Book Review: Places We Never Went by Aliza Wiseman

When Aliza Wiseman found herself in the middle of a divorce, she knew she would never settle for dating just any guy to fulfill her need for romance. Instead, she created an imaginary paramour, and fantasized about all the things they did together, after they never met.

Places We Never Went: A Series of Imaginary Events is one of the most beautiful, charming love stories that never happened. The imagery is vivid, and the short escapes Aliza and her love, Orso, find with one another are not only delightful to read, but compact enough for mommies to take in between refereeing sibling fights and meal preparation.

Orso is suave, sophisticated, successful and adventurous. He's everything a girl would want in a make-believe lover, and he and Aliza experience snapshot after snapshot of romance, surprise and playful fantasy. Woodland picnics come complete with maître d' and a piano, and each and every cup of coffee is served with the promise of a sultry kiss.

Each story is accompanied by Wiseman's colorful cartoon illustrations, confirming her genealogy as the daughter of Al Wiseman, ghost cartoonist for Dennis the Menace.

Image used with permission of the author.

With language artful enough to be beautiful, yet casual enough for the reader to feel as if she is taking in her favorite blogger's recent post (a few smileys and commonly used abbreviations like "btw" make their way into the text), Places We Never Went is less a "book," and more a series of daydreams we've been allowed to sit in on.

Image used with permission of the author.

While Places We Never Went is available in a black-and-white paperback edition, I totally recommend the color paperback, because the color illustrations are charming. It's also available for Kindle and other e-versions.

Get your copy, and catch more glimpses of Orso and Aliza, at http://placesweneverwent.com. Tell Aliza I sent you!

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