Light Academia, Romance, and writing that just sucks you in- A Letter to the Luminous Deep is definitely a book you won't want to miss out on. I used to read books only in this format when I was younger, when texting and e-mail started to become the main forms of communication, and I had no idea how much I missed it until I read this book. I can't wait to read the next book!

I'm not sure what about this book didn't work for me but it unfortunately didn't. I liked all the characters well enough. Maybe it was the structure? I normally like books told through letters but I think the timeline was confusing to me. Also I was just quite bored throughout this book. And I thought more was going to happen. But it was all setup to happen in book 2.

“To think that a person’s entire life could be summed up in the jumbled, incomplete assortment of ephemera they leave behind.”

We follow an epistolary story that is discovered bit by bit by the siblings of E. Cidnosin and the renowned scholar Henerey Chlel a year after they have gone missing. E’s younger sister Sophy, reaches out to Henerey’s older brother Vyerin through correspondence at the start to mourn and then later to uncover the mystery of their siblings disappearance.

All of the characters are charming in their own way except for Arvist. He just annoyed me the entire book in the few scenes he was featured. As Sophy and Vyerin discover the budding friendship turned slow burn romance between their siblings through their correspondences (which is acknowledged as a breach of privacy) you’re also pulled into an academic and scientific exploration of what they think they know of their world and what remains to be discovered. Soph and Vy’s commentary in between each letter added much needed levity especially at the turning point of the story. It made me laugh out loud a few times. Plus it was heartwarming watching them become friends and each other confidantes.

This book is set underwater in the darkest but beautiful depths of the ocean for the most part and although I personally have a slight fear of the ocean it didn’t affect my reading experience. However, please be warned if you have thalassophobia or fear of the ocean that this could affect you.

Some central themes explored in the story include mental health (agoraphobia, depression, etc.), academia, science, exploration and complex family dynamics. Additionally, most of the characters are queer.

The writing itself is quite slow-paced which may easily cause some readers to be disinterested. The format and setting felt slice of life but it does pick up near the end. I say this cautiously that certain aspects of this book reminded me of the movie journey to the center of the earth in terms of the adventure/journey that it sets up for the sequel.

I am very excited to receive my finished copy (the cover is stunning!) and to continue the series!

Thank you to Orbit and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 25%. I wanted to enjoy this so badly but I was missing so much of the wonder and whimsy that seemed to be present in the cover and description. The epistolary style can work for me in some cases, but this is not one of them.

This book was so good and written so well. It is told via letters (which may seem obvious but not to everyone!) between a bunch of different characters. The switch between past and present often annoys me, yet this time I found it endearing. I liked seeing all the friendships form in this book, and it gave almost a cozy vibe.

There is also a like of great queer rep in this book!

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvia Cathrall is an epistolary romantic fantasy. E. and Henerey are two scholarly individuals interested in the deep who begin exchanging messages when E. contacts Henerey. A year later, Sophy, E.’s sister, and Vyerin, Henerey’s brother, also begin exchanging letters to piece together why E. and Henerey disappeared.

Due to all of the POV characters being scholars or academics or grew up surrounded by academia, the story reads like academics going back and forth as they discuss their discoveries and get excited about those discoveries. Sophy and Vyerin are both emotionally invested in the growing romance of their two siblings but also take an approach of sharing information common in their fields. It’s the first time I’ve read a tone like this in a romantic fantasy and it really works because of the letters.

The letters are a unique piece in the subgenre as many romantic fantasies and fantasy romances are very internal and from one or two POVs whereas a Letter to the Luminous Deep has unwards of six POVs with some limited to a few letters to provide further context. The reader not only gets to see E and Henerey fall in love but get to see Sophy and Vyerin witness their love and get excited about it and develop a friendship of their own.

The worldbuilding includes sea creatures, such as a long fish and plankton, and a poet. It is a Queernorm world with Sophy and Vyerin both in Queer marriages of their own and Henerey is asexual but a hopeless romantic.

E and Henerey’s romance is very cute, developing slowly over time as they continue sending letters back and forth and become more and more familiar with each other. Their love story is only enhanced by the letters with their siblings, providing details we probably wouldn’t have gotten otherwise about their pasts and other relationships in their lives. E is nervous to even informally address Henerey while he’s just as nervous but in different ways.

I would recommend this to readers of the romantic fantasy subgenre looking for a romance between scholars, fans of epistolary novels in the fantasy genre, and those looking for positive asexual rep in the Romantasy umbrella.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book!

I enjoyed a lot of the world building aspects (it felt like another world that had a lot of indirect description and mystery to it) but it was really hard to believe the writing style of some of the letters. The overly complimentary tone between main characters was really distracting for me because I’ve never seen letters written in such a “I really loved to receive your letter, you are such a wonderful person and everything about you is beautiful” way. The parts I was most frustrated by was how much of it seemed to be that type of fluff - I think it could’ve been one book easily and when I got to the end there was barely a cliffhanger.

I wouldn’t read the second book most likely unless it’s also available on NetGalley (in which case I would pick it up to see the ending - I hate leaving things unfinished).

