A story that stays with you, as it’s all too easy to picture yourself as a fellow passenger on this doomed flight.
Eddie survives the crash which takes the lives of his parents, his brother who he idolises, and everyone else aboard- and is transformed into Edward by his continued but now alien existence. A different life. One in which others feel they have a stake- particularly those who lost loved ones on the flight. They reinvest their lost hopes into his future and write him letters making requests- some achievable, most not; certainly not in combination. Luckily the letters are intercepted and hidden, unread, by his guardians and it is several years before he finds them, and is spurred to action by their contents.

Edward had sparked jealousy from classmates who felt he had been given concessions in school in attendance, behaviour, university entry. They had envied his financial security after compensation payouts. Ultimately, he finds a way to share his fortune anonymously.

Mixed feelings about this book. It’s an easy read and competently told. It tugs at your emotions. Some engaging characters and I did like Edward and Shay. I didn’t enjoy the ‘first class’ characters travelling with Jane, who were more stereotypical and lacking in interest to me. Overall, a decent read but not a stand out for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Absolutely beautiful and touching, brilliant writing. I was so happy to read the ARC of this, and was mesmerised all the way through. Cannot recommend more highly. One for fans of The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Edward (Eddie), his brother Jordan and parents Bruce and Jane board flight 2977 to Los Angeles, as they are moving from New York to relocate for Jane’s job. A new and exciting life for all of them.

After the plane crash, Eddie discovers he is the sole survivor, 191 people including his family. His Aunt and Uncle take him in where he has to learn to live without his family and recover from his injuries.

The story goes back to the flight where we are introduced to some of the other people on the plane and get to know their back stories.

This is such a beautifully written emotional book that will tug at your heart strings and made me tear up at times. Although this is a sad story it is also about survival and hope.

Loved Eddie’s close friendship with neighbour Shay, with her help can he overcome the guilt of being the sole survivor and start a new life.

This book will stay in my thoughts for a long time to come.

A new author for me and I will definitely be looking out for her other books.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review. The

This book was absolutely beautiful. Following the story of Edward, the sole survivor of an air crash that killed his parents and brother, he went to live with his Aunt and Uncle. Edward's recovery and the growth throughout the book is incredibly touching. Definitely one to recommend to your friends.

This book was incredible. I could not put it down. I loved the way it jumped between the past and present and how slowly, little bits of detail were introduced. I genuinely liked the characters and found myself thinking about them after I had finished reading. I will be looking out for more by this author. Just go and read it!

I'm becoming a fan of Ann Napolitano. I'm currently reading her newest release, Dear Edward. Edward is 12 years old when he is involved in a plane crash, and is the only person to survive. He struggles to find a way to live, after having lost everything, including his brother, mother and father. The narrative of his present life is intercut with the hours of the flight, the people whose last hours he shared, who will stay with him for ever.

It's a bold concept, full of the strangeness of life, loss and death, an ingenious way to examine this eternally puzzling frontier and how we behave when faced with it. There are unexpected consequences that are so emotionally true - for instance, when Edward goes to a new school, his classmates are curious about him, and also suspicious that he is getting lenient treatment. Napolitano makes it believable, down to earth, yet also poetic - I'm enjoying it greatly. Dear Edward publishes in January, but you can order it and find out more about Ann here. .

I'm so glad to have been given the opportunity to read this book. It's not necessarily one which I would normally have chosen because I shy away from other people's sadness - but this book, in the telling of Edward's journey from the tragedy of being the only survivor of a plane crash, made me see that the human spirit is strong.
The message is: Not to waste any time. Not to waste any love.
Thank you, NetGalley.

Oh my word. I could not put this book down. I loved it! It was so emotional! I liked the way it switched between the now and the build up to the plane crash. I think it was done really well. I cannot wait to have this as a book club read.

When twelve year old Edward and his family board a plane from Newark to Los Angeles, none of them could imagine the terrible fate that awaits them - a plane crash that will kill everyone on board, except for the titular Edward. Sent to live with his aunt and uncle, Edward must learn to manage his newfound celebrity to manage his newfound celebrity while recovering both physically and mentally from the trauma of the crash. Aided in his recovery by his relatives and by his new friendship with a girl named Shay, Edward will make some surprising discoveries - one of which may just be how not to just survive but how to truly live.

I had expected because of the title that Edward would be the main character - and he is, but we also get the stories of all the other characters on the plane, too: a septuagenarian billionaire, an unmarried woman who may or not be pregnant, a wounded veteran etc, which I really enjoyed as it gave other perspectives on the crash and also made you realise the true extent of the accident - they weren't just faceless people who died, they were people that you, the reader, had spent time with, and so there was a real sense of loss .

The only (mild) criticism that I have of the book is that which applies to a lot of other books featuring intense teenage friendships, which is that the friendship between Edward and Shay was very idealised. But that aside, I really enjoyed the novel and will definitely be looking out for more from this author. 4.5 stars from me.

