Review Tour: Dirty Letters by Vi Keeland & Penelope Ward

Shelly's Book Corner received a review copy from Montlake Romance and voluntarily provided an honest review. This does not affect the opinion of the book or the content of the review.

From New York Times bestselling authors Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward comes an unexpected love story that starts long before the lovers meet.

I’d never forgotten him—a man I’d yet to meet.

Griffin Quinn was my childhood pen pal, the British boy who couldn’t have been more different from me. Over the years, through hundreds of letters, we became best friends, sharing our deepest, darkest secrets and forming a connection I never thought could break.

Until one day it did.

Then, out of the blue, a new letter arrived. A scathing one—one with eight years of pent-up anger. I had no choice but to finally come clean as to why I stopped writing.

Griffin forgave me, and somehow we were able to rekindle our childhood connection. Only now we were adults, and that connection had grown to a spark. Our letters quickly went from fun to flirty to downright dirty, revealing our wildest fantasies. So it only made sense that we would take our relationship to the next level and see each other in person.

Only Griff didn’t want to meet. He asked that I trust him and said it was for the best. But I wanted more—more Griff, in the flesh—so I took a big chance and went looking for him. People have done crazier things for love.

But what I found could change everything.

Review

I’m so sad this book is over. I read as slow as I could but I wish I could re read for the first time all over again.

“We all have light and dark inside us, love. We try to hide the darkness from others because we’re afraid it will scare them away. But your dark doesn’t scare me, Luca. It only makes me want to hold your hand and be your light until you can find your own again. That’s what people do when they’re in love. I won’t always be able to give you your light back, because sometimes you need to find that within yourself , but I’ll stand by your side and hold your hand in the dark so things aren’t so scary.”

I absolutely loved Griffin in this book. Luca suffers from crippling anxiety due to a past traumatic experience and can’t be in small places and large crowds. I loved how this book touched on anxiety issues especially since I suffer from anxiety as well. Griffin was so supportive and understanding and I loved the love he had for Luca.

My heart broke for Luca as I read this story because she has been through so much in her short life. I admired her strength and courage in this story. I also loved how when Griffin came on to the scene that Luca was magically all better. Her journey and transformation was authentic and real which I appreciated.

I have read many books written by Ward and Keeland and their stories just keep getting better and better. Name a better writing duo? I’ll wait! But on a serious note this story was flawlessly written as always. I love that you can’t tell who wrote which scenes. I have also read their solo books and to this day I can’t figure it out. This story features characters you can’t help but love, cheer, cry and root for while reading.