📚Return to Sender
🖌️Author: Lauren Draper
🖋️Publication: @harpercollins360
📝P.g.: 416
🗂️Genre: Young Adult Mystery

4,5/⭐️

📌Summary:
Brodie McKellon didn’t leave town in handcuffs; not exactly. But all the same, in only one night, she lost her best friends and her home. And that same night, the town of Warwick lost the Adder Stone, a supposedly magical ring of local legend.

The events, Brodie maintains, were not related.

Four years later, Brodie’s returned to Warwick to identify the real thief and get back everything she lost. She can clear her name, win back her friends Elliott and Levi, and save Gran’s house from the bank.

But as Brodie starts investigating, she gets pulled into a different mystery, of three friends and their “dead letters”—mail that’s been lost over the years. And soon she finds that there are times when the things you find aren’t the things you even knew you had lost. A house becomes a home. Some friends become family. And other friends, well, they might become something more. As long as Brodie can be brave enough to find herself.

📌Review:
I love books that the characters go through their own journey to find themselves and figure out the truth. This is such a book, i loved the pace of the story and the relationship between the characters. The banter between Brodie and Levie was chef’s kiss.

📌Thoughts:
All in all a sweet romantic mystery.

❤️P.S.
Alexa please play “Mirrorball” by Taylor Swift

I would like to thank @harpercollins360 for the free copy.

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I think this was a well written teen mystery. I liked the characters, their interactions with one another, and the story. I feel like the author pulled everything together really well and made for an enjoyable read.

Thank you to the publisher for the earc!

I had no idea what I got into when I started Return to Sender, but I ended up loving it so much.

We follow Brodie as she returns to her old home after being expelled from a fancy boarding school. She reunites with her grandmother, her best friend Eli, and her “arch nemesis” Levi. Brodie picks up a stack of old discarded letters, to figure out a mystery that’s been haunting them for years.

I was immediately drawn to the book, mostly because it starts with Brodie a the local police station after she tried to trespass a private property. Absolutely loved her character, she was smart (maybe a bit too criminal mastermind for an 18-year old), and funny. The whole mystery with the letters and the stone was so well written, I was at the edge of my seat, I needed to know what happened.

I loved Levi and Eli so much. The balance between the 3 of them was amazing. Was the romance a bit cheesy for me? Probably. But I still enjoyed it, I was practically yelling at the characters to make up their minds and just kiss already!

Nan was amazing, can I have a grandmother like her please?

I want to say I was surprised by the writes of the letters, but in all honesty, I was expecting something similar. I knew they had to be a connection between the kids and the letters, but it was even better than what I anticipated.

If you like YA romance with a hint of mystery, highly recommending to add Return to Sender to your TBR!

Return To Sender is a YA contemporary mystery book about Brodie who comes back to town years after being accused of stealing and how she reunites with her two best friends who she hasn't seen in years.

I liked this book but didn't love it as I thought some of it felt a bit predictable and I didn't feel as attached to the characters. I thought the characters were okay but they didn't feel memorable. What I did really enjoy was their friendship together, I thought they shined as characters when they were together in scenes.

The mysteries in this book made it a very compelling read, I liked the mysterious letters and thought they added a lot of poignancy to the story. I was very intrigued by the letters and liked how we get snippets of the letters in between chapters.

Overall I liked Return To Sender but didn't love it. Some parts felt a bit predictable but I did like the mysteries that were in this book especially the mysterious letters about three friends that paralleled the friendship between Brodie, Levi and Elliot.

(I was sent a Netgalley arc of this book from the publisher to review)

I enjoyed this story of friendship, first love, and reconnecting with the past.

The best part for me were the relationships among the characters. Brodie has an amazing grandmother who takes most things in stride and loves her unconditionally. Then there's the friendship Brodie has with Elliot and Levi. They were incredibly close before Brodie left town and the way they fall back into things when she returns was so sweet.

The mystery was okay but easy to see where it was headed. I also thought the plot fell a bit flat in the middle, but picked up again in the last quarter.

This was a good sophomore book for Draper and I think I'll go back and read her debut after this.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own. Thank you to Harper Teen and NetGalley for the copy.

