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Mimi Matthews’ The Lost Letter is a sweet second-chance romance that is very readable, but also trope-heavy and predictable as a result. It’s still worth your time, especially if you’re a fan of this author or just looking for an historical romance that’s solid if not spectacular.
Sylvia Stafford, an impoverished gentlewoman, works as a governess in Cheapside. The routine of her life is interrupted though, when Lady Julia Harker insists on meeting her. Julia is the sister of Sebastian, the Earl of Radcliffe, who returned from India three years earlier, horribly scarred in the Sepoy Rebellion. Now he refuses to go out in public or meet anyone, and Julia claims to be terrified that Sebastian is going to kill himself.
But Sylvia might be able to save him. Before he left for India, they shared a passionate kiss, and he asked for a lock of her hair to take with him. Having seen him holding that memento like a lifeline, Julia hopes that Sylvia’s presence will give him something to live for.
For her part, Sylvia is not interested in rekindling the embers, because she wrote over a hundred letters to Sebastian when he was in India, and never got a single reply. But she was shunned by society after her profligate father killed himself, so the prospect of Sebastian taking his own life affects her deeply, and she accepts Julia’s invitation to spend a month in Sebastian’s country home. To Sylvia’s dismay, Sebastian isn’t expecting her, and as the days pass, it becomes obvious that he doesn’t even seem to like her.
Naturally, Sebastian is intensely attracted to Sylvia. But he can’t bear for anyone to see his face, and he wrote to her repeatedly from India without getting a reply. He concluded that she had been merely flirting with him three years ago, and thinks she has now decided that being a countess will be better than being part of the working class. So he’s all the colder to her as a result.
In other words, this story has all the tropes :
- Hero with hang-ups about the facial scars he sustained in battle, said scars weighing more heavily in the social balance than his accomplishments, his title, his fortune, and the rest of his imposing appearance.
- Heroine who reacts to adversity by supporting herself, finding what happiness she can, and being unfailingly kind to everyone.
- Third party keeps the hero and heroine apart by intercepting letters. Neither of them tries any alternative means of contacting each other or even of delivering said letters. Instead, each of them assumes that the love of their life has abandoned them.
- Heroine can’t sleep, so she goes to the library in her nightgown. Libraries are more of a mating zone than notorious gaming-hells.
- After the hero and heroine reconnect, a Big Mis and separation occur when she thinks he wants her as a mistress. Though what sort of man says “arrangement” when he means “marriage”? (A man who knows the story must have eighty more pages, that’s who)
That said, the story has its strong points. I liked Sylvia’s steadfast nature and composure, especially in the face of Sebastian’s unpleasant behavior at the start. She also has enough self-respect that when she thinks he wants her as a mistress, she returns to London, relieved that their passionate reconnection had stopped short of sex, because she couldn’t have risked a pregnancy. It’s great to see a heroine written with historical accuracy.
And Julia is fun. Sure, she’s impulsive and a bit of a fibber, but she cares about other people’s happiness. I would have liked to see her and her husband together on the page, because although he is not handsome or forceful, he loves her and won’t tolerate anyone treating her badly.
Sebastian, on the other hand, is sunk so deep in his passive misery that I eventually got tired of him. He makes a deeply romantic speech at the end though, and that was wonderful to read. Another improvement to this story would be showing how he dealt with his self-consciousness about meeting people, because all he does is make a baby step or two in that direction.
Most of all, what made me keep reading anxiously was the fate of the missing letters, and especially Sylvia’s concern over the first one, which she believed had caused the breach between her and Sebastian because of the incautious words she’d written. So although this isn’t a plot-heavy romance, there was enough to keep me hooked.
The Lost Letter isn’t a romance for the ages, but it was a good way to pass some time. Mimi Matthews’ writing is assured and descriptive, making the world of her story easy to imagine, and readers who love traditional takes on Beauty and the Beast should enjoy this.
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Grade: B-
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Kisses
Review Date: 14/12/20
Publication Date: 11/2017
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
I'm Marian, originally from Sri Lanka but grew up in the United Arab Emirates, studied in Georgia and Texas, ended up in Toronto. When I'm not at my job as a medical laboratory technologist, I read, write, do calligraphy, and grow vegetables in the back yard.
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I read this review and I could have sworn I already reviewed this at AAR 3 years ago! Ha! I didn’t – I reviewed it at the now defunct Romantic Historical Reviews. I dug out the review to refresh my memory of the story (which I liked!). I gave it 4 stars & mentioned that it was a wonderful debut, but that the length was problematic. It wasn’t quite a novel and it was a bit too long for a novella. I think those were my only quibbles!
Matthews is a talented author. For my mood lately (all over the place), her books are a wonderful respite from the real world. I’m digging her. Big time.
Oh – and why did she replace the cover? The original one is SO lovely.
I thought this cover was good (sort of a sepia-toned nostalgic look), so I didn’t realize the original one was better. I’ll check that out.
I didn’t know there was another cover so I went to my friend Google and checked it out. The original cover is indeed lovely but the current cover is maybe more tied into the title of the book? But definitely a more somber cover.
I actually really liked The Lost Letter. I agree that it is closer to a novella than a full length book. It does have a lot of tropes but that doesn’t necessarily diminish my enjoyment of a book. The misunderstanding about the letters didn’t bother me. Sylvia was young and she put her trust in the wrong hands. In those days, I don’t know what alternate means of communication she could have tried. The writing was really good. What I liked best was the letter itself (so romantic) and Sebastian’s swoonworthy speech at the end. Maybe I just enjoy melodrama :)
I can think of one alternative means of communication for Sebastian – if a friend or colleague is returning to England, ask that person to find out what happened to Sylvia, or to send a letter to her. In those days, a gentleman should have been aware that a young woman’s father could exert a lot of control over her, so if the young woman suddenly went silent, I’d hope that the gentleman would consider “her father is trying to break up our relationship” as likely as “she’s a fickle user who was never in love with me”.
But then again, I’m weird and rational that way. :) I’m glad you enjoyed the book, and yes, the speech at the end was lovely!
I had no issues with the lost letter trope. I thought their interactions were a little dramatic, is all. And I know I’ve read 4 or 5 novels in the past few month alone that have the heroine coming down to the library in the middle of the night. I did do an eye-roll on that.
I’m now wondering if the library trope has ever been flipped. As in, the hero can’t sleep, so he wanders down to the library in his nightshirt?
Agreed on the grade (and good work, Marian). Matthews’ worst quality as a writer is kerning toward melodrama IMO.
Thank you! Matthews is a good enough writer that she shouldn’t need to fall back on melodrama, but even in one of her books that I really enjoyed (The Work of Art), the story got a theatrical finale that didn’t work at all for me.
I gave this the same grade. I enjoyed it, but felt it was slightly melodramatic, which is my quibble with the other books I’ve read by this author. Coming in at 5 hours on audio, this felt more like a long novella than a full length book.
I’d also really like to see some subversions of the trope where the first love ends because of lost letters or a missed rendezvous. It usually feels like the hero loves the heroine and wants nothing more than to be with her forever…but giving her the benefit of the doubt under such circumstances? As if!