I really liked the idea behind this book but the execution left a lot to be desired. Or perhaps I just went into it expecting more? My book slump didn't help the matter. I read it because I needed to write a review for it. My NetGalley queue has been stressing me out. Whatever the reason, Letters to the Lost ended up being an alright book, but it wasn't the standout I was hoping it would be.

A lot of my high hopes for it came from Goodreads. The dozens of 4 or 5 star reviews really excited me. But really it wasn't very original or different from other books I've read before. It was actually quite predicable from the beginning...the main characters would figure out their real identities, fall in love and blah blah blah. The character themselves were not that likeable. They were more cliche than anything! I just didn't care what happened to them. And I've said this a million times before, a book without characters I can connect to just doesn't work for me. I NEED A CONNECTION!!! What saved the book for me was the writing style. I really enjoyed the way things were worded and flowed but without an interesting plot I really felt like the author's talent was wasted.

Of course, this is just my opinion. It's an opinion influenced by my struggles to get "into" a book and stay interested. At the time I requested it the story sounded perfect but I think at this time it really wasn't. Sometimes that's just how it is. *shrugs*

This was such a sensitive, touching and romantic book. I loved it.

♥ Quick Thoughts and Rating: 4.5 stars! Some times there are books that just speak directly to your heart, and this was one of those books for me. Emotionally engaging and heavy-hitting with the angst, Letters to the Lost kept me glued to its pages and rooting for its characters the entire time.

♥ Review: I couldn't–nor did I even want–to set this book down. I neglected all my adult responsibilities yesterday and just curled up on the couch with this amazing story until I was clutching it tightly to my chest and brushing away the lingering tears on my cheeks when I reached the end. I've seen the author's name floating around the book community for some time now, but this was the first time that I felt really compelled to pick up one of her books, particularly because I fell in love with its premise but especially after so many of my trusted blogger friends started giving it rave reviews. Now I'm certainly glad I trusted my instincts because this book was beautifully, thoughtfully delivered. I connected to both the main characters, rooted for them as individuals and certainly as a couple. I believe Kemmerer did an amazing job of tackling loss, the heartache that comes with it, and people's perceptions of an individual based on the "snapshot" they give the world. I also think she did an exceptional job of giving us such incredibly multifaceted characters. Through their email exchanges, interactions, and dual narratives, I felt like I got a tremendous grasp of who they were. She made them easily relatable, and even when I didn't necessarily like their actions at times, I always liked them as people. Ms. Kemmerer captured the inherent flaws in humanity so perfectly.

With so much to love about this book, I was kind of disappointed in the way the book ended, but not so much so that it affected my overall enjoyment of it. I'll easily admit to being a greedy reader and while I appreciated the arc of the journey these two made together to finally <i>getting</i> together, I can't lie and say that I wouldn't have loved just one more chapter to bask in them finally having each other completely and actually being a couple. That said, it was a thrill to watch them come to the terms they did and see how it all happened.

♥ Teaser Quote:
"...I feel like everyone is waiting for me to get over her death. My own best friend started quoting a book about the stages of grief last week, like I should be on some kind of schedule.

In a way, I know she's right. I'm stuck in this rut of anger and pain and loss, but the more people try to drag me out of it, the more I feel determined to dig my heels in and cling to the grooves in the dirt."
– quote taken from the eARC of Letters to the Lost at 26%

♥ Rec It? Yes, yes, yes! It was emotional, angsty, swoony, and I was hooked from the start. Now I find out that another character, Rev (who I became really attached to in this book), is getting to share his own story and I need it immediately!

♥ A very special thanks to Bloomsbury USA Childrens and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this title.

It’s not often that books wake me up in the middle of the night to read them, but this one did. My own mother died just a few months ago, and this book stirred up a lot of painful tears, even though Juliet’s mom and my mother were nothing alike. I found the book healing, though, in reading how Juliet and Declan dealt with their pain.

I have always loved the mystery friend/email plot device, such as the movie Jumpin’ Jack Flash and the movie You’ve Got Mail. I enjoyed indulging in a few mystery friend/email relationships myself many years ago. It was refreshing to read a YA book that was focused more on the friendship and character development than it was on the romance. These two young people were profoundly changed by their losses. Reading how the losses occurred, how the losses affected them, how they found in each other an understanding heart, and how the entire situation resolved was riveting and, in the end, very satisfying. Even the secondary characters were carefully developed.

While the book was difficult to read at times because of the pain the characters suffered, it was even more difficult to put down. I’m a busy woman with a lot of irons in a lot of fires. But I found myself opening the book at any opportunity for a chance to touch back in with the characters. Did The Dark answer her email? How did Cemetery Girl react to his question? What prompted Declan to say that? And so on. I don’t mind reading difficult plots if there is hope, and while it took it a while to get there, this book is jam-packed with hope. The wait was worth it.

I gratefully received this book as a free eARC from the author, publisher, and NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review.

Brigid Kemmerer made her name and developed a cult with her YA paranormal Elementals series, but I still haven’t gotten around to reading my copy of that series’s first book Storm. Funny how I end up reading her foray into YA contemporary first thanks to the TBR jar! Maybe it’s setting me up for disappointment to read an author’s most recent work first and then go backwards, but Letters to the Lost was pretty darn good.

Though the lack of labels on the POVs is a bit irritating, you quickly catch on that our two leads narrate alternating chapters. Juliet is struggling after her mom’s death in a car crash and her worry that she caused it by begging her mom to come home from abroad early; Declan had a meltdown a few months before the novel’s start and is busy paying for it via community service in the local cemetery. As they communicate in letters and later in online chat without knowing who the other really is, they end up in each other’s orbits in real life and their interactions aren’t always pretty.

Both Juliet and Declan’s characterizations are solid and Declan’s situation in particular pulled at my heartstrings. The loss of a parent is a YA staple, but Declan instead gets a semi-aloof mom, a hateful stepdad, a hole in his heart where his deceased sister used to be, and an alcoholic dad in jail for killing that sister. His conflicts come with a lot of secrets and as they unravel, they prove themselves vivid and memorable. Declan is a character you won’t forget just because of what he’s been through

The choice to alternate POVs each chapter and the small, subtle ways the traumas in Declan’s and Juliet’s lives are complicated lend strength to the novel’s pacing and make it easy to read the entire book at once despite it being 400 pages long. I honestly didn’t expect to read as much of this at one time as I did, but I couldn’t put it down! Kemmerer leaves a subtle reference or reveal in each chapter, so even if you need to put the book down to do life things, you don’t really want to.

Another way Letters to the Lost keeps you hooked? The ridiculous number of twists that complicate Declan’s and Juliet’s already-complicated situations. Juliet’s mom died in a car crash? NOPE, NOT THAT SIMPLE. Declan and his anger issues and the reason he’s stuck with court-ordered community service? WHOO BOY, WAIT UNTIL YOU REALLY HEAR ABOUT HIS BIOLOGICAL DAD. A few of them almost steered into melodramatic soap opera territory, but they still managed to wring genuine emotion from me. Honest to God, I teared up at least five times.

The one major dent in the novel is how Juliet talks about the refugees and other beleaguered children her mother photographed around the world. These are kids who survived airstrikes, were escaping war, and otherwise went through things a privileged white girl like Juliet would never have to and yet she’s still saying she knows how they feel. NO JULIET, YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW THEY FEEL.

Specifically, Juliet mentions a specific photo that often makes the rounds as one of the most disturbing, controversial photos ever taken: The vulture and the little girl, a 1993 photo taken by Kevin Carter. Description of it: a Sudanese girl stopped to rest on her way to a UN feeding center and a vulture landed a few yards away from her, waiting for when it could make her its next meal. The little girl is so starved her bones are visible, she’s tiny, and she honestly looks like she could die at any moment. Her life has been (presumably, based on Sudanese history) destroyed by the Second Sudanese Civil War and its aftermath.

