I do love a book about a book!

Beautiful read, NetGalley, thanks for the chance to read and review this one.

I’m very sad to say this one was just not for me. I couldn’t get into it and it felt like a chore to get through. I couldn’t connect with the characters and thought the story was moving at an incredibly slow pace. However, I did love the format of this book (letters) and I also thought it was a very unique story.

It looks like I’m in the minority with this one and I suggest you check out other reviews because there seems to be a lot of good ones for this book!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book just wasn’t for me. The premise sounded interesting but as I was reading I just got extremely bored. As another reviewer mentioned, maybe some things were just lost in translation and it’s better in its original French writing? Thank you though to St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this arc.

I was unable to finish this so thus will not be posting a full review on my blog. I think something was lost in the translation because the story seemed like it could have been compelling but the language was harsh to read and did not flow. I'm sure it's beautiful in its original French but was too stagnant and unwieldy for me to enjoy

The sounded like a clever idea, but it didn't really work in execution. The storyline was too slow and meandering for me, and not particularly believable. Maybe if it had had the brisk pace, the solid structure, the compelling plot, the vibrant characters, and the gripping emotion of a Harlequin romance, it would have held my interest. DNF.

This is a charming, epistolary novel is about a woman named Anne-Lise who is on vacation in Brittany and finds a manuscript in a drawer. She is completely smitten with the story and makes it her mission to reunite the manuscript with its original author. The author responds in gratitude and lets her know that someone else actually completed the second half of the book, unbeknownst to the original author. In addition, a poem has been written at the end of the book by a third writer. Annelise makes it her mission to track down all of the manuscript’s contributors, inviting them into her life via their exchange of letters. There’s a nostalgic feeling to this book that harkens back to a time where people wrote meaningful letters to one another. This is a quick, light and delightful read. Although it’s categorized as romance, I’d call it fiction with light swaths of romance and mystery, but truly a book about human relationships and the ways in which writing (both letters and books) can inspire. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the advanced review copy.

This book was written differently from what I normally read. I was expecting something else too. It started out interesting but as people and their letters were added I had a hard time keeping track. It made it a bit confusing.
I’m not real sure about the ending either.
I’m sure it will find an audience who will love it’s format.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy

The Lost Manuscript
A Novel
by Cathy Bonidan
St. Martin's Press
You Like Them
Romance
Pub Date 12 Jan 2021 | Archive Date 12 Jan 2021

Thanks to St.Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book, written by a French Author I know nothing about.
I usually enjoy epistolary books. But in this case, I felt there were too many characters. It was a quick read but it was nothing life-changing for me. I will not be able to recommend this.

3 star

I'm so glad I took a chance on reading an advance copy of this novel by a French author about whom I knew nothing. This book is a delight- a perfect book for book lovers to start the new year. I've always liked epistolary novels, and this one is exceptional. It was cleverly done, showing correspondence between many characters with a unifying theme. I loved the characters, and I couldn't put the book down, wanting to find out the answer to the mystery of the book. I was also impressed with the quality of the translation. I found this book completely charming and a joy to read. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more by the author.

I requested this book after someone on a NetGalley blog recommended it. Honestly, the premise is cute and I thought it would be a nice change of pace and something not so series to add to my reading. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out the purpose of the story and was bored with it.

Unfinished manuscript found in a hotel room and returned to author after 30 years and meddlesome person tries to trace the journey of the last 30 years. Ok, so they figure out the path of this manuscript and each one says how “life-changing” it was for them, but we never get to know what the manuscript is except that it’s semi-autobiographical. Maybe I missed a huge chunk, maybe I skimmed over THE defining moment, I’m not sure, but it bored me to tears. And the letters...I’m not opposed to stories written this way, but too many seemed to have no bearing at all on the story. Again, maybe I missed something. Definitely not for me.

Thank you NetGalley, the publishers and the author for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This wasn't anything special, but it did provide the distraction I was looking for during some of the most stressful months of this pandemic. Epistolary novels are always quick reads, so add this to your list if that's what you're looking for!

I was excited to read The Lost Manuscript after reading the description and other readers' reviews. The story is intriguing...."What would you do if you found a manuscript in a hotel room?" Of course, you would read it. But would you try to find the author? I find that implausible. The story written in epistolary form has much potential but I felt that there were too many characters. All in all, I was disappointed. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I enjoyed how the characters intertwined and how their stories converged with fate.

