The Love Note

 




The Love Note

Joanna Davidson Politano

Revell

Focused on a career in medicine and not on romance, Willa Duvall is thrown slightly off course during the summer of 1865 when she discovers a never-opened love letter in a crack of her old writing desk. Compelled to find the passionate soul who penned it and the person who never received it, she takes a job as a nurse at the seaside estate of Crestwicke Manor.

Everyone at Crestwicke has feelings--mostly negative ones--about the man who wrote the letter, but he seems to have disappeared. With plenty of enticing clues but few answers, Willa's search becomes even more complicated when she misplaces the letter and it passes from person to person in the house, each finding a thrilling or disheartening message in its words.

Laced with mysteries large and small, this romantic Victorian-era tale of love lost, love deferred, and love found is sure to delight.

I feel a little like the odd man out with this review, as it has a score of five-star reviews and my feelings on it are a little more mixed. I do want to say the premise was intriguing and the way it focused on this mysterious letter had me very invested on unraveling the story behind it!

I think the hardest part for me on this one was that the way the characters were introduced made it a little confusing for me, and there are still some things that don't quite add up to me (including what I'm assuming is a chronological typo in the last chapter, something I'm not blaming the author for but certainly had me scratching my head until I figured it out). I don't know if I just wasn't reading carefully enough, but certain bits of the story just didn't seem like they fit together. 

However, one thing I did really like was the secondary plotlines as we got to know all of the characters. (To be honest, I was probably a little more interested in them that in Willa's story...especially about Celeste, Tillman, Burke, Clara- I didn't quite get the closure to their stories that I wanted)

Overall, my feelings about this one are a little complicated, but despite the fact that I can't say The Love Note worked for me, I'm sure that it will be a winner for a lot of readers, especially those who love shows like Sign, Sealed, Delivered.

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

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