while i was very excited for this story, i was left a little disappointed. overall concept is great, the alternating narratives are done well and cleanly exchange between chapters, story is well delivered and enjoyable.

the story felt flat, there wasn't a lot of character depth present making the buy in on their romance difficult.

worth the read but not a book i will be raving about.

2.5 stars

Okay, wow. So, I know that writing a love story between people from two different time periods must be quite difficult, but I was not expecting this at all.

I will start with what is good about this book: Oliver. He's the only likable person in the whole lot. Also, I received the audiobook version of this book from NetGalley, and I really enjoyed the sound effects to help transition the reader between the three parts of the novel as you switch back and forth between present day Josie e-mailing her Mom, best friend Faith and Oliver, Regency era Elias and Josephine, and the novel Elias was writing during his lifetime. I think that following 3 plots across 2 time periods would have been difficult without this, so it was greatly appreciated.

Now, for the rest of it. Josie was selfish and not in touch with reality. How are we to believe that she <b>instantly</b> fell in love with a man through letters he wrote to another woman? How are we to believe that she could be such a horrible friend, reconcile with Faith and then <b>instantly</b> make everything about her again without losing her best friend for good? She is not the type of protagonist that you want things to work out for. She lacks emotional intelligence and lives in a fantasy world where everything revolves around her.

Why write Regency era characters that behave like modern day people? People who want to marry for love and take no issue with casting aside expectations from society and family? People who create scandal without much effect? Individualism is not so strong during this time period, particularly among the upper classes.

Although I am a huge fan of P & P, I do not typically compare other Regency books to it. However, this book makes more than one reference to it, for clout I assume? P & P has a slow build up with events that make the romantic attachment believable. This book should not have ever made mention of Jane Austen or used familiar lines from P & P. It felt like <i>very</i> cheap filler.

I had a feeling about how the ending would turn out, and I stuck with it just to confirm that yes, this is selfish Josie's world and we're just living in it...oof.

This was such an interesting story! I really liked that it was written in a type of letter form. Conversations are had between text, email, letters, and also a novel written by a character. I think this provided a lot of character insight into the story, but I missed some of the world-building that is provided through a more traditional written form.

I really enjoyed the writing. There are so many beautiful quotes that just reached out and grabbed my attention. There is a bit of sass at times, which I loved, and at others, profoundly impactful sayings. I'd really like to read another book by Caroline George. I'm sure I would love it as well!

I think this is a book that would be perfect for readers that really enjoy a young adult romance with a historical period of time added.

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

* I received this book for free from Thomas Nelson Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review *

What an inventive and unusual New Adult/YA Romance! This book features a pair of star cross lovers, Josephine and Elias, separated by two centuries. There is an incredible cast of supporting characters with strong and engaging characterizations. Unfortunately, I did not come to like Josie or Elias as characters, and struggled to believe their instant love story. I also struggled with the form this book took.

This book is inventive with the form of the epistolary novel, using emails, letters, texts, and even novel manuscripts to introduce characters and drive the story. Unfortunately, because of the form, I found the narrative voice of Josie to be almost unbelievable. The flowery and descriptive language thrown into texts and emails did not strike me as believable in the voice of a young woman. Too many details came across as set dressing and auxiliary details due simply to the limitations of the form.

These characters are dreamy and the story is fun, but the structure of the book is limiting to the story’s growth, and some modes of communication used between characters really fall flat over audiobook.

This book had me immediately. I listened to the audiobook version and was hooked the first chapter. The plan was to listen while I cooked breakfast and then maybe some more tomorrow. I couldn’t stop listening! I got zero of my to do list completed bc I had to know what was going to happen.

Such a beautiful story of friendship, love and loss.

I was unable to follow this book on audio due to the unique format which was pretty unfortunate as the description and the narrator sounded good

Dearest Josephine is a YA love story spanning two centuries. Propriety, expectations, love, friendship, destiny, betrayal, and honor are among the novel’s themes.

The story from the 1800’s is reminiscent of Jane Austen’s style of writing, while the 2000’s is chock full of modern texting dialogue. The stark differences in story telling took a whole for me to become accustomed to, but the story was a lovely one. The narrator’s voice was gorgeous for the story from the 1800’s. Her narration of modern day exchanges could only be so appealing, peppered with emojis, Kardashian references, and “LOL’s.” It is possible that these parts of the book might have translated better in the physical book than the audiobook.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, publisher, and narrator for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook. The opinions in this review are entirely my own.

I hate DNFing books but unfortunately, this audiobook goes into my DNF stack.
The story seemed enjoyable and with memorable characters, one from the present and one from the past. Elias Roch especially is a character that goes straight to your heart. But for an epistolary book dividing the narrative across three perspectives and two timelines, having just a single narrator is too confusing. Nathalie Pownall does do a commendable job as the narrator with her peppy reading but her voice is too similar across the characters to distinguish a change in narrative unless you are listening with the utmost of concentration.
I'm sure this will be a very good novel to read, but I didn’t feel its writing structure doesn't make it suitable for audio format, unless there are multiple narrators. I might give the e-book a chance in future, but this journey with the audio version ends at 40%.
I'm still giving the book two stars, one star for the potential I can see in the story and writing that might make the print/digital book a worthwhile read, and one star to Nathalie Pownall without whom I might have abandoned this book a lot before 40%. It was only her spirited reading that made me give this audio version a genuine try.
Thank you to NetGalley for this audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Dearest Josephine is absolutely delightful. The narrator did a lovely job. The characters are charming and the plot was completely captivating.

I loved this audiobook! I was afraid it wouldn’t translate well in an audio format because of the clever premise of the novel - the entire story is told via emails and text messages and excerpts of conversations - but I was pleasantly surprised. The story is sweet and romantic, but not sappy or overly written. I loved the characters and was easily able to overlook small errors that briefly distracted me here and there.
I actually would love to see the print edition - I’m sure it’s charming and fun to read (but I really liked this narrator ... except maybe her exaggerated NY accent 😉)
I think all of my students will be looking for their “Elias” after reading or listening to Dearest Josephine. I’m a sucker for the happy ending, tied up with a bow, and this one left me with a happy sigh of contentment.

I really enjoyed this novel with two time lines. Angsty Elias writes letters to Josephine in the 1800’s while Josephine reads letters from Elias in the present day. There are many sad moments, but there are also sweet moments in the novel. The side stories with Lorelei and Oliver add another wholesome layer to the novel. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to be an early reader in exchange for my review.

Perfection! I LOVE this audiobook. The narrator is just PERFECT for Dearest Josephine!


Content review to come.