Still writing showed potential and the world was interesting so lowest I can give is 3/5.

🪸A Letter To The Luminous Deep🪸By Sylvie Cathrall

This was a completely new reading style for me, which is my only reasoning for my rating. It is written entirely in letter format. I did enjoy the light academia romance, however, it was a transition for me to read and it was very slow until the end of the book. The end is extremely intriguing and I would be interested in seeing how this story progresses in the second book!

⭐4/5: As a well-known lover of epistolary novels, I had a feeling that this was going to be a fantastic story. eeeekkk I was right! In this beautiful fantasy world, scholar "E." lives in the Deep House, a family home situated beneath the water. One day she notices a strange animal outside her window and writes a letter to esteemed scholar Henerey Clel. Despite E's agoraphobia and reclusive nature, she begins a friendship (+ more) via letter with Henerey. Unfortunately, some terrible things happen. And you, the reader, get to piece everything together. A delight. There is fantastic representation in this story-- mental health struggles, LGBTQI characters and bi/pan relationships.

The writing style certainly won't be for everyone. The writing is witty, flourished, and superfluous. I loved this aspect. You could tell that the characters really put a lot of thought into their letters and it was fun to imagine how each character would react to different things. One minor gripe was that the story was quite long, nearly 450 pages. It's not action-packed, but I liked it that way. You are reading a series of letters back and forth, it's calm and simple.

Overall, I didn't know much about this story before jumping in. But the world and the secrets we uncovered along the way were really fascinating. Academic scandals....family drama...romance... it was a little bit of everything. And, I just love fantasy stories that take place underwater :)

*Thanks to NetGalley for an e-arc of this book for my own review.*

Unfortunately, this is a hard one to rate. I loved the underwater city and getting to know the characters from the letters but the story was slow paced.

I was more pulled into this than I expected to be since it is all done with letters and correspondence. The format ended up being a great way to get me interested and involved. While it slowed a little in the middle, it ended on a cliffhanger that left me wishing book 2 was already out.

Note: arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for honest review

Absolute perfection.

In October of 2017, a month shy of my 22nd birthday, I stumbled upon a signed copy of "Turtles All the Way Down" at my local Half Price Books. 📚 Little did I know, this chance encounter would profoundly alter the trajectory of my life. Finally, I found a narrative that mirrored my own struggles, leading to a long-awaited diagnosis of OCD after over 15 years of seeking treatment.

Now, at 28, I'm embarking on my journey of OCD recovery, and this book serves as a poignant reminder of that pivotal moment. It encapsulates the essence of seeing oneself reflected in a story for the first time. 🌟 Though not universally relatable, "A Letter to the Drowning Deep" resonated with me on a deeply personal level. E's character felt like a part of me, echoing through the pages and touching my soul.

Thank you so much to @orbitbooks_us for granting me an early copy of this remarkable book, and to @sylviecathrall for crafting a narrative that struck such a profound chord within me. 🙏 I encourage you all to preorder this upcoming fantasy romance—may it touch your hearts as it did mine. 💖

This was definitely something I picked up because of the cover, because wow. But, I was so pleasantly surprised by this debut. This was very "watery academic" and I'm obsessed.

Synopsis: This story is split between two time periods and two sets of pen pals. The year 1002 is following E. and Henerey as they start what appeared to be an academic friendship but quickly developed into something more romantic. That is until an unexpected discovery causes them to disappear. The next year, follows E's sister Sophy and Henery's brother Vyerin who are left to solve the mystery and sort through the clues in their siblings letters to find out what happened to them. But what both sets of siblings have discovered might change everything for the world they live in. Maybe they disappeared for a reason?

Plot: To start off this was very slow, and I was worried I wasn't going to like it. I began in a confusion and felt very thrown into the plot. The location throughout remained a bit of a mystery. It is so important and relevant to the plot but the descriptions made it hard to picture and not a lot of backstory about the world was given. Despite that, I quickly started to get invested and around the 25% mark, I was hooked. I think I've decided I really like epistolary novels because this was stunning. Sometimes with those types of books, the chain of letters can make the plot feel disjointed and like you're missing key elements, but this flowed together so seamlessly. There was so much mystery and fantasy to this that I was not expecting and there were even some twists thrown in there too. Everything about this really packed a punch once I got into the meat of the storyline. Not only was this a story about a lost brother and sister and solving that mystery but it also included topics of mental health, friendship, love, and accepting who you are. E.'s anxiety was dealt with so beautifully and I really appreciated the care that was taken when telling her story. Generally everything about this was well done--emotional and intriguing. For a debut, I am so impressed with the writing and cannot wait to see where this story will go from here.

Characters: The characters really shined here. Although the voices weren't super prominent between letters, I didn't mind because each person was so lovely and very very quickly I fell in love with them. There was something so satisfying about the way the characters were writing to the others. It was wonderful to watch them push their own boundaries, get closer with each other, and ultimately band together to solve all of these mysteries. I feel that with the second book we are going to get even more of a development and I'm very excited to see how that goes.

Get me that sequel!!

4/5 stars.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

A Letter to the Luminous Deep is a brilliantly engrossing epistolary tale of sisterhood, love, friendship and the mystery that unites them all.

E. and her recent scholar correspondent Henerey have gone missing in a freak accident in the depths of the ocean. We follow E.'s sister Sophy and Henery's brother Vyerin as they piece together E. and Henerey's letters to make sense of their tragedy. A story of love, loss, and mystery unfolds with the backdrop of the luminous deep and the unique scholarly society built around it. I was mesmerized by the Deep House - an underwater home nestled into a coral reef - and the light academia mood was encompassing in all the best ways!

This is such a cozy read! Like a lot of cozy fantasy, it keeps a slower pace before rapidly ramping up the stakes. I love epistolary works and found this one capitalized on all of the unique characteristics it brings to storytelling. The society and cadence are very comparable to a Victorian style (which makes sense given the author's academic background). It was so unique and beautiful!

This book is great for fans of TJ Klune, India Molton, epistolary novels, and aquatic fantasy.

I cannot wait for the series to continue to learn more about E. and Henerey's story!

Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

First of all, what a gorgeous and enchanting cover! A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall is an epistolary cozy fantasy that is sure to make you feel all of the feels. The story revolves around Sophy and Vyerin, virtual strangers who begin writing letters to each other after Sophy's sister and Vyerin's brother disappear together. Through their correspondence, the duo hope to figure out what happened to E. and Ciel. They uncover the letters that E. and Ciel wrote to each other and discover how their relationship changed from awkward to something more. With their combined wits and detective skills, will they be able to find out what happened to their siblings?

Here is a humorous excerpt from Chapter 1:

"Dear Scholar Ciel,
Instead of reading further, I hope you will return this letter to its envelope or, better yet, crumple it into an abstract shape that might look quite at home on a coral reef.
I become exceedingly anxious around strangers, you see, and I dared only write this note after convincing myself that you would never read it. It is only now - when I can picture you disposing of these pages in some appropriately dramatic fashion - that I may continue my message without succumbing to Trepidation."

Overall, A Letter to the Luminous Deep is an epistolary cozy fantasy that will appeal to fans of Divine Rivals or the Emily Wilde series. Just like both of those books, this book is light on action and heavy on cozy themes. One highlight of this book is the humor, which was unexpected and appreciated. The letters are written in a Victorian English / Pride and Prejudice style, which made the jokes even funnier.

Another highlight of this book is the LGBT representation, which I wasn't expecting at all based on the synopsis. If I had to complain about 1 thing, I would say that the epistolary format might not be for everyone. If the idea of reading a story in letter format sounds dry to you, then I would pick another book. However, if you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of fantasy books in general, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in April!

The premise of this book hooked me in and is what caused me to sign up to read it but it unfortunately didn’t meet my expectations.

The characters to me were bland. Their dictation and “style of writing” were nearly identical one another, making it difficult to differentiate between the two. Thankfully there were indications between letters in regards to who is writing who.

I thought the world building was well written and the writing overall helped me imagine the world in my head while reading.
The world building alone couldn’t do the book and premise justice though.

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall is an utterly charming epistolary novel that I devoured! It is the perfect amount of whimsy and adventure while addressing mental health issues. As someone with anxiety, there were moments in the book that felt so personal as I saw the exact way I think portrayed by these characters. I appreciated the way the mental health issues were handled with love and care. The story is woven between two periods - the first concerns our main character, E., and her correspondence with Scholar Henerey Clel. I was instantly enamored with these two characters’ sweet, charming interactions. The second period follows correspondence between E.'s sister and Henerey's brother. E. and Henerey have disappeared, and their siblings are trying to decipher what happened. What follows is an adventurous mystery as we slowly learn what happened to E. and Henerey. I cannot wait to discover what transpires in the next book! I highly recommend this book if you want a sweet, cozy book to snuggle up with!

DNF 25%

Thank you so much for the opportunity! While I loved the letter writing aspect and some of the whimsy of an underwater world, I’m struggling with the writing style. I feel like I’m still missing things or am a little confused. I might return to it. I think this could be a very lovely book for some but isn’t for me right now.

Read for:
Underwater world
Missing siblings
Academia
Underwater World

DNF@ 22%

The writing and dialogue were way too pretentious for me and all of the character perspectives sounded the same.

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall
Rating: ⭐️.5

The novel is made up completely of letters between a woman who lives in an underwater home and a renounced scholar, as well as the woman’s sister and the scholars brother.
After a sea quake destroys E’s home her and the scholar disappear and a year later their siblings begin to look into what happened to them by going through all of their letters and notes.

I’ll be honest, I really struggled with this one and I think it was mainly because the style wasn’t a good match for me. While I’ve enjoyed reading books that include letters before, having an entire story told through letters was a bit much for me and I think I just prefer slightly more traditional storytelling in that sense.
Along with that a lot of the letter just didn’t feel personal to me and the characters often felt like they had the same voice.
I’m sure for many people this book will be super charming and romantic so definitely give it a try if the plot sounds intriguing to you!

Thank you to the author, Orbit and Netgalley for this arc in return for my honest review!

Check out A Letter to the Luminous Deep in April 25th!