DEAREST JOSEPHINE

An epistolary novel featuring two individuals separated by centuries, each pining for the one they can’t have.

In the present day, Josie De Clare hopes to use the months before university to figure life out. Recently broken up with her selfish boyfriend, estranged from her best friend, and mourning the death of her father, she is headed to Atteberry, a northern English village where her father secretly purchased a small estate. There she finds a box of unsent letters from 1821 written by Elias Roch, illegitimate son and heir of the late Lord Roch. While reading the letters Elias wrote to one Josephine De Clare, a girl he met once and became increasingly besotted with, and his unfinished novel imagining what could have been, she sees similarities between herself and Josephine and starts to fall in love with Elias. It takes Josie months to read through the letters and manuscript, and the progression of her feelings feels forced. The characterization is choppy; Josie, who has suffered bouts of isolating grief, is never fully rounded or meaningfully developed. Elias’ obsession with Josephine, whom he only met once, seems tenuous, as does Josie’s in turn falling in love with him. Fortunately, she does meet local boy Oliver, a promising real-life alternative. Main characters are White; Josie’s ex has a Muslim name.

An attempt to bring Regency romance into the present that fails to gain momentum.