NOTE: I was provided with a free ARC copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. It's a moving, beautifully written read, looking at grief, loss and trauma. Funnily enough, I never would have picked up this book based on the title or cover. It looks like a commercial romance so I'm really grateful to Netgalley for highlighting it otherwise I would have missed it. Highly recommend.

I was engrossed from beginning to end.
Dear Edward is a story of the lone survivor of a plane crash which takes the lives of his parents and elder brother. Struggling to deal with his loss, to fit in living with his barren aunt and her husband, and the attention from the general public, Edward befriends the girl next door, and spends his nights sleeping on her floor. He lives in his dead brother’s clothes, constantly comparing himself to his more outgoing sibling. When he and his friend discover some bags in his uncles garage full of letters from others who lost family in the crash he decides to contact everyone who wrote,
The book alternates between before the crash where we meet some of the other passengers, and the aftermath where Edward tries to find his new place in the world.
Not the kind of book I would normally read, but would thoroughly recommend.

This was the first book I'd read from Ann Napolitano and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved how the book was divided between present day and flashbacks on the plane. It seems such a simple premise for a book, the sole survivor of a plane crash, yet the exquisiteness of Napolitano's writing made it profoundly beautiful..
My favorite aspects of the book were hearing about the Adler's family dynamics, especially the relationship between Eddie and Jordan, and reading about how through Eddie the families of those who died felt they had a connection to their loved ones. I also loved the way we learned so much about the other people on the plane.
The expectation placed on Eddie as the sole survivor was immense and reading about his struggle to come to terms with his survivor guilt was heartbreaking. I will definitely recommend this book!
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an early release of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Yeesh… I might declare to be the wrong gender for this book, but that always sounds so disparaging so I'll just let it float away. All memories of this will float away, anyway, for it just came, plodded on for an entire day, and went. There's no hiding the plot, of an Airbus plane crash that leaves the child previously known as Eddie the sole survivor. The narrative insists on shifting from the day of the crash, to the life he has after, but all to very little effect. The airborne half is just a modern variant on the disaster story, from someone perhaps like Arthur Hailey, with the way he would interweave many diverse people until we cared enough about them that he could put them at great jeopardy's door. (That bit about caring for them doesn't happen here). The alternating sections are equally dreary, and little of it ever comes to life. I sat wondering how many months you'd have to spend wading through Mitch Albom's 'rejected ideas' pile before you came to anything less life-affirming than this, and nothing of his would ever be this annoyingly "truth universally acknowledged" declamatory, or just "said said said" – nor so eminently skippable, and that's not only the fault of so much of it being about dead characters. And finally, as for the puff-quote provider who said it made her laugh – where the heck do you get your drugs?

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book but very quickly got into it. A plane crash claims 191 lives and leaves one survivor - 11 year old Edward.

As I read through, I loved that Edwards relationship with his brother was so well defined and loving, as I have a wonderful relationship with my sister also so I felt I could relate.

As the book continued, I thought I had 'sussed it' - that Edward had been protected from the crash in some way by his brother, or there was something unusual about the plane crash that enabled Edward to live - but I was wrong. Sadly the book became really boring for me about 3/4 of the way through when it became obvious that there were to be no 'surprises' or interesting anomalies.

The ending of the book was, for me, disappointing. A shame, for a book that captured my attention at the start became one I wanted to flick through near the end.

What a great book. I devoured this and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was an easy read.
The book is about Eddie who is the sole survivor of a plane crash. He is 12 years old and relocating with his family when the unimaginable happens.
The story goes between the day of the crash and today as he finds his way around life without his family.
Brilliant!

Edward Adler is the only survivor of a plane crash. After leaving hospital he goes to live with his Aunt and Uncle, his mother's younger sister.
A twelve year old boy on the edge of his teens, already hormonal before having to deal with death of his brother and parents.
His aunt and uncle are also going through the trauma of miscarriages and a strained relationship, are now having to deal with Edward, who chooses not to sleep in the nursery, but next door in the bedroom of Shay, who befriends him from when he first arrives.
The story switches between Edward and how his life moves on in the years after the crash, and what is happening on the flight leading up to the crash. This is one of the times that this does work. It doesn't detract from the story.
A few of the other passengers are described and the reason for this becomes clear later in the book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC copy in return for an honest review.

An emotional, heart rending but heart warming book - not one to read when you're about to fly off on holiday though!

Oh my goodness. What a beautiful book which was sad and uplifting all at the same time .
You are drawn into the life of Edward and Shay and feel every bit of his pain through his story.
I recommend this book to everyone to read.

This is an incredibly moving and flawless novel. The main character a young boy who is the sole survivor of a plane crash is so well written and portrayed. I really liked this book.

What a lovely moving book. It flawlessly moves from the past to the present building the stories of the characters. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.