Sam (Samantha) has experienced homelessness, abuse, and betrayal. As an orphan, she seeks solace in the classics and hiding behind the characters (especially Jane Austen's characters). When an anonymous benefactor offers to pay her tuition to attend Northwestern Univerisity's Medill School of Journalism, she seizes the opportunity. The benefactor requires her to write letters to him with updates on her progress. He will not reply.
Through these letters, readers learn about Sam's past, the walls she has built, and how she slowly removes her sturdy wall, brick by brick.
Minor characters who influence her seem to have a relationship with God. During the novel Sam does not accept Christ as her Savior, but the reader knows she is beginning her search for Him.
Within the last year I had read Daddy-Long- Legs by Jean Webster (which inspried Ms. Reay's plot for this book). I could predict the plot from page one. Although the plot was very predictable, I enjoyed immersing myself in Sam's life and almost read this book in one sitting. It is easy reading (like a "beach read"). I loved the references to the classics.
I liked this book better than Ms. Reay's The Printed Letter Bookshop.
Before sharing with a teen: Sam was abused by her parents and a foster family, her dad was going pimp her out but she runs away (a man feels her up and other men check her out), her boyfriend Josh pressures her to be intimate with him (the word "sex" is never mentioned but inferred)-she doesn't give into the pressure, her younger friend is abused by his foster parents
-Borrowed via ILL.
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