I don’t think this book is bad per se it just isn’t the right pick for me. I enjoyed the overall premise, South Asian representation, Divya & Christian storyline, dual point of view between Ravi and Jessie, as well as how short and easy it was to read. However I did find the relationship to lean towards the Insta-love sort which is not something I personally enjoys. This therefore made it quite difficult for me to get fully invested in the book. I am also not fond on the usage of terms such as ‘pick me’ or ‘nepo baby’, it kind of felt forced and like the characters were written to match gen z internet portrayals which unfortunately isn’t always a realistic portrayal.

Thank you, Skyscape, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Pride and Prejudice meets Romeo and Juliet.

First year university student and first generation Indian-American Jessie Ahuja has one goal for herself, study hard, earn her engineering degree, and live out the American dream her father was denied. When she meets campus superstar Ravi Kumar, she knows she has nothing in common with this third generation American Indian with his life of wealth and privilege.

This is my kind of read! It pays homage to all my favorite tropes and knocks it home with the mandatory HEA. I enjoyed the back and forth, the relationship development, despite one of them experiencing insta-attraction, the other kept up the enemies to lover's ride until, the pivot, the fall into a relationship seemed rushed. From I loathe you, to let's do all the things seemed to skip a lot of steps for me. Despite the turn of Jessie's countenance seeming to come out of thin air, the story did its job of explaining how race and economic diversity can make for a difficult love story.

Since I love a quick read, it worked for me.

Let me start by saying I love Nisha! I loved her books in the dating dr dil series!

There were so many things that intrigued me about this book:
South Asian rep
Letter writing
Dual POV
Letter writing
The intertwining of an old love story and mystery
Academia
Romance against the odds


Sadly, this book fell a little flat for me. Jesse and Ravi are both sweet, college aged students. (This is a new adult romance). Their life paths and differences in how they were raised (one with money and one without) create barriers for their love story. Through the unfolding of a love story from the 70s they start to unravel together they learn that their love just might be enough to beat the odds.

The characters felt a little one dimensional for me. I was hoping to see more depth from both of them. Jessie is extremely focused on their differences in SES and this is brought up endlessly throughout the novel. Ravi, although sweet, instantly falls for Jessie.

I was also expecting a little more from the letter writing. I was expecting more depth from them. The final letter written is what I was expecting for the letters throughout the novel.

Overall it was a pleasant read and I liked a lot of the components. I loved reading the authors note and why this story is special to her and I do like how the letters and current story parallel each other.

You’ll never see this but I still love you Nisha.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an e-ARC of this in exchange for my review!

Two rival students, a decades old mystery love story gone tragically wrong, and the possibility of falling in love and a dash of Jane Austen. Jessie Ahuja is a freshman who is an aspiring engineer on a scholarship, she has her entire life mapped out and is determined to do whatever it takes to succeed. Ravi Kumar is the privileged billionaire nepo baby who is as charming as he is intelligent. Ravi and Jessie run into each other at a party and immediately get under each other's skin. Jessie and Ravi soon find out that they are both in the same english class and when they both end up locked up in the old haunted school library, famous for being the place where two ill-fated lovers disappeared in a fire over fifty years ago... the last thing they both expect is to find said lover's letters and to begin to work on solving the mystery of what happened to the lovers all those years ago. Despite constantly fighting for the study room, they decide to spend time together reading the letters and working out what happened to the famous lovers. Ravi and Jessie soon begin to fall for one another, but are their world's too different, with Ravi's wealthy family and Jessie's insecurities about their different worlds... can romance really work between them? This was an utterly charming and adorable read, it's definitely such a cute take on Pride and Prejudice with a modern love letter touch. Ravi and Jessie were an adorable couple. I loved how they fell for one another and how their love story evolved. It was just a sweet read and I would absolutely recommend it!!

*Thanks Netgalley and Skyscape for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I am obsessed with Nisha Sharma and Ravi.
The he falls harder trope is so good. The intertwining of the two love stories is something I wish we could have gotten more of. The ending left me wanting for more from both love stories.
This mystery romance was so adorable and I’m so very thankful for the ARC and opportunity to read it.

This was a cute book. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good YA book, but this one was geared towards what felt like a 16 year old YA book. Nothing wrong with the writing, I just felt like it was more towards a much younger audience than I’m used to with some YA books. The writing was still beautiful though!

It’s been a while since I read a novel for a younger audience, in this case, a New Adult romance. But even so, The Letters We Keep is instantly captivating, with characters that feel real and both a love story and a mystery keeping the pages turning. Jessie Ahuja has just started her first year of college, and I could relate to her in several ways: She comes from a working class background, she’s wholly focused on her classes, and she’s working part-time to afford being a full-time student. She is completely unlike Ravi Kumar, a college senior and billionaire nepo baby. He’s never needed to worry about money or his career prospects… but he is at odds with his controlling dad, who insists Ravi follow in his footsteps, ignoring his own passion for creative writing.

