‘A Little Something Different’ by Sandy Hall was an interesting read. Having always loved reading different perspectives of characters in novels and trying to grasp their motivations and idiosyncrasies, it truly kept me wondering just how everyone else sees main characters Lea and Gabe.

Their relationship, despite not budding as quickly as most of the characters’ perspectives hope it will, is realistic in terms of being uncertain about what someone thinks of you and how you will react if and when they find the words to speak to you and actually ask you to hang out. Lea and her friends, Maribel and Danny, among others, are always talking about Gabe, while Gabe and his brother, Sam, along with Gabe’s friend Casey, are always eager to hear what happened when Gabe and Lea run into each other – because it happens a lot. Blame it on circumstance or just plain old dumb luck, but Lea and Gabe are always crossing paths, which makes many people, including a waitress, a barista, a Chinese food delivery guy, and even a squirrel and a bench, take notice. That’s right; I said a squirrel and a bench. Even though Hall got a bit creative with these two perspectives, they seemed to work in the grand scheme of the storytelling/ that followed Lea and Gabe’s interest in each other. The squirrel is kind of like a sounding board for Lea, and eventually Gabe, and the bench is on the green where they walk and play football from time to time. They both talk to the squirrel, because, if one truly thinks about it, sometimes having someone or something to talk to that isn’t going to talk back can be the best form of therapy.

Gabe has secrets about his past that he’s afraid will destroy his chances with Lea, while Lea questions Gabe’s interest in her due to some of the issues that are keeping him from asking her out. This forms a sort of “comedy of errors” in that they both want to be with each other but don’t know how to go about making it happen. Thrown together by two semesters worth of creative writing, including an overeager professor who wants them to find love, and classmates who are either crushing on or totally aggravated by the two of them, the course of the school year finds them inching closer and closer to a relationship – that is if no other conflicts arise.

You can find ‘A Little Something Different’ by Sandy Hall by clicking here.