I had never come across Caroline George before, but I kept seeing Dearest Josephine on my Instagram feed. The cover grabbed me, and I instantly looked up what it was about.

Dearest Josephine features a dual timeline. One in 2020 following Josie De Clare trying to navigate her life after her father’s death, a bad break-up and discovering her father had secretly purchased an estate in Atteberry; and the second following Elias Roch 200 years in the past in 1820, who is trying to navigate his life as the bastard son and heir of a Lord, grieve for his mother and write. These timelines collide when Josie finds letters written by Elias all starting with ‘Dearest Josephine’, and a manuscript, in which Elias wrote about his life, and his love for a Josephine De Clare in 1820. We as the reader, not only read about Josie’s life in 2020 and Elias’ life in 1820, but we get to read Elias’ manuscript.

I loved the concept of this book, and as soon as Caroline George announced that ARCs were available on NetGalley, I knew I had to request it. And I was incredibly intrigued for the first 80 to 100 pages, but I quickly lost interest when I realised that the format of the book was not going to change. Josie’s timeline in 2020 is written through emails between her and her childhood best friend, Faith, and through text messages with her mother and ex-boyfriend, and while this contrasted against Elias’ letters from 1820, it didn’t provide enough substance for me to care about anything Josie was doing. Emails aren’t supposed to be long and full of poetic prose and beautiful descriptions, but I think this book deserved that as Josie was at an old estate in the English countryside. I wanted to feel like I was there with Josie and wanted to feel the ambience of what a small countryside village could provide. But I couldn’t get that from Josie’s emails. As I began to realise the format was not going to change, I, unfortunately, wanted to DNF this book. It really pained me to come to the decision because I was looking forward to reading this book so much. The synopsis promised me a book I was definitely going to love, but the book itself didn’t achieve that.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction for this ARC.

I’m grinning like an idiot, and I can’t stop.

This book was a rollercoaster of emotions. It took a minute for me to get into it, because of the format, but it was so compelling. This would honestly make a great movie. I loved Josie! She always had me laughing. She was so relatable.

And the sass of Elias *bows down*

His love letters were the stuff of fairytales. I was swooning so much! I was hardcore shipping him and Josie, but then...I won’t spoil anything, but that ending was what Rom-Coms are made of. I love you to the moon and back - er, well, can’t say his name because spoilers, but you know who you are *wink*

Also, let’s give a round of applause for Faith Moretti. She was SUCH a great friend!

*insert clapping noise here*

The writing, as well, was just pure magic. I was constantly highlighting little tidbits here and there. They were truly iconic. I think I may have found a new author to obsess over…

I would have loved it even more maybe if it was in traditional first-person, but in a lot of ways, I think that’s just how this story is. I see a lot of reviewers about other books saying “well, I didn’t like it because the author didn’t tell it this way” and believe me, I understand! But sometimes there’s no other way to tell a story. And with this one, it was perfect. I’m honestly keeping my eyes peeled for a movie adaptation just because I think it would be amazing.


Big thanks to Thomas Nelson Publishing House + Netgalley for sending me an ARC of this beauty!

This book was so unexpected!

This was the first time reading this author and I really liked her style.

The story is told from two POVs, Josie's in 2020, and Elias in 1820, mostly in emails, texts, and letters.
At first, I almost quit the book, but I'm glad I stuck with it, and the more I read, the more I liked it.

There are Gothic elements, mystery, romance, and I couldn't tell which way the story was going to end. But I loved the ending!

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

Dearest Josephine is a book containing several stories in one, and I’m not entirely sure it was for the best.

Dearest Josephine tells the present-day story about Josie De Clare, who moved to an estate in Atteburry after her father’s death, where she tries to renovate the old building. Her story is told through e-mails with her best friend, Faith, and text messages with her mother, Faith, an elderly couple living on the estate and their grandson Oliver. Josie find old letters from a man called Elias Roch, who lived 200 years ago and never posted his letters to a Josephine De Clare, which brings us to the second story being told. The third story that is told, is a manuscript that Elias Roch has written that Josie finds as well.

The manuscript is the only book-like storytelling in Dearest Josephine. Everything else is text messages and e-mails. I think it was a very cute way to tell the story, and the short chapters of manuscript in between the letters were a nice way to change the pace. However, the writing of it all bothered me a bit. The e-mails between Faith and Josie were sometimes written like beautiful prose, like two literature-majors showing off their skills, while Elias’ manuscript was written awkwardly and changed in pacing every other page.