The book revolves around three kids and the friendship they have and how they solve the mystery around the stone and the letters they find in the post office.
The mystery solves at last but the shocking twist at the end is so mind shattering that leaves me crying and feeling happy.
The author has described everything so vividly that I was in that forest solving the mystery revolving around those voices in the letters. I love and enjoyed this book so much.

I wanted to love this book, but unfortunately, it left me a bit puzzled. 🤔 The plot felt a bit abstract and specific to its fictional town, making it hard to grasp exactly what was stolen. The characters’ sudden forgiveness seemed rushed, especially given the depth of past events. 📚⏳

The shifting timelines and slow pacing also made it challenging to stay engaged. I was intrigued at first, but the confusion and sluggish pace eventually led me to lose interest.

Three years ago, Brodie McKellon left the town to live in the city with her father and go to boarding school after her mother died. The caveat? The treasured Adder Stone, the local legend, disappeared that same night, and Brodie... well... had a history of getting in trouble with the law previously. No wonder everybody made the connection although there was never enough proof for any official charges. In the present, Brodie returns to town for her final semester at high school, as things didn't go smoothly at the boarding school either. So, she returns to face the implied accusations, to figure out why she had fallen out with her closest friends, and to revisit a mystery that had haunted her for years. The thing is, Brodie's grandmother is running the local post office, including its Dead Letters Office (for mail that had never been claimed), and there's a bunch of letters from some twenty years back among three local teens, so Brodie and her friends have been trying to figure out for years who those people were and whether they still live in town or left for good.

I am not fully sure about the constitutive features of 'cozy' genres but as I read this, I repeatedly wanted to identify this book as a 'cozy mystery.' There are some larger stakes mentioned (like the fact that once Brodie is not a minor anymore, her clashes with law enforcement might have a much larger effect on her future - so it's better to clear her name before that; or the need to save the grandma's house from the bank - this theme kicks in a bit later in the plot, I only mention this because it is in the blurb, so not a spoiler), but they don't really define the atmosphere or the tone of the story. There isn't even the usual angst of stories set in a high-school environment about fitting in, making friends, and deciding what to do with your life once you graduate. Instead, most of the focus is on unraveling the story of the letter authors from the past, which dictates the somewhat melancholic tone to the narrative.

What do we want of a good mystery/detective story? That all "clues" fit in together ultimately, I guess, and that there's more clarity to the world than there was before. Along this vein, this is definitely a good mystery. If you are bothered at first by one seeming discrepancy - why would there be so many letters between the letter authors at Brodie's disposal - just trust that it's not an oversight, and everything will click into place ultimately.

This book is a textual analog of a warm blanket and hot chocolate with marshmallows on a dark and lonely November night. If you need a reminder that though the world is a pretty sad place but there are ways to find how to be fine.

4 stars.

I am grateful to HarperCollins for providing me with a free eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest unbiased review.

Brodie is your standard awkward teen who just doesn't know what to do with herself when her life crumbles. Her dad is distant, her mom has died, but the few people she can count on are constant. Her and her best friends set out on a quest and in turn find themselves.

I loved this story - part coming of age, part mystery, part betrayal, part forgiveness. Beautiful and heart-warming.

This book gave "early aughts Aussie young adult contemporary" vibes, which quite frankly is one of the highest compliments I can give a book. It felt like Melina Marchetta, Nina Kenwood, and Cath Crowley. I couldn't put it down, I absolutely loved it. I want it to be on every young adult book list. The themes of forgiveness, regret, and overcoming obstacles were perfectly illustrated and apt for the genre. I loved the setting and the overall plot movement. I will be recommending to all of the YA patrons at the library.

"Return to Sender" by Lauren Draper is a story that blends elements of romance, mystery, and self-discovery. Set against the backdrop of a picturesque small town, the novel follows the journey of Brodie as she navigates the complexities of love and loss. Draper's evocative prose paints a vivid portrait of the seaside setting, immersing readers in its charm and allure.

At its core, "Return to Sender" is a story about second chances and the power of healing. Draper deftly explores themes of forgiveness and redemption, as Sarah grapples with her past and confronts the ghosts that haunt her. With its complex characters and compelling narrative twists, the novel is sure to keep readers hooked until the very end. "Return to Sender" is a poignant reminder that sometimes, the most unexpected journeys lead us back to where we belong.