The Perfect Letter

by Chris Harrison

Chris Harrison, the beloved longtime host of ABC's The Bachelor, explores the perils and rewards of risking everything for love in his first novel.

As the longtime host of ABC's hit shows The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, Chris Harrison has witnessed the joys and heartbreak of men and women searching for everlasting love. A true romantic at heart, he believes that everyone deserves their own fairytale ending. Now, in his first work of fiction, Chris draws on his unique insights and wisdom in a remarkable debut novel that explores love and its consequences--a must-read for Bachelor fans and hopeless romantics everywhere.

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Chick Lit, Book Club, Contemporary Romance, Adult Fiction, Contemporary

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 14, 2015

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Sarah Becker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes, I read this. Yes, I have shame over this fact. But as a Bachelor mega-fan I obviously had to read Chris Harrison's book. It entertained me the whole way through just imagining him writing this.

I thought it was pretty terrible BUT I feel like I need to take it easy on the guy. By trade he is not a writer. (He is brilliant at his day job of Bachelor hosting... BRILLIANT!). But the book was... painful. Just cliches and cheesiness from start to finish. (Any dialogue with Chloe? SO BAD.) And I was just complaining about Emily Giffin and cliches but this made her look like Dickens. In his defense, it seemed to be teetering towards "romance genre" territory (BARF) and I think cheesiness is pretty standard there, so I guess it's probably not so bad if you judge it against its peer books. But unless that's your thing, I would avoid this. You probably were planning to anyway. I'm a little embarrassed for myself now...

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

You know how you can't turn away from a train wreck because you're kind of curious about what happened, and when you see it, it's even worse than you thought ? Yep, that.

[Casey · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was like a 5th grader's fan fiction of Nicholas Spark's novels.

[J.M. Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Perfect Letter deserves a perfect grade--A+. Chris Harrison has a lot of imagination and writing kudos beneath those good looks of his. I'm surprised he didn't follow the dream of publishing instead of hosting the Bachelor and Bachelorette. Then again, perhaps that's where he garnered so much about Leigh Merrill's, the heroine's, point of view.

I assumed The Perfect letter would somewhat revolve around the world of the shows Chris hosts, but I was wrong. The characters feel real, the mystery surrounding a murder is tangible, and the romance put me through a myriad of emotions. I highly recommend this book. Get “The Bachelor” out of your head and think “The Notebook” instead. A moving read with depth and purpose.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ARC from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The options I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a decade, book editor Leigh returns home to confront her past with ex-con, Jake. Why was he in jail, and is their love story really over?

This story started ok, but it definitely reminded me of a Danielle Steel, but without the run-on sentences haha. I had a difficult time believing Chris really wrote this, except that it's obvious it was a debut because there were plot holes the size of Texas (see what I did there?). Overall, it was a decent story, but I was irritated by parts of the ending. Looking back, it's probably telling that the book synopsis on both Goodreads and Amazon focuses on Chris and ABC's The Bachelor rather than the book itself haha.

Chris should stick to hosting The Bachelor. Oh wait, he's not doing that anymore either.

Location: Austin, Texas

[C.E. Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

"For a decade she’d been replaying the events of that night in her head over and over late at night, on the subway, at work, wondering what if?"

The Perfect Letter is a perfect blend of romance, heartache, escapism, suspense, and personal redemption.

It’s no surprise to me that Chris Harrison, the host of The Bachelor and a multitude of spin-off shows, is a hopeless romantic. It’s no surprise he knows how to captivate an audience. But a gifted writer? Who knew?

When Chris Harrison announced he had written a novel, I certainly had my doubts, though I’m a little embarrassed to admit to being so judgmental. But I know from experience that writing a well-crafted book isn’t easy! It’s an art, a craft that takes years of effort, research, and skill to master. To be perfectly honest, I thought his book would be cheesy—perhaps because, even though I never miss an episode, I find The Bachelor as cheesy as sharp cheddar. Anyway, I’m proud to admit I was wrong. I enjoyed this book from start to finish, and will most certainly read his future work.

Another reason I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book was because a man wrote it. Yeah, I know, that sounds narrow-minded, but with the exception of Nicholas Sparks, I’ve not found many male authors who write believable women main characters. Chris Harrison gets into the mind of a woman with ease—which is probably due to the endless interviews he does on Bachelor and Bachelorette.

Enough about the author, on with the story…

Leigh Merrill, a successful editor at Jenks & Hall Publishers in New York, finally returns to Texas after avoiding home for the past ten years. But the invitation to speak at the Austin Writers’ Convention comes at the perfect time, for she needs to reconnect with Chloe, her lifetime friend, more than ever. After an unexpected proposal from her boss, she needs the advice and honesty only a best friend can provide. But her present problems seem tame once the past resurfaces and she is forced to deal with the secrets she’d buried a decade ago. An old flame kindles and a new threat ignites, forcing the past and future to collide. Will love emerge from the wreckage, or will she learn from her mistakes and find a way to move on?