And Juliet, ever the privileged white girl, has the gall to say she feels like the girl and presumes to understand her.

Sure, she says she sometimes feels like the vulture instead or feels like the photographer (he committed suicide about a year after talking the photo), but it’s still wildly gross of her to say such a thing. Though she acknowledges that the children and people in her mother’s photos are real people, she uses them as conduits for her emotions. Like objects. It’s nasty and deeply unnecessary.

Its sensitivity toward refugees needs some serious work, but Letters to the Lost is otherwise a strong contemporary YA novel that evokes genuine emotions from the reader. Am I still excited to read Storm eventually? Despite some of the criticism I’ve heard, yeah. Maybe the TBR jar will show some love and spit that title out next time I get to pick out a TBR book instead of a review book.

I have read every single one of Brigid Kemmerer’s books, and I have not been disappointed yet. When I first read the description of this one, I was a little surprised to see that it’s a straight-up contemporary (considering that her Elementals Series is paranormal and she wrote so many of those). But as I read, I started to realize that I was falling in love with it for the same reasons that I fell in love with the Elementals books: her characters. Kemmerer writes characters that I can’t help but connect to, and whether she’s telling a contemporary story or a paranormal one, her books focus on the characters and what drives them—and, often, the pain behind their stories. Letters to the Lost is a beautiful example of this.

What Fed My Addiction:

Heartbreak.
Honestly, if Declan and Juliet’s stories don’t tear you to pieces, you have to be made of stone. They’ve both experienced tremendous loss in their young lives, and neither of them have figured out how to process it. There were so many times that my heart broke during this book, for both the main characters. Tears were definitely shed.

Juliet has been clinging to her mother’s memory like a lifeline by writing letters to her (something they did while her mother was still alive, so it makes her feel close to her), but at the same time, she’s completely avoiding living and anything that reminds her too much of her mother. She’s given up her passion for photography because she doesn’t believe she can ever live up to her mother’s legacy. She can’t seem to drag herself out of the pain and sorrow that have surrounded her since her mother’s death, and she’s tired of people telling her to move on. Juliet doesn’t want to move on—she wants to hold onto every scrap of memory she can manage to pull up from her spotty history with her mom.

Declan is recovering from a tragedy of his own, but I won’t reveal what it is since his story unfolds as the book progresses. Like Juliet, he holds onto pain and guilt, unable to move past it—but he responds with sullenness (and sometimes surliness). He has a reputation for being trouble, and he doesn’t figure there’s any way to make people see him in any other way. In a lot of ways, he’s given up.

The Letters.
Declan and Juliet communicate via letter, and neither of them know who they’re writing to. Because of the nature of letters, they can be a lot more honest and open with each other than they’d be in person, especially since the letters are anonymous. The letters reveal so much about these characters and their hidden pain, and a connection is forged between Declan and Juliet that’s both intense and believable.

Perspective.
One of the major themes of the book is how Juliet and Declan only show one side of themselves to the world—and they judge each other based on preconceived notions. Juliet has heard the rumors about Declan and she has no reason to doubt them—especially when he doesn’t exactly put his best foot forward when they meet in person. Declan makes his own assumptions about Juliet as well.
This book reminds us that we don’t ever fully know someone’s story, that we can’t know what goes on in someone’s heart and mind unless we’ve walked in their shoes—or cared enough to truly listen.

What Left Me Hungry for More:

Declan’s surliness.
The only thing that holds me back from giving the book a full five stars is that Declan sometimes borders on being an actual jerk in real life (not in his letters). The thing that saves him is that we get his perspective and we know his pain—we can see how he’s been judged and why he sometimes lashes out when he feels like he’s being unfairly targeted. Still, I couldn’t help but feel like Juliet was sometimes justified in her criticisms of his behavior, and there was a little part of me that wondered if Juliet could (or maybe should?) truly fall for Declan before he had all his issues figured out. (Of course, the implication is that he’s managed that by the end of the book, but the realistic part of my brain wondered if it was that simple….) Still, since we got Declan’s POV and could see where he was coming from, I have to admit that I mostly fell in love with him.

