The people within the reading community who said we should avoid pandemic-related plots might have been on to something with Lockdown on London Lane by Beth Reekles.
A shame, really, as romance is a coping mechanism many readers turn to in times of turmoil. It’s why I read so many books about teenagers in high school while in high school. Something about having your most miserable experiences projected back at you in the form of romantic fantasies can be so healing. Lockdown on London Lane is in no way a harmful take on the global pandemic, but it doesn’t add anything meaningful to the conversation.
The plot could have taken place during any lockdown — a biohazard leak, a royal visit, or even a fictional virus — and the plot would not change. This rom-com believes it’s doing us a favor with this candy-coated take on the Covid-19 virus. Unfortunately, the opposite proves true, with embellishments fictionalizing the very pandemic and its protocols the book wants to embrace. It intends to use the pandemic as a plot device but doesn’t want to commit to much else beyond a reason to keep an apartment complex sequestered.
So if the preference is to fictionalize the events of the pandemic, why not offer readers true escapism in the form of a more creative lockdown scenario? Perhaps it is the lack of interesting romantic pairings that makes digesting this setting so difficult.
The book boldly uses multiple narrations; bouncing around the apartment building to check in on different couples. It is a stimulation overload, and readers will struggle to differentiate who is who. All the female protagonists speak in sentences that end with multiple exclamation marks and keeping storylines straight leaves little room to debate how swoon-worthy the men are. The apartment dwellers’ features are laid out early in an assault of descriptions, making it a feat to remember each person’s distinguishable qualities.
So the few BIPOC and LGBTQ+ characters included in this bloated ensemble are lost in the mix.
Lockdown on London Lane bites off more than it can chew with this revolving door of couples. But, on the other hand, narrowing its sites to two or three couples may have proven for a more substantial character study in captivity, one with more romance. So while apartment hopping is a fun notion, it makes connecting with a larger group quite tricky.
The bridal shower, the one-night stand, and the isolated Twitch streamer prove interesting enough vessels for this story when given the time to shine. This novel works best when it finds a way to showcase the underlining good of humanity beyond wanting to kill each other for chewing too loudly. There’s beauty in embracing one’s flaws when forced to face them for a week in close confinement. The adorable cover and promise of light romance in a time of suffocating grief will undoubtedly appeal to curious readers for this reason.
If you are willing to overlook its shortcomings and enjoy this book for the fluffy surface-level fun it is, you may just be able to make it out of the lockdown with a better outlook on the residents of London Lane. But for this reader, there is not enough romance or depth to these characters to justify spending a week with them.
Finding comfort in covid times is appealing, but Lockdown on London Lane’s execution is far too good at dredging up the uglier feelings associated with lockdowns. If we as storytellers are going to romanticize the pandemic, we need to do better than this.
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Want to add this read to your TBR pile? You can find more information and purchase a copy of Lockdown on London Lane by Beth Reekles right here!
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