This was a beautiful book. I love books about anything book related so the main character working in a book shop was my jam. And also letters to be involved as well - I love any books with letters,emails etc.

Rachel and Henry are the two main characters and Amy is Henry’s ex and Henry’s backward and forwards on these two was quite annoying. I was like just pick one of them. I liked the letters but wished they were on books that I’d read as they were classics and I don’t read those. It would’ve nice to have more interactions in tbr book shops with customers and help finding a book or something like that. I loved George - who is Rachel’s sister and her pen pal was hopeful of another outcome on this though.

Thanks goes to publisher and net galley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an review.

Thought this sounded really cute and know I would've enjoyed the whole bookshop element but this just wasn't a very gripping read for me, unfortunately.

✨Words In Deep Blue by Cath Crowley✨

This sweet book is a perfect YA novel to get lost in. The beautiful setting of the book store with the weaving narrative in between about