Book Review- Secret Letters

Thursday, October 8, 2015


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"Inquisitive and observant, Dora dreams of escaping her aristocratic country life to solve mysteries alongside Sherlock Holmes. So when she learns that the legendary detective might be her biological father, Dora jumps on the opportunity to travel to London and enlist his help in solving the mystery of her cousin's ransomed love letters. But Dora arrives in London to devastating news: Sherlock Holmes is dead. Her dreams dashed, Dora is left to rely on her wits-and the assistance of an attractive yet enigmatic young detective-to save her cousin's reputation and help rescue a kidnapped heiress along the way. "

Last week, my mom made a trip to the library, and she picked up Secret Letters by Leah Scheier for me to try.

I fell in love.

When I first started it, I didn't love it. It was a bit slow, and...I don't know. I just wasn't in love with it. But something about it kept me reading, and I'm so glad that I did. Sometimes historical mysteries can be a little harder for me to get into at first, so that might have something to do with it.

Dora is a great protagonist- strong, intelligent, and witty. She's extremely independent in a society where women are supposed to be mild, complacent, and polite. She has an amazing ability to think on her feet, and her deduction skills are top-notch. She also has a bit of a temper, and she doesn't like being wrong. Those tendencies can cause her to get into some scrapes.

When Dora arrives in London looking for Sherlock Holmes, she instead meets a young detective, Peter Cartwright. Peter is definitely my favorite character in this novel! If any of you have seen the movie Anastasia (One of my favorite movies, hands down. If you haven't seen it, GO WATCH IT!!), Peter reminds me a bit of Dimitri. He's very worldly, has a bit of arrogance to him, and always seems to be teasing Dora and trying to outsmart her. Peter is very cunning, and has deduction skills to match Dora's. One thing that I really liked about him was how he treated Dora as an equal, not like women were typically treated during this time period. At the same time, though, he was really caring and protective of her. He maintained a healthy balance, which was really cool to see.

The storyline itself was very well-written, and it kept me engaged throughout the book. The way that everything tied together was really cool, and while I was able to figure out parts of it, other parts came as a complete shock. The mystery is fascinating, and I really couldn't put this book down. (Which, granted, wasn't the best thing for me, sleep-wise, - but I had to finish it! I had to know what happened!)

The ending was really well-done as well. Some personal details are wrapped up, and it helped the reader to understand the characters better. And the last page had my fangirl-self flipping out. Like, a lot. I NEED A SEQUEL. RIGHT NOW. PLEASE!!!

Seriously, if a sequel isn't written, I just might cry. It's perfectly set up for a second story, and I want to know what happens!!

Honestly, I can't recommend this book enough. PLEASE, go pick it up! You won't regret it!





2 comments:

  1. UGH I WANT TO READ THIS SO MUCH. but really, this sounds perfect.

    ReplyDelete

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