Review: Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer

Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer

Release Date: April 2017

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens

Type: Young Adult Contemporary Romance

Pages: 400

Other Titles in the Series: More Than We Can Tell (#2)

Summary: Juliet Young always writes letters to her mother, a world-traveling photojournalist. Even after her mother's death, she leaves letters at her grave. It's the only way Juliet can cope. Declan Murphy isn't the sort of guy you want to cross. In the midst of his court-ordered community service at the local cemetery, he's trying to escape the demons of his past. When Declan reads a haunting letter left beside a grave, he can't resist writing back. Soon, he's opening up to a perfect stranger, and their connection is immediate. But neither Declan nor Juliet knows that they're not actually strangers. When life at school interferes with their secret life of letters, sparks will fly as Juliet and Declan discover truths that might tear them apart.

My Review:

Holy crap! This book blew my mind. I stayed up late to read the last two thirds of the book. I haven't done that in ages.

Let me back track. Brigid Kemmerer was at TBF, but somehow in all my research I didn't realize I wanted to read her books. I noticed her book at the Barnes and Noble they set up in the gym and I bought it. When I went up to meet her and get it signed I embarrassed myself. Because, of course I did. She thanked me for getting the book and I fumbled and said I hadn't read it yet, but wanted to because I like letters. She handled the situation way better than I did. But I am so sad that I hadn't read it beforehand because I would have loved to have told her in person how much I absolutely loved it!

This was a fantastic story. I normally don't like contemporary fiction but the premise of this drew me in. This was so real, I felt like I knew Juliet and Declan, like I went to school with them. It was convincing, it left me thinking, it was so normal, but extraordinary at the same time. I don't know, you could read the book and not be blown away. You will probably not cry buckets and buckets and swear at the characters for being idiots. But I did. I did those things because the depth of the writing demanded it of me. This is very character driven. The pain of these two kids pulls you in and the suspense of their letters holds you on the edge of your seat so you can't stop reading even if you tried. I loved them both so much and I can't wait to read the story of Declan's best friend Rev.

~Laura!