Letters to Elise: A Peter Townsend Novella
By: Amanda Hocking
ASIN: B004GUSE2Q
Published December 20, 2010
Available Format: ebook
My Rating: ★★★★☆
In Amanda Hocking’s My Blood Approves series, Peter Townsend finds himself in love with Alice despite his own reservations. Unfortunately, although Alice certainly has feelings for Peter, she is also in love with his brother, Jack. It is revealed that Peter once was bonded with and very much in love with a vampire named Elise. Letters to Elise: A Peter Townsend Novella takes us back in Peter’s life. Through his correspondence with Ezra and Elise, he describes how he becomes a vampire and what his early life is like. We learn how he meets and falls in love with Elise and what became of her. Finally we are given a backstage pass when Mae, Jack, and Alice enter his life.
In case you didn’t catch it before, I LOVE Peter in Hocking’s My Blood Approves series. He is so much more interesting and mature than his brother (and certainly better looking in my imagination). I think Alice should have chosen him to begin with. Of course, that would have taken a lot of content out of the books, but a girl can dream can’t she? This novella gives the reader a chance to spend some quality time with Peter and get to know him a little better. I was so thankful to finally have the full back story about him and Elise which was only briefly described in My Blood Approves.
Because this book is a novella, and therefore much shorter, in addition to being formatted as letters instead of chapters, it is an extremely easy, quick read. I read the entire thing at the ball field one day waiting for my son to finish baseball practice. My only complaint is that occasionally Hocking inserts quite a bit of dialogue within a letter, making it a bit confusing and taking some of the charm away from the overall presentation.
If you are interested in the My Blood Approves series, this novella is definitely a great piece of supplemental literature. If you want to quickly get a feel for the series as well as Hocking’s writing, I think this would be a great place to start. Just be prepared to “need” her other books when you are finished!