Another thing that bothered me a bit was everybody falling in love at first sight (or letter, I guess). Josie reads one letter from Elias, and decides this man living 200 years ago is her soulmate. What bothered me the most about that relationship, though, was Josie reading about Elias describing his Josephine De Clare (who looks and acts a lot like Josie, almost like they are twins), and her first thought isn’t ‘Maybe this Josephine is my great-great-great grandmother and this Elias my great-great-great grandfather’. I feel like that would be a much more logical conclusion than ‘this man that has been dead for 200 years wrote about me’.

The pacing of all the stories was a bit off as well. The book is quite slow in the beginning and middle, whereas the ending suddenly goes into overdrive. Everything had to be solved in a few chapters. I think the story would’ve benefited from one story less to really flesh out the other two.

The stories themselves were kinda cute, and I did enjoy the book. I ended up with 3/5 stars. It was a fun read, but it won’t be very memorable to be. Which makes me sad, because the premise was so good.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Dearest Josephine in exchange for an honest review.

Dearest Josephine is the kind of book that you instantly know would make a beautiful movie. The story is told entirely in letters, emails, texts, and through a manuscript (more on that later) and tracks love stories in the 1800s and present. The main protagonist we follow, Josie, has just lost her father at the cusp of adulthood and now lives alone in the house he apparently bought before dying. She's just been dumped by her garbage boyfriend and when we catch up with her, she's reaching out to her best friend from boarding school who she lost touch with after getting together with said garbage boyfriend and we follow her story from there. Along with Josie, we discover a pile of letters in the home seemingly addressed to her only to learn that they were written by a man named Elias in the 1800s and meant for another Josephine who also has a recently deceased father and seems to bear a striking resemblance to our modern day protagonist.

As Elias searches for his Josephine, our Josie finds herself finding more and more in love with a long dead man who she believe sees her like no one else has also been able to. Although Elias only meets his Josephine once, we get more interacts between the 2 through a manuscript of Elias' Josie also finds that gives the reader a glimpse into what Elias and Josie could have been.

I'm not going to lie, beyond the mystery of finding out what connected Elias to modern-Josie, I didn't think I was going to be able to say I truly enjoyed this book. I loved Josie's text conversations and her emails and Elias's letters were both enjoyable to read, but the manuscript segments really never interested me and they take up a huge portion of the book. With the final reveal however, I became so suddenly and overwhelmingly emotional that I couldn't justify not giving this a decent rating.

Okay! I’m confused. So many thought balloons flying above my head! A three star read normally means I’m standing at Switzerland border: neither I liked it too much nor I hated this book!

But this time: I liked and I disliked several things at the same time about my reading. Yes, this is another first which also meant it was compelling thing to decide between three and four stars, evaluating my pros and cons.

For giving a clear picture of my foggy opinions I listed the reasons why I liked and disliked this novel at the same time. Here we go!

I liked this book so much because I always keen on seeing different ways of telling the stories. Using letters, emails, texts, novel manuscript is creative and entertaining way of introducing the characters and processing of the story.

We have three main sources of story: Josie De Clare’s present day emails and texts which involve her communication with best friend Faith, new friend and possibly third wheel of her love triangle, charming boy next door Oliver and her mom.

We have mysterious letters written to Josie De Clare by Elias Roch but interesting fact even though those letters share the same name with our heroine Josie, they belong to regency era and written to a mysterious woman Elias Roch met at a masquerade. He saw her only one time and he truly fell for her. Present time Josie finds these letters at a Northern England estate where she recently inherited after her father’s sudden past away. So how those letters can be written for a woman who share exact same name with her?

Our third source is Elias’ manuscript he has written for his devoted love Josie who is married with his cousin.

You got confused, right? Join the club!

Time crossed lovers theme is another tempting story idea which I wholeheartedly fall for! So I liked the original, creative ideas and writing style. And I also adored Faith and Oliver’s characterizations! These elements are strengths of the novel!

But... here are the reasons I fell out of love with this book:
The execution of these powerful ideas failed me...
If you ask me why I say : well, time crossed lovers’ story was not credible for me. It was too insta love without any depth, any powerful emotion that make me feel their true love! I didn’t believe in them. And even though I adored the supporting characters, I disliked both Josie and Elias. I still don’t know what makes their love so powerful or did they truly fall for each other? Because there is not enough proof, sentimental facts about their soul mate kind of intimacy!

Whether I truly enjoyed the idea and writing style, when the love story didn’t resonate with my feelings, the book is doomed to fail for me!

