Samantha Moore has always hidden behind the words of others—namely her favorite characters in literature. Now, she will learn to write her own story—by giving that story to a complete stranger.
Growing up orphaned and alone, Sam found her best friends in the works of Austen, Dickens, and the Brontë sisters. The problem is that she now relates to others more comfortably as Elizabeth Bennet and Jane Eyre than as herself.
Sometimes we lose ourselves in the things we care about most.
But life for this twenty-three-year-old is about to get stranger than fiction, when an anonymous benefactor (calling himself “Mr. Knightley”) offers to put Sam through the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. There is only one catch: Sam must write frequent letters to the mysterious donor, detailing her progress.
As Sam’s program and peers force her to confront her past, she finds safety in her increasingly personal letters to Mr. Knightley. And when Sam meets eligible, best-selling novelist Alex Powell, those letters unfold a story of love and literature that feels as if it’s pulled from her favorite books.
But when secrets come to light, Sam is – once again – made painfully aware of how easily trust can be broken.
Reay’s debut novel follows one young woman’s journey as she sheds her protective persona and embraces the person she was meant to become.
My Review:
I loved this book. It is a fantastic debut for Katherine Reay. The characters and plot are well developed and interesting. I was captivated from the beginning and could not read fast enough. I had to know what happened next. I am a fan of the classics also which is not a requirement to read this book but helps. Sam is a loner girl in the foster system and ended up at Grace House. She has trouble relating to others and lives in her books. She gets a special scholarship to college that requires her to write letters to a secret donor she calls Mr. Knightley. The author does a good job telling most of the story through letters. There are good supporting characters also like Kyle a fellow foster child. Also there is a little love interest that develops between her and an author she meets named Alex Powell. There are a few twists and turns. This book is on my keeper shelf and I can't wait to read her next book. Highly Recommended. :)
Katherine Reay has enjoyed a life-long affair with the works of Jane Austen and her contemporaries. After earning degrees in history and marketing from Northwestern University, she worked as a marketer for Proctor & Gamble and Sears before returning to school to earn her MTS. Her works have been published in Focus on the Family and the Upper Room. Katherine currently lives with her husband and three children in Seattle. Dear Mr. Knightley is her first novel.
Review copy provided by Litfuse Publicity in exchange for an honest review.
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