Hope Is Alive

Nineteen Letters by Jodi Perry is a most beautiful contemporary love story that envelopes the reader causing their heart to swell.

Beautifully written, Nineteen Minutes is about love and loss. What would you do if you woke from an accident with no memory at all? Family have become strangers. Do you “wallow in self pity or… start to live again”?

How would you feel if the love of your life no longer knew you? “”I feel so lost… We’re both drowning.” Do you give up or try to rebuild the future?

Nineteen Letters deals with both a recovering coma patient and a parent with Alzheimer’s. The latter is slipping slowly away. The former has no previous memories. It is a bittersweet read that tugs at the heartstrings.

Nineteen letters are written in the hope of relighting memories. The letters are beautiful and poignant telling the story of how friends became husband and wife. It is a totally beautiful tale. Highly amusing at times. Terribly sad at others.

This is a tale of a love that never gives up. A love that perseveres. A love as seen in 1 Corinthians 13, even though it is not a Christian novel. This is a sacrificial love. The love and hope that never dies. “The hope I’m carrying around inside me is burning so bright.”

I will leave you with this recurring phrase that encapsulates the whole novel:

“What we had is far too beautiful to be forgotten.”

I received this book for free from Net Galley. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

JULIA WILSON