Review ‘This Is Not A Love Letter’ by Kim Purcell

One week.
That’s all Jessie said. A one-week break to get some perspective before
graduation, before she and her boyfriend, Chris, would have to make all the
big, scary decisions about their future–decisions they had been fighting about
for weeks.

Then, Chris vanishes. The police think he’s run away, but Jessie doesn’t
believe it. Chris is popular and good-looking, about to head off to college on
a full-ride baseball scholarship. And he disappeared while going for a run
along the river–the same place where some boys from the rival high school beat
him up just three weeks ago. Chris is one of the only black kids in a depressed
paper mill town, and Jessie is terrified of what might have happened.

As the police are spurred to reluctant action, Jessie speaks up about the
harassment Chris kept quiet about and the danger he could be in. But there are
people in Jessie’s town who don’t like the story she tells, who are infuriated
by the idea that a boy like Chris would be a target of violence. They smear
Chris’s character and Jessie begins receiving frightening threats.

Every Friday since they started dating, Chris has written Jessie a love letter.
Now Jessie is writing Chris a letter of her own to tell him everything that’s
happening while he’s gone. As Jessie searches for answers, she must face her
fears, her guilt, and a past more complicated than she would like to admit.

When I
read the book description of ‘This is Not a Love Letter’ when I first saw the
book on Netgalley, I immediately found myself interested. I love reading a nice
romance. And this book was supposedly a romance story with some suspense. A
perfect combination, is you ask me. So when my request got accepted I was super
excited. 

‘This is
Not a Love Letter’ is a book unlike any other I read. The book is written
through the eyes of Jessie. To be correct, the book is supposedly written by
Jessie. It’s a letter for her boyfriend Chris who suddenly disappeared after
they took a little break. And this was definitely something that made this book
very interesting and kind of unique.  

Throughout
‘This is Not a Love Letter’ we follow Jessie’s search for Chris. We read about
her search through town, and through the places they went together. We read
about all the different emotions she went through. And we also read about what
Jessie would like to say to Chris, if he was there. There are some flashbacks
to moments in the relationship between Jessie and Chris. And I just really
enjoyed reading it. 

What made
me keep reading this book was definitely the not knowing what happened to Chris
and if he would ever be found. There were so many questions about his
disappearance and this book kept me hooked till the very last page. I loved how
we found out more and more about Chris and the way he felt. There was some
powerful message in this book and I really enjoyed reading it. 

Reading
‘This is Not a Love Letter’ definitely left me feeling emotional. Without
spoiling the book completely, in case you haven’t read it, the ending was
rather sad but also beautiful in a way. And what I loved most was the way this
book was supposedly a letter for Chris. It felt personal, and I loved that. 

‘This is
Not a Love Letter’ was definitely a beautiful and touching read. And I would
definitely recommend it. Especially for young adults.

I grew up
in Prince George, a small town in Northern Canada, where I did swim team, skied
in the winter, water skied in the summer, and read everywhere I went. In fact,
I still love to read and walk, and even now, you can see me walking my dog
through Prospect Park in Brooklyn, her leash in one hand and a book in the
other. 

I realized
I wanted to be a writer when I was ten. All of my teachers used to say I
daydreamed too much and they often yelled at me for not paying attention, but
then a very special teacher came along in 5th grade. Mrs. Aalto put me in a
group of advanced students and we got to make our own books and bind them
ourselves. My book was called The Mystery of the Poison Ivy. It didn’t win any
awards and it wasn’t even particularly good, but Mrs. Aalto inspired me and
made me realize that maybe my daydreaming was good for something. From that
point on, I’d think up stories in class and then I’d go home to write them down
on this old typewriter my mom had bought for me at a garage sale. The steady
click of the keys was so much more satisfying than the sound of pencil
scratching on a paper, though sometimes I wrote in journals. Starting in 8th
grade, I forgot about this dream for a while because life was really tough for
me at this point and I was bullied for being weird. I was just trying to
survive. This is probably why I’m so compelled to write about characters in
their teens. For the rest of high school, I tried to be “normal” and
it wasn’t until I went to college that I decided to be me. Now, I tell kids to
laugh as loud as they want and be as weird as they like. It’s much more fun. 

For more
information about Kim Purcell please visit her website. Or visit her on
Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.

I requested this book on Netgalley.