Melissa’s Reviews > Pen Pal > Status Update

I have no idea how to rate or review this book, so I’m going to sit on it for a bit.
I am feeling an emotional hangover that I need to recover from.
This book has tied me up in knots.

I’m stunned by the force of how much I want from her, how much more than this, more than whatever we could feel and share in one night.
I want more than tonight.
I want forever.
With a silent plea and a promise, I take her down to the bed.
Give me the rest of your life, Kayla. I won’t let you down.
I promise I’ll take care of you until the end of time.

Aidan had it so bad for Kayla

“Aidan?”
“Yes, Kayla?”
“I’m really sorry about this. I promise I’m not a giant basket case. I’m just a little one.”

Author’s Note
I’ve never cried writing a book as much as I did with Pen Pal, a sentiment I know a lot of people shared while reading it. So many readers have reached out to me to express their emotions about these characters and request more…

MICHAEL REECE: It’s her! It’s her and him both! Oh God! Let me out of here! Let me out of this fucking room!
Physician’s note: Patient appears to be experiencing a visual disturbance.

Kayla & Aidan visit Michael in prison

All around us, the golden light grows brighter. I feel a pleasant urgency, an upward pull that increases with each incremental lift of light.

Heaven?

Aidan- I never lost you. Who do you think has been ringing the doorbell this whole time?
Kayla- I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I couldn’t see. I was so confused.
Aidan- It’s okay. I told you I’d wait forever if I had to.

Now I’m crying.

Past. Present. Fact. Memory. Everything interconnected and part of a whole, like individual pages in a book before it’s bound.
But now my binding is set. My story is told. The book of my life has been written to its final chapter.
All that’s left is to close the cover and put it away.
Kayla

It took months of me sifting through memories & reliving my past to understand what happened. I lived 2 parallel lives, 1 past & 1 present, removed from reality but believing myself in it, utterly blind to the truth
Everything that happened with Aidan was real. So was everything that happened after New Year’s. But it got all jumbled together & mixed up because being dead & not realizing it is very fucking confusing

What we call memory is the intersection between imagination and fact. Memories are the stories we tell ourselves about the important events in our lives. In the telling, some details get lost, others embellished, until truth is closer to fiction.
Kayla