Day 5:

The Last Letter From Your Lover

This was an absolutely beautiful novel about enduring love and listening to your heart. I enjoyed reading about the lives of both of the characters, Jennifer and Ellie, as well as Anthony and Rory, their respective love interests. These characters had real feeling, flaws and strengths; I wanted to know them, cared about what was happening to them. Each era held up well against the other – this was a dual timeline novel that I enjoyed wholly.

Jojo Moyes did such a great job of depicting life in the 1960s: the struggle to hold onto old world values against the changing pace of society; the dismantling of Congo and the growing awareness of the cost associated with an unchecked growth in wealth, both to the individual and collective groups. Even the changing face of journalism was explored, much to my own personal interest.

All of these themes converged into a highly absorbing novel that kept me up late at night and eager to find out what was next in store for the characters. The addition of the extracts from real love letters was a beautiful and poignant touch.

There is more to Jojo Moyes than her Me Before You series and I am keen to explore the rest of her backlist.

It is 1960. When Jennifer Stirling wakes up in the hospital, she can remember nothing – not the tragic car accident that put her there, not her husband, not even who she is. She feels like a stranger in her own life until she stumbles upon an impassioned letter, signed simply “B”, asking her to leave her husband.

Years later, in 2003, a journalist named Ellie discovers the same enigmatic letter in a forgotten file in her newspaper’s archives. She becomes obsessed by the story and hopeful that it can resurrect her faltering career. Perhaps if these lovers had a happy ending she will find one to her own complicated love life, too. Ellie’s search will rewrite history and help her see the truth about her own modern romance.