4 Star
Sisters Cassie and Sid Sunday have not done a bang-up job of keeping in touch. In their defense, it hasn’t been easy: life veered in sharply different directions for the once-close sisters. Today, beautiful and big-hearted Sid lives an expat’s life of leisure in far-off Singapore, while harried, iPhone-clutching Cassie can’t seem to make it work as a wife and a mom to twin toddlers in Manhattan.
It doesn't help that Sid spurns all social media while Cassie is addicted to Facebook. So when Sid issues a challenge to reconnect the old-fashioned way—through real, handwritten letters—Cassie figures, why not?
The experiment exceeds both of their expectations, and the letters become a kind of mutual confessional that have real and soul-satisfying effects. And they just might have the power to help Cassie save her marriage, and give Sid the strength to get her life back on track.
But first, one of Cassie’s infamous lapses in judgment comes back to bite her, and all of the letters wind up the one place you’d never, ever want to see them: the Internet...
Kathryn - 4 Star
I really loved the premise of this novel. The reconnection of the sisters was inspired and the fact that they were doing it via letter was lovely. I was surprised many times though by the intimacy and confessions that came out through by this slower delivery. It seems that they may not have felt so at ease to be vulnerable if they had been speaking in the phone or writing via email. I'm not sure why that was?
I loved that Cassie was a new ish mum who couldn't entirely get her act together (or at least the act she thought she was supposed to have together). Cassie’s marriage was honestly portrayed too at a time when she wasn’t sure how to move keep their intimacy going. Sid, by contrast, seemed much more confident in herself, she was happy being a mother and a wife but wasn’t sure what her role was to be in the new country she was living in. While they were both trying to find their fit they were both looking for different things and their contrasts only brought them together I felt.
My only issue with the book was that I didn't really accept how the letters became public, the whole thing seemed very far-fetched, and the fact that Cassie spent so long agonising about how her sister and husband would react just irritated me I'm afraid. It detracted from the ease of the rest of the story and I'm sure that there could have been another way to create the suspense in the plot if it was needed. I’m not sure that was the way to go about it, though I suppose it highlighted our days of social media and private things being public.
All in all though the original premise and wonderfully thought out characters made this hovel a win for me.
Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group for our review copy. All opinions are our own.
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