If you are a fan of heart-wrenching contemporaries, you need this book in your life. Kemmerer manages to pull the reader in and make us love her characters, even through their flaws. I give this book an easy 4.5/5 Stars.

***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***

Juliet misses her mother and finds solace in writing letters and leaving them on her grave. Declan is an alienated, lost soul who is spending his community service mowing the cemetery lawn. When he writes a note on one of Juliet’s letters, she is beyond angry. How dare someone read her private message and then have the nerve to make a comment. She’s outraged and pens a note back to the writer, letting them know how upset she is. This is the beginning of a letter writing relationship that allows both Juliet and Declan an opportunity to express their hurt, their isolation and their agony over the loss of a loved one. Neither knows who the other writer is and it’s the anonymity that allows them to be honest and bare their souls. Kemmerer beautifully writes of two troubled teens who use letters to open up their hearts. Her characters are sympathetic, especially Declan. His appearance and his behavior have earned him a reputation as the boy most likely to go to prison. But there’s so much depth to his story and rarely do the big, tough, churlish characters elicit such sympathy. This book will touch readers and win hearts.

There is a beautiful ache I had while I read Letters to the Lost. It was dull and murky, like a memory from a childhood that ended with a friendship breakup or a scarred knee. And I think that's exactly what the author does so well. Makes you feel.

Juliet Young mourns her fabulous photojournalistic mother after her untimely death. She sits in the cemetery and writes letters that she leaves on her mom's grave. And one day, someone answers.

Declan Murphy is the bad boy, the one that everyone sees something bad in. He's hurting and broken and can't resist writing back to Juliet.

Neither of them knows who the other is. And in real life, they're far from friends.

Soon the letters develop into something more. It was lovely to read. Organic and real, Letters to the Lost explores the idea of what happens when those you love let you down. And how do you pick yourself back up again and start to trust. I loved Declan's point of view. He has big feelings and anger and rage and he's so overwhelmed by emotion, he doesn't 'know what to do with it. I really enjoyed Juliet's vulnerabilities. She is far from perfect. She lashes out too, in different ways than Declan. Both are looking for acceptance, love, companionship. Even if they don't know it.

The story flows really well, always allowing the characters to come up with their own paths naturally. Each chapter was so good, so necessary. I didn't want to stop reading. I read during lunch breaks, in the mornings before the baby work, late into the night. It was very enjoyable and satisfying. The ending was supposed to be climatic, but something about it put me off. The whole thing with Juliet's mom (no spoiler here) I felt like was so dramatic, maybe too dramatic? And I wish the ending had gone a little bit longer, to see how they moved forward. But these are such little things, I can't say any of them dampened my enjoyment of the story.

Fans of contemporary YA romantic fiction will adore this book.

in depth

It's been a while since a book spoke to my heart as much as this one did. Since All the Bright Places, actually. Similar to that, I finished Letters to the Lost in almost one sitting. It's a rich, character-driven story about grief, loss, and mistaken impressions. About mental illness. About friendship. It's not one of those love-will-save-you stories, but it doesn't discount the importance of being understood--whether that's in the context of love, friendship, mentorship, or family.

Declan and Juliet have both lost people. Juliet lost her mother to a hit-and-run car accident almost a year ago. Declan lost his sister when he was young, and almost lost his own life when he hammered a bottle of whiskey and crashed a car. When Juliet writes a letter to her mother and leaves it on the grave, Declan, in his own loneliness, answers. And so it begins.

The novel is told in alternating POVs, with each teen navigating their complex friend and family relationships while also coming to know and understand each other. Each chapter begins with the POV character reading and reacting to the other person's response. It's a little confusing at first, but you catch on quickly. Although I'd have loved chapter labels.

