways, but in the small things. It reminded me of how just being a friend can mean the world to someone. If you're looking for something a little different and uplifting, Crossed Wires could be the book for you. I'm so glad it "found" me.