This book surprised me. I wasn't expecting the depth and emotion that the story gave me. I am used to light and fluffy contemporary reads, and while this story still held some of those aspects, the idea of the main protagonist having ADHD and Asperger's was so refreshing, raw and real. Loved the complexity of the characters.

Pretty cute! Appreciated the adhd rep and autistic love interest. And that the adhd rep is ownvoices. Although idk how I feel about the mc seeking to be “cured” of her adhd. And the li was kinda boring sadly.

“The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily” is a great read about mental health, friendship, and just all the feels.
Having a book with the main characters having ADHD and Asperger’s and having it work perfectly is like finding a unicorn. It is amazing. The emotional complexity of the writing style and the characters was phenomenal.
My only real issue is with the insta-love trope, which has never been my cup of tea, but it worked out well throughout the book. The overall pacing of the book worked out well and the relationships got more and more fleshed out as we went on.

A copy of the book was provided by the publisher in return for an honest review.

I really love this book. The story is really cute in a way that I can't stop reading the book until I finished it.

This book was so cute. I liked the concept of this book and how it was based around a poem. I also loved how well the book portrayed 2 mental health disability (ADHD & Aspergers.) I felt that it allowed me to get a real insight on how people with the disabilities feel and get through each day. I loved the main characters Abelard and lily. I liked reading the text messages and interactions between the two characters. It was so cute! What I liked mostly about the two characters was that they had a history and this was them rebonding. The ending was a real test for the two characters with one leaving and asking the other to leave. I like how supportive the parents were in their relationship and how they let them to make their own decisions even though they have mental disabilities. It shows that they are their own characters and can make their own disabilities.

I adored The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily by Laura Creedle. I was interested in this book for some time that I knew I would enjoy it the moment I picked it up!
I loved how the book involved a character with ADHD and another with Aspergers and how they interact. Lily and Abelard are so beautifully written and I loved them every second! I loved how Lily's character development grew from strength to strength and with the help of her boyfriend, reaches her goals. Abelard is also such a wonderful character.
This book is just filled with CUTE and HEARTWARMING MOMENTS that I really hope more people read this underrated gem!

I tried to read this several times. This book just isn't for me. It did not hook me at the very beginning, so I couldn't continue reading it. I kept forgetting that I had even began. Sorry for the trouble.

Unfortunately, I was unable to read this book within the BlueFire reader 60 day limit due to a highly hectic college schedule, and cannot review this book! My apologies for any inconvenience caused.

This romance is so sweet! A great first-love story between two teens with mental disorders. Abelard and Lily mimic love letters that they find in a book and embark in a relationship that all teens will identify with.

I didn't finish this book, it really wasn't for me. I had lots of issues with the writing, I read 50% of this book and nothing really had happened. It didn't feel like the story was progressing at all.

This book was interesting, thought-provoking and emotional, It's a great way to raise awareness of mental health as we get inside Lily's head, see her thoughts and watch how she reacts throughout the book. It was a wonderful read. The romance was cute, pure and heartwarming.

Thank you for sending me this galley, however unfortunately I was unable to access this book on my e-reader.

I thought the idea of this story was intriguing. It was definitely a nice change to read a book about an MC with ADHD. I found Lily's voice to be original and compelling, and there was a dash of humor that drew me in to Creedle's writing. I don't know much about how someone with ADHD would act or think, but Lily's voice seemed quite authentic since Creedle is an ADHD author herself.

Abelard and Lily were adorable, and I really enjoyed the scenes they had together! I did sometimes wish for more in-person scenes of Abelard, because I felt like I didn't get to know him as well as I got to know Lily; to me, Lily's ADHD felt much more prominent in the story than Abelard's Asperger's. The one scene where the Asperger's felt more prominent was his meltdown when Lily was late.

I was surprised that their first kiss happened as soon as it did in the story. I know it is explained that Abelard and Lily have already known each other for years before the book began, but at that point the reader hasn't yet had the chance to experience their relationship. So, the kiss felt a little sudden to me, but perhaps other people would think differently.

It was also a struggle to get through the latter chunk of the book because it became a little repetitive, and I got a little tired of reading about Lily worrying about the same problems over and over. And then I was a little irritated when she lied to Abelard. The book also had stronger language than I had been anticipating, so I was a little disappointed with that aspect. But overall, this was a very cute story!

Thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the opportunity to read and review The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily by Laura Creedle! Lily struggles daily with her ADHD which causes misunderstandings, confusion and impulsive behavior. Through an odd turn of events, Lily begins to have a crush on Abelard, who is considered to be different due to his Asperger’s Syndrome. They mostly communicate through texting since it’s easier for both of them; Lily can resist impulses and Abelard can slow down sensory overload. The two of them have their ups and downs but find a wonderful balance in their relationship that works out perfectly for them. This sweet, thought-provoking story touches on the reality of people that struggle with learning disabilities and the family members that live through the struggles with them. Heartwarming realistic fiction worth 5 stars!

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand I was happy with the representation of mental health in this book because it was done so well, and we really do need more books with representation like this. But for the most part I was bored and had a hard time connecting with the characters, I wasn't that invested in their story at all. Lily often felt much younger to me than she was and I had to keep reminding myself that she was 16 not 12. I know that part of that can be attributed to her ADHD, but even then I still couldn't keep her in my mind as a high school teenager.

I enjoyed Abelard and Lily's exchanges through the story of Abelard and Heloise, but their relationship was still hard for me to grasp. A lot of it felt very sudden (almost like insta love) from their first encounter outside the principals office to the texts they began sending. It was like we got from point A to point B really fast but nothing happened in between that would explain how they got there.

Overall I'm bummed I didn't enjoy this book more. It was one of my most anticipated releases for 2017, and it just wasn't I expected it was going to be.

Original Review: <a href="https://wp.me/p4k8Za-qm">Mad Book Love</a>

Lily and Abelard are two teenagers who are wicked smart, but face challenges that make life a bit more difficult than for their peers. Through a very interesting (but very Lily and Abelard) event, they connect for the first time since childhood, finding in each other so much more than they ever expected. However, along the way, they have to not only come to understand each other’s challenges, but find a way to make their relationship work within the confines of those challenges. In the end, they are each offered paths that could help improve their lives significantly, but requires separation. What will they choose?

What a truly difficult book for me to assess because one of the things (the only thing really) that I struggled with is probably appropriate, but I’m not certain. That thing is the thing I struggle with lately in all contemporary YA these days: maturity. In a contemporary YA setting with neurotypical (NT) teens, I feel like these kids are portrayed as being rather immature for being sixteen. BUT. These kids are not, in fact, NT. Abelard has Aspergers and Lily has ADHD and dyslexia. Abelard is actually the more mature of the two, and having two children on the autism spectrum, his characterization seemed appropriate. However, Lily seemed rather immature – more like a 13 year old than a 16 year old – and as I have no experience with ADHD (and question whether dyslexia would affect maturity), I just can’t speak to the accuracy of the characterization or the effect of that particular diagnosis on a person’s maturity level. I imagine there are several reasons why it would, but this tangent is going too far off the map, so…she seemed immature to me for a 16 year old and that typically bothers me in YA because it makes me feel like teenagers aren’t given enough credit. But, she has a diagnosis of which I have zero experience, that could speak to that, so I’m trying to let it go.

The story itself was sweet and thoughtful and addressed many of the issues that come along with being neurodivergent, as well as raising someone/living with/loving someone who is neurodivergent. That was all very well done. And I loved that the author took the position that neurodivergent people can be independent, have dreams and feelings, can fall in love, are as human as any of us, even if that isn’t always evident to those living outside of that world.

And despite the maturity issue, I really did love Lily and Abelard, but especially Lily. She was thoughtful and feisty and open, and I loved her. And I loved them together.

We've included this book as our December Young Adult book! We absolutely loved Laura Creedle's writing style and the dept she gave the characters! Will recommend this touching read to everyone!

The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily was a novel which had me interested as soon as I heard about it. It distinctly made me think of books like Made You Up by Francesca Zappia, and if you know how much I loved that book, then you understand how excited I was to read this novel. I was especially interested in the mental health themes and representation.

We immediately enter right into the world of Lily, who has ADHD. Lily’s attention span is short – she moves from one thing to the next so quickly. But what I loved most about stepping into her brain? She’s always thinking of something, she is always delving into a new idea, and it seems so… active? So energetic? But at the same time, I started to think about how tiring it must be for her, and wondered if she ever wanted to be able to stick to a single idea for a long time. Creedle perfectly wove her writing style into the character – I could really get a sense of being inside Lily’s head and trying to deal with her neurodivergence while also going through the typical things that teenagers must do in the growing up stage of life. I do know some people who have ADHD, but not on the level that Lily has.


We also get to know Abelard well from this story, and his condition is never exactly pinpointed… although Lily does mention him having something like Asperger’s. I would have wanted to know exactly what it was about Abelard that made him neurodivergent because it would be something I personally would have wanted to research a bit more into. It becomes clear that Abelard’s mindset is the complete opposite to Lily’s. Even though we never get to dive into it as readers, Creedle manages to present his character in a way that hints as to what it might be like to live in his mind. And somehow, slowly, his character grew on me, and his incredible sweetness helped with that quite a lot.

