Letters from My Sister. Valerie Fraser Luesse. 2023. 320 pages. [Source: Review copy]
First sentence: Callie Bullock traced an imaginary circle on the windowpane, framing a cluster of ladies in their picnic dresses--swirls of fine cotton in shades of spring.
I am conflicted about Valerie Fraser Luesse's Letters From My Sister. But I'll circle back around to that....
Callie Bullock love, love, loves her sister, Emmy, though the two sisters are incredibly different. Some drama surrounds the family in this one, however, after Lily McGee (a young, beautiful black widowed woman returns to Alabama pregnant. Some men have cartoon-like lusty reactions to seeing her. So much so that the Bullock family--along with her own grandmother/great-grandmother--decide to "hide" her in plain sight. She'll remain with the family and enter into their protection. But some neighbors just can't take a hint. There is a villainous family in the neighborhood--and the one saint in the family happens to be engaged to Emmy. (He literally has an evil twin.)
One night...things are set in motion. Readers remain clueless to the events of this fateful night as readers are 'trapped' with Callie's amnesia, knowing what she knows. I will NOT spoil anything from this point on.
What I liked: I did enjoy, for the most part, the romance between Callie and Solomon. Their relationship was sweetly developed. Both were fully developed characters. Neither was perfect. They had good communication. There was never a self-sabotaging moment (or two) where the characters are so endlessly stupid and getting in their own way. It was quite a relief.
It had some drama, no lie, but it didn't seem horribly melodramatic all things considered. Like the events considered in context of their time--it seemed relatively realistic. But do expect SADNESS.
What I didn't like: I personally did not like the inclusion of psychics or seers. And these were presented in a positive, affirming way. These 'seers' with 'second sight' or 'prophetic visions' may not bother other readers. But the depiction of psychics as being blessings from God and tools of the Holy Spirit, well, it didn't sit quite right with me. Personally.
I also didn't like going through 70 percent of the book without a date--YEAR--given. I know it's historical. I could detect after the first few chapters that it was post-Civil War. But I spent SO MUCH TIME trying to puzzle out what decade, what year this was supposed to be. It wasn't until the heroine was asked her birth year and then volunteers when her next birthday will be--giving a year--that I find out. This was VERY annoying to me. Again, many readers might not care at all. But I like to know. It's important for me for context.
It did feel a little woke at times. Not horribly. Just like the conversations seemed more like a twenty-first century add-ons.
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