Y’all, I cannot even handle how beautiful this book was! **sighs and places hand over heart** This is EASILY one of my top reads of the year–if not my number one favorite book of the year! When I finished it, I just had to sit there and wipe at my tears that had run all the way down my face and sigh at its goodness. I have sooooo much I could say about this masterpiece of a story, so I will try my best to articulate those thoughts clearly below.
Love arrives at the most unexpected time . . .
1821: Elias Roch has ghastly luck with women. He met Josephine De Clare once and penned dozens of letters hoping to find her again.
2021: Josie De Clare has questionable taste in boyfriends. The last one nearly ruined her friendship with her best friend.
First of all, this has to be the most unique book I’ve ever read. The story is told through Josie’s emails and texts with her best friend and a couple other characters, the letters Elias wrote, and a novel he wrote based on his life. So you are getting the story from several different unique perspectives, and virtually following three different timelines–Josie’s, Elias’, and the fictional version of Elias’ life. I was kept on the ege of my seat the entire time, wondering how all of this would play out. Caroline delivered a lot of surprises and things didn’t always unfold in the way I was expecting, but I was utterly satisfied in the end.
This book is the epitome of a perfectly bittersweet read. My heart was in turns broken and put back together. And I could not help but love every second of it. This is also the epitome of an immersive story! I was sucked into Josie’s and Elias’ worlds from the first email in chapter one. I laughed along with Josie’s quirky and dramatic antics. Ached with Elias as he contemplated grief and loneliness and longing. And sighed over Elias’ breathtakingly beautiful love letters. Sometimes I thought Josie must be crazy for falling for a man through his 200 year old love letters. But then I’d read another one of those letters and think of what I’d do in Josie’s shoes and realize… Yes. Yes, I would be rather smitten as well. I mean, just read this…
“Until my last breath, I promise my arms will always welcome you. My soul will never grow cold toward you. My safe place, my home, is yours also, and regardless of where you go, who you love, I will adore you endlessly.”
**Sighs the longest sigh ever** My hopeless romantic heart could scarcely handle the loveliness of Elias’ words. I saved soooo many quotes from his letters and other places in the book so I can go reread them later. In fact, this is a book I could reread–I loved it that much. If only I could erase my memory of it entirely and experience it all over again!
There’s a lot more I could say, but I don’t want to give away too much. If you read this, you need to be just as mesmerized and begging for answers as I was! All that I can say in summary is that this story is every book lover’s dream come to life. The writing itself is lyrical, whimsical, atmospheric, and captivating in the best way possible. And you simply MUST read this book!
Bravo to Carline George for this brilliant piece of fiction. I never wanted it to end and I’m begging you for an encore of some sort! If it were possible to give a book more than five stars, I would, but since I cannot, I will settle for 5/5 Stars!
