"Dear Mr. Knightley" Book Review

Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay

Imagine it: you come from nothing but pain & poverty {a string of failed foster placements & abuse} – your future is bleak, as is your present – when out of the blue you receive word that someone wants to sponsor you through journalism grad school with the only stipulation being that you have to write this person {who wishes to remain anonymous, by the way} letters; he won’t be writing back, so it’ll be a one way correspondence of sorts. Not a bad deal. If you’ve ever read the classic Daddy Long Legs, it’s probably come to mind by now. This story, Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay, is very Daddy Long Legs-ish, but modern with its own unique twists & turns, too. I think that slightly ruined it for me, however, because I am such a fan of the original story that my hopes were quite high for this retelling.

I found that it starts out rather slow, & took me quite a lot of letters {the story is presented in the form of letters Samantha Moore writes to her mysterious benefactor who wants simply to be called “Mr. Knightley” after Jane Austen’s literary leading man} to get into the story line. However, I stuck with it & eventually got into the reading. There’s a satisfying, albeit predictable, conclusion at the end when you get to read what you knew was coming all along {that is, if you're familiar with Daddy Long Legs}. Overall, I give Dear Mr. Knightley 3 & a 1/2 postage stamps out of 5!

Bookish Love,
-Bess-

*I received this book from the publisher for free (through the BookSneeze program) in exchange for my honest review.