Letters To My Mother

by Rebecca Heath

A college girl and the professor she works for become romantically involved in this poignant novel about passion and loss, remembrance and forgiveness. Kate is a college junior, a gifted student who skipped two grades in school, a naval officer's daughter who's lived in more places than she can remember. Shy and studious, she's never had a boyfriend, let alone been kissed or gone on a date. Kate thinks falling in love is something that only happens to other girls.

David is a college professor, a sailor, a brilliant scientist; aloof and reclusive, he buries himself in teaching and research. David’s convinced he’ll go through life with an empty heart.When Kate gets a campus job as David's typist, they discover they're both mistaken.Originally published as Letters To My Mother

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Historical, Amazon, Historical Romance, Ebooks, Historical Fiction

354 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

In 2003, after 30 years in I.T., my husband and I retired and moved to Italy. We studied Italian at the Università per Stranieri in Perugia for a year and a half, decided la dolce vita suited us just fine, and bought a house in the region of Umbria, about 100 miles north of Rome. Here we enjoy bicycling on country roads amid the fields of corn, wheat and sunflowers and we eat!

While studying at the university, I wrote an essay titled "Lettere a mia madre," a true story about finding six decades of my mother's correspondence after her death. Several years later, while working on my novel, I remembered the essay and it struck me that the story would make a perfect "frame" for the longer work. Translated into English, "Lettere a mia madre" became the title, prologue and final paragraph of what is now Letters To My Mother.

Reviews

[CaliGirlRae · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across this online novel in a google search and decided to take a look at it with plans to just read the first chapter one night. Soon I found myself diving into the story and absorbed in the lives of the characters we meet throughout the story.

The story focuses on Kate Collins in the present time as she goes through her mother's possessions after her death. She comes upon the letters she sent from college and we're transported through Kate's memories via the letters as she goes to Washington University college at the age of 19 in '50s Seattle. Kate is a smart girl, often working hard to keep ahead of her classes and (as we come to find out later) often a head of herself. She gets a part time job typing a book for one of the biochemist teachers, the handsome and much older Dr. David Roseneau. The two become friends through their love of knowledge and learning and soon feelings and relationships grow into more as Kate's and David's lives forever change.

I LOVED this book! It's like finding a treasure in the midst of a wide ocean. Author Rebecca Heath presents a story which reads like an old friend telling you her life story. It feels like a memoir/autobiography in a way. Kate and David go into detail talking about sailing, opera, poetry, classic books and much more which ties to their interest. Some readers may not be comfortable that Roseneau was in a unhappy marriage while involved with Kate but in a time before no-fault divorce and the connection these two make with each other, it works especially as we see them in the epilogue. There's lots of frank talk about sex and love that I found refreshing and none of the book felt formulaic or forced. David and Kate felt like real characters I would like to get to know myself. As they met and shared their history with the people they met and knew, I felt like I was right there learning about their life story. As Kate had a sexual and emotional awakening with David, I could relate to her curiosity and growing love. The author took time to show us the strong friendship and eventual love between Kate and David and the end results were so satisfying I didn't want it to end.

Letters to My Mother is a wonderful love story mixed with a coming of age tale that any one could relate to as they recall their first and/or greatest love. The novel is offered free from the author. It's so good I wish she would make a tip jar or donation button somewhere because a story this good deserves some kickbacks for its wonderful creation.

Although the book was published in 2008, this is definitely going on my best reads of 2009 and my virtual keeper shelf. I hope the author makes a print edition available one day because I'd love to place this on my shelf with my other favorites.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adored this book. Couldn't put it down once I started reading it. I read it in the winter but it's really more of a perfect beach read. Romantic and bittersweet.

[Leyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this eBook while surfing the internet. I read the summary and decided to give it a go. I wasn't really captivated at the beginning, but after a few chapters I had to get up at 6am to read some pages before school. I so loved this book. It felt so unbelievably real and I always had this sympathetic feeling for the main character Kate. I could feel her deeper emotions, her pain, under my skin. Letters To My Mother is one of the best books I've read this year and I really hope to find some time for it in the future.

[Alicia Huxtable · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heartfelt

A really good story. The way The characters grew throughout the book, the way Kate grew into her own person while still pining, if you will, for a love that wouldn't be, just fantastic

[Megan]

At the University of Washington in the 1950s, nineteen-year-old Kate works as a typist and falls in love with the professor she works for. They go sailing a lot, have an affair, and the letters she writes home to her mother (hello, title!) skirt around what's really happening in her life.

