Book Review: The Love Letter

The Love Letter
Rachel Hauck
Thomas Nelson, 2018

Eager to cast off her label as the queen of dying, actress Chloe Daschle is ecstatic to be cast as Esther Longfellow in a historical film projected to be a big time hit. This character is scripted to live and Chloe feels like things are finally turning around for her after the relationship drama that almost made her leave Hollywood behind. A growing friendship with Jesse Gates, the film’s scriptwriter, makes the experience even sweeter – except that they can’t quite seem to nail down where their relationship is going.

Jesse finds himself attracted to Chloe, but his past assures him that he doesn’t deserve to love or be loved by someone like her. He keeps his distance, watching her play the character he wrote based on a love letter his ancestor never sent, searching for healing and direction. If only he could play her Hamilton Lightfoot, be the love interest in her story.

Esther and Hamilton’s story from centuries earlier plays out in parallel to Jesse and Chloe’s contemporary journey. Against the backdrop of the Revolutionary War, the two lovers find their families at odds and struggle to make their relationship work in a conflicted, dangerous time. As both couples search for redemption and peace, they learn a lesson about the true meaning of everlasting love.

Thanks to TLC Book Tours for sending me a copy of The Love Letter to review. This post contains affiliate links. Read more about that here.

The bottom line is this: I loved this The Love Letter. I loved the premise of two people in the present day meeting because of a love letter written by an ancestor over a hundred years earlier. At first I wasn’t sure if the author was going to be able to pull off switching between four different points of view, but it totally worked and I actually liked jumping around between perspectives. I was completely enthralled by both sets of interconnected stories.

My favorite genre of all time ever is historical fiction, so of course I was drawn to Esther and Hamilton’s love story taking place during the Revolutionary War in South Carolina. There is so much political and social nuance to be taken into account when crafting a story during that time period. I think it’s fascinating and that the author handled it well in The Love Letter. I also liked that their story didn’t unfold in a predictable manner and that their ending is a little unconventional.

The flip side is Chloe and Jesse’s story taking place in modern day Hollywood. I haven’t read a lot of books (make that none) that center around film-making and acting, so being dropped into that world was a really fun change of pace for me. One thing that was really interesting was how the author addressed the issue of being a person of faith while maintaining a successful acting career. I think that’s something that a lot of Christians wonder about, and believers in Hollywood seem to be a bit of a unicorn sometimes.

I also liked the dialogue between Jesse and Chloe. Dialogue is something I’m always very critical of in contemporary fiction because I think it takes a lot of skill to write modern characters who sound very realistic and not stilted or contrived. The dialogue between this couple was pithy and real.

Overall I loved how the two stories wove together and how the couples found their way and explored their faith in two different time periods. It kind of put me in mind of a similar book I enjoyed earlier this year, The Lost Castle by Kristy Cambron. Both books contrast past and present seamlessly and I was utterly enchanted by The Love Letter. I’ll definitely be looking for more from Rachel Hauck.

Do you like split-time novels?