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A review by nalinisriv3
The Love Letter by Rachel Hauck
3.0
I received this book on NetGalley for review. I thank NetGalley, Author Rachel Hauck, Thomas Nelson, and HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc. for the opportunity to review this book.
Review of The Love Letter -
The Love Letter is a Christian Fictional Romance Novel. There are two romantic stories in two different timelines. The first story is about Hamilton Lightfoot and Esther Longfellow, set up in the 18th Century in upcountry South Carolina. Hamilton lost his family to the Revolutionary War and has chosen his side to revenge and fight for Freedom of America. Esther's father works for a British lord and is against Esther and Hamilton's love. Esther tries to take a stand and fight for her love.
The second story is about Chloe Daschle and Jesse Gates, set up in the present day Hollywood where Chloe is an actress and Jesse is a scriptwriter-cum-MIT Postgraduate Techie-cum-actor.
My feelings about the book -
I loved how the book begins, the plot seemed very interesting and I was eager to know how these stories will converge. After reaching almost 45% of the book I had lost all interest in reading this book. The story moved too slowly, which bored me and I left the book many a time. I had to finish this book just because it was a review copy and I had to provide an honest review of it.
There are a lot of loopholes and unsatisfactory explanation of the chain of events in the story.
The plot of the book -
Chloe is a supporting actress in Hollywood, she is typecasted in Hollywood as the girl who dies in every role. Jesse is a scriptwriter and Chloe lands in the lead role of this movie. Jesse and Chloe are attracted to each other. The movie Jesse wrote is about his ancestor's love story which they could not complete. Jesse's grandfather Hamilton Lightfoot loved Esther Longfellow and wrote her letters but never sent them.
Characters in the book -
Chloe Daschle
Chloe Daschle is an actress by profession but acts in her real life too. In one moment she will be blaming herself and talking about she being a curse and people will tell her that's not true and convince her out of it. She has momentarily accepted it that she is not a curse and in the very next scene, she will repeat the same thing again. This happens until she finds her faith. She is a character who does not take a stand for herself. Her parents are Hollywood royalty but she is a struggling actress. The novel defends her surrendering behavior by saying that she does not use her parent's fame for getting a role, that's true but Chloe is such a weak person, she does not believes in herself and is not ready to fight for herself to achieve anything. She is 21st-century women but is waiting for her fate to do the magic for her.
Esther Longfellow
On the contrary, Esther Longfellow being an 18th Century women fought for what she believed in and even took huge risks. I loved the character of Esther. Her character was the only thing that helped me finish the book.
Hamilton Lightfoot
Hamilton Lightfoot starts as an amazing character in the book. He is about to make a big decision of fighting in the war. He is willing to sacrifice anything for his love. Even when the war is going on he is optimistic about meeting Esther and getting married to her, start a family. Hamilton's faith is another pushed story.
Jesse Gates
Jesse Gates is a perfect man in looks and talents. He completed his Postgraduate at MIT when he was just 20 years old, his intelligence is mostly just described in words and not in actions. He wrote a script based on just letters from his grandfather. His intelligence, research, and drive should be visible in his work, which is not. The MIT techie guy tag is used just to magnify his sacrifice.
Very conveniently the writer defined some extra characters for the sake of not providing extra information. These extra characters came into the picture just to provide that particular information and there is no more detail about them or their relationship with the main characters.
For example, Aunt Pat did all the research on Jesse's ancestor(great times six grandfather). She finds the letter, she gave it to Jesse, she does all the research. Aunt Pat's character never comes back in the story, when Jesse's script is picked for making a Hollywood movie, or when he leaves Los Angles and starts working with his brother in his tech company. Also, the story never explains how much of research did Jesse do for writing this script, he can't be relying on just some letters. She was only introduced to fill the gap of how Jesse found the letter and why he did not research about Esther's side of the story.
Another example is Oliver, the producer of the movie is another such character.
What I didn't like -
There are a plenty of things that I didn't like in this book. I have explained them in other sections.
Predictability -
Very very predictable story. The chain of event which leads to the ending had to just to make it a good story. The ending was meant to happen. Unfortunately, I found those chain of events forced into the story.
Narration -
Just for the sake of a war in the plot, the backdrop of the Revolutionary war is used. There isn't even a chapter dedicated to the happenings of the war. Thus, it should not be called as historical fiction. The alternating timelines made the story a little interesting. The narration does not flow well and many things could have got handled through better narration.