I loved the sailing! I also enjoyed the atmosphere of a 1950s university and thought that was quite interesting. I liked that a lot of the protagonist's flaws were acknowledged (that she was immature, cries a lot, and is hopelessly proud), but I was baffled by the careless and unabashed public-ness in which she and a married professor carried out their affair. He publicly mills around in the dorm's receiving room, right with all the other girls' boyfriends (you know, boyfriends who are probably among his STUDENTS), to wait for her prior to their date? She gives a postcard to another professor to send to her boyfriend professor, scribbling an obviously teasing inside joke on it? I mean, okay, you two have little shame about committing adultery, okay, that's your problem, not mine. But it didn't endear me any to these characters to have so little qualms or idea of privacy when it came to having an affair. (And I'm not the kind of reader who can completely set aside moral judgements when reading. Sorry. Adultery is not a good thing at all, but I know it happens and am willing to read about it. Being shameless about committing adultery, however, is not something I can swallow easily.)

It's not a romance, but it doesn't try to be. Even putting the adultery aside, the characters aren't hero or heroine material. (The professor is a guy who refers to his teenage children as "banal" to the teenage girl he's having an affair with. Not. A. Catch. His sobstory backstory and exceptional intelligence do not excuse him from being a jerk.)

The writing was good but frustratingly shallow at times. In a story where an illicit relationship is at the forefront, I'd like more insight into the character's headspace. The protagonist's narration was lacking in depth and was mostly just description of things, so that when the narrator got to their dialogue (though there was a lot of characters-trading-off-monologues structure to the dialogue), my reaction was, "Wait, THAT is how you feel? I would not have guessed that, because there was no indication of your feelings in your narration!" And there was the time the main character had a breakdown in response to her mother's drinking problem that wasn't built up convincingly so that I was left rolling my eyes, but had the in-character-ness gone deeper, I would have at least been able to follow her emotional state. Instead, there were just clumsy signs. And then the matter was completely dropped. External plot getting completely dropped was a frequent occurrence. Another professor committing suicide? His story wasn't integrated into the actual story; it was brought up slightly, covered in a chapter or so, and then he and his suicide were never mentioned again.

The relationship itself was one I'd be counseling a friend to get the hell out of (adultery, a student dating a professor, feeling like a kid around him, first sexual relationship becoming HER ONLY DEEP RELATIONSHIP EVER EVER EVER) and while I wasn't convinced it was a healthy relationship in the end, I felt the two characters (both very arrogant and proud about it) probably deserved each other anyway! At the same time, I thought it was a compelling enough read to keep on reading it. I wanted to know how the relationship would resolve, and I did adore the sailing parts.

[Rachel Abbott · Rating 5 out of 5]

A touching story, beautifully told

I have to say that I thought this book was wonderful. It is the gentle tale of two people who shouldn’t be together by the normal rules of morality and the times. Kate is a young, extremely bright college student who has never had much time for boys. David is a professor at the college she attends. Brilliant but somewhat aloof, he is trapped in a loveless marriage where nobody - not even his children - can see any worth in him. But this is Seattle in the 1950s, and nineteen year olds don’t have affairs with married men in their late forties. Nobody would find that acceptable. And yet, these two find a rare love for each other.

As a reader, you cannot help but begin to wonder what is going to happen. How can this end well? It is difficult to say without adding spoilers. But somehow Rebecca Heath has managed to tell this story in such a way that the sadness and the happiness mingle to just give the reader a sense of satisfaction.

Each chapter begins with the brief extract of a letter from Kate to her mother - but of course, the letters don’t even touch the surface of what is really happening in Kate’s life. There is no way that Kate could tell her mother the truth, but somehow she manages to talk about her life without telling lies, whilst at the same time failing to mention the turbulent emotions she is experiencing.

I would say this is not a romantic novel. It’s a well-written true love story. For me there is a distinction. This book has none of the hallmarks of traditional romantic fiction, and doesn’t attempt to put a rosy glow on life and the lovers. It’s about real people, experiencing emotions that may not be right, but can’t be avoided. It is a book for people who have been in love themselves, who will recognise the emotions that shine through in the writing.

[Juliana Es · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adultery is something I'll never approve of - not before, not now, not ever. In spite of my firm stand on that, I found myself helplessly absorbed in the plot of this book.

If you can cast aside what's morally and religiously wrong, I believe you may enjoy this novel as much as I did. I stayed up until 2.23 am to read it, but couldn't continue any further as I knew I'd have trouble getting up for work later. Yes, it's that good, that engrossing, and I find the writing style so homely - if I may use such description.

In my teenage years, there's a library book about sailing with romance in it that I enjoyed reading so much that I kept it illegally for so long until my conscience got the better of me (because by then I already work for the library). This novel, Letters To My Mother, reminds me the joy of reading that teenager's novel (titled Girl Overboard!), except that the two doesn't have much in common apart from the sailing experience by the characters.