It could be incredibly sappy or insta-love-y, but it's not. Kemmerer's characters feel authentic, their actions plausible--even when those actions are extreme. The letters begin because Juliet wants to express her anger at Declan for intruding on her grief, then evolve into tentative sharing and become more soul-baring as the teens realize how much they share. But they're anonymous. So while they're falling for each other through paper, they're also interacting in real life.

Not harmoniously. Yes, it's a hate-to-love story and I freaking love that trope so come at me, bro. (When it's done well.) Juliet sees Declan as dangerous and rude; Declan sees Juliet as cold and judgmental. Rightly so, because they're judging each other on their walls. But some chance encounters lead to a shaky friendship between Declan, Rev, and Juliet. It's a little too neatly coincidental, but I really don't care, because I was enthralled at the secrets and the contrast between their relationships on and off the page. Plus, I mean, I'm a book nerd and writer. What could possibly be more swoon-worthy than falling in love through words!?

But it's not just about love. Juliet and Declan each have complicated relationships with their respective best friends, Rowan and Rev (I LOVE REV), and with their remaining parents and step-parents. Rowan was overly judgmental and under-utilized, which I disliked, but the friendship between Rev and Declan was vibrant and just as important as the one between Juliet and Declan. And they didn't just cast off their friends! Although it was pretty white; there were POC characters, and in my limited opinion they seemed fleshed-out and not stereotypical, but I'd have liked to see more diversity.

In addition, Juliet struggles with her father's coldness and the shadow of her mother's fame while Declan feels caught between his cruelly overbearing stepfather and ineffectual mother. But their parents aren't caricatures, either, and their stories are crucial to the progression of Juliet's and Declan's grief. Each teen also encounters other adults who mentor and care for them. Their stories are parallel without being overly similar, so the contrast is illuminating and meaningful instead of feeling like one story written twice.

It's also about passions. Juliet is trying to rediscover her love of photography, a love instilled by her photo-journalist mom. Declan is trying to resist making anything of himself, because hopes lead to disappointments. I loved how Kemmerer embedded their grief in the context of growing up and finding themselves. It was so relatable. Some moments I felt like I was both of them, or had been. Except that I think the poem "Invictus" is super overrated, so I guess we're not totally twinsies.

Kemmerer just writes beautifully. I highlighted so many phrases because they so perfectly encapsulated something I've felt but could never quite express. Her dialogue sounds like actual people talking. Juliet and Declan get a little poetic in their letters, but allowing that they're both very smart, creatively talented individuals, it's not too much of a stretch. It's not just pretty; she paces the story well with surprising twists and turns, including one relatively early reveal that I didn't expect at all. The ending was a little rushed (okay, I totally just wanted more kissing and I wasn't ready for it to be over), but not enough to feel unsatisfying.

I. Love. This. Book. I pre-ordered it as soon as I finished it, and it's going on my shelf next to All the Bright Places, which is no small compliment. It's a book I'll re-read, and one I'll remember and return to.


in a sentence
Letters to the Lost is a poignant, authentic exploration of grief and relationships with a clever take on the pen-pal love story.

Letters To The Lost is a very cliché high school bad boy romance book, so if you don’t like cliché bad boy romance, you might not love this book as much as I did, but it was right up my alley. Juliet Young and Declan Murphy are two teenagers that have been through… heavy things throughout the year, Juliet lost her mother, a woman she loved and looked up to and Declan went to Julie and is now doing community service at the local cemetery where Juliet’s mother is buried.

Declan is by far my favorite character, I just fell so hard for him and even though he is the “high school bad boy” I didn’t find him annoying or with a serious superiority complex like other bad boys I’ve read, he’s just trying to get through community service and leave behind everything that’s happened this past year. I was just naturally drawn to him and fell in love, what can I say?