Verdict -
It's a 2.5-star read. If you love romance stories, you can read this novel. The plot was interesting and it lags in the storytelling. All pieces did not come together.
Review of The Love Letter -
The Love Letter is a Christian Fictional Romance Novel. There are two romantic stories in two different timelines. The first story is about Hamilton Lightfoot and Esther Longfellow, set up in the 18th Century in upcountry South Carolina. Hamilton lost his family to the Revolutionary War and has chosen his side to revenge and fight for Freedom of America. Esther's father works for a British lord and is against Esther and Hamilton's love. Esther tries to take a stand and fight for her love.
The second story is about Chloe Daschle and Jesse Gates, set up in the present day Hollywood where Chloe is an actress and Jesse is a scriptwriter-cum-MIT Postgraduate Techie-cum-actor.
My feelings about the book -
I loved how the book begins, the plot seemed very interesting and I was eager to know how these stories will converge. After reaching almost 45% of the book I had lost all interest in reading this book. The story moved too slowly, which bored me and I left the book many a time. I had to finish this book just because it was a review copy and I had to provide an honest review of it.
There are a lot of loopholes and unsatisfactory explanation of the chain of events in the story.
The plot of the book -
Chloe is a supporting actress in Hollywood, she is typecasted in Hollywood as the girl who dies in every role. Jesse is a scriptwriter and Chloe lands in the lead role of this movie. Jesse and Chloe are attracted to each other. The movie Jesse wrote is about his ancestor's love story which they could not complete. Jesse's grandfather Hamilton Lightfoot loved Esther Longfellow and wrote her letters but never sent them.
Characters in the book -
Chloe Daschle
Chloe Daschle is an actress by profession but acts in her real life too. In one moment she will be blaming herself and talking about she being a curse and people will tell her that's not true and convince her out of it. She has momentarily accepted it that she is not a curse and in the very next scene, she will repeat the same thing again. This happens until she finds her faith. She is a character who does not take a stand for herself. Her parents are Hollywood royalty but she is a struggling actress. The novel defends her surrendering behavior by saying that she does not use her parent's fame for getting a role, that's true but Chloe is such a weak person, she does not believes in herself and is not ready to fight for herself to achieve anything. She is 21st-century women but is waiting for her fate to do the magic for her.
Esther Longfellow
On the contrary, Esther Longfellow being an 18th Century women fought for what she believed in and even took huge risks. I loved the character of Esther. Her character was the only thing that helped me finish the book.
Hamilton Lightfoot
Hamilton Lightfoot starts as an amazing character in the book. He is about to make a big decision of fighting in the war. He is willing to sacrifice anything for his love. Even when the war is going on he is optimistic about meeting Esther and getting married to her, start a family. Hamilton's faith is another pushed story.
Jesse Gates
Jesse Gates is a perfect man in looks and talents. He completed his Postgraduate at MIT when he was just 20 years old, his intelligence is mostly just described in words and not in actions. He wrote a script based on just letters from his grandfather. His intelligence, research, and drive should be visible in his work, which is not. The MIT techie guy tag is used just to magnify his sacrifice.
Very conveniently the writer defined some extra characters for the sake of not providing extra information. These extra characters came into the picture just to provide that particular information and there is no more detail about them or their relationship with the main characters.
For example, Aunt Pat did all the research on Jesse's ancestor(great times six grandfather). She finds the letter, she gave it to Jesse, she does all the research. Aunt Pat's character never comes back in the story, when Jesse's script is picked for making a Hollywood movie, or when he leaves Los Angles and starts working with his brother in his tech company. Also, the story never explains how much of research did Jesse do for writing this script, he can't be relying on just some letters. She was only introduced to fill the gap of how Jesse found the letter and why he did not research about Esther's side of the story.
Another example is Oliver, the producer of the movie is another such character.
What I didn't like -
There are a plenty of things that I didn't like in this book. I have explained them in other sections.
Predictability -
Very very predictable story. The chain of event which leads to the ending had to just to make it a good story. The ending was meant to happen. Unfortunately, I found those chain of events forced into the story.
Narration -
Just for the sake of a war in the plot, the backdrop of the Revolutionary war is used. There isn't even a chapter dedicated to the happenings of the war. Thus, it should not be called as historical fiction. The alternating timelines made the story a little interesting. The narration does not flow well and many things could have got handled through better narration.
Verdict -
It's a 2.5-star read. If you love romance stories, you can read this novel. The plot was interesting and it lags in the storytelling. All pieces did not come together.