Title: Dear Life
Author: Meghan Quinn
Release Date: January 5, 2017
Synopsis:
Four lives. Four stories. Four sets of letters. Four brave souls in need of guidance while facing life’s greatest challenges.
The anonymously published Dear Life program is designed to help them step outside of their comfort zones, face their obstacles, and relinquish their demons…and prove their existence.
With their lives teetering between wanting more and losing it all, all four souls dive into the program as a New Year’s resolution, sending them on a crazy, life-altering journey.
Dear Life,
Please be kind.
Yours truly, Hollyn, Jace, Daisy, and Carter.
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Purchase Links:
Amazon US | Amazon UK
My Review:
When I saw that Meghan was writing something aside from her romantic comedies, I snapped it up. There’s nothing like seeing exactly what genres an author can write rather than just sticking to what’s safe.
The concept behind this story was so unique that it had piqued my interest immediately. Having a different style cover, an intriguing synopsis and being written by an author I have respect for just ticked all of the boxes for me.
We meet 4 people who are at different junctures in their lives and at what they perceive to be “rock bottom”. They all join the Dear Life programme whereby they look at life, follow through with some tasks and character building exercises and write to ‘Life’ – communicate their frustrations, fears and worries to an non-entity but get the words out there nonetheless.
I connected to some characters more than others – this could be from my personal struggles, it could be from the similar personality traits but I resonated with them either way.
The writing confused me at first with the story being told from four different POVs but I quickly became invested in their stories, their tales of woe, their paths to the future that it was easy to switch from POV to POV – especially as they intertwined with one another from the Dear Life initiative.
Family issues, financial worries, life kicking you when you’re down and just kicking you full stop are all things we readers face on a daily basis so it was natural to empathise with the characters and want only the best for them.
Meghan’s written something for us from the depths of her heart. I won’t go into specifics of each character but just know that there is a situation written in here that is so true to life. And the fact that we get her own Dear Life letter at the end of the book was so raw and emotive that I couldn’t help but shed a tear.
Four wonderfully deserved stars for something gritty, emotional, tear-jerkingly deep and yet so hopeful that I wished it never had to end.
About the Author:
Born in New York and raised in Southern California, Meghan has grown into a sassy, peanut butter eating, blonde haired swearing, animal hoarding lady. She is known to bust out and dance if “It’s Raining Men” starts beating through the air and heaven forbid you get a margarita in her, protect your legs because they may be humped.
Once she started commuting for an hour and twenty minutes every day to work for three years, she began to have conversations play in her head, real life, deep male voices and dainty lady coos kind of conversations. Perturbed and confused, she decided to either see a therapist about the hot and steamy voices running through her head or start writing them down. She decided to go with the cheaper option and started writing… enter her first novel, Caught Looking.
Now you can find the spicy, most definitely on the border of lunacy, kind of crazy lady residing in Colorado with the love of her life and her five, furry four legged children, hiking a trail or hiding behind shelves at grocery stores, wondering what kind of lube the nervous stranger will bring home to his wife. Oh and she loves a good boob squeeze!
Author Links:
Facebook | Goodreads | Website
Teasers:
