Dirty Letters

An anxious, agoraphobic heroine takes center stage in this optimistic contemporary from Keeland and Ward, who last collaborated on Hate Notes. Reclusive novelist Luca Vinetti, whose mental health has deteriorated since the fire that killed her best friend eight years ago, receives an angry letter from Griffin Quinn, the childhood pen pal she stopped responding to after the accident. Despite years of silence, they quickly become close again and their renewed correspondence slides into sexual talk. Luca steels herself to travel cross-country and surprise Griffin, only to arrive and discover that he lives a double life as rock star Cole Archer. Though their bond in person is even stronger than it was in print, Luca worries that Griffin’s life in the public eye is incompatible with her anxieties. Though Griffin and Luca’s letters are endearing and believably intimate, Griffin’s rock-star status and extreme wealth feel much less plausible. Readers motivated to see this unlikely heroine succeed will forgive the more fantastical indulgences of this light, escapist romance. Agent: Kimberly Brower, Brower Literary & Management. (Nov.)