The Missed Connection
By Tia Williams
Grand Central Publishing
Sitting next to strangers on an airplane is always a gamble. The guy next to you might be a 300-pound body builder manspreading into your personal space, your new BFF or a child who cries the entire flight and then barfs in your lap. For those who are lucky, it might just be the beginning of a love story.
In “The Missed Connection,” a new novel from Tia Williams, beloved author of “Seven Days in June,” protagonist Sasha Cruz has an airplane meet-cute with a guy in Seat F. They chat for their whole six-hour plane ride; she truly thinks this person might be the love of her life. After she disembarks without learning his name or exchanging contact information, she hires a private investigator with whom she has history to help her locate her missed connection.
The investigator, Wes, assisted her in a hard time in life when she was dealing with a stalker years ago. He has since hung up his investigative cap to pursue his dreams of smoking brisket and owning a food truck. He helps Sasha, anyway. Things get complicated when they end up forming a connection of their own.
There is a time in every romantic connection when you don’t really know the person, just an idealized version of them. They’re just a fantasy. Perfect, but not real life. “The Missed Connection” plays on this idea. True connection is built in the reality of a person in all their flaws and messiness. Love is really seeing someone and all their flaws and choosing to radically accept them for who they are. Sasha and Wes are two flawed people with lots of emotional baggage, and they catch feelings for each other.
The weakness of the book is that it doesn’t establish a good enough reason for them to not get together. Sure, the premise of them coming back into each other’s lives is finding the mystery guy. But what loyalty would/should Sasha have to this stranger she’s met only once? As an engine to keep people reading, the premise can take people only so far. The saga of Seat F feels like it drops off in the last third of the book. When the plot resolves, it feels a little abrupt and hard to believe.
But romance novels aren’t necessarily about realism. “The Missed Connection” is a fun story that feels like it could appear in a movie or sitcom. It may be a little off the wall at moments. But it’s a good reminder that one’s next big story could be right in front of you. You just have to get out of your own way to see it.
