I've read several Katie Fforde books in the past and found them to be very sweet, romantic comedy types. Definitely a lighthearted read that makes you feel good. I wasn't disappointed with this book as it was similar to the ones I've read in the past. Fforde's books are all set in England, usually in the countryside in some cozy cottage and I just really love the settings. The stories themselves can be a bit silly at times, but are mostly good. I liked this installment because I really liked the male character Dermot. I thought Laura was a bit naive and blind at times, but she was still overall a likeable character. It took me a while to get into this book but once I read far enough I took off, kept reading and finished it pretty quickly. Overall a cute storyline with likeable characters; an enjoyable light and fluffy read for the summer months :) Over the past few years I have seen a number of very positive reviews for Katie Fforde's light romantic fiction on several book blogs. I also have a vague recollection of either hearing one serialised on the radio, or hearing an interview with the author, or possibly both. Whilst, as a man, I am clearly not the target audience, my interest was piqued by what I read and heard. Even though my own personal romantic history would not generate enough material for a very short story, let alone a novel, I like to think that I do have a romantic side (in theory if not in practice!) and I certainly have a liking for cosy fiction. What took me so long to actually get around to giving one of these books a try was that, rightly or wrongly, I felt too embarrassed to buy one or borrow one from the library. The covers are even more feminine than the content, and not really the sort of thing one would wish to be seen reading in public. Lest I sound like some kind of unreconstructed knuckle-dragging tough guy, I should add that I would not want to be seen reading Andy McNab or one of Cornwell's Sharpe novels either. Be it female or male, I'm not generally at home with anything targetted heavily at one gender. Thank heavens for the advent of the ebook, which has enabled me to give one of Fforde's books a try without any embarrassment .I finally took the plunge because it was Valentine's Day and I was feeling left out from all the romance that was in the air. (I ought to be used to that feeling by now.) I saw that Love Letters features a woman who works in a bookshop who is asked to track down a reclusive author to appear at literary festival. Ah, I thought, she will obviously end up falling for him, but guessing that is no more obvious than predicting the presence of a corpse in an Agatha Christie novel: I do not see any problem with a genre in which you know roughly what you are going to get before you have even started reading. Anyway, a setting in the book world suggested to me that this might be a good one to try. I am very glad I did.I identified with the heroine, Laura, more than the hero, Dermot. Whilst I do not share her fear of public speaking (perhaps oddly given my reserve in many other respects), we do have quite a lot in common. She is initially presented as someone who has lived a very unexciting and sheltered life, more at home with her head in a book than a place in a crowd. It would be dull if as a reader one only identified with characters who share some of our own traits, nevertheless, it can be a pleasing thing from time to time, although not without a sense of trepidation if the character begins to act in ways of which we might not entirely approve. Is the speed with which Laura goes from meeting Dermot to being in his bed unlikely given what he have been told about her? Or is that just me thinking that our sort (hers and mine) would not behave like that? The part played by drink may make it more likely. (My own none-drinking background may, after all, help explain my own lack of romantic history I alluded to earlier. According to a fictional dating agency that I read about – I think it was in a literary novel called Ten Seconds from the Sun by Russell Celyn Jones – non-drinkers are incredibly difficult to find dates for.)Following close behind the early bedding, I was also surprised by the very frank questions posed by Laura's friend Monica in her efforts to establish just how far things had gone on the drunken evening. This was rather more blunt than I was expecting in this sort of book. My enthusiasm for the book may have dipped a little here, but only a little. Another part of me knew that Fforde was aiming to amuse not to shock. (My past experience of comic novels is almost as uneven as my romantic history, but that's another story.)Why did I not warm as much to Dermot? Well, there is a lot of the stereotypical romantic hero about him: the sort of loveable rogue that heroines seem to go for. Jealousy it may be, but I find it frustrating that women seem to find roguishness so appealing. Worse still, he is a smoker – surely no one finds that attractive any more?In basic plot terms, Love Letters has a lot in common with Jane Eyre. Laura is in the unworldly female lead who, like Jane, falls for the more experienced man. Like Rochester, Dermot has a secret; not a wife in the attic but a problem with writer's block. Like Jane and Rochester, they are separated for a time before, as we expected all along, they are finally united. Fortunately, for Dermot he does not need to be blinded and maimed before he can get his girl: Fforde is clearly less ruthless than Charlotte Bronte, or perhaps just less influenced by gothic novels, bleak countryside and a wayward brother. I do think she was aware of the Bronte parallel, because Jane Eyre is referenced at one point.Even though Laura let me down early on by seemingly acting out of character; even though, partly through jealousy I did not really warm to Dermot; even though I still felt guilty about wallowing in the literary equivalent of a box of chocolates, I could not help myself from enjoying this book and wanting everything to work out between the two main characters – as I knew it surely would. When it got to the part when all the misunderstandings where explained there was, I will admit, a moistness in my eye (why was I reading outside in the rain?).I would have no hesitation in awarding Love Letters five stars for entertainment value and pleasure. As it is, I do not think I will actually assign a star rating because I might feel torn about being so enthusiastic about something so light. Nevertheless, I have a feeling I will be reading more by this author.
What do You think about Love Letters (2009)?
I love Katie Fforde's books generally. But this one is my favorite. I am sure I will read it again.
—corinaestrada
