This review is written with thanks to the publisher for my copy of Dear Darling via Netgalley.

Blurb:

Dear Darling…

So begins the letter from Daniel Prior.

The man Lauren had sex with when she was fourteen years old.

The man she fell in love with, long before conversations about power and consent and #MeToo.

The man she locked away in the deepest part of her memory.

Eighteen years later, the world is changed, and Lauren, a wife and mother, is changed too.

But now, fresh out of prison, Daniel wants to meet.

And Lauren must finally confront the electricity and devastation of the man who’s loved and harmed her more deeply than anyone in her life…

From bold new voice Ella King, Dear Darling cuts to the heart of some of the most complex issues of our age.

Review:

I heard a lot about Dear Darling before I started reading, so I really wanted to find out what it was about for myself. I will admit that it took me some time to grow into this novel, but as the story becomes clearer and gathers pace, I was compelled to keep reading and completely invested in Lauren’s situation. 

Ella King is clearly a brilliant writer, and all her skills are showcased in Dear Darling. She addresses a very uncomfortable but very important subject in such an emotional way, allowing me to feel everything that Lauren was feeling – her sadness, her discomfort, her insecurities and her anger – and thus become immersed in the novel. Daniel is a brilliantly constructed villain and I had a really visceral reaction to him that stayed with me through the whole novel. 

Dear Darling absolutely did not follow the trajectory that I expected, and I was consistently shocked and surprised by the revelations in the story. The narrative switches frequently between “then” and “now” and this helps the reader to piece together what happened to Lauren and appreciate how unsettling it would have been for her. 

Ella King is definitely an author to look out for in future. 

Dear Darling is available from Amazon.