This is an intriguing story with a well-developed cast of characters! I enjoyed the premise and the way the plot unfolded. Recommended!

The Lost Letters of William Woolf was a bit of a rollercoaster for me. At first, after I had read the first couple of chapters, I thought this was a book I would have loved a few years ago but had grown out of. But then I got to Clare's point of view and everything changed. The story was nothing like I thought it'd be. I thought it was going to be about a man trying to "find himself" in some letters he found, but it is more about finding love again in a relationship that has been idling by for a while, about feeling alive again, about obsession, and also, about finding oneself. Clare and William find themselves again. But before I give everything away (have I done that already?), let's get to the review!

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Inside the Dead Letters Depot in East London, William Woolf is one of thirty letter detectives who spend their days solving mysteries: Missing postcodes, illegible handwriting, rain-smudged ink, lost address labels, torn packages, forgotten street names - they are all the culprits of missed birthdays, broken hearts, unheard confessions, pointless accusations, unpaid bills and unanswered prayers.

When William discovers letters addressed simply to 'My Great Love' his work takes on new meaning. Written by a woman to a soulmate she hasn't met yet, the missives stir William in ways he didn't know were possible. Soon he begins to wonder: Could William be her great love?

William must follow the clues in Winter's letters to solve his most important mystery yet: the human heart.

William Woolf works at The Dead Letter Depot. After his writing career died, he got a job looking through letters that couldn't find their destination for whatever reason. It is his job to try and find who the mail should go to. And that's where he finds the letters from Winter. In dark blue envelopes, Winter writes to the future love of her life. And the more and more William reads her letters, the more and more he believes that he was meant to read those letters because he is meant for this woman. 

As William looks for Winter and his marriage to Clare falls further apart, he decides he must find this woman. His curiosity and his heart will not let him do anything else.

And then there is Clare. She feels like she lost William a long time ago. When he lied to her about his writing, the repeated times he brought up having kids when she said she didn't want them, and his continuing to work at the Dead Letter Depot. She also feels like she is taking most of the load when it comes to their life. She's a high-paid lawyer, pays the bills, wants to move but William refuses to when he can't pay at least half of the bills. She gave up her dream of being an artist for something that wouldn't leave her poor and hungry, while William was "living his dream." She's fed up.

Clare goes on her own journey. She leaves William after realizing that nothing is getting better and takes a trip on her own for the first time in a while. She meets up with her sister, eats on her own, and tries to figure out who she is and what she wants.

I loved both of their stories. They're well-developed, filled with detail and fine-tuned emotion, and almost perfect in their tone. Right when I thought I knew what was going to happen, the story would go another way. This is a story of real people dealing with a situation probably too many people go through. 

The story makes you ask important questions

Can love last forever?

Is it meant to?

Does it mean the relationship was a failure if it ends?

Can two people who lost each other come back together again?

The ending to the book is a bit of a cliffhanger. We don't really get to find out if Clare and William stay together or if they find happiness somewhere else. While I usually am not the biggest fan of cliffhangers, I liked this ending. I love an ending with a little bit of mystery. It allows almost every reader to be happy. It doesn't matter what ending you want. 

The Lost Letters of William Woolf is a brilliantly well-developed, emotional, and complex. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute and cried my eyes out for the last 1/4 of the book. I am giving it 5 out of 5 stars. It was a joy to read, even when the characters and the story were punching me in the heart.

The Lost Letters of William Woolf by Helen Cullen comes out in the US & Canada on June 4, 2019.

Thank you to NetGalley and Graydon House Books for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Helen Cullen's novel, The Lost Letters of William Woolf, is an indirect commentary on communication as an essential skill both professionally and personally, especially within a marriage. While the fictional William Woolfe delves through the clues to be found in lost postage in the hopes of connecting it to its intended recipient, his marriage to a high powered lawyer is imploding. William has a fascination, bordering on obsession, with those letters which yield no clues whatsoever as to where they came from or where the Post Office can deliver them – ie. Santa, God! In fact, he wants to feature them in a book.
Whether communicating through the written word, face to face, over the telephone, or more innately with our body language it is this simple act that makes us vulnerable yet is the most fundamental method we have of connecting with others. Helen Cullen has provided us with a lot to think about with this book.
I received a free copy of this ebook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

William works for the Dead Letters Depot, a position he inherited and that was meant to give him time to write. When writer’s block hit, William kept the position and settled in, with rituals for selecting lost letters from the bag and a particular interest in letters to the supernatural. His wife, Clare, has also left behind her artistic intentions for the stability of the law in a firm where she is almost partner. They live in the same small apartment of their early married years because William insists that they split the mortgage and he cannot afford more. Clare is ready to move on to a life like that of her peers and for her husband to have an ambition that matches her own. Their marriage is in trouble when William finds a letter from a woman named Winter to a mysterious love. Winter’s words stir something in him, something that sends him across England in search of Winter and his sense of himself.

The premise, a frustrated writer who works in the Dead Letters Depot, and the idea that such a depot exists, is amazing. Clare could be further developed, which would make her frustration with William more understandable. The mystery of Winter and the addressee of her letters is alluring, but Cullen could do more to make us understand why William would risk his marriage to chase the mirage. She might also explain how someone surrounded with so many flashes of insight into strangers’ lives could not be moved to write. I enjoyed this read, but had moments of questioning the story’s internal logic.

Finished 7/18

When I requested The Lost Letters of William Woolf I was expecting a fun, lighthearted tale of lost letters being united with their intended recipients. That was my mistake. I assumed something based on the small amount of information available to me. I almost feel bad saying I was disappointed to find this a slightly depressing story of a disintegrating marriage. Maybe if it were promoted as being such, then readers wouldn't be left feeling as if they had purchased a ticket to see Mary Poppins and instead saw The Way We Were.

Thank you for the opportunity to preview the Lost Letters of William Woolf.
This book was not what I expected and unfortunately found it to be "not my cup of tea". I could not finish it and I do appoglize, but I found it confusing and too poetic.
thank you anyway.

”A time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence
A time of confidences

“Long ago it must be
I have a photograph
Preserve your memories
They're all that's left you”
-- Old Friends / Bookends, Simon and Garfunkel, Songwriters: Paul Simon

”More than kisses, letters mingle souls.”

Letters with no address belonging to the sender and a missing or unclear destination are lucky if they end up in East London’s Dead Letters Depot, it is their last hope. Inside the walls are thirty letter detectives who try to put together whatever clues they can to see that this mail finds a way to its intended destination. William Woolf has worked there for eleven years, since 1979, inheriting his position from his uncle, a man who filled his head with the stories found in missives that may or may not have ever found their way to the hands meant to receive them. He filled his notebooks as a child with these stories, so in the course of time these stories became somewhat of an obsession for him. These letters, the mysteries inside these letters that lie inside these walls, they speak to his soul.

”It was the letters to God, to mythics and mystics, to the other, that haunted William and formed the basis of his work. He had started collecting his favorites in the filing cabinets that lined the echoing Supernatural Division. He painstakingly typed out those he wanted to include in the volume and took photographs of the original documents. In his mind’s eye, he saw the two laid side by side on glossy, ivory pages within hard covers, the book entitled ’A Volume of Lost Letters.’”

When he finds a midnight blue envelope with handwriting of ”curls and spirals, dramatic capitals, carefully crafted lowercase letters, all in a dripping silver ink” and sees it is addressed only to “My Great Love,” he can’t resist slipping it inside his pocket, and although he’s never taken one home with him before, he feels he needs to read this without the eyes of others on him, somewhere private.

”Maybe this is the year you will find me. I hope so. I have been saving up so many stories to tell you, and I’m worried that if you stay away much longer they will all have slipped from my memory. I’ve forgotten so much already. Are you hiding somewhere? Are you lost? Do you not feel read? I wish you would hurry.”

And so it begins. There are other letters, some of which make their way to the intended recipient, thanks to his fine detective work, and those are personal, as well. Stories to make your heart melt a little. Some are more poignant than others, but this is where this story really shines.

William is married to Clare, who is at a stage in life where she is taking pole-dancing classes to ward off her pear-shaped posterior. Clare seems to resent William’s ability to be content in his going-nowhere job, she can barely recall their initial attraction, and now that all these years have passed, it seems as though they are living separate lives, together.

I had wanted to love this, and I did love parts of this, but sometimes the story of William and Clare, his viewpoints and her viewpoints, took me away from, what were for me, the best parts of this story. Several times I debated if I wanted to continue reading this, especially when I was reading Clare’s thoughts. Clare is struggling with her marriage, her feelings about William’s lack of desire for more money, bigger houses, more of everything, really. Dissatisfied with life, her marriage, she can only see a future with more. Without that promise, she may choose a different path, without William. William is struggling with Clare’s indifference to him, and their marriage.

