Pillow Talk by Freya North: a review

I did actually start this book sometime at the beginning of last year, and then stopped and started until around September where I read in dribs and drabs, finishing it a few days into the beginning of this year. So, technically, this is a 2020/2021 read, but I finished it this year, so it’s going on the 2021 reading list.

I found this book at a book sale at university, and I’ll admit that I picked it up because the blurb seemed a little silly. I wasn’t really expecting to get quite as invested as I did, and this is also the book that kicked off my love for romance books. I’ve previously only been big on rom-com movies, but I’m now delving into the books too, and that’s thanks to Pillow Talk.

 

Pillow Talk by Freya North follows Petra Flint and Arlo Savidge. They met and had a brief fling back in school, but were separated for seventeen years. However, in a small sweet shop in Yorkshire, their paths cross once more, and romance blossoms. There’s heartache and laughter, insomnia and sleepwalking, and is a story of true romance.

            There are so many positive things to say about this book, so I’m going to try to break it down into three key areas: characters, plot, and themes.

 

Characters:

Whether its our protagonists or side characters, North’s wit and charm really shines through with her characters. They all fit so well together, despite being wildly different people. Petra works with three others in her studio, (Petra being a jeweller) and while her ‘studio three’ are hugely different types of people, they all work so well together. There’s a bit of a habit with writing friend groups that they all have to either be very similar people, or they have to have to be very clearly different types of people (often falling prey to stereotypes). However, North shows how most friendship groups work because people are a mix of the two. Perhaps on the outside these four people look like they wouldn’t work, but their personalities fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

            Her characters drive the plot, and she uses them so well. Her protagonists are so well-rounded, and every bit of information revealed about them feels like it is done at the right place and the right time. I know that they’ll stick with me long after reading, and I think we could all do with a Kitty, Eric, and Gina in our lives.

 

Plot:

The rhythm and pacing of this book are honestly perfect. I think that this is one of the biggest reasons I was able to read this book in such big chunks at a time. I was going to say I read it quickly, but that’s blatantly not true. It took me a fair amount of time, but in my defence, I was reading two books a week in my last semester, so I felt pretty burned out at the end of each day, but like I said, when I was feeling up to reading something for pleasure, I picked up this, and usually got through fifty to a hundred pages in each sitting (this is a lot for me, even if it doesn’t seem like it to anyone else). There was no point where I felt like things were slowing down too much, but I also never felt like anything was going by too quickly.

            Though I don’t want to spoil this book, the revelations that appear throughout it always feel like they fall at the perfect time, and nothing ever feels out of the realms of possibilities, or contrived. The revelation of the beginning Petra’s sleepwalking, and what happened with Arlo’s ex, Helen were shocking (in rather different ways, I must add) but they fit really well within the plot. The revelation of what happened with Helen had me absolutely stunned, and there was a cliff-hanger ending with one chapter within this section that meant there was no way I could just stop reading there.

            The closest thing I have to a complaint is that the ending is perhaps a little bit too neat. It does somewhat feel like everything is wrapped up with a bow. However, I was still satisfied with it, and did still enjoy it.

 

Themes:

For a book that might on the surface seem like a sweet jaunt, the themes of grief, trauma, and bad mental health appear throughout this book. They are handled incredibly well, and North shows how people are always far more complicated than they seem on the surface. Arlo suffers greatly with guilt and grief; for years it tore him apart. Petra’s sleepwalking causes her a great deal of stress while she attempts to find the root cause of it. There is even more that the pair are dealing with, as well. However, were we to see these people in their everyday lives, we wouldn’t see any of this. Petra is a successful jeweller, and Arlo a beloved music teacher. I honestly adore the way that North handles this within her book because so many romance books fall into the trope of love being able to save everything, even mental health issues (a beauty and the beast type situation). North defies this, literally having a section where Petra refutes the idea that love can conquer all, saying that it can be a great comfort, but it cannot solve our problems. I’ve rarely seen this trope seen so overtly knocked down, and I really must commend Freya North for this.

 

Overall, I must say that I absolutely adored this book. It’s sweet, it’s funny, it’s charming, but it is also absolutely heart-breaking and shocking in places too. If you, for whatever reason, don’t think you should be reading romance books, I have to tell you that you’re completely wrong, and you should be reading Pillow Talk by Freya North. If you do love a good romance book, add this to your reading list.