Letters to Iris
When Iris Chen inherits her grandmother's house, she finds a box of letters hidden in the attic. They are addressed to her, written by a man she has never met, spanning thirty years of declarations of love for a woman who was not her grandmother. The letters tell the story of a passionate affair between her grandmother and a man named Joseph, a love that was never meant to be acknowledged. Intrigued and confused, Iris tracks down Joseph's grandson, Daniel, to return the letters. Daniel is guarded, charming, and carrying his own grief over a grandfather who spent his final years writing to a woman he could not have. As Iris and Daniel piece together their grandparents' forbidden love story, they find themselves writing their own. But Iris is engaged to someone else, and the lessons of the past suggest that love is never as simple as it should be.
📖 Story Synopsis
When Iris Chen inherits her grandmother's house, she finds a box of letters hidden in the attic. They are addressed to her, written by a man she has never met, spanning thirty years of declarations of love for a woman who was not her grandmother. The letters tell the story of a passionate affair between her grandmother and a man named Joseph, a love that was never meant to be acknowledged. Intrigued and confused, Iris tracks down Joseph's grandson, Daniel, to return the letters. Daniel is guarded, charming, and carrying his own grief over a grandfather who spent his final years writing to a woman he could not have. As Iris and Daniel piece together their grandparents' forbidden love story, they find themselves writing their own. But Iris is engaged to someone else, and the lessons of the past suggest that love is never as simple as it should be.
✎ Editor's Review
Penelope Hart weaves together two love stories across generations with genuine warmth and skill. The letters are beautifully written, and the gradual revelation of the grandparents' affair is genuinely moving. Iris and Daniel's romance is sweet without being saccharine, and the ethical dilemmas are handled with nuance. The novel occasionally leans on familiar romance tropes, but the dual timeline structure keeps things fresh. A lovely, heartfelt read that will appeal to fans of epistolary romance.
