Samantha Moore has always hidden behind the words of others — namely, her favorite characters in literature. Now, she will learn to write her own story—by giving that story to a complete stranger.
Sam is, to say the least, bookish. An English major of the highest order, her diet has always been Austen, Dickens, and Shakespeare. The problem is, both her prose and conversation tend to be more … conversation tend to be more Elizabeth Bennet than Samantha Moore.
But life for the 23-year-old orphan is about to get stranger than fiction. An anonymous, Dickensian benefactor (calling himself Mr. Knightley) offers to put Sam through Northwestern University’s prestigious Medill School of Journalism. There is only one catch: Sam must write frequent letters to the mysterious donor, detailing her progress.
As Sam’s dark memory mingles with that of eligible novelist Alex Powell, her letters to Mr. Knightley become increasingly confessional. While Alex draws Sam into a world of warmth and literature that feels like it’s straight out of a book, old secrets are drawn to light. And as Sam learns to love and trust Alex and herself, she learns once again how quickly trust can be broken.
Reminding us all that our own true character is not meant to be hidden, Reay’s debut novel follows one young woman’s journey as she sheds her protective persona and embraces the person she was meant to become.
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So, somehow I just now added up how long I’m going to be spending on airplanes over the next 10 days (~26 hours) to get to Hawaii and back. I’m glad I’ve been stocking up my Kindle…
Here’s what I have queued up:
* The Lies of Locke Lamora : Reco from @carlyn
* The Memory Painter : Recent deal that looked fun
* The Way You Look Tonight : …
What a refreshing, original story. The protagonist would never want you to get to know the real her, which makes the journey of peeling back those layers all the more rewarding. I love that the story was not at all bogged down in romance, but was an unfolding of Sam’s total personhood. This is one of the more unique contemporary novels I’ve read.
This was a straight-through read, to the neglect of nearly everything else in my day. It’s lovely, it’s personal, and it unwrapped an identity layer by layer until all that could be left was a love story.
Highly recommended!
This book has been pushed increasingly toward the top of my TBR for a long time, and imagine my joy when several people recommended the audiobook & I found it available at my library! At first I felt like a peeping Tom in some ways…peeking into Sam’s deepest thoughts and being laid bare as she recounted her past and gave us a glimpse into the …
I read this book in one sitting. It captivated me from the beginning to the end.
I have only read one book by Katherine Reay, the Portrait of Emily Price and the book was excellent, so I thought I would give Dear Mr Knightley a try, and I so glad I did. The book is about Sam who grew up in the foster care system. No friends and only her books as friends she receive a scholarship for Journalism the only catch, the has the …
This book wrecked me. And then it pieced me back together with warmth, love, and understanding.
I love Austen-adjacent stories and I’ve read a lot of them. This one is different. It doesn’t take the characters and re-write the story in a different setting or time or situation. Dear Mr. Knightley borrows bits and pieces here and there to help Sam …
This was the first epistolary (the story being told through letters) book I’ve ever read and, though it took me a little while to get used to the style of writing, I ended up really loving the book and staying up way past my bedtime to finish it. Samantha, her life and her story were utterly captivating. I wanted to cry at times as she fumbled …
This is a new author for me, and I really enjoyed this book! I was curious about the format of the story (letters) and wondered how it would work. It was brilliant. By the time I hit the 3/4 mark, I didn’t want to put it down. I loved how she pulled the story together at the end. I’ve already recommended it to several friends.
It has been several years since I first read this. I had forgotten a lot of the details.
What I hadn’t forgotten was the satisfied feeling I had reading the ending. I felt that again today.
It’s an epistolary type of literature, almost all written in letters. We get only Samantha’s perspective as the writer of the letters, though we get clues to …
I listened to this book on audio (fabulous narration by Hillary Huber) and love it so much, I just placed an order for the paper version. There are a number of passages I want to read again and mark for future reference. I’ll admit, at first, I didn’t think I’d like it and wasn’t sure I’d finish it. I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy the letter style that …
I absolutely loved Katherine Reay’s debut novel! It reminded me of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Peel Society: epistolary, clever, entertaining, original, and brimming with little gems of wisdom. It’s chocked full of literary references, but in a delightful way that shows the struggles and growth of main character Samantha (Sam). It’s an …
This was a page turner for me but in an unusual way. I felt strangely drawn to Sam even though she was young and came across as flighty. Except she wasn’t flighty, she was wounded by life and had immersed herself in literature to escape the pain. Full review is at my website.
When the real world becomes too much, or if the real world starts taking things that you love away from you what do you do? Fight against it? Go with the flow? Or would you retreat and hid in a shell? Sometimes it helps when you’re down to have someone there to talk to. To be able to release some of the tension that builds up from too much stress. …
A fun read
Dear Mr Knightley is by far one of my favorite books.
Reay did not just touch me with the main character’s personal story, but also by how well she was able to portray Sam’s feelings. She had been through a lot of difficult situations in her life and found a way to protect herself by hiding in stories – stories that depict human nature as it is …
I loved this novel. Such an unusual premise, yet with oddly familiar character types (and presumed expectations.) Katherine Reay did a wonderful job of taking the sad missteps of life and giving them a new turn.
5 STARS!!! One of my all-time favorite books.