Dearest Josephine

by Caroline George Narrated by Nathalie Pownall

Overview

Love arrives at the most unexpected time . . .*

1821: Elias Roch has ghastly luck with women. He met Josephine De Clare once and penned dozens of letters hoping to find her again.

2021: Josie De Clare has questionable taste in boyfriends. The last one nearly ruined her friendship with her best friend.

Now, in the wake of her father's death, Josie finds Elias's letters. Suddenly she's falling in love with a guy who lived two hundred years ago. And star-crossed doesn't even begin to cover it . . .*

*

“Dearest Josephine*is the type of story that becomes your own. The characters' heartaches worked their way into my own chest until I hurt with them, hoped with them, and dared to dream with them. This book is teeming with swoon-worthy prose, adorable humor, and an expert delivery of* `Will they end up together?'*I guarantee you'll be burning the midnight candle to a stub to get answers. Step aside*Pride and Prejudice, there's a new romance on the English moors.”*-Nadine Brandes, author of*Romanov

“Caroline George infuses an epistolary love story with a romance and charm that crosses centuries. Touching and inventive, it bursts with wit, warmth, and a blending of classic and contemporary that goes together like scones and clotted cream.*Dearest Josephine*is a delight.”*-Emily Bain Murphy, author of*The Disappearances*

“Dearest Josephine*is more than an immersive read. It is a book lover's dream experience.**Josie's residence in a gothic English manor and her deeply romantic connection to Elias, who lived years in the past, is as chillingly atmospheric as Rochester calling across the moors. This story is George's treatise on the power of books and character to creep across centuries, to pull us close and*invite us to live in a fantasy where we find love-literally-in the kinship of ink and binding. But it also acknowledges the dangers of letting ourselves fall too deeply when sometimes an equally powerful connection is waiting next door.*This love letter to books, and the readers who exist in and for them, is a wondrously singular escape.”*-Rachel McMillan, author of*The London Restoration*and*The Mozart Code*

• Romantic and evocative read in both contemporary and historical time periods
• Stand-alone novel
• Book length: 86,000 words

Editorial Reviews

MAY 2021 - AudioFile

Nathalie Pownall narrates an unconventional young adult romance audiobook. After her father dies, Josie takes a gap year before starting university. As she begins to renovate the English estate her father bequeathed to her, she comes across letters addressed to her that were written by someone 200 years earlier. Pownall’s performance, though spirited, is far from stellar. Josie’s closest friend, Faith, an American, is performed with an inconsistent accent. Other characters’ voices are frequently indistinguishable. The story shifts between the two time periods, with the current-day conversations helpfully designated by the sounds of the messages being sent and received. Still, this production is serviceable at best. A.L.S.M. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

School Library Journal

12/11/2020

Gr 8 Up—Eighteen-year-old Josie De Clare leaves London, as well as her insufferable mother and ex-boyfriend Rashad, to spend time alone at the estate her father purchased before his death. Through email, she reconnects with Faith, her Italian American best friend. Alone in the run-down estate, Josie describes to Faith the steps she's taking to fix it up. Stumbling upon a packet of letters from 1820 addressed to a Josephine De Clare from pale-skinned, hazel-eyed Elias, whose portrait peers down from above the desk, Josie and Faith, along with handsome local boy Oliver, dig deeper. Josie discovers that Elias, who met Josephine at a dance only once, is infatuated and determined to locate her. He describes Josephine, who with her personality, blonde hair, and slate blue eyes resembles Josie in so many ways that she is certain that they have a connection. Readers follow the story through Elias's letters to Josephine, interspersed with texts from Josie to Faith and Oliver, as well as an unfinished manuscript Elias wrote about his love for the mysterious Josephine. With Josie becoming more convinced that she and Elias are meant to be together, Faith and Oliver are there to remind her that love comes in many forms. VERDICT The overlong passages and jumps from today's texts to Elias's letters and novel do little to move the story forward, but there will be readers for whom this flowery story of star-crossed love, friendship, and angst works well.—Connie Williams, Petaluma, CA

MAY 2021 - AudioFile

Nathalie Pownall narrates an unconventional young adult romance audiobook. After her father dies, Josie takes a gap year before starting university. As she begins to renovate the English estate her father bequeathed to her, she comes across letters addressed to her that were written by someone 200 years earlier. Pownall’s performance, though spirited, is far from stellar. Josie’s closest friend, Faith, an American, is performed with an inconsistent accent. Other characters’ voices are frequently indistinguishable. The story shifts between the two time periods, with the current-day conversations helpfully designated by the sounds of the messages being sent and received. Still, this production is serviceable at best. A.L.S.M. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2020-12-31
An epistolary novel featuring two individuals separated by centuries, each pining for the one they can’t have.

In the present day, Josie De Clare hopes to use the months before university to figure life out. Recently broken up with her selfish boyfriend, estranged from her best friend, and mourning the death of her father, she is headed to Atteberry, a northern English village where her father secretly purchased a small estate. There she finds a box of unsent letters from 1821 written by Elias Roch, illegitimate son and heir of the late Lord Roch. While reading the letters Elias wrote to one Josephine De Clare, a girl he met once and became increasingly besotted with, and his unfinished novel imagining what could have been, she sees similarities between herself and Josephine and starts to fall in love with Elias. It takes Josie months to read through the letters and manuscript, and the progression of her feelings feels forced. The characterization is choppy; Josie, who has suffered bouts of isolating grief, is never fully rounded or meaningfully developed. Elias’ obsession with Josephine, whom he only met once, seems tenuous, as does Josie’s in turn falling in love with him. Fortunately, she does meet local boy Oliver, a promising real-life alternative. Main characters are White; Josie’s ex has a Muslim name.

An attempt to bring Regency romance into the present that fails to gain momentum. (author’s note, discussion questions) (Romance. 12-18)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173282330
Publisher:	Nelson, Thomas, Inc.
Publication date:	02/02/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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