If not held back by my principle against adultery, I'd have given this book a 5-star rating. And the best part is, this e-book is free.

Edited to add:

The conversations between the two lovers are very lively and intellectual - full of ideas and knowledge, and not limited to lovey-dovey mushy stuff. I believe this is the first romance novel (I think that's the more accurate category for this book) that I enjoy. By now I already reread it 2-3 times.

The only part that I find lame and not convincing enough is when the Spanish language professor committed suicide. That is so abrupt and certainly without a strong plot development to link it with the main characters.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought that this would be a story about a relationship between a mother and daughter, but this was not the storyline at all. I did enjoy reading this book, it was about a young college girl and her relationship with a college professor as told by the girl many years later and her walk down memory lane when she finds the letters she wrote to her parents while away at college in her mother's belongings many years later ...

[Rachel Ann French · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and devoured it in a very short time. I found it completely compelling, totally moving. How a young student with such a personality as hers could fall in love with a person so out of reach, her 47 year old Professor and employee. It was painful to read how much they felt for each other and yet how they could never be together as an open couple.
I fully understand that adultery is wrong and decietful but I was still able to sympathise with the two main characters involved.

[Loverlypurple · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is now one of my all time favorite books. I will be rereading again soon.

[Teresa Schmon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would but didn't care for the ending too much.

[Deanna Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just found this book on ibooks. And it was one of the best books i've ever read. You don't agree with this 'romance' thats going on yet you can't bare for it to end.

[Charlotte Daavies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Letters to My Mother by Rebecca Heath is a beautifully written, emotional story about unexpected love, vulnerability, and the ache of growing up. Kate and David’s connection feels raw and deeply human tender yet heartbreaking. Heath’s prose captures longing and self-discovery with quiet power. A poignant, unforgettable read about love found in the most unlikely places.

[Maisie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Letters to her parents from her college days provide Kate with reflection of her time in Seattle and her relationship with a college professor. An unusual story of two people finding love and it's twists and turns through their lives. Enjoyable and interesting romance.

[Mary Wervey]

Not my typical read. Interesting story line.

[Christine C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Letters To My Mother is a novel by Rebecca Heath that is written in a memoir style, based on letters the fictional Kate wrote to her mother from college in the fifties. The book begins with a brief introduction, where we learn that Kate has inherited the neglected house her mother lived in, and is cleaning it out to sell when she discovers that her mother kept all the letters ever written to her. She briefly reads letters from old family friends, and the letters her father wrote her mother when they were dating, and then discovers a box with letters she had written to her mother over her lifetime. Then we read the first letter.

The format is different - we get a letter, then narration of the time itself. A majority of the story takes place Kate's junior year of college in Seattle, where she is an anthropology student applying for a job as a typist for a professor. Being fluent in Spanish, she is the chosen candidate. Dr Rosenau is a middle aged (47 to Kate's 19), handsome, charismatic, professor with a German father and Argentine mother. Kate is a military child, who has lived all over the world and attended three years of boarding school in Spain. Despite her background, she is naive and innocent.

Kate and David (Dr Rosenau), become close and after a few months embark on a passionate love affair. They are aided by graduate student Frank, who is a friend to both of them. David teaches Kate to sail, and they spend a lot of time sailing around the bay, and attending concerts and other events together, having a similar taste in the classics. Despite their age difference, they seem to be a well-matched couple and are madly in love. Unfortunately, even though Kate was using birth control, she ends up pregnant and in 1957 the choices for an unwed, pregnant minor were limiting. They decide to give the baby up for adoption, and she flies home to her parents with plans on returning after to finish her schooling. Instead, she never returns and finishes college in California. She and David write each other occasionally, but she eventually meets and marries someone else.

Fast forward 27 years, and she is attending a conference in Seattle and she and David meet for dinner. They immediately fall into bed together, like they've never been apart. At dinner, she gives him photos of their son, now grown and in medical school, and tells of the disastrous meeting with him. They catch up on each other's lives, and decide to remain in contact and continue their affair around the country as she travels for business. Then, the narration switches back to the time of the prologue, and she tells us, the readers, that she kept the letters from her father and herself to share with her children someday.

What I didn't like:
I still am not sure how I feel about this book. It is a lovely story of a lifetime love, that storybook "great love, once in a lifetime." However, David is married with two teenage children. He says that he only married his wife because she was pregnant, although she lied about that and didn't confess until she was actually pregnant for real with their first child. She hates sex, doesn't participate and tells him to hurry up and get it over with, they don't get along, but she likes his money and status and will not grant him a divorce. Their children are only one and three years younger than Kate. Then later, when they decide to continue their affair, Kate is married with two children (David's wife is deceased at that point). She reveals she married him so he could stay in the country, but she also has no interest in divorcing her husband for David. Instead, she suggests the illicit affair again. I have a real problem with this.

