Synopsis:
Dear Marley is book seven in the Love Notes series of YA romance novellas.
Everyone at Ryder High knows what it means to have a teal envelope taped to their locker on the first day of the month.
For Marley “Sunny” Sorenshine, a Secret Admirer might be just what she needs to put her recent, very public, break up behind her.
Her optimism is dimmed when she reads the first note—her admirer was tricked into participating. He didn’t choose Marley, a dart did. And he wants her to quit.
But if Marley is good at anything, it’s seeing the silver lining and standing up for herself. She decides to throw her Sunny disposition into the game to challenge her Admirer’s grumpiness.
The guy can’t be all that bad—he carefully crafted a crossword puzzle just for her. And as the month goes on, he shares more personal details that intrigue her.
Will Marley stick it out until the end, or will her Admirers morose attitude get the best of her?
Review:
You’d think I’d be bored of this concept by now but I’m still really enjoying the Love Notes series. Each book has been completely different and Dear Marley included a couple of characters I’ve been interested in from book one – no spoilers from me who the secret admirer is though.
I think Marley has been my favourite envelope receiver so far. Not only did she live up to her nickname ‘Sunny’ but she had a lot more depth than you’d expect from such a short book. The characters feel a lot more complex in the later half of the series, but I have enjoyed every single book so far.
As with all of the Love Notes series, Dear Marley is really fun but you do wish you’d get to spend more time with them as a couple. I do know book 11 brings all of the couples together again, which I’m very excited to read, but I’d love at least one ‘6 months later’ chapter at the end of each book.
I don’t want to spoil too much about the plot but this is mentioned in the synopsis – it made me feel so bad for Marley when her admirer told her he didn’t want to participate and he chose her by throwing a dart. He does make up for this in the end, but you didn’t need to tell her that’s why you chose her. It’s a bit of a jerk move, but that does make sense for his personality – well the one people seem to have projected onto him.
His clues were very fun too. I love that he created a crossword for each clue and the circled boxes spelled out his name. This made it extremely obvious who it was, not just for the reader as you’ve already had a lot of heavy insinuation, but also Marley. Although, she didn’t figure it out as quickly as I thought. She had most of the letters of his name (which isn’t very long) before she even suspected it was him.
Seeing him open up with each letter sent was lovely as well. He’d reveal a little more of his true self with each one and some of them got really deep. The character development/complexities I mentioned at the start of this review were done really well in Dear Marley. It actually makes book one look a little shallow.
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