Review: Emergency Contact by Elle Brownlee

Author: Elle Brownlee

Pages/Word Count: 200 Pages

At a Glance: This is my first time reading Elle Brownlee, and I have to say the writing was unique.

Reviewed By: Maryann

Blurb: When Liam’s best friend has to leave town on business, he asks for a favor—be an emergency contact for his cousin who is new in town. Liam doesn’t think twice before he accepts. He’s great with numbers and confidently plays the odds, because nobody ever uses those emergency contacts, right? Wrong. The very next Sunday, cousin Garrett shows up at Liam’s apartment, fresh-faced, devastatingly gorgeous, and nothing like Liam had dismissively assumed.

Garrett arrived in New York City hoping to make it in the modeling world, and Liam isn’t sure what to do with him. While he eventually warms to welcome the distraction, he’s not prepared to have his steady, predictable world overturned. Liam is sure Garrett will soon tire of him and find someone closer in age and less eager for the quiet, settled life Liam prefers. But Garrett is too sweet-natured and naïve to recognize Liam’s dismissal, and he’s not as shallow as Liam presumes.

Although Garrett sees a future for the two of them, Liam manages to push him away. It is only then Liam sees the Garrett-shaped hole in his life.

Review: Liam Wright is 33 years old and lives in New York. He works with numbers, statistics and spreadsheets. He once lived life in the fast lane: reckless, living off his savings, and drinking. Once he got his job, put in long hours of work and earned promotions, he left the reckless life behind. Liam likes his life of solitude, staying home, doing intricate drawings and puzzles, coffee and running to keep fit. He’s also stubborn, has doubts about himself, pretends to tolerate the social scene, and his communication skills lack at times.

Carl, a friend of Liam’s, is getting ready to leave for the Bahamas on a business trip and needs a favor from Liam. Carl has a cousin, Garrett, coming from Iowa, and he asks Liam to be available if his cousin needs help in anyway. Liam does some research and comes up with a spreadsheet of quick facts and resources about the city, and sends it to the email address of Carl’s cousin.

Garrett Stone Honeycutt is a young twenty-something, and midway through college. He’s smart, gorgeous, sweet, loves to cook, and his outlook on life is logical. He already has a modeling job lined up in New York, but he would rather be a research librarian.

Liam shows Garrett around the city, and Garrett starts inviting Liam to his modeling shows and taking him on location shoots. It just couldn’t be any better than this. But doubts creep into to Liam’s mind, and he makes an awful decision. Will Garrett and Liam ever be able to repair what they had?

This is my first time reading Elle Brownlee, and I have to say the writing was unique. I’m really not big on contemporary love stories, but she gave this story a more intellectual feel. The vocabulary at times may be a little difficult for some, but it was still a good read. Both Liam and Garrett are very intelligent in their own ways, and the writing reflects that. Garrett, though young, really turns out to be the shining star in this story.