Book Review – The Fifth Letter by Nicola Moriarty

Title: The Fifth Letter

Author: Nicola Moriarty

Publisher: Penguin

Publication Date: 23rd February 2017

Format: ARC e-book

Note: This book was received from the publisher in return for an honest review

About the book:

Joni, Trina, Deb and Eden.

Best friends since the first day of school. Best friends, they liked to say, forever.

But now they are in their thirties and real life – husbands, children, work – has got in the way. So, resurrecting their annual trip away, Joni has an idea, something to help them reconnect.

Each woman will write an anonymous letter, sharing with their friends the things that are really going on in their lives.

But as the confessions come tumbling out, Joni starts to feel the certainty of their decades-long friendships slip from her fingers.

Anger. Accusations. Desires. Deceit.

And then she finds another letter. One that was never supposed to be read. A fifth letter. Containing a secret so big that its writer had tried to destroy it. And now Joni is starting to wonder, did she ever really know her friends at all?

What I Thought:

I’m unsure about this books, it’s not a bad book, and it’s not even like I contemplated not finishing it, it just wasn’t all that I wanted it to be. This book isn’t one I’ve seen talked about all over twitter but I was browsing NetGalley and the cover looked interesting, then the description sold it for me, but in reality it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

Joni, Trina, Deb and Eden are the Four C’s friends since the first day of high school after their teacher pointed out all of them were Scorpios with surnames that began with C. Over the years marriage, jobs and children have left them feeling like they were drifting apart and on their annual girls trip away Joni suggests writing a letter each to share a secret in the hope they’ll reconnect.

As the anonymous letters are shared, assumptions are made about the writers and things are said, emotions running high things are further complicated by the discovery of a fifth letter, one never meant to be read and thought destroyed by its owner. As cracks form in the friendships within the group everything comes to a head at dinner after the trip.

Would I recommend it?

Maybe, I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to suggest it to another, but I wouldn’t tell anyone not to read it either. The book is well written, although I had some issues with the story jumping about, it not being clear whose viewpoint the story was being told from, but this could just be the formatting in the ARC e-Book I had. My main issue with the book is that I was expecting something a little darker from the premise and what I got wasn’t. So not a bad book, just not what I was hoping for.