What I did like:
Overall, it is an engaging, lovely story that was wonderfully told. Kate really grew and matured, in more ways than one, over that time period. She made horrible mistakes, and she did great things. She was perfectly 19.

I give it three stars, because I just can't get past the whole overlooking the spouses issue.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is written partly as a story where the main character is relating what happened to her in the past, and also as a series of letters written to her parents whilst she was at college, which she found amongst her mothers belongings, when clearing her house.

Kate is a naive 19yr old student at Washington State in Seattle. She takes on a job as a typist for Dr. Rosenau and they eventually start an affair. He is her first boyfriend, and she is still a virgin and very naive in the affairs of the heart. David is very gentlemanly and does not take advantage of her so it didn't feel sordid.

The story started off quite well, but it soon became fairly predictable and I could see where it was heading. Kate and David (Dr.Rosenau) went out on his boat, and for quite a good percentage of the start of the book there were numerous yachting terms, which I had to keep looking up the meaning of on my kindle and I got a bit bored of it. As I reached 20% of the book I was glad it had finally stopped.

I got annoyed by David calling Kate "Dear" and "Dearest", and asked my Dad if that is something men used to call their loved one's in those times, and he didn't feel it was. It just sounded very patronising to me.

I felt that the story could have been dragged out a bit more and felt that there was quite a big time gap at the end, and then an abrupt ending.

I did quite like the characters, and there was quite a good storyline to it, which kept me reading. Some more yachting did come into the equation but this did add to the story. I won't spoil it by saying what

I did enjoy reading the book and gave it 3* on Goodreads which translates to "I liked it".

I was given this book by the author to review. It in no way influenced my review, and the words are all my own.

[Jo Notary]

292p Kate is a college junior, a gifted student who skipped two grades in school, a naval officer's daughter who's lived in more places than she can remember. Shy and bookish, she's never had a boyfriend, let alone been kissed or gone on a date. Kate thinks falling in love is something that only happens to other girls.
David is a college professor, a sailor, a brilliant scientist trapped in a failed marriage; aloof and reclusive, he buries himself in teaching and research. David's convinced he'll go through life with an empty heart.
When Kate gets a campus job as David's typist, they discover they're both mistaken.
Letters To My Mother is the story of a May-December romance set in 1950s Seattle.

[Misfits farm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catherine (Kate) is a 19 year old student with the world before her. However she is quite shy. David is the professor she does part time work for and someone she can talk to. She starts to see what he feels that he has missed out on in life and her confidence grows and with it they start a relationship despite him being unhappily married with children and 48. Set in the 1950’s this is a very descriptive book however not to the detriment of the story line. I really can’t be doing with descriptions for page filling reasons. It is a story of people of living life to the full and not having regrets. I enjoyed this much more than I first anticipated (I had downloaded it months beforehand). Of seeing the world through someone else’s eyes and realising that we only get one life- so live it.

[James Talis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this book less than three hours ago... I am still haunted by it. Oh how authentic the characters became. I wanted to cheer for and hold Kate as she dealt with her issues. If there is a villain..it is your sense of morality taken from the perspective of the 50's and how things would be so much different today.

If you sail you will enjoy it more and even if you are not nautically savvy you can read over it. It is obvious that there was a nautical expert involved.

There was only one loose end. Oh how I would love to ask the author just one question....Was it an accident or did she do it intentionally??

[Marnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is about a girl who falls in love with a professor at college that she works for. The story goes thru as the woman finds letters that she wrote her mom. In the long run, they fell in love, separated related to undeniable issues and end up together in the end. Story overall was ok,but title doesnt fit much in my opinion.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

True to life love story

A love story that spans across decades. Including real life experiences that makes it believable. This isn't a fairy tale story, but one that most people can identify with.

I gave it 4 stars because some chapters end and the story line ends there. The next chapter has nothing to do with what just ended.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an INCREDIBLE surprise.

[Sharon Goddard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Made my flesh creep...:-P

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

thoroughly enjoyed it. bit romantic in places, but not in the standard trashy chick lit way.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this book months ago while searching for free reads. To my pleasant surprise, it was GREAT!
It was absolutely endearing, a wonderful relaxing read.

[Linda Ramos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was drawn in to the story quickley. I did not.like the part in which she sleeps with Frank nor did I like the little known about Carlos. I thought the ending was abrupt.

[Mishy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book on the whole a alright & I did enjoy reading it although at times I just wanted it end but I had to finish it to find out the ending sadly. Overall a good story.

[Sue A. Mowris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read

enjoyable and reminiscent of another era. would recommend for a rainy day read. format lends well with the story line.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book! Could not put it down.