Midwestern library clerk Sylvia Gardner is infatuated with an English actor after watching him on a PBS drama. For two years, she researches Alexander Thorpe's life and career, saving her money to travel to his Cotswolds village, intent on meeting him. What happens when they finally get together?
It all began in the summer of 1979 …
Sylvia Gardner is a naïve library clerk who lives with her dysfunctional mother in Richport, Illinois. Vivian tells her daughter not to trust men because they only want to use her. After being dumped by her first boyfriend, Sylvia falls in love with an English actor after watching him on a PBS drama. Researching Alexander Thorpe’s life and career for two years, she saves her money so she can visit him in his Cotswolds village. She stays at the Windrush Arms Hotel, soon discovering they share a secret connection.
Complications ensue when Harry Livingstone, the hotel’s drunken proprietor, takes a fancy to the young American. As in her dreams, Sylvia and Alexander get together – but with unexpected results.
Professional Reviews
Review of the revised edition (2014)
Sylvia is a dreamer, more comfortable in her own head than out in the real world. Her inner life is an escape from emotional difficulties and a consolation when reality intrudes. Her introspection is borne of the feeling that something bigger and better is out there ... she just has to find it.
After breaking up with her steady boyfriend from high school, she develops an intense fixation on an English actor. She is convinced that if only they could meet, they would know they were meant for each other.
Meanwhile, across the pond, said English actor is getting the feeling that there is someone out there he has to meet...
Now I know what you're thinking but this is NOT a "fatal attraction" kind of story. This is about soulmates ... a feeling that we are known, loved and accepted just as we are. "Out of the Blue" is a story about a young woman's journey to emotional maturity but there is an underlying thread. That thread is the connection between intuitives which will be familiar to anyone of an introspective bent.
While this story will appeal to a younger audience because of the age of the principal character, it will also resonate with those who have ever felt that inexplicable pull towards another person.
NB: This review is about the rewritten version of "Out of the Blue" (2014). I have also read the original version and there are some narrative differences. I enjoyed reading this newer version of the novel and was provided with a copy of it in exchange for my honest review.
MelboMartin on Amazon
Out of the Blue by Lisa Maliga
Out of the Blue by Lisa Maliga follows Sylvia Gardner, a naive cashier who lives with her mother in Illinois. After she is dumped by her first boyfriend, she falls in love with an English actor who stars in a popular TV show. She spends the next two years researching him and then finally makes the leap and heads to Cotswolds village where she hopes to magically run into him. With little money to her name, she finds room and board in exchange for working at the hotel. Harry, the drunken proprietor causes quite a ruckus and definitely makes things a little more complicated for Sylvia.
I really enjoyed Out of the Blue and found the characters cute and quirky. I thought it was really cute to see Sylvia fall in love with the grand Alexander but a little unlikely … I guess we can all hope, huh? I enjoyed watching her spend her time working in Cotswolds village and I thought Harry was an absolute hoot. Overall, a fun story with a few unexpected twists and turns. My only complaint is that the story can get a little slow at times, but it doesn’t take long to pick back up, so it isn’t anything major.
Sara of Chick Lit Plus
Review: Out of the Blue
I really like the whole star crossed lovers element in books so needless to say I was looking forward to diving into this book. Of course right when I start reading it, life had to say, no you have a couple other things that will keep you from it. Lol. I finally got back to the book a few days later. I do have to say that it is a little slow starting off, as is with any book seeing that you have to introduce characters and backgrounds. I also wasn’t a huge fan of all the skipping around that went on with the scenes. I found that a few times I was slightly confused but caught on very quickly.
There were times in the book though where I was laughing out loud to myself. Like as an example, the book starts out in the late 1960’s/70’s so there are some elements of the character getting high, Sylvia was high as a kite and she was dancing around her room to music. I could just picture her high as a kite flailing around with all the gracefulness of a fish out of water. Lol. Of course there were times when I was shaking my head at her also because of how naïve she was. Her innocence and flip flopping made me want to shake her at times. But thankfully by the end of the book, I felt like she was my child and I watched her grow into the wonderful confident women who could do anything she put her mind to.
I thought Sylvia could have deserved someone better than Alexander though. I just felt like he fell a little flat on the emotions until the end. You can tell he had the potential of being a wonderful lover but he kind of held his emotions at bay (Other than the emotions from his other head.). At least towards the end, you can really tell how he would have been a great person with Sylvia. I am just happy it all worked out in the end.
As a word of warning, if you aren’t comfortable with any drug elements (it’s nothing heavy at all), then I would say maybe this isn’t the book for you. I don’t’ really mind. Hell, if anything, it gives me a glimpse into that whole little world that I don’t know about. (I was a sheltered girl growing up. Lol.) But all in all I say give the book a chance. Who doesn’t love reading about two people who wouldn’t have gotten together in normal elements find a way to get together in the end.
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