This resonated with me—“ ..it is only as teenagers that we plunge into love as if we were going to die the next day. The older we get, the more we hem and haw; as if time no longer mattered. Isn’t it funny?”

An interesting idea and made me think about how we communicate every day. We do not write "paper letters" as we did in the past and think of them as old-fashioned but the joke is that people today do more writing and reading than before through texting, tweeting, emailing, etc.

This book has us reading the letters between the author of a book found by this woman and it is learning about each other throw their letters.

What a lovely novel! The Lost Manuscript is a beautifully written, heartwarming story. I listened to this audiobook and it was wonderful. Easy to follow with a great narrator! I highly recommend this unique and charming book.

I usually love epistolary novels but this one lost my interest early on and never regained it. It was too long and rambling, with too many characters, all of which sounded too much alike.

The Lost Manuscript was funny and touching. A nice lighthearted read and very quick due to the epistolary format. It reminded me a lot of A Man Called Ove. My only complaint is that the translation was a little clunky. I imagine the original french was a much more charming and free flowing story. But at the same time like Ove, the translation also lends charm.

THE LOST MANUSCRIPT by Cathy Bonidan will be published in the United States in January and I encourage you to look for it. The award-winning author teaches school and lives in Vannes, France. Her main character, Anne-Lise Briard, vacations in Brittany where she finds a manuscript in her hotel room. After reading and being moved by the story, she returns it to an address that was inside the book. The author responds and Anne-Lise learns that the manuscript was lost 30 years ago and has since been finished by an unknown second author. That starts a wonderful journey to trace the book's activity over the last few decades. The story is told in light, breezy, honest letters between Anne-Lise and Sylvestre Fahmer, the somewhat reclusive author. Eventually, others join the correspondence and the reader learns of thwarted love affairs, estranged parents and children, and budding friendships. Along the way, the manuscript positively impacts its readers and I must say that I found reading the letters to be a delight. They are filled with hope, mystery and even romance, as Bonidan relays the power of books and of caring for each other. Publishers Weekly gave THE LOST MANUSCRIPT a starred review. Add it to your "to be read" pile for 2021 now.

This unusual book is made up completely of letters (apparently this format is called an “epistolary novel”). It took me a while to get absorbed by the convoluted story, but eventually I got pulled in. Anne-Lise finds a manuscript in a hotel room in Brittany and spends a lot of effort into finding out how it got there, making good friends along the way. This novel was just okay for me. There were a lot of convenient coincidences and the prose, due to the letter-writing format, was a bit wordy, so I found myself skimming a bit here and there.

This book was originally published in French under a different title (essentially “Room 128”) and the translator, Emma Ramadam, did a good job.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Cathy Bonidan’s The Lost Manuscript is an epistolary novel that follows Anne-Lise, who, while on vacation on the Brittany coast, finds an abandoned type written manuscript in her hotel room nightstand.

So taken by this novel, and finding the author’s address at the end, she sends the book off to the original owner. Though she doesn’t expect a reply, she gets an astonishing one—the author had lost his manuscript 30 years ago—and he didn’t even write the second half of the book.

Her interest piqued, Anne-Lise won’t rest until she finds who the second mystery author is. And what she discovers during her amateur sleuthing is a host of people who got their hands on the book and had their lives changed forever.

And that’s all before she discovers the shocking identity of the author who finished the story.

This book was such a lovely surprise. I’ve never actually read an epistolary novel before, but I was hooked by the format. Even though the pacing is a bit slow because of it, it’s a welcome change for those times you need a more quiet read.

It’s also written so beautifully. Though some might call the prose “purple,” I actually enjoy it. There’s something about this type of language that feels lyrical to me. And even though I don’t encounter many people who speak like this any more (or who actually exchange hand-written letters), this book felt like a song and I was immersed. I can only imagine how this must sound in the original French.

This book releases January 12, and if you’re in any way moved by beautiful language, clever literary puzzles, and powerful character backstories, I highly recommend this one

Special thanks to @stmartinspress for giving me the opportunity to read this advance copy though NetGalley. What a pleasure.