The ending felt both rushed and inadequate to me, but it may work better for others. I didn’t expect, or even want a tidy ending with everything tied up with a neat bow, but I wanted the ending to have just a bit more substance.

Pub Date: 01 JUN 2019 (Kindle)
12 JUL 2018 (Paperback)
02 OCT 2018 (Audio)
03 OCT 2018 (Library Binding)

Many thanks for the ARC provided by HARLEQUIN – Graydon House Books (US & Canada) Graydon House

I wish to express by thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin-Graydon House Books for this advance copy in return for an honest review.

This is not the type of book I was expecting from its synopsis. I thought it would be a charming, whimsical story involving lost mail and perhaps a light romance. Instead the emphasis was on a troubled marriage. I felt no connection with the characters, finding them annoying. William was indecisive and ineffective and I disliked his wife, Clare.

The story moved at a slow pace and finally the ending seemed rushed. The author writes some lovely descriptive prose. The history, actions and conversations of the married couple failed to hold my interest. I feel the book will appeal to people interested in reading about marital problems and may be popular with various book clubs. I regret I was unable to connect with the characters or storyline and it just wasn’t for me.

William works as a detective for the Lost Letter Depot in London. His job is to try to reunite lost letters and parcels with their intended recipients. I hope such offices actually exist. William’s marriage to Clare is dissolving. They have both changed over the years. Clare has become a successful attorney. Matthew intended to write a book but cannot get started. Clare is disappointed with her husband which leads to unpleasant conversations.

A series of letters addressed only to My Great Love reach William’s desk. These are long-winded missives outlining loneliness, her innermost thoughts and the longing for her great love whom she hopes to meet someday. They are signed by a woman named Winter. Reading these lengthy, rambling letters leaves William enchanted, but made me appreciate instant messaging and e-mail. He fantasizes that fate determined these were meant for him personally. He begins a search for the woman who wrote the letters. At the same time he is sad about his deteriorating marriage.

A great idea with sub-par execution.

I honestly thought I was going to love this one. But I don't think I've ever read another contemporary novel so slow. And for such a slow pacing, you'd think there's a full resolve at the end. But no, there's no concrete ending at all.

The writing was okay, but it dragged on so much, I had to skim some parts. Otherwise, I might have quit reading it altogether.

Would not recommend it if you're looking for a quick and relaxing read. The slowness was almost stressing me out.

I wasn't a particularly big fan of this book. I had requested it because the premise of the lost letters depot sounded interesting, and I was hoping to see tons of that in this book, but it just didn't happen. There was instead too much of a focus on William and Claire's marriage, which mostly bored me. Maybe that's the kind of thing another reader would really enjoy; I did not, especially when I was expecting the lost letters thing to be the main focus.

I had some issues with the very flower-y prose at times as well, because I'm just not a fan of that style of writing, though other readers, again, may find it beautiful. I also thought the ending wrapped up a bit too neatly.

I think the biggest issue I had with this book was the focus on Claire. I didn't find her to be a very likable character, so having much of the book focused on her (when I was initially expecting it to focus more on William and the letters) disappointed me and took away from my enjoyment as well.

Overall, this book was likely not for me, but I can see how another kind of reader might enjoy it. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read an early copy.

The story pulled me in from the start. The main character comes off the pages and takes the reader along on the adventure. The secondary characters are great and quirky and add so much to the story. At first the letters seemed to interrupt the flow of the book and did not relate to the story but I quickly started looking forward to the subplots surrounding the greater mystery.

I had really been looking forward to this one for a long time! It's a unique set-up, and I've loved quite a few stories with quirky leading characters in the past couple years, which this book also has. Overall, it's a sweet, sentimental story with an Anglophile-friendly British setting. I wouldn't have minded a little more fleshing out and development of a few things, but it was an enjoyable story and a quick read.

I found the premise of this story to be fascinating and brilliant.

William Woolf works at the Dead Letters Depot as a letter detective. His primary job is to try and get letters and packages to their final destinations when they names/addresses have been worn off etc. Can I just say how cool is that job?! I feel like you would find some fascinating letters and parcels!!

William is married to Claire and she is struggling with her marriage to William. Claire's life has not turned out the way that she has wanted and is left wanting more. Their marriage is clearly having some difficulties.

