Grade: 2.5
Sara is stuck in a rut and looking for a distraction. She hears about a program that sends letters to deployed soldiers and figures why not. Gabe has been in the Army so long he’s forgotten how to have regular conversations. He gets the letter from Sara and for a moment he’s transported from deployment. Wanting more of that feeling, he writes back starting their pen-pal relationship. When they meet, life throws them both a curveball and now they have to figure out how to relate outside of letters and emails.
The back cover blurb is actually a little misleading with this one. It gives the impression that you spend the majority of the book in Alaska. In fact, Alaska is only the last third of the book.
I’m a big fan of books with a lot of dialogue, with the premise of pen pals I was looking forward to this one. The first half of the book, the dialogue was fun and easy to read. The characters were relatable. The scenario was believable.
And then…we hit the middle of the book and it’s time for Gabe to come home. It’s not Gabe coming home that was a problem, but the overdramatization of the scenes. The dialogue lost a conversational feel. It felt as if they were having their own conversations instead of talking to each other. The conflict became miscommunication instead of living in different parts of the country.
Bottomline: a very fast read, but I’d skip this one.
Lori Carroll
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