I still liked to read more works of the author because I found the idea of time jumps and gathering past and present via different inscribed sources very creative!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

I give this book 3.5 stars
This was a really good book. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about it because it was mainly written in letters, but it was still a good book. Dearest Josephine is the debut novel of Caroline George and it is published by Thomas Nelson.
Josie De Claire is having a horrible year. She is suffering from the loss of her father and dealing with a teen-life crisis. But then she finds out that her father left her property in Northern England. While exploring the estate she discovers love letters two-hundred years written by an elusive novelist, all addressed to someone named Josephine. But then she discovers a novel in which it seems like she’s the heroine.
Elias Roch lives in 1820 and he loves a woman he can never be with. Born as an illegitimate son to a nobleman and cast out of society, Elias retreats into his mind with the quirky woman who draws him into a fantasy world of scandal, betrayal, and unconditional love. As Elias writes letters to this mysterious woman, he divulges the tragedy and trials of his personal life.
This was a complex book but I still enjoyed it. Josie was an interesting character because I don’t think I connected with her as much. However, I did feel for her as she struggled to balance her life and get everything back on track. She was just trying to figure out what she was going to do with her life. It was interesting to see Josie as she read the letters and novel. I loved her relationship with her friend, Faith. Faith was so fun.
Josie struggled to make sense of her life and figure out why she felt so connected to this man in the past. Elias was a different kind of character then I am used to. He was more emotional than I usually see, but he was still fascinating to read about. It was captivating to read about Elias’ and Josie’s lives intertwining. I have to say, I was pretty happy with the ending.
Although this is not originally my kind of book, it was still good. I was a little confused when it would jump scenes. It would move from letter to novel and I would forget where I was. I did receive an electronic arc, so I don’t know if that affected it. However, otherwise I liked it. I would recommend this book if you like books written in letters.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the publisher through Netgalley. All views expressed are only my honest opinion, a positive review was not required.

When I found out that this book is about time-crossed lovers, I immediately had to have it. I feel like this trope is not explored a lot in most genres and I am so glad I happened to stumble upon this book. The story alternates between letters and emails, as well as the narrative format. I enjoyed the pacing of the book, I felt it wasn't too dragging and also not rushed. I especially loved the romance between Josie and Elias (even if it was a bit insta love), owing again to the time-crossed lovers aspect of it all.

I desperately wanted to like this book, especially because the structure of how it is written is my favourite: mostly through letters, emails etc. But something just didn't work for me in this book and I'm trying to figure out what exactly it is.

- First of all, I will give Caroline props for her writing. She knows how to write a good book and I think the premise was really good but I think the overwhelming feeling I had towards the characters was a disappointment.
- Everything was so insta-love and I hated it. I don't ever get books that make their characters fall in love in a click. It's not realistic and Elias isn't even from this century.
- Which brings me onto the other thing, I didn't like any of the characters. Not one. They were either one dimensional or just incredibly annoying.

Overall, a sweet premise with a lack of flair and substance. I wanted to like this book and I just couldn't get through it without cringing.
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

First sentence: Hi Faith, I did a thing. A big thing. And I’m not sure how to tell you without sounding like the rotten human being who abandoned her best friend for a boy.

Premise/plot: There is a framework to Dearest Josephine that I'm guessing readers will either love or hate. Josie De Clare, our heroine, is mourning the loss of her father and has gone to an estate her father (secretly) owned near the Scottish border. While there she discovers a stash of letters addressed to JOSEPHINE DE CLARE and an unfinished manuscript of a novel. The writer is Elias Roch. The letters are dated 1820. (She also has a portrait of Elias in the house).

There are three concurrent plots for readers: 1) present day Josie De Clare emailing and texting her friends and family (her best friend, Faith, her new friend, Oliver, and her Mum; 2) Regency era, sulky Elias Roch writing letters to a mystery woman named Josephine De Clare that he met just once at a masquerade; 3) Elias Roch's FICTIONAL manuscript in which he fantasizes that he finds Josephine De Clare again--though there's a catch, she's engaged to his cousin. (This fictional novel changes some names--though not Josephine's name.)

As the present day Josie reads Elias' words, she falls madly, deeply, passionately in love--very very INSTA LOVE--with a man she can never have. The more she falls for HIM the less in touch with reality she becomes. Will Faith and Oliver--her present day friends--keep her grounded in the present and hopeful for the future? Or is she destined to be just as sulky as Elias?

