Book Review - I'm Sorry, Love Anne by Andrea Peters

Dear John, I’m sorry. I will never forget you. Love, Anne.
This mysterious message is found in a used copy of The Woman in White in a Chicago bookstore. The woman who buys the book, herself named Anne, is intrigued with the message and sends a letter of inquiry to the address printed on the faded label pasted on the front of the book. Anne receives a letter back, with the simple statement “Who is this?” printed inside. That night she also receives an anonymous phone call, a male caller, again demanding to know who she is. Anne decides to forget about the whole matter until she receives another letter, this time from an old woman, apologizing for the first letter and offering to fill her in if she’s ever in the area of Kent, England.
Then, coincidentally, Anne travels to England for work. She manages to find time to visit the old woman, and the younger Anne borrows the diary of the original Anne, who penned the note in the book. By reading the diary, the younger Anne learns all the details of the older Anne’s sad life, and increasingly becomes involved in a decades-old murder case. At the same time, young Anne starts to fall in love with Jarred, a legal secretary she works with in with London. However, Jarred is actually related to some of the key players in this murder case, and soon Anne doesn’t know whom she should trust.
If the plot sounds completely implausible, it is. Some of the coincidences in the story are fantastically wild and need more explanation. In addition, at the base of the story are two love relationships, one between young Anne and Jarred, the other between old Anne and her beau John, which we read about both in the diary and in flashback interludes. Neither of these love stories is well-developed, so it is hard to understand the sacrifices (told rather than shown) that these characters make for a love.
However, these flaws aside, I’m Sorry, Love Anne is otherwise a gripping story told with skilled narration and vivid description. Peters takes the reader on an adventurous ride through New York, London, and Hong Kong. Although the plot if full of some hard-to-believe twists, it is not predictable, so it is impossible not to be drawn into the story.
My advice? Put away your rational side before you pick up this book. If you can get past its flaws, you’re in for a fun read full of mystery, suspense, and intrigue.

Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Laurel Osterkamp, 2006