BOOK REVIEW: The Love Letter by Rachel Hauck

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book by NetGalley, Thomas Nelson. I was not compensated for this review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. I was not required to write a positive review.

The Love Letter by Rachel Hauck
Published by Thomas Nelson Incorporated on June 12, 2018
Genres: Christian, Contemporary, Fiction, Historical, Romance
Pages: 352
Source: NetGalley, Thomas Nelson
Amazon|Barnes&Noble|Goodreads

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Dress comes a story of long-lost love and its redemption in future generations.

With the colonies at war and his country divided, Hamilton Lightfoot must choose sides: Fight for the British Crown or for the Independence of America. But after witnessing the death of his family at the hands of redcoats, he fears he'll fight for revenge instead of honor. On the verge of a great battle, he pens a letter to Esther, the woman he loves.

Esther Longfellow is in love with Hamilton, but her father is a loyalist, living in upcountry South Carolina and working for a wealthy British lord. When the Revolutionary War comes to her doorstep she is forced to choose between devotion to her father and her love for Hamilton.

Chloe Daschle is the daughter of Hollywood royalty--a great director and an Oscar-winning actress. Yet her career has taken an unexpected turn: She's the queen of death scenes. Trying to break out, she accepts a supporting role in a revolutionary war film. But she longs for the perfect role and the perfect real-life romance. Does happily ever after only exist in the movies?

After a life-changing tragedy, MIT graduate Jesse Gates decides to leave his life behind and move to LA to try his hand at acting and screenwriting. When he finds a page from one of his ancestor's letters, he becomes consumed with the love he finds there. Determined to help his grandfather find happiness at the end of his life, Jesse writes and sells a screenplay based on the events surrounding the lost love of previous generations.

When Jesse meets the woman he has cast to play Esther Longfellow--his grandfather's one true love--the stories of all four collide across time and space. The love letter from the past might have more power to affect the future than any of them could have imagined.

So, while we were reading this book Kristin and I had very different takes on how this book should end.  There was a ton of temptation to flip to the back and find out (I didn’t!  I can’t answer for her however.)  She felt that if the story didn’t end a certain way she was going to be mad.  Very mad.  Like rating affecting mad.  (No accounting for cray-cray people!)  I on the other hand felt the opposite and that if it did end that way I would be disappointed, and Rachel had up this point never disappointed me.  I felt like the ending Kristin wanted just didn’t ring true for the story, the characters, or even common sense.  I mean I get, sorta, why she wanted that ending but it just didn’t mesh for me.  Needless to say, without giving spoilers, only one of us got our way.  And the one that didn’t?  Sucked up that disappointment and was content with the ending that was given.  The one that did get her way?  Still not disappointed in a Rachel book.  Just sayin’.  However, it brings to the forefront the idea that two people that read many of the same books will have very different ideas about those books.  Different personalities, different expectations, and different approaches to books and life.  We don’t have to be the same to love a book.  Heck, sometimes we don’t have the same outcome from the same book.  I loved it she didn’t, or swaparoo.  You can learn a lot about a person by their take on a book.

All that to build up to the letdown of my rambling attempt to review this book.  Seriously, I loved this book (even the cover . . .it’s WAY prettier in person than you can begin to imagine from a photo and I’m not even a cover person!).  I loved basically everything about this book.  Well, there was a bit where it tended to drag with some self-pity wallowing on both Chloe and Jesse.  I get ahead of myself.  Just as Kristin and I’s desired outcome for this book was not the same nor were the central characters of this book.  Chloe and Jesse were common day, Hollywood types, her just looking for her forever after and him just looking for forgiveness.  Meanwhile Hamilton and Esther were smack dab in the middle of the Revolutionary War, on opposite sides of the conflict.  Growing up together, in love with each other, and torn apart by politics.  He, looking for revenge while she was just looking for him, and trying to please her very English father.  They were very different people who risked a lot, a LOT, for love.  Relationships were lost, relationships were found, and everyone eventually discovered there are more than one way to love another.

Hamilton sacrificed his relationship with Esther in order to protect her from the harsh realities of life.  She wasn’t ready for them and was a bit too naive to understand.  That is love.  Jesse walked away from his movie, his script partly because of what they wanted to do with Chloe’s character.  I mean she was the Queen of the Death Scene and she was supposed to live!  He walked away instead of doing the rewrite for her not to live.  That is love.  Chloe embraced her role as Esther in the movie and died valiantly.  That is love.  Chloe set aside her fear of rejection and wrote a letter to Jesse on faith that he felt the same.  That is love.  Jesse gave up his new old life and went back to Hollywood on the idea of a letter.  That is love.  Hamilton never sent his last letter to Esther despite their adult life friendship after both had lost their spouses.  That was also love.  Love comes in many forms.  Love presents itself in many ways.  But there’s just something special about a generations old love letter.  Sometimes just a handwritten letter can tell more of any story. . .

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Posted By: Fizzy Pop · In: book review, Rachel Hauck