One day at work William comes across a letter that is addressed to "My great love" from a mysterious woman named Winter. William continues to find letters addressed from this "Winter". He soon takes a journey of his own trying to find out who this woman is.

So... I feel like this book focused solely on the strained marriage of William and Claire. I was a bit bummed out because I really wanted more of the lost letter concept. The author only had tiny bit of this in the beginning.

I wasn't particularly fond of any of the characters... I found both women to be pretty annoying.

I also felt like the ending was a tad bit too rushed for my liking... and felt like the author was trying to hard to fit everything into a nice bow.

My interest was swaying in and out throughout the entire novel and lacked substance to me. I was bored in numerous spots.

Overall, 2 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin for the advanced arc in exchange for an honest review.
Published to GR: 6/1/18
Publication date: 10/2/18

William and Clare are far away from the lovebirds they once we're. Their marriage is no longer one of love and happiness and seems to have hit a fork in the road. William dropped his dream of writing and works in a mail room where lost letters go and his job is to deliver these letters back to their answers. One letter catches his eye. A woman has written to her great love that she assumes must be out there and employs him to come and find her. William sets off to see if he in fact could be her great love.

The writing is beautiful and it is easy to become emotionally invested in the characters. I really loved that the plot wasn't typical. It was nice to read something both deep and different.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 Stars for the parts I loved...the actual stories of the lost letters. Unfortunately I did not like Clare and at times, wanted to shake William. Overall, I’m left with the idea that they did indeed settle for each other. Rather disappointing and unsatisfactory.

William Woolf works in London’s Dead Letter Depot and tries his best to reunite lost mail and parcels with their intended recipients. So, when a beautifully written letter address to “My Greatest Love” comes across William’s desk, its contents make him question his already floundering marriage.

William is a warm and likely character and the premise of his discoveries in the Depot is what intrigued me in the first place. However, I feel as though I could have read an entire book about those discoveries alone and left the rest to another novel. I felt as though there was too much at play at any given time for plot lines and back stories to be fleshed out in their entirety. I would have liked to see Clare as more of a minor character rather than a second main character, especially since she was not as likeable as William. The story line of William looking for the writer of the Greatest Love Letters was interesting and plausible.

I was torn as to how I should review this book properly, not be too negative, and give the author the due she deserves, as this had the potential to be a five-star story. I felt as though this was a coagulation of three separate yet intertwined stories, and focusing more on William, his potential novel, and his quest to find the letter writer would have been excellent on its own. Giving Clare so much air time and explanation of her back story seemed to unnecessarily weigh the novel down. And the endings (yes, I believe there to be multiple wrap-ups to the plot lines) seemed rushed and pulled together neatly in a way as to appease the reader.

My final thought would be that I would give this novel three stars. I would certainly try Helen Collen’s work again because I thought what she did express was done beautifully and this novel had definite potential, as the initial story line was very captivating. A huge thank you to NetGalley, Helen Cullen, and Graydon House Publishing for providing me with an e-book copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The description of this book really makes you think you are in for a fun meet-cute type of romance, with some mysteries of missing mail interspersed. The reality of this book is that it is about a man who works at the Dead Letter Office who is having marital problems. He finds a few letters at work that make him think that the writer may be his real true love, which adds further complexity to his failing marriage. I found myself skimming through a lot of the "deep thoughts" parts of the book because it wasn't advancing the plot in any way. Overall, it was an okay book, but definitely not what I signed on for based on the description.

I received an advances copy from #netgalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

This book was a really interesting concept. I mean who hasn't experienced a lost piece of mail and wondering what those letters would have entailed. I really enjoyed getting to know William and was rooting for him. A light read that you will enjoy!
3.5

I am a bit torn on how I feel about this book. While it was written extremely well and kept my interest throughout, I feel a bit deceived by it. I thought I was going to be reading about the lost letter section of the mail and the book was more about a marriage strained by couple's natural progression of changing as people as time goes on and moving apart from their "old" selves that were so much in "like" and love. The story began as I thought it would, dealing with lost letters and sometimes finding the intended recipient. This part of the story I truly enjoyed and wanted more to come.

Unfortunately what followed was almost totally about the marriage in turmoil. The story extended into other people during this time, but the core was the two people in the marriage trying to find a way back together, or a way to live on apart.

Due to the change in course of the story, in my opinion, veering off the initial storyline, I am giiving the book 3 stars. Truly, if I knew the story was about a marriage in trouble, I would not have read this book. That is just not something I care to read.