Yours Truly, Thomas. Rachel Fordham. 2019. 320 pages. [Source: Review copy]
First sentence: After letting an involuntary squeal escape, Penny pulled the yellowed papers closer and pressed her lips to them. Then she began to devour the words again.
Premise/plot: Penny (Penelope Ercanbeck), our heroine, LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to read love letters--other people's letters. The opening I quoted is her sneakily reading her parents' love letters--she's not supposed to be reading them, and is caught in the act, if you will. As an adult, she continues reading other people's letters. She works for the dead letter office--and I suppose that gives her permission?
Penny falls head over heels in LOVE--the truly, madly, deeply kind--with Thomas (our eventual) hero (Thomas Conner) just by reading his letters to another woman. Thomas is writing CLARA. He doesn't give specifics as to why he headed off west leaving her behind in Virginia, but, Penny doesn't need those reasons. She is just living vicariously through his words--his many words--in his letters.
Thomas was heading west until a wagon accident leaves him stuck in a small town, Azure Springs, Iowa. He's in a dark, dark place until he receives a reply. NOT from his lady love, Clara, mind you, but by an anonymous writer from the dead letter office. It's an odd letter from a stranger--a promise of continued prayer. But it helps him realize the glass may just be half full instead of half empty.
Penny--the anonymous letter writer--has sleuthed her way to finding out more about Thomas and Clara. She's tracked down where he lives. And she has decided to pay him a visit. Not intending to show up at his doorstep and go SURPRISE, HEY I'VE BEEN READING ALL YOUR CORRESPONDENCE. WANT TO LOVE ME INSTEAD? But something a little subtler. She brings her dog, Honey along on the trip.
Will Thomas and Penny fall in love with each other? Can Penny at last have a love letter of her own?
My thoughts: The premise of this one is a little odd--even for Christian romance. (That's not to slam Christian romance. I read plenty of it.) I do wonder if the roles were reversed--if it was a male character working in the dead letter office who decided to track down and visit a female letter writer--if it would be seen in the same way--harmless, sweet, endearing.
It has two narrators: Penny and Thomas. The two do not meet for most of the novel. He's settling into a new town/new place. She's working at the dead letter office working on how to track him down (or Clara down, or both). Once they meet, it is fairly typical instant-attraction. The dog definitely adds interest to the romance...providing some humor and lightness.
I would have liked it more without a secondary melodramatic plot. I will never understand why Christian historical romances *have* to have a villain. Not a second option in a love triangle. Not just an ordinary human living life on his/her own terms that differ slightly and add tension. But an out-and-out villain. This book has villain(s). And there's the "mandatory" fire that provides an excuse for the heroine to be saved and the hero to be all manly manly in his saving. Again....why?
Without the melodrama, I think there's enough tension between the two. He has a few secrets. She has a few secrets. Neither wants to be the first to share. Both feel the other might be holding back something. There's a potential for miscommunication and misunderstanding without a flesh-and-blood villain entering the story.
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