My thoughts: I have many, many, many thoughts on this one. I do. I'll start with the positive. My favorite character is OLIVER. If there is redemption to be found in this one--redeeming it from being a I-regret-wasting-my-time-novel--it's in Oliver's personality and character. (I also like his grandparents. Though we don't get enough of them to really qualify as being minor-minor characters.)

The novel is told almost exclusively through letters, texts, and emails. We do get replies back. Faith's texts and emails to Josie. Oliver's texts to Josie. I guess I'm neutral about this narrative choice. I will say that the narrative voice(s) are a bit weak.

The love triangle is persistent yet weak. Readers can't really escape the fact that Josie is falling for TWO boys. Elias lived during the Regency period--I'm guessing he was born circa 1800 give or take a year or two. Oliver is her present day flirty-bantery-boy-next-door.

INSTA love is strong in this one. Without excuses and unashamedly. Josie falls INSTANTLY for Elias. Elias falls INSTANTLY for Josephine. Oliver falls INSTANTLY in love with Josie.

Everything is DRAWN OUT a bit unrealistically. I think in real life if one discovered a bundle of letters, one wouldn't space reading each one out so much. It seems that days--if not weeks--go by in between her reading of each letter AND individual chapters in the manuscript. This is a narrative technique so that Josie's story unfolds simultaneously to the letters and novel. But at the same time while it might be necessary as a plot device, it's a bit unrealistic. If you could sit down with a stack of letters--even if there were twenty or thirty plus--and a couple of cups of tea--over a weekend, then it would only make sense that you do so. The novel sections in particular seem drawn out. Josie must be the slowest reader ever.

Elias reads like he's the fantasy dream boy of a book-loving eleven or twelve year old. Josie is a college student.

The premise--if carried out--is intriguing. IF the present-day Josie de Clare is actually actually the mystery woman from Elias's past--if they are one in the same--then that might be intriguing enough if carried out well. Perhaps she hasn't met him yet--but she will--somehow, someway travel back in time and meet him. But nope. That's not this story, this novel.

Readers can choose whether or not to believe they are one in the same or not...but there's nothing decisive in the story besides Josie's stubborn persistence that HER ONE TRUE LOVE, HER ONLY SOLE MATE, THE ONE SHE WAS DESTINED TO SPEND ETERNITY WITH FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER BLISSFULLY HAPPY was born two centuries ago.

The present day narrative is believable enough I suppose. I suppose that a young college age girl could write, talk, and act like Josie. Could.

The past narrative is a bit less believable. Elias' writing doesn't really feel time-appropriate? I mean the phrasing is a bit stilted. It's like he's writing in a modern-day voice with a few old-fashioned phrases tucked here and there. But it's almost like Elias is a bit fish out of water in his own time. For example, I couldn't figure out why/how it was that Lorelai, a young woman, could live unchaperoned with Elias for weeks/months so matter of factly. Young women--even if on the best most friendliest of terms--didn't just go and spend weeks/months with SINGLE men with no chaperones of her own or his own. It's the two of them in this estate/house plus a couple of servants. True, he's mainly so obsessed with sulking that he doesn't have lusty-lusty thoughts about taking advantage of her. But still. It just wasn't appropriate.

The novel-within-the-novel reads like bad fan fiction. In my opinion.

Quotes:

The words inside me are so palpable and consuming they withhold rest until I let them out in the world.
“Ah, I see.” She laughed, her face scrunching to make space for a grand smile. “You need not feel shy around me, though. I’ll be enough not shy for the both of us.” “You’re too generous.” Elias smiled beneath his shroud.
My headmaster once said we take from books what we bring to them, meaning books are but reflections of us. I share that belief now. For the sake of literature, I undressed on a page. I exposed myself in a quiet intimacy. Now I am seen and spent, and I have no more to show.
For years we envied the girls in romcoms. We hoped guys would look at us like that—like we were beautiful and one of a kind. You found Noah, but I had no one. Until now. Now I’m that girl, and I won’t pretend it doesn’t matter. Something fantastical happened to me. Two hundred years ago, a man fell in love with someone, and that someone—or at least her twin—found his letters centuries later. Elias and I were meant for each other. I must continue to search for his book even if you think I’m crazy because . . . I feel him like a sharp pain in my side.
Her kiss tasted like . . . finally.
That was all he wanted to be—the boy who saw a girl and never stopped seeing her, the boy whose love never grew stagnant.
My soul was made for your soul. A love like that cannot be forgotten.