I absolutely adored the characters in this book. Zoe, Marcus and Joanna being my favourites but really the whole cast was an incredible mix of personalities. What was most interesting was seeing how various characters developed through the course of the book…some for better and some for worse 🤐 Joanna Haslam is an ambitious young journalist assigned to cover the legendary actor's funeral. The great and the good of the celebrity world are there. Riley has composed a great character set. Joanna was a standout. Riley does an excellent job of outlining Joanna’s journey, which covers her career, friendships, love life and her key involvement in exposing the truth behind the love letter. Joanna is joined by a set cast of well defined individuals, from Zoe, to Simon and Marcus. There is not much I can fault by way of characterisation. Riley also manages to balance good and bad figures throughout the proceedings of her novel. Gal kiek keista, bet svarbiausia knygoje ne meilė. Daugiau dėmesio, čia skiriama draugystei, pasiaukojimui ir žinoma, paslaptims. Drąsai kapstytis ten, kur draudžiama. Drąsai nutraukti santykius, kurie neturi ateities ir duoti sau antrą šansą.⠀ EXCERPT: It was the morphine turning his brain to jelly. Tomorrow he'd have none, and then he'd remember what it was he must do before he died.

Joanna Haslam is an ambitious young journalist, assigned to cover the legendary actor’s funeral. The great and the good of the celebrity world are there. But Joanna stumbles on something dark beneath the glamour: the mention of a letter Sir James left behind, the contents of which have been desperately concealed for over seventy years. Ansonsten muss ich echt meinen Hut vor Lucinda Riley ziehen, da sie es meisterhaft geschafft hat den Leser immer wieder im Dunkeln zu lassen und es gab für mich unendlich viele unvorhersehbare Plottwists. Auch die Gefühle blieben hier nicht zu kurz und ich konnte mit allen Charakteren total mitfühlen und mitfiebern. A blend of thriller, drama and romance involving MI5, the royal family, an acting dynasty and a young investigative reporter eager to make a name for herself, Lucinda Riley seems to have added a new dimension to her writing with the Love Letter, not entirely successfully in my honest opinion.Nesunkiai įsivaizduoju šią knygą, virstančią filmu. Slaptosios tarnybos, grubiai glaistomos paslaptys, herojiškas pasiaukojimas - didžiąjame ekrane atrodytų neblogai 🎬 ⠀ Despite my reservations regarding the choppy nature of the narrative at times, I did enjoy this read, although not to the same extent as other titles I have read by Riley. The Butterfly Room remains a clear favourite. Setting is always Riley’s strength. In all of her novels the setting has a strong presence. The Love Letter is situated mainly in London in 1995. This is a time and place I know very well and I thought Riley nailed it. A sense of nostalgia washed over me as I read this novel. I really enjoyed the historical moments that were delicately woven through this set piece. The Love Letter takes you to a very different set of culture, and reading this in 2020, I could easily notice it is set in 1995. There are many small things in the book that happen, which reminded me that time has passed since, and I really enjoyed that. It has been a while since I have read something over two decades ago. MY THOUGHTS: The Love Letter took a bit more for me to become fully immersed in than is normal for this author. At first I thought the storyline very similar to The Angel Tree, which I had just finished. But then the story took a turn that I wasn't expecting, and everything changed.

He knew he mustn't go to sleep. He closed his eyes, desperately searching, searching . . . snatches of memories, faces . . . Okay. You just relax and try to get some sleep,' she soothed him, her hand stroking his forehead. 'The doctor will be here soon.' But Joanna stumbles on something dark beneath the glamour: the mention of a letter James Harrison has left behind, the contents of which others have been desperate to conceal for over 70 years. THE AUTHOR: Lucinda Riley is an Irish author of popular historical fiction and a former actress. She spent the first few years of her life in the village of Drumbeg near Belfast before moving to England. At age 14 she moved to London to a specialist drama and ballet school. She wrote her first book aged twenty four. Lucinda died in June 2021.The Love Letter is mysterious from the very beginning, when Joanna meets the old lady. Little does she know that she will be involved with keeping a very dangerous secret that happened many moons ago. Things start to get very interesting when the reporter gets close to the actor’s family. Each of these individuals keeps their own little secrets too, and everyone keeps playing games to their own liking. The story line, in my opinion, was faultless. It had so many twists and turns and around the half way mark it becomes a very fast-paced read! There was (LOTS!!) danger and mystery but also a lot of love in many forms. It was the perfect balance and such a unique story, as all of Riley’s books are! It was interesting to see Lucinda Riley take on quite a different format with The Love Letter. There is much more of an emphasis on action, thrills, adventure, espionage and deceit. It marks a different direction for Lucinda Riley and I enjoyed it very much. Who would have thought that the contents of a letter written seventy years ago would be so explosive! Lucinda Riley lets us know. And the ending? Well, it was tied up neatly, but for me it was just a touch too unbelievable ! The Royal Secret focuses on the scandalous lives of some of London's elite - lives filled with secrets, romance, espionage and mystery. It was this premise, and the author's name (I adored her earlier book, The Midnight Rose), that prompted me to request an advanced copy of this book. But while the story promises a delightfully salacious royal scandal and long-held secrets, my feelings for the book are a little more complicated than I had anticipated.

The Love Letter is the latest historical crossed with romance and thriller elements from saga queen Lucinda Riley. Originally published in 1998, as Seeing Double, it received fairly mediocre reception twenty years ago. Conditions of the time and the main storyline crux, which is closely linked to the British monarchy, contributed to this book’s downfall. Now, twenty years later and due to the success of The Seven Sisters series, along with seven other well received saga novels, Lucinda Riley has provided The Love Letter (aka Seeing Double) with another chance. Ich weiß gar nicht was ich zu diesem Buch sagen soll... Ich hatte ja mit vielem gerechnet, aber nicht mit dem, was ich hier bekommen habe. Bisher kenne ich nur die Sieben-Schwestern-Reihe der Autorin (und mag sie auch sehr!), aber das hier war was ganz anderes. The Love Letter was my first book by Lucinda Riley, and I can’t believe I haven’t read a book by this author before. This is a magnificent book, full of secrets, forbidden romances and unsolved mysteries of the past.This title was originally published as Seeing Double and is published in the US and Canada as The Royal Secret .*