Love Letters

by Katie Fforde

[Leah]

Laura Horsley is devastated when the bookshop where she works is about to close. With no immediate plan for future work, she ends up agreeing to organise a literary festival deep in the English countryside.

Laura has no idea how to organise a literary festival and soon starts to panic. Not only that but Laura inadvertantly makes people believe she knows Dermot Flynn, a reclusive writer struggling with writer’s block.

Laura sets off to Ireland with her friend Monica to track down the elusive Dermot Flynn…

Katie Fforde’s books always follow the same winning formula: heroine of the story needs to save/organise something huge, meets man and all is going well until it all goes wrong and it all seems over before the pair before, eventually, it all gets sorted out.

It may sound predictable and to a degree, it probably is predictable but it works so well. I love nothing more than picking up Katie Fforde’s latest book and know that it’s going to all pan out eventually.

Love Letters is another Katie Fforde hit and was very enjoyable. I loved that it was set in the world of books, being a huge fan of them myself. Reading about Laura setting up a book festival was very interesting and really well written. The main plot of the book, though, is Laura going off to find Dermot Flynn and all the ensuing madness. The book doesn’t seem at all rushed, the ending is well done, and I didn’t find myself wishing it would just end already.

I thought Laura was a brilliant character, deciding to change the way her life is going by agreeing to organise the literary festival. I really hoped she would come through and deliver not only a fab festival but also the star attraction in Dermot.

Dermot is the ultimate in brooding writer and I found him very amusing. I found the interaction between himself and Laura worked really well and didn’t seem at all fake. I also liked Laura’s friend Monica, who is in a band and is organising the music festival that was accompanying the literary festival. She was also very amusing and her presence in the book made it all the better.

Another character who I felt had huge influence in the book was Eleanora, Dermot’s agent and the person who gets Laura involved in the literary festival to begin with. I thought she was very witty and also very perceptive. She also makes me wonder if all agents are like that!

The book is full with characters but not so many you forget who they are. Also in the book is Grant, Laura’s gay best friend; Fenella and Rupert, who own the house where the music & literary festival’s take place and who are also friends to Laura; Henry, the owner of the bookshop where Laura works at the beginning of the book. There are also minor minor characters within the book who pop up now and again.

It was an incredibly enjoyable novel and, as always with Katie’s books, is incredibly well written. Katie definitely has the winning formula when it comes to her novels. One final note: I’d love to know where the title come from – Love Letters – I thought the book may have had some love letters within it but there weren’t any which makes the title seem rather weird. Must ask Katie!

Rating: 5/5