Jessie and Ravi start off as rivals, not only due to their different backgrounds and Jessie’s resulting prejudice against Ravi, but also because they both want to use the same study room at the library. Jessie isn’t the only one who cares about her grades! She’s inadvertently stolen the study room Ravi’s been using the past few years, and neither one is willing to give it up. This sets off a weeks-long battle for the room, which also leads them to stumble across a decades-old campus mystery. When they find the secret letters of two students who may have died in a fire back in the 1970s, Jessie and Ravi overcome their differences and team up to unravel this unsolved mystery.

The Letters We Keep is interspersed with short letters that one of the missing students wrote to her forbidden college boyfriend. She was Indian and he was white, and they could never be together, despite their love for each other. As Jessie and Ravi work through the letters and track down anyone who could know what happened, they get to spend a lot of time together. Playing detective opens up the opportunity for their own unlikely love story to unfold.

I enjoyed seeing two people—so opposite in some ways but so similar in others—get close to each other through this shared project. It’s a rapidly unfolding campus romance, but Jessie still has her reservations, largely due to their different financial backgrounds. As someone who’s also felt the impact of money constraints my whole life, I appreciated the discussions Jessie and Ravi have about wildly disparate socioeconomic standings, career prospects, and family support. Would them being together ever work out, or are they just too different? Would his family ever approve of her, or would they tear them apart?

The Letters We Keep is a fast-paced and thoughtful novel about star-crossed lovers kept apart by race or socioeconomic standings, solving a decades-old mystery, and forging your own path no matter the odds against you. I enjoyed both the romance and mystery aspects of it, and am pleased with my first foray into Nisha Sharma’s non-adult novels.

This book was really sweet! I love the idea of a lost love that rivaled main couple bringing them closer together. Despite lifestyles and upbringings, they couldnt be kept apart. I hope Nisha Sharma write more New Adult romances in the future because this one was very heartwarming.

This was such a different experience for me in reading a Nisha Sharma book. Although there are other books by her I havent read yet, But something about academia setting, the two MCs coming together in that type of setting was so unique.
It was also a promise of time together and that was something I looked forward to a lot when reading.

totally rec this one!

Great plot and great romance

The Letters We Keep by Nisha Sharma was a great romance story!
This was so fun and cute and I loved both characters.
Jessie and Ravi really sucked me into their story.
The writing was great and I couldn’t really feel the emotion and characters feelings here.

Thank You NetGalley and Skyscape for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

oq dizer de um livro que acompanha dois jovenzinhos que se apaixonam no mesmo tempo em que descobrem uma história de amor ao lerem cartas que eles encontraram?

jessie e ravi são tão, mas tão fofos que eu fiquei metado do tempo esperando eles ficarem juntos e a outra esperando a nisha escrever mais uma cena deles se declarando um para o outro s2s2

esse é o livro perfeito para (na minha cabeça) para se ler numa tarde chuvosa com sua bebida de conforto favorita, inclusive saudade de tomar thai (um chá típico indiano)… enfim, ravi e jessie são dois alunos da classe de “nao ficcao” e o trabalho final é escrever sobre alguém e seu legado. depois de uma leve rixa por uma determinada sala de estudos, eles encontram em uma parta da universidade um pilha de cartas de amor de um dos lados da história e juntos vão desvendar se essa história tem ou não um final feliz e eu amei!

tudo nesse livro é lindo e gostoso de desfrutar! eu amo você nisha sharma, você sempre será uma lenda viva para mim… aah, a nota ficou 10/5 ⭐️ e tbm foi favoritado com todas as minhas forças 🫶🏽

opinião sincera para o netgalley e editora da autora em troca da cópia avançada. o livro lançou dia 01 de maio e está disponível no KU ou o audiolivro no Audioble :)

When they discover old letters hidden in the university library, unlikely pair Jessie Ahuja, an ambitious and by-the-book freshman, and Ravi Kumar, a rich, nepo-kid senior, team up to unravel the truth behind a longtime mystery on campus. They just may have found correspondence between the couple rumored to have disappeared during the legendary fire in the library’s Davidson Tower.

As they spend more and more time together, Jessie and Ravi discover that, despite their surface differences and disparate socioeconomic backgrounds, they have more in common than they originally thought.

At a glance:
- New Adult (college age/setting, some on-page love scenes)
- South Asian representation
- Dual POV
- Epistolary
- He falls first (I do so love it when he falls first!)

I appreciated the honest portrayals of Jessie’s and Ravi’s lives, their similarities, and their differences. I enjoyed watching two love stories unfold—the one between Jessie and Ravi and the one depicted in the letters. And the ending gave me all the warm fuzzies.

I highly recommend reading the “Dear Reader” section after the story’s conclusion.

I received an advance copy of the book from Skyscape and NetGalley. All review opinions are my own.

Overall, I did like it, but I felt that while their backgrounds were a little cliché, it felt like they were mentioned way too many times. I really enjoyed the mystery aspect with the letters and how they intertwined it with South Asian culture and what it was like for an interracial couple in the 1970s. I did love the inclusion of the actual letters mixed in the chapters! I did like how the ending of the mystery wrapped up, especially the epilogue!

The romance also felt a little rushed and a little too insta-love for me. This was definitely written for a younger audience so I feel like I would’ve loved it more if I read it at a younger age!

Thank you to Skyscape and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

BOOK REVIEW: The Letters We Keep by Nisha Sharma 💌✨📖

SYNOPSIS: In a captivating romance, two rival college students from different worlds unite to solve the mystery of a legendary love story gone wrong. Locked in a haunted library, they uncover forgotten letters and embark on an enchanting journey.

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

TROPES:
- Rival to Lovers
- College Romance
- Solving a mystery together
- Reading old love letters in a library
- Friendship to lovers
- Star-crossed

I absolutely loved everything about this book! What can i say? When a story has discovering or/and reading of old love letters, i’m sold! 🤩 I was enthralled from the beginning till the end. I love how strong the characters were written and i could relate to both Ravi and Jessie. Overall, it was a lighthearted and quick read! This book had me smiling a lot 🥹

Happy Pub Day, @nishawrites 💛 You’ve done it again! Thank you for constantly writing stories that melts our hearts! ✨💫 Thank you Nisha, @mbc_books and @netgalley for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Letters We Keep is such a cute love story that didn't drag out or take half the book for the characters to get together. It was very easy to get attached to the characters and cheer them on. I wish the story was a little bit longer. Something happened in the end that I wanted to read more about, but that's mostly because I wasn't ready to let these characters go.

Nisha Sharma is an amazing story teller. This was my first time reading one of her books and I definitely want to read more!

Brief Synopsis: Jessie and Ravi find hidden letters in an old library tower. The tower is rumored to be haunted after a fire and the disappearance of two students. The letters turn out to be love letters possibly written by one of the students that disappeared. For a class assignment, Jessie and Ravi work together to uncover the mystery of the haunted tower and the love story between the two students that disappeared. And they fall for each along the way.

This was cute and a very quick read. Jessie is an engineering student who is focused on working hard to keep her scholarship to get a career that will allow her to support her family. Ravi comes from a family of who has made major waves in the tech industry and has expectations of him following in their footsteps, except he has a passion for writing fiction and his family does not see that as a viable career.

I really liked the mystery surrounding the school's legend of the fire. When Jessie and Ravi find some old letters between secret lovers from 50 years ago they believe it's in relation to the legend and are determined to figure out who these star crossed lovers are. This and the battle of the library study room was a fun way to bring these characters who are seemingly outside of one anothers orbit together.

The Relationship development seemed like a medium-burn, but as soon as it hit, everything happened a little too fast for me. In one scene Jessie is freaking out about the fact that she had her very first kiss ever with Ravi, then we have a time jump where she has been avoiding him for a few days and next thing you know they are sleeping together. It just started to feel a little rushed to me in the second half.

Thank you to NetGalley and Skyscape for the ARC.

*4.5

This was really cute. Ravi and Jessie were adorable and I loved the letters. He fell so hard for her and I'm obsessed. He wasn't going to let anything get in the way of being together.

I received an arc through netgalley.

3/5 ⭐️ Rating

I love the inclusivity of the story and the dual POV. The book overall was a miss for me. I don't usually read YA but I gave this one a try anyways. There was one "Steamy" scene and it was very medically written. I am a nurse and I am all for using current terms for genitalia but for a book I thought it was weird and cringey. I don't usually read spicy books and I knew that is was a YA book but the scene was hard to read. I liked how the female relationships developed throughout the book. They were really there for each other when needed and I loved how Sahdna called Jessie out on how she was acting with Ravi. I wanted more of the love story between Divya and Christian. I was intrigued by their story but I felt like there wasn't enough in the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Skyscape for this Advanced Copy in exchange for my honest review.

Jessie Ahuja has no time for anything that will distract her from maintaining her scholarship at college, unfortunately Ravi Kumar enters her life. What starts out as a rivalry for a study room in the library, leads to an unexpected relationship plus a decades old mystery. As Ravi and Jessie work together to find out what happened to the legendary star crossed lovers at their school, they find that their situation is very similar to the old lovers' story.
This was a cute and quick read. I felt like it was more a YA romantic fiction but it was still a fun read. Jessie and Ravi both came off as a bit immature and the family dynamics, especially Ravi's were a bit cliché. I found it hard to believe that their love story was somehow difficult and yet there was an obvious homosexual relationship in the book that just worked with no problems? Especially knowing the Indian community, either Jessie and Ravi are horrible friends and made everything about them, or the other couple was extremely lucky.
Overall it was a nice easy read but just ok overall.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Letters We Keep was such a fun, endearing love story-slash-mystery that was a short, easy read with some surprisingly spicy moments. It’s set at a university, between a freshman, Jessie, and an upperclassman, Ravi, who meet at a party and instantly are at odds. The pair constantly butt heads until one night, a dare/competition of who can stick it out in the haunted library tower the longest turns into a joint journey into uncovering the campus mysterious legend of a missing couple from the 70’s when they find a hidden cache of letters between the lovers. The time the Jessie and Ravi spend together draw them together, and as they fall in love, the path of their relationship begins to mirror that of the couple they’re researching. Their ambitions and goals and families begin to tear them apart, but can they defy the odds of staying together? Endearing story, despite the short length of the book, and easy to pick up and finish without too much investment or time, yet still rewarding as a story.