I also really liked the side characters. In mental health awareness you need to be careful with the secondary characters because it may either seem like their entire lives are dedicated to helping the main character through any of their trials. But it is also important to remember that these characters have their own lives and their own stories too. In the beginning of the novel I was worried that the secondary characters were leaning toward the former end of YA mental health awareness literature. However, by around the halfway mark I could see this wasn’t the case. This was something I really appreciated while reading.


I greatly enjoyed how Creedle wove a unique hobby between the two characters to connect them. I appreciated the medieval love letters and how it contributed to their romantic story. I also really appreciated how this novel dipped into the themes of family issues too, and how even parents aren’t perfect too. They can make mistakes… and need to learn from them.

However, having said all these great elements about the characters and the creative artistry of the author, I felt like something was missing. I do enjoy my character driven novels, but I felt like this one needed more of a plot. Or if not a grand plot, then there needed to be amore build up to the conclusions and what it meant for the character, because the conclusion felt a bit underwhelming to me.


Relevance to today: This novel is so relevant to today because it discusses and represents two different neurodivergent children and what this means for their lives as they grow up. We need more mental health awareness as sometimes it is not always a visual difficulty that some people struggle with in everyday life.

As soon as I read the synopsis, I was intrigued. I mean, it's not every day I get to read a book that features not only one, but two neurodivergent teens. And just by that, I was hooked.
Creedle's writing style really suit my reading-palate. It was so good, I practically flew through this one. It's so easy to get sucked in the story that was so intricately written, so well-thought out.

The characters, Lily & Abelard, are forces to be reckoned with. Lily is fun, complex, smart, interesting, albeit easily distracted, and impulsive. She's what I'd like to call full of life. Her self-motivation is something to be noted. Abelard, on the other hand, is quite the polar opposite of Lily. For some reason, while reading this book, Abelard reminded me of Sam Gardner (from Atypical tv series). He's sweet, super smart, and reserved (good looking, too). And he's pretty great with words, as well (not shocking since both characters were well versed on medieval literature). Let me just share this quote from the book:

"You are fractured snowflake, a pattern repeated in infinite detail in a world full of salt crystals. You're not broken – you're perfect."

See? 'nuff said.

Anyway, the other characters, like Lily's and Abelard's family and friends were pretty well written, too. Not all characters are perfect which made it all the more perfect (because no one's really perfect, right?)

Overall, I enjoyed reading this. Reading this was a roller coaster ride: there's ups and downs, but in the end, it was a thrilling ride to be able to read a book that stars complex characters. This is a book that I won't hesitate to recommend to anyone.

Here's other quotes that really got me:
"...you can't rely on another person for happiness..."

"I spent my entire life as a teacup with a jagged crack running down the side, an imperfect vessel threatening to spill my contents onto the table at any random moment. Tolerated but not adored. It didn't seem like it would be possible to love me. Probabilistically unlikely at best. But for Abelard, the jagged crack was the interesting thing about me."

I love that this book features both a girl with ADHD (which is so rarely shown in books. I think it’s unusual to see a book with a protagonist with ADHD at all, but specifically a female protagonist.) and a boy with Asperger’s. This is made better by the fact that the author herself is a woman with ADHD, so it’s even Own Voices! I personally do not have ADHD, but some people in my family have inattentive ADHD, so I do have some experience with it.

I thought the use of quotes in the book was really well done and showed a lot about the characters without being overbearing. I also loved the use of seemingly gibberish words to represent Lily’s comprehension issues, I thought that was a very creative way of showing that without being overly obvious as to what was happening. The flirting between Lily and Abelard is so cute and relatable.

I thought Abelard was not as fully fleshed out as he could have been, he felt like more of a secondary character than I was expecting, which disappointed me. I was expecting duel narration, it seemed like he should get more time to fully understand his perspective.

A lot of people seemed to think the book had a message of “be yourself, but still change to make yourself more desirable to other people”. However, I didn’t feel that was the message at all. Lily did change, but it was for herself. It was so she had a better shot at accomplishing what she wanted. The book seemed pretty against changing yourself for another person and the trope of love solving all your problems. I also loved the ambiguous ending, and I hope the book isn’t given a sequel. However, I wouldn’t mind a book from Abelard’s point of view.

Overall, I thought this was a really cute and well-told story about two neurodivergent teens. I would recommend it to anyone interested in fluffy contemporary fiction, but I think it would work especially well for any girls with ADHD.