“Enchanting, intriguing, deeply moving. The Lost Letters of William Woolf concerns itself as much with lost love as it does with lost letters.”—Irish Times***Lost letters have only one hope for survival…Inside the walls of the Dead Letters Depot, letter detectives work to solve mysteries. They study missing zip codes, illegible handwriting, rain-smudged ink, lost address labels, torn packages, … Letters Depot, letter detectives work to solve mysteries. They study missing zip codes, illegible handwriting, rain-smudged ink, lost address labels, torn packages, forgotten street names—all the many twists of fate behind missed birthdays, broken hearts, unheard confessions, pointless accusations, unpaid bills, unanswered prayers. Their mission is to unite lost mail with its intended recipients.
But when letters arrive addressed simply to “My Great Love,” longtime letter detective William Woolf faces his greatest mystery to date. Written by a woman to the soulmate she hasn’t met yet, the missives capture William’s heart in ways he didn’t know possible. Soon, he finds himself torn between the realities of his own marriage and his world of letters, and his quest to follow the clues becomes a life-changing journey of love, hope, and courage.
From Irish author Helen Cullen, The Lost Letters of William Woolf is an enchanting novel about the resilience of the human heart and the complex ideas we hold about love—and a passionate ode to the art of letter writing.
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I loved the premise of this book and looked forward to getting lost in this story of letters. But I had trouble staying invested in the story. I enjoyed the focus on lost letters and hope. My heart ached for William and the fact that his life isn’t what he had thought it would be and a marriage that is falling apart. After all of the positive aspects of the book, I felt like the ending was rushed. I wonder if the author had to complete the book within a certain number of words or pages.
Thank you to NetGalley and Graydon House for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
William works in the dead letter department. His wife Claire is a lawyer. The story is told from their POV. Their marriage and careers are stagnate. Neither profession nor marriage brings joy. This is the story of their exploration to rediscover themselves. Explore and imagine what they could be in a relationship and in their careers. Regardless of what scenarios you root for, the ending comes too soon.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
The Lost Letters Of William Woolf is the debut book of author Helen Cullen, available through booksellers on 6-4-19. Ms. Cullen has a terrific writing style and will, I’m sure, go far.
William Woolf is a “Letter Detective” for the postal service in London. For 11 years he’s worked to reunite damaged or misdirected letters with their rightful intended. He’s intrigued by his work, it’s not always mundane, there’s joy in being successful. William is a writer turned postal worker and his wife Claire is a painter turned lawyer. That’s two frustrated, unfulfilled lives. The meat of the book becomes their dying marriage, can it be saved? Do they want to save it? It’s all gone wrong and both are feeling old and used up. I never became invested in either character.
Lost Letters is essentially two books in one. There’s the lost letters and the damaged marriage. The only thing I see that connected them is loss, of all kinds. Romance is only found in long ago letters. I preferred the lighthearted postal detective story. It’s my kind of read. The blurb for this book was misleading. If you’re looking for a serious story about a serious subject then this is definitely the one for you. Happy reading.
#HelenCullen #Netgalley #Harlequin #GardenHouseBooks
A beautiful story celebrating life, love, and letters. This is a luminous debut.
A love-letter to letters and a brilliantly written, moving homage to the power of words, The Lost Letters of William Woolf celebrates the magic of pen and paper.
Gorgeous. Packed full of romance and longing, the writing pulls you in and doesn’t let you go until the very last page. I was sad to finish it!
A wonderful debut, a quirky romance with believable characters celebrating the untold and half-told stories all around us.
There was a good concept behind this book but I found that it was a bit too heavy on the facts for my liking. Still a good story though.
I am a bit torn on how I feel about this book. While it was written extremely well and kept my interest throughout, I feel a bit deceived by it. I thought I was going to be reading about the lost letter section of the mail and the book was more about a marriage strained by couple’s natural progression of changing as people as time goes on and moving apart from their “old” selves that were so much in “like” and love. The story began as I thought it would, dealing with lost letters and sometimes finding the intended recipient. This part of the story I truly enjoyed and wanted more to come.
Unfortunately what followed was almost totally about the marriage in turmoil. The story extended into other people during this time, but the core was the two people in the marriage trying to find a way back together, or a way to live on apart.
Due to the change in course of the story, in my opinion, veering off the initial story-line, I am giving the book 3 stars. Truly, if I knew the story was about a marriage in trouble, I would not have read this book. That is just not something I care to read.