Tuesday, March 31, 2015

The Last Letter from Your Lover

The Last Letter from Your Lover
Jojo Moyes


Genre: Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): A sophisticated, page-turning double love story spanning forty years-an unforgettable Brief Encounter for our times.

It is 1960. When Jennifer Stirling wakes up in the hospital, she can remember nothing-not the tragic car accident that put her there, not her husband, not even who she is. She feels like a stranger in her own life until she stumbles upon an impassioned letter, signed simply "B", asking her to leave her husband.

Years later, in 2003, a journalist named Ellie discovers the same enigmatic letter in a forgotten file in her newspaper's archives. She becomes obsessed by the story and hopeful that it can resurrect her faltering career. Perhaps if these lovers had a happy ending she will find one to her own complicated love life, too. Ellie's search will rewrite history and help her see the truth about her own modern romance.

A spellbinding, intoxicating love story with a knockout ending, The Last Letter from Your Lover will appeal to the readers who have made One Day and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society bestsellers.

 
Marcie's Review:  Jennifer Stirling's love story was hard to put down; it was gripping, touching, beautiful - everything I've come to expect from a novel by Moyes.  Jenny's story provided an interesting glimpse into marital relationships in the 1960s, which, although only 50 years ago, felt archaic! 

Unfortunately, I did not connect with Ellie's story in the same way.  Perhaps because the sections devoted to Ellie take up less of the book, but her character was not as well-developed, and her actions didn't make much sense to me.  I was also annoyed by how Moyes switched between Ellie's and Jennifer's voices so frequently, and how even within Jennifer's story, the time switched between months and years with no warning.  There were several times that I was completely confused about whether Jennifer had had her accident yet.  I would have preferred the story to be edited differently.

Marcie's Rating: 4 stars

Becky's Review: This book was slow for me.  It took a while for me to get into the story of Jennifer's and B's relationship and I think the problem started when the book started jumping in time between two different months in the same year.  I couldn't keep track of whether Jennifer had had her accident or not at first.  Once I got into the story, it picked up for me and I was intrigued by what was going to happen with Jennifer and B.  This book still didn't captivate me like Me Before You and I'm starting to think that none of Moyes' books will.  The book really slowed down again when part 3 started.  I really didn't care about Ellie's story.  Once Ellie started investigating the letters and found Jennifer and we learned more about Jennifer and B, the book picked up again for me.  I do really like the ending of the book.

Becky's Rating: 3.5 stars

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