The love letter

Cathleen Schine

Smart, independent, and sexy, Helen MacFarquhar owns a tiny bookstore in an idyllic seaside town, where her life is exactly as she planned it, comfortable and full. But then an anonymous love letter arrives in her mail one steamy summer morning. Written by an unknown lover to a mysterious beloved, the letter becomes Helen's obsession. "How do you fall in love?" the letter asks. To her dismay, Helen finds out. Johnny is the college student who works in Helen's store, a boy with all the irresistible modesty and arrogance of youth. Helen knows she is too old for him, and too wise, but the letter's ardor is overpowering, and Helen is swept up in a fiercely tender love affair.