Mills & Boon Blush series brings you moving, true-to-life romancesSo begins the passionate letter Cassie Armstrong finds hidden among her grandmother's quilting supplies. It's signed with the mysterious initials F.B. and Cassie has no idea who that is. It's certainly not her grandfather, Henry, a man more comfortable with actions than with words.
Learning that her grandmother, whom she's always seen as somewhat conventional, might have had a secret love sends Cassie on a quest to find F.B. But doing that means raising questions about Lydia and Henry and about Cassie's own relationship with her fiancee - ;, Cooper Lynch. Questions Cassie might not be ready to face. Because if Henry isn't the love of Lydia's life, maybe Cooper isn't the right man for Cassie, either. But love, like the letter, will end up surprising Cassie in more ways than she might expect
As the daughter of a U.S. Foreign Service officer, Elizabeth Blackwell grew up in Washington, D.C., interspersed with stints in Africa, the Middle East and Europe--pretty much always with a book in hand. She majored in history at Northwestern University (hooray! more reading!) and received her master's in journalism from Columbia University, which led to a career as an editor and writer for a number of publications that have since gone out of business (surely just a coincidence?). She now writes fiction from her home office in the Chicago suburbs, in between wrangling her three children and fighting for a parking spot at the local Target.
THE LETTER was unusual in its set-up. It encompassed two separate times within one family but running parallel with each other. Miss Blackwell had each odd chapter devoted to Cassie, the granddaughter, in the present moment. The even chapters take Lydia, Cassie's grandmother, to the 1930's and beyond. Normally I am not fond of this method of writing but for some reason in THE LETTER, it worked.
It all began when Cassie, concerned with her life, found a letter from an unknown man signed F.B. He had pledged his love to Lydia. It would not have been a problem except Lydia had been married for over 50 years to Henry Armstrong, her one and only love. Cassie was both fascinated and intrigued; she wanted to find out more.
Along the way, Cassie began to have doubts about her engagement. Successful and smart, she started to think that her own life was dull. She realized she knew very little about what her fiancee, Cooper, thought and felt. And was he happy with her? Driving everything was a fragile piece of paper with words spoken from the heart many years ago.
This story was more women's fiction than romance. It is not time-travel, either. Instead, it is about memories and how they shape you. It is about choices and how they affect you. It is about finding that special someone and realizing their importance in your life.