I’d never forgotten him—a man I’d yet to meet.
Griffin Quinn was my childhood pen pal, the British boy who couldn’t have been more different from me. Over the years, through hundreds of letters, we became best friends, sharing our deepest, darkest secrets and forming a connection I never thought could break.
Until one day it did.
Then, out of the blue, a new letter arrived. A scathing one—one with eight years of pent-up anger. I had no choice but to finally come clean as to why I stopped writing.
Griffin forgave me, and somehow we were able to rekindle our childhood connection. Only now we were adults, and that connection had grown to a spark. Our letters quickly went from fun to flirty to downright dirty, revealing our wildest fantasies. So it only made sense that we would take our relationship to the next level and see each other in person.
Only Griff didn’t want to meet. He asked that I trust him and said it was for the best. But I wanted more—more Griff, in the flesh—so I took a big chance and went looking for him. People have done crazier things for love.
But what I found could change everything.
First of all, can we take a minute to appreciate the male HOTNESS of the model on the book cover. Wow.
Secondly, the first line of the blurb is KILLER. Love it.
I’ve always been fascinated by building relationships sight unseen. I would like to think that one has a better chance of building a solid relationship by getting to know the PERSON first before becoming distracted by the gift wrapping … but maybe that’s an unrealistic view because physical attraction is a big part of a relationship.
So when I read the blurb to this book, I was immediately intrigued. It sounded pretty close to an idea I had for a story a few years back (and one I might still cultivate).
It started out really cute. I loved how the authors built up the suspense between the characters but I would have liked to have had more letter writing and more tension building before they actually met. And by that I mean, I wanted to see more character development. The transition from writing each other and being friends to suddenly crossing the friend line was just too abrupt for me. I wanted more friendship and a gradual jump.
And then when that jump finally occurred, I wanted it dirtier. They were almost too polite with one another.
The transition from friendship to downright talking dirty was smooth, I just wanted to see MORE of it.
And the part where Griff doesn’t want to see her was a nice touch but the reason why Griff didn’t want to see her … I actually rolled my eyes. It seemed cliche but I understood why the authors picked that occupation because it directly conflicted with Luca’s “issues.”
I thought Luca’s (platonic) relationship with her therapist was cute and believable since the therapist was pretty much a stand-in father to Luca. I feel like that relationship really brought some humor to the story and made Luca more likable, in my opinion. Though again, I understand why the authors picked Luca’s phobia, it almost felt like they picked a phobia out of a hat because it just didn’t seem to fit Luca’s personality and I often times felt like her character was inconsistent.
I felt like Griff tried harder than Luca did and at times, it almost felt like he was chasing her, nay, obsessed by her at times.
Overall, it’s a cute story and the premise was different and interesting. I just wish we could have seen more of their relationship develop via the letters before they actually met.
Write From Karen 