Absolutely in love with this debut from Virginia Evans. It’s not on goodreads yet, so I’ll remind you later in the year when it publishes in May!

Let me get this out of the way people, I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK.

Virginia Evans made me want to write a letter, to someone, to HER!, so bad it hurt.

I felt an unexplainable connection to Sybil. Did she remind me of my own grandma, maybe? It also felt like something else, something more. I loved the way Sybil was presented to the readers.

She was wrong, she was emotional and she was lost. All of these characteristics are what made her real. She wasn’t this perfect, letter writing, old lady who lived this astonishing life… she had her own hauntings, her own holes she dug with past relationships. A lady that always presented that she could find the words for every situation to put beautifully structured into a perfectly written letter sometimes faltered. And THAT’S what I loved about her.

Of course, she was amazing. She overcame so much in her life. She was a hero to a lot of people. Selfless to some, selfish to others.

She was so complex and that’s life! You’ll get both sides of the coin. A grief that takes you down, but life goes on. Most importantly, life can still be happy.

What is even more amazing, is I took all of these feelings, life lessons and takeaways from the subtext of letters. I’m so impressed with Evans writing. The way she conveyed a story that I, as a reader, was able to imagine and create a world in my head.

I cannot say enough good things about this story. As Sybil would have suggested, I should have sat with my thoughts a bit longer to string my words together in a more concise and meaningful way. But take my love-word-vomit as a recommendation that if you love letters, stationary, writing, if the pen you pick up matters … you’ll fall in love with this book as much as I have.

_{Note: this book is not on goodreads yet, which makes me sad.}

Amazon Link – The Correspondent By: Virginia Evans

Stats: 304 pages – First published May 6, 2025

^{*** Thank you to NetGalley, Crown Publishing and of course the author, Virginia Evans, for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Publishing May 6, 2025.}