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There are currently 21 member reviews
for Letters to the Lost
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Carol P. (Mendham, NJ)
Love lost and found
I love this beautiful story. I truly enjoyed the parallel stories of Dan and Stella in 1943 and Jess and Will in present day! Dan a WWII American airman falls in love with Stella a married woman. Seventy years later Jess has found Dan's letters to Stella trying to find her. Jess has broken off from an abusive relationship and is hiding in an empty home she has broken into where she finds the letters! As Jess searches for Dan's long lost love she also finds love!
I would recommend this story for anyone interested in WWII and true love stories!
Great for a bookclub to discuss changes in social mores between 1943 and 2011. Brought tears to my eyes!
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Cathy M. (Milwaukee, WI)
Timeless Love
In Letters to the Lost we meet two couples, Jess and Will from the present time and Stella and Dan from the WWII era. Both couples are deeply in love. Even though I didn't feel as much of a connection to Jess and Will, the story of Stella and Dan more than made up for this lack of connection. The reader learns about Stella and Dan's love story through a series of letters. Grey delivers each bit of new information on the love story like its a puzzle piece. We look forward to every new piece. In the end all the puzzles pieces fit together beautifully. The use of letters also adds excitement and suspense to the story. We get into the hearts and souls of these lovers through their letters to each other. Using two couples, one from the past and one from the present shows that love is timeless. The feelings people experience when they are in love transcend time. Love is a shared experience that unites people. Time period or age or background no longer matters. I enjoyed this book immensely. My advice to the reader is to keep some tissues handy!
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Marta M. (Santa Ana, CA)
Days of future past
I really enjoyed this book. It was well written, with many lovable characters that you wanted to root for. I loved Dan and Stella's story, even though it was devastatingly sad for the both of them. Stella was a very brave and even though her life wasn't what she hoped, she found an outlet for her love and was able to make wonderful changes in the lives of many. I really think this would make a great bookclub book and is definitely for the romantics out there.
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Janet H. (Utica, NY)
Great Cast of Characters
Letters to the Lost is a novel of love and loss, of heartbreaking mistakes and ultimate redemption. Shifting between the present and the years of World War II we are caught up in the lives of people we learn to care about. There are a couple of almost too-obvious villains, but the majority, despite mistakes and failures, cause us to root for them. The ending is a bit too good to believe, but is ultimately satisfying. Iona Grey has written a book that begs to be discussed and would make a good choice for book groups who enjoy talking about characterizations.
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Marion W. (Issaquah, WA)
Then, Now, Forever
This is a novel that romantics will love! An American pilot stationed in England during the Blitz meets an unhappily married young woman, and despite his foreboding that he won't fulfill his requisite twenty-five missions, these star-crossed lovers immortalize their love in dozens of letters. Seventy (!) years later, a young squatter in an abandoned home becomes fascinated with the discovered correspondence, and the tale picks up with her search for the writers.
Apparently the author, Iona Grey, years ago at the age of thirteen, wrote to a publisher to find out their guidelines for romance novels, and always hoped to write a gripping tale. Here she has succeeded. Her extensive research into life on the Home Front brings those times into sharp focus. The way in which the diffident and timid Stella ultimately comes into her own seems a bit of a stretch, but she is a heroine we want to see triumph. It's not difficult to imagine this story as a movie with roles for many British character actors. Recommended for anyone wanting to read a good love story.
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Jean G. (Rockford, IL)
All is Not Lost
The author writes an engrossing story that will hold the readers interest because of in-depth characters you will care for and because they live in a world we can identify with or recall in history. The first chapter grabs you with "a letter to the lost" which sets the tone for the story as it switches back and forth in time, as far back as 7 decades to the present. There is no problem of confusion in following that style. The writing is intelligent and convincing. You will want to know the outcome of more than one character. And will sympathize with men going to war. The use of actual written letters as a way to describe the life of the characters was not overdone but rather (as the title suggests) plays an important part as it enhances and deepens connections to the story. It is a love story at its core but interspersed generously with both history and mystery. Book clubs might not find anything of a controversial nature or unfamiliar topic for discussion. Conversation would relate to how people's lives are affected by upbringing, choice of partners, and life's work, and to the status of women in past decades.
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Linda M. (Candia, NH)
Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey
Letters to the Lost is a love story you won't soon forget. Readers travel seamlessly back and forth between WW II and the present through Dan's letters to Stella, at the same time learning what fighter pilots and those on the home front endured. In the present, Jess takes up the search for Dan while trying to turn her own life around. Those who enjoy a good love story with realistic twists and turns will love this book. It will stay with you long after the last page is read.
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