This book isn’t going to keep you guessing too much, since the beginning your brain started developing ideas of how the story will develop itself (at least I know mine did) and maybe some of it will be accurate and some of it won’t, maybe you’ll figure it all out or maybe you have no clue of how the story will go. My brain likes to spoil itself how the book will go and it comes up with ideas and I’ll admit most of them were accurate, but I will say there was a part (what to me was the plot twist) where my brain just flipped out and went “WAIT WHAT? WHAT’S GOING ON?” And I know some people who have read this book saw it coming and they found it sort of dull, but I really didn’t, maybe I was too busy swooning over Declan, who knows? I just know that this book won’t leave your brain and heart aching as you wonder what’s going to happen next.

Letters To The Lost didn’t make me cry, I certainly laughed at some point because of something someone said or something that happened, but it’s not a funny/comedy book. To wrap everything up a little, I personally really really really loved this book and loved Declan even more, it’s a cliché bad boy story so it might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

I enjoyed the authors writing. She has a talent for spinning a great YA. Letters To The Lost was a good story and definitely not a super uplifting story. It dealt with some tough teenage problems. I would recommend this to a teen audience, but as an adult reading the story I felt it was missing something. I expected something a more major to happen in the plot. Still and enjoyable book. I would definitely read more from this author in the future.

Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer jumped onto my radar after seeing some wonderful reviews from other bloggers. I promptly added to my TBR and I’m so glad I did. It was almost impossible to put down once I started it.

Letters to the Lost is about 2 teens dealing with the pain of losing a loved one. Juliet has recently lost her mother. To cope she’s been leaving letters to her mother on her grave. Declan finds them and writes back. The sets the stage for an ansty and emotional romance that I couldn’t get enough of. I liked both Juliet and Declan. They were strong characters with a lot of depth. Declan came across as your typical YA bad boy, but he had so much hidden pain. Juliet’s grief still felt so raw. I felt for both of them so much. Even when I felt like I wanted to shake some sense into them at times. They remained so likeable.

Letters to the Lost has quite a bit going on. There’s the communication between the characters, their interactions in real life, huge family problems, friends with their own issues, and school. It sounds like a lot, but everything was woven together so well. I loved all the different layers. The side characters were fantastic and brought a lot to the story. I was so excited to hear that one of the side characters will be getting his own book!

The romance aspects in Letters to the Lost are slow burn and full of emotion. I like it a lot! Declan and Juliet had so much chemistry. There’s also a bit of a hate to love scenario. I’m not always a fan of that, but I really enjoyed watching this play out. I feel like if you’re a fan of the romance and characters in Katie McGarry’s books, you will love this one too.

I pretty much devoured Letters to the Lost. I was expecting a good book, but it definitely surpassed my expectations. This was a fantastic emotional contemporary. I can’t wait to read more from Brigid Kemmerer!

Grief can be a tricky thing to truly show in a novel without it seeming ridiculous in its melancholy or too shallow to really matter. The dual narration flowed well and I truly enjoyed seeing how each character handled their grief, the emotions that can explode at a moments notice. This is a book I wished I'd had as a teenager as I muddled through my own grief, coping as best I could.

Originally Published on my blog, BeyondBookish.com

What an enjoyable read! Great characters, strong plot development without regurgitation and complex family relationships really push Letters to the Lost beyond typical YA romance fare! I am so glad that I was able to pick up a copy of this from Netgalley after reading a mini review on Goodreads!

This story does stand alone as a novel beyond getting its inspiration from such a great 90s rom-com but thankfully it is used to complement the overall story and does not hide behind what it’s trying to get across. Our two main characters, Juliet and Declan are really on individual journeys themselves. Juliet is not only trying to get over the death of her mother (who has recently died in a tragic car accident) but live up to “disappointing” her memory by not living up to perceived expectations as a photographer. On the flip side, Declan is dealing with his demons and fault in the death of his younger sister and incarceration of his father, much of which he blames himself for.

I could really appreciate and understand the appeal of having two characters (acting as strangers even if in reality they are not) as a way to circumvent each others pain. Many times in real life we may find it easier dealing with pain when there is no emotional investment beyond the other person just listening.

Declan and his friend Rev also illustrate such a great understanding of this. I LOVED Rev! We obviously see as the novel progresses that he is dealing with his own issues but has a great support system around him. With Kemmerer hinting at another story involving Rev, I cannot wait to hear more about him soon!

Ultimately, if you enjoy strong character development, great friendships and a dynamic (even if not original) plot I highly recommend this! Perfect for fans of You’ve Got Mail and I’ll Give You the Sun this is an amazing novel for hopeless romantics and those in need of a well written contemporary that has characters that you will think about long after you finish reading!

The Elemental Series, Kemmerer's debut, was an almost instant hit for me and when the series ended I was so sad that it was over. I was so eager to get something, anything else from her. I missed her writing style and her unique quirky characters and the hidden messages about family, strength and staying true to who you are in every book.

And even though I didn't have much luck with her last stand alone novel, when I saw Letters To The Lost and read its description, that fire, that passion, flared up again and I was once again eager to read one of her stories.

I won't lie and say I went into this without any apprehension because truth be told I did but after the first chapter, I knew I shouldn't be worried, this was classic Kemmerer. The author I had come to know and love and I dove right into the deep end and happily didn't come back up for air until the very last page was read.

There are stories that you love because they just call to you. Touch some part of you in a way that you didn't expect. They bring out emotions and feelings and you can't control how much they are impacting you or how much you have completely fallen for them and Letters to the Lost was one such story. It called to me heart and soul and so many times I found myself just feeling. Tearing up and smiling, and overjoyed. It was both terrible and completely wonderful and I wouldn't change a moment of it. I connected with it like I haven't with this genre lately and it truly was amazing.

This is such a heartfelt coming of age story. One about moving on, dealing with loss and becoming who we truly are and were meant to be.

A fabulous story about the choice between surrendering to how other people see us versus being brave enough to show who we truly are. A perfect demonstration of just how multifaceted we all are, and how to find the strength to rise above the expected to find the surprise of our truest self.

My Thoughts: This one will probably have to be a shorter review from me. I may cry the whole time writing it. I basically cried most of the time reading it.

We are introduced to Juliet who lost her mother. She visits the cemetery and leaves her mom a note. Because she always wrote her mom notes. She’s dealing with her death the best way she knows possible. But when someone responds to the note, it's a whirlwind of emotions for Juliet. That was a private note, why would anyone even write back?

We also meet a boy named Declan who is a loner. He’s a good guy, but doesn’t have the best past. People are afraid of him. I fell for him from the start. He was such a good character and I just knew he had a big heart.

They start to communicate back and forth. They have both been through so much.

This story is so raw and beautiful. But if you’ve lost a parent I do believe it makes it just so much more emotional. I’ve lost both parents now. And its rough. I could feel everything Juliet was feeling. I could see the pain. I could feel the pain.

Overall: If you like contemps, this one should be on your read list this year. It was addicting and beautiful, yet it made me cry. It made me happy seeing how much they start to care for each-other, but it’s also heartbreaking to see Juliet go through everything she has. Add this to your TBR now!!!! I’d definitely give this one 5 cupcakes!

Cover: Honestly, I probably would pick this one up once I read the back. I just don’t think the cover gives it justice!!!!

What I’d Give It: 5/5 Cupcakes
___________
Taken From Princess Bookie
www.princessbookie.com







(This will be posted on my blog in April)

Letters to the Lost is the story of two teens who start a correspondence when Juliet leaves a letter to her dead mother on her grave and Declan writes back. At first Juliet is enraged that anyone would disturb her letters but soon she and Declan are bonding and relying on one another through their anonymous missives.

Letters to the Lost is achingly good. It is full of heartache and hope and delivered so many emotions. The book is a cross between a more serious version of You've Got Mail and The Serpent King by Jeff Zenter--two things I love. (Seriously, if you loved The Serpent King, you will like this book.) Plus, Brigid Kemmerer is from Maryland, and I always love discovering local authors.

Letters to the Lost is one of my favorite books of the year so far, but be sure to grab some tissues before reading.

Originally posted on Forever Young Adult on 2017 April 04.