Title: The Last Letter
Author: Kathleen Shoop
Publisher: CreateSpace
Publication Date: February 15, 2011
Paperback: 372 pages
ISBN: 978-1456347208
Genre: Fiction
About the Book:
For any daughter who thinks she knows her mother’s story…
Katherine Arthur’s mother arrives on her doorstep, dying, forcing her to relive a past she wanted to forget.
When Katherine was ten, she had loved her mother fiercely, put her trust in her completely, but when her mother resorted to extreme measures on the prairie to save her family, she tore Katherine’s world apart. Now, seventeen years later, and far from the prairie, Katherine has found the truth – she has discovered the last letter.
My Review:
The Last Letter by Kathleen Shoop is a dramatic story of a family’s struggle to do the right thing, to do right by life’s lessons and ultimately, to seek reconciliation. Believable, flawed characters in Jeannie and her daughter, Katherine give readers, through their points of view, a sense of life, or at least life in their family, toward the end of the 19th Century and beginning of the 20th Century. Told from her mother’s point of view when Katherine was but a child and moved with her mother and do-nothing father to the Dakota Territory to live off the land, and then switching to Katherine’s point of view some 17 years later, The Last Letter is well-crafted in the time period and readers will find that the descriptions and storyline bring a sense of being immersed in the 19th Century Midwestern United States. Emotions are at a peak in this fictional, yet realistic tale about a family’s decision, for good or for bad, to move out of city life and to the rural reaches of the Dakotas. Although I thought the characters and their descriptions were well-written, I had a hard time relating to either woman and found the story to ultimately be quite sad. With that said, I do believe The Last Letter would make for an interesting discussion group pick.
About the Author:
Kathleen Shoop is a Language Arts Coach with a PhD in Reading Education. Her work has appeared in The Tribune Review, four Chicken Soup for the Soul books and Pittsburgh Parent Magazine. She lives in Oakmont, Pennsylvania with her husband and two children.
To learn more about Kathleen Shoop please visit her website.
I received a complimentary copy of The Last Letter by Kathleen Shoop from BookSparks PR to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.
Thanks so much for the review, Jennifer! I appreciate your thoughts and know exactly what you mean about the sadness…I felt the same in writing it!
Thank you Kathleen for taking the time to not only stop by, but also to comment. You did a brilliant job and I look forward to reading your next book.