Both steamy and poignant, The Perfect Letter is a satisfying story that is difficult to walk away from. Hopefully, there’s a sequel in the making.


5 Stars

Cover: Love it
Title: Love it
Publisher: Dey Street Books (Sold by HarperCollins Publishers)
Pages: 320
Pace: Steady/fast
First lines: Leigh Merrill had grown up surrounded by men. She’d known men who were kind, men who were good at their work, and men who were generous, but rarely had she met one who was all of the above the way Joseph Middlebury was.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a Review Copy from the publisher through Edelweiss. I was not required to write a positive review. The options I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, because I have a soft spot for Chris Harrison. But it was painful to get through. Slow, dialogue heavy, characters that were contrived and forced plotlines ranging from choosing between two guys to regrets to random story about race horse doping and finally the cliched innocent man goes to prison. Ugh. This book is why Harrison us a game show host and not a writer. Terrible, a waste if Kindle space, and I sped-read the last 1/4 because I simply wanted it over. One star.

[Liza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Curiosity got the best of me... had to see if Chris Harrison could actually write.

[Kira · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I’d expected little by way of plot originality from Harrison, I had hoped against all odds that he might be a decent writer, or have hired one. I wondered whether years of hearing identical-looking people spout identical-sounding platitudes at each other on camera might have instilled in Harrison a wariness of cliche. Nope. The Perfect Letter is 300 pages of cliches. It is a novel that includes dialogue like “I promise I’m real if you are,” and phrases like “they were free to pursue the path their hearts, and their bodies, chose for them.” At one point—specifically, “He might have been in physical prison, but Leigh had lived in a prison of her own making, unwilling or unable to grant herself parole”—I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

curiosity really got the best of me here and I just had to find out if _the_ Chris Harrison, host of the Bachelor, could write.

unfortunately, the answer is no. however, I was surprised that this novel (can I call it that? it was really more like fan fiction) actually had a plotline and held my interest for the hour or so that it took me to read this — hence the 2 stars.

(did I seriously question if I should hide this from my Goodreads profile out of sheer embarrassment? yes, yes I did. but who am I to be the arbiter of fine literature?)

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most romantic book, defining the fact that your first love holds a special place in your heart. A fun cowboy romance, set in Texas just light and flirty enough to keep my attention. Talk about a classic romantic conflict, just as the dream man from her new life in New York proposes, the bad boy first love from high school emerges back into Leigh's life. What else would you expect from the host of The Bachelor/Bachelorette/Bachelor in Paradise other than romantic perfection?

[Christine Copelan · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book has everything:
- a love triangle
- horses
- a doping scandal
- dead parents
- murder
- extortion
- sexual assault
- a sassy friend
- foreplay on a hotel ice machine
- sex as seen through the male gaze but presented from a female pov
- arson

[Ashley Konjura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Trash. But imagine the trash can wearing a cowboy hat.

[Jess]

lol

[Ashley Sullenger · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a long-time bachelor fan, I felt it was my duty to give Chris Harrison’s novel a read. It is exactly what I should have expected from him.

Corny and cliché story with a lot of unexplained details.

[Tausha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ended up enjoying this book much more than I thought I would. I’m really glad I read it. I was expecting it to be a sappy love story but was treated to a murder/mystery/thriller with a side of romance.

[Jane Kriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The blurb doesn’t give away too much. So what’s it actually about? The central character is the Harvard educated Leigh who is working in New York in publishing (I was half expecting Harrison to pick a Bachelor contestant job like spokesmodel, dog groomer, nurse or waitress). Anyway, Leigh returns to her hometown in Texas to deal with her past while she contemplates the recent marriage proposal from her New York boyfriend. Of course, she runs into her former love, Jake who has been out of the picture for a very complicated reason. As you can imagine, Leigh is soon faced with some tough decisions stemming from a mistake in her past. The story has some suspense with a couple of bad guys and a blackmail plot thrown in, but at its core, this is truly a romance, along the lines of Nicholas Spark’s The Notebook or Sweet Home Alabama.

The novel reveals the past and the present meeting through an epistolary format as Leigh discovers old letters, which give her more insight into her past and possibly her future. Call me old-fashioned, but there’s something inherently romantic about a love story shown through letters:

"Jake wrote so honestly, with such rawness, more than Leigh could have imagined. Reading the letters was like getting to know a little piece of his soul, a little patch of sun amid the clouds of the past decade. He’d spent so much time and love on those letters – he’d given her everything, held back nothing. It was a shame he’d never sent them to her back when they would have mattered, back when she’d needed them the most."

