The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo MoyesMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Time taken to read - 6 days
Publisher 0 Hodder & Stoughton
Blurb from Goodreads
When journalist Ellie looks through her newspaper's archives for a story, she doesn't think she'll find anything of interest. Instead she discovers a letter from 1960, written by a man asking his lover to leave her husband - and Ellie is caught up in the intrigue of a past love affair. Despite, or perhaps because of her own romantic entanglements with a married man.
In 1960, Jennifer wakes up in hospital after a car accident. She can't remember anything - her husband, her friends, who she used to be. And then, when she returns home, she uncovers a hidden letter, and begins to remember the lover she was willing to risk everything for.
Ellie and Jennifer's stories of passion, adultery and loss are wound together in this richly emotive novel - interspersed with real 'last letters'.
My Review
The book starts with a paragraph from a real life John Doe type letter, email or some other type of correspondence. Except for one which is from the books story, these are at the beginning of each chapter. The story then starts in present day with Ellie Haworth, journalist and lady in love with a man, who happens to be married. There is a little bit of info on her relationship/life before we go to chapter 2 and head back to the 1960s where we meet our main character Jennifer Stirling. Jennifer is married, wealthy and a social butterfly, she has a car accident and some memory loss. The story flicks around a bit between after the accident, before and the time leading up to it. We then come back to Ellie and how the two ladies lives interlink, via some old letters.
I quite liked this book, I have often said Jojo Moyes is one of my favourite authors. I really enjoyed reading about Jennifer's life although the story flicking between the before and after the accident did have me confused momentarily between the time periods. Ellie, we only meet briefly to start with and I can't said I was overly enamored with her character. She has no thought for anything other than herself and her married man. The bulk of the book covers Jennifer's story and then eventually we go back to Ellie. I found this a bit irksome also as by that time I wasn't interested in Ellie and just wanted to know all about Jennifer and Boot.
As Jennifer's story goes along we find out she is also having an affair and slowly the mystery unravels as to how it came to be and what happens between her and Boot. Back in present day Ellie has some thinking to do when she finds some correspondence between old lovers and reassessing her own life.
It is a lovely story with some moral dilemmas, examining adultery back in the 60s and present day. I felt, although Ellie did play a part in the later side of the story, she could easily have been dropped out of it. Or maybe had she had more written about her I may have enjoyed her part more. Either way it is a good read but not a book I would start with if you have read Jojo Moyes before, 3/5 for me this time.
Fab and honest review Lainy, I quite fancy trying this one but I'm not 100% sure. I do like the three most recent books by this author, they are all I've read by her so far.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about Ellie, I was more interested in Jennifer and B's story myself. This was my first Jojo Moyes novel and I really enjoyed it. I have to read more by her!
ReplyDeleteStories that take place in multiple time periods seem so very popular these days. My wife really seems to like them. It sounds as if she might really like this book as the characters seem well thought out.
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