The Love Letter

The book is similar to the movie, however, there is no Tom Selleck character, and far more plot. It is quite simply very good and quite entertaining. Makes you want to sit & think when you are done. Also, look for another book by Ms. Schine!

This is a very sweet book and a must-read for middle-aged women, especially if they are single. I appreciate Helen's contrary nature and her seemingly self-destructive impulses. I also appreciate her hesitation to take on her venerable family members. And I love the people who populate her bookstore (Johnny is quite believable). My only complaint - and a very real one - is that this plot droops and drags in places.

Having a hard time getting into this after loving the movie. The character in the book isn't very likable. I keep picking it up and hoping it gets better only to put it down again for a long time without reading it more. I'm going to get to the end, but it seems like it's more work than is worth it.

Followed up the movie The Love Letter when I read reviews that the book was much better than the movie. Even more intriguing was the issue that was raised about the addition of prurient and salacious material to an otherwise delightful and charming work.

I really liked this book , set in Pequot, Wisconsin. A romantic and humorous story of a bookstore owner, Helen MacFarquhar, trying to figure out who sent her a love letter. There are several people she thinks who might be the one, but she's keeping it a secret hoping she figures it out without the whole town knowing. I also watched the movie based on the book, and it was pretty good too.

Wonderful, heartfelt emotionally involved story with great story line. A bit on the fairy tale side since I doubt anything like this would happen in our existence, but it could somewhere, between the right people, and that feeling of success is evoked here.

First, I have to say, this novel to some people might be a really boring sophisticated book, but certainly its sweet, and sharp, the reason I give five points its because of its potential, the writer does have an ability to entertain in certain moments, I'm not going to say which potentials I'm talking about, but I recommend it to anyone interested in sophisticated romance like this.

This book really tries too hard. I read through the first several chapters, and was so bored with it, I accidentally left it on a plane. Now I have to buy a copy to replace my library's, although I do not wish this book on anyone. There are better novels out there worthy of your time & money. Maybe the end gets better, but I don't think you should have to suffer through the first part of a book just for a happy ending.

Regalo molto apprezzato

This is a book for the beach,the park,the winding-down hours before sleep.Excellant reading.This is a read again novel of much delight.Many thanks to all who had a hand in getting this lovely book to me!

I had great expectations, because the novel seemed to be a crime novel, with the canonical love story between the two main characters, but, unfortunately there were not so many turn of the events compared to the amount of romanticism - the book is easily readable and is not too sophisticated. The plot could have talked more about important topic such as the love between people of the same gender, or love between people with a big difference in age - while it just touched superficially these topics, ending up to be quite childish. I think that a love letter is by itslef a composition, a small novel, and it should emtoionally involve the reader (or better, the perosn who receives it), touch him/her in depth, leave him/her breathless. Nowadays, I think that very few people are still writing love letters, or in general letters - in our society, we have technology, so it's easier to send a message with written: I love you. Wait a minute, just take a minute of your time and think how romantic, intense, and hard could be writing a letter to someone we care of. It will take time, we will have to read inside ourselves - so this is a challenge, try to write a letter, a general one, could be a love, a friendship one. Once you will write it, look at how much time it will take, how hard it will be, because you'll have to choose the right word, the right sentence - the one that rhymes, it won't be easy trust me. Then once you'll finish, re-read it, and you'll notice that you'd change something because it won't be perfect. So writing a letter is not that easy - now think about getting one, it's amazing, overwhelming and think to how many time you'll read that letter. A letter is tons of things: time, love, patience, introspection - it's describing what sometimes we cannot explain ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avevo grandi aspettative da un romanzo che dalle prime pagine appariva come un romanzo di investigazione, intrecciato naturalmente con la storia d’amore tra i due protagonisti, mi sarei aspettato più colpi di scena e meno romanticismo – il libro si presta ad una lettura semplice, non troppo sofisticata. La trama avrebbe potuto trattare diversamente tematiche importanti come l’amore tra persone dello stesso sesso e quello tra persone con differenza di età – mentre è rimasta solo sulla superficie di queste tematiche, ed è risultato essere una composizione superficiale e frivola. Dopotutto una lettera d’amore è una composizione letteraria che dovrebbe coinvolgere emotivamente il lettore (o meglio, il destinatario della medesima), scatenando tempeste di sensazioni, ricordi, fremiti interiori – toccarlo nel profondo, colpirlo ardentemente e lasciarlo senza fiato. Al giorno d’oggi non penso si scrivano ancora lettere d’amore, o più in generale lettere – siamo in un epoca “moderna” dove tutto passa attraverso la tecnologia. A quanti di noi sarà capitato di mandare un messaggio con “Ti voglio bene” o “Ti amo” – ma pensiamo a quanto sia non solo romantico, ma anche intenso e faticoso scrivere una lettera a qualcuno a cui teniamo. Ci vuole tempo e dobbiamo leggerci dentro – vi propongo una sfida, provate a scrivere una lettera qualsiasi, d’amore, d’amicizia, di riflessione interiore, una qualsiasi. Quando lo farete, osservate quanto tempo e fatica avrete nello scrivere, dovrete trovare le parole adatte, quella che esprima al meglio ciò che volete dire – quella che faccia rima, quella “giusta” – insomma non sarà facile; ma una volta finita, rileggetela e vedrete che la vorrete cambiare di nuovo. Insomma scrivere una lettera non è facile – ora immaginate di riceverne una, è un’emozione incredibile, e pensate a quante volte potrete rileggerla. Una lettera è tantissime cose: tempo, pazienza, amore, introspezione – è descrivere ciò che a parole a volte non riusciamo a spiegare.

Recently divorced, mother of one, Helen MacFarguhar returns to her hometown of Pequot to open her bookstore. She loves to sell books, but is that what she's really selling? She need to sell her customers on herself first. Her wealthy ex husband lives out of town, her daughter is away at summer camp and Helen has enjoyed the company of most of the divorced and widowed men of Pequot, especially those who entered her spider's web of a bookstore. One morning, while opening her mail, she comes across a love letter addressed to Goat and signed Ram. The letter professes Ram's love in the most elegant of ways. Helen is unable to decide if the letter was for her, and if so, who would have sent it to her. Was it someone she already knew? A customer? A lover from afar? A friend or husband of a friend? Or someone that recently started working in her store, Johnny a summer hire, the son of friends of hers, a boy really, just finished his teens. And thus begins her quest to know the answer to who wrote the love letter. The book is well written but it did not keep me interested as I couldn't understand why the question was never asked, "Did you write me a love letter?" Never asked to anyone. Seems it should have but then there wouldn't need to be a book. Which is how I felt at the end.