If love letters aren’t enough, there’s also a forbidden stable boy dynamic that definitely grabbed my attention. As a teenager, Jake was the son of a horse trainer working on Leigh’s family’s farm. In case you were wondering, there were indeed some sexy barn scenes and I couldn’t help reflecting on that and blushing as I watched the finale episode of The Bachelor where Chris Soules proposed to Whitney inside his family barn.
Interestingly, having a book editor as a main character gives Harrison the opportunity to ruminate on what makes a good book (writing something personal) and comment on the importance of having a good editor. It appears that Harrison has kept the book quite personal, a quick google search reveals that Harrison is actually from Texas, and while he might be divorced, his work on The Bachelor franchise suggests he’s a bit of a romantic. It’s always interesting to see reflections on the writing process in a novel and perhaps it’s a subtle insistence that Harrison actually wrote the book himself unlike most reality stars with book deals and ghostwriters.

The Perfect Letter is about the pull of first love versus a future with a clean slate without the taint of past mistakes and secrets. The Perfect Letter is sweet and romantic, earnest and sentimental. It’s about being honest with yourself, making tough decisions, overcoming your mistakes and finding your way to love.

ARC provided by publisher. Review at http://www.heroesandheartbreakers.com...

[Ruwendika DeSilva · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ain’t worth it, y’all.

[Jenni · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes, I read a book written by Chris Harrison, host of The Bachelor. Yes, it was just as mediocre as one would expect it to be. However, I did not expect the consequences of having to now imagine Chris Harrison writing a smut scene between two teenagers including the statement “she came so hard, she nearly fainted.” Ugh.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disclaimer: this book was chosen for book club and we started reading it before all the Chris Harrison drama.

The book itself was kind of all over the place. Frustrating characters, strange plot twists, and an ending that I was just bored with.

[Claire King · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a fan of the Bachelor and Bachelorette, this was a guilty pleasure read. Definitely not what I was expecting from Chris Harrison but a fun, quick read nonetheless.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I decided to listen to the audiobook after seeing the book on Chris Harrison's mantel during his filming from home of The Greatest Seasons Ever and finding it included in my Audible Escape subscription. I thought it might be a fun laugh, but clearly all his conversations with men and women searching for love paid off because these characters felt real. It was a bit odd imagining Chris writing some of these hot and heavy scenes from the female perspective, but when I stopped thinking about who the author was, I became absorbed by the story. More than just a flippant romance, there are elements of mystery and suspense that added dimension to the standard love triangle.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chris Harrison, the beloved longtime host of ABC's The Bachelor, explores the perils and rewards of risking everything for love in his first novel.

As the longtime host of ABC's hit shows The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, Chris Harrison has witnessed the joys and heartbreak of men and women searching for everlasting love. A true romantic at heart, he believes that everyone deserves their own fairytale ending. Now, in his first work of fiction, Chris draws on his unique insights and wisdom in a remarkable debut novel that explores love and its consequences--a must-read for Bachelor fans and hopeless romantics everywhere

[Kaitlin S. (stacked_shelf) · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the name of full disclosure, I picked up this book up because I was curious to see if Chris Harrison could actually write. I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it was your classic chick lit, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it! It was very predictable and as cheesy as a piece of sharp cheddar, but it was very well written and the story line kept me compelled. If you need a quick romantic read with a Nicholas Sparks flare, I would recommend this.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!

I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did. I was riveted from the first moment I picked it up until it’s finished. It wasn’t your basic typical romance story. It had twists and turns mystery and love and personal growth. There were so many nuggets in there that even helped me in my own life, Kernels of truth that you don’t ever hear in normal every day life. But she didn’t feel like you were learning you felt like you were there part of the action walking around with the characters feeling what they felt experiencing with they were experiencing. Masterful.

[Morgan Warshaw · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you ever read or watched a Nicholas Sparks movie then you won't be missing out if you choose not to read this book. If you do decide to read The Perfect Letter, you will be able to predict the premise after reading the first few pages and will have to endure all of the conventional sappiness and classic YA tropes for the next 300 pages.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected this book to be 0-1 stars, but I am truly surprised it had a plot and it kept my interest. Two stars for you Chris Harrison, you go Chris Harrison. Don’t quit hosting bachelor shows to start writing.

[Katy Sturdivant · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 I feel like she should know about double jeopardy lol

[Sierra Lirette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't put it down!

[Emily Marie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn’t even finish the book. It was so poorly written and predictable.