Teaser Tuesday: A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
To play along just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall.

A Little Something Different –
Swoon Reads

They sit there in the window of the coffee shop for almost an hour, not talking much, but looking at each other over the tops of their books, flirting somehow even without words.
It would be gross if it weren’t adorable.
— Chapter 5.11

“We’re going to find that boy and make him talk to you.”
“That sounds awfully threatening,” she says.
“Okay, so we’ll stake out a table with a good view over by the balcony and you can watch him from afar.”
— Chapter 6.8

Love stories can be sweet or cavity-threateningly sugary. Or they can be a little different. On the bill, this is your average boy and girl go to the same college, share a class, and over the course of a few months get to know each other well enough to start dating. Nothing too special. Of course, there is the necessary misunderstanding, the various tripping hazards, and a more or less dark secret from the past. I would have put this down in any other scenario were it not for the clever hook: The story is told from multiple perspectives but those of the couple. There is the brother, the best friend, the grumpy barista, the reluctant classmate ... a bench (I didn’t know there was so much to say about butts sitting on wood) and a squirrel. And a few others. It’s a very cute idea to show a couple in the stages of getting to that point of becoming an item with everyone but the two of them realising that they would be great together. Or maybe they realise it but the readers don’t know because they’re not in their heads. Usually you have the frustrating perspective of one person guessing what the other thinks about them. Now you have the entertainingly frustrating complete ignorance of their inner life.
I would have liked for this story and concept to be more developed. Right now it felt like quickly jotted down scenes that could be developed into something bigger ... the overall effect is that of a slightly malnourished novel where the lanky frame it could have grown into is still visible. Overall an entertaining, quick read.

What do you think of the idea of the many different points of view? Would such a concept interest you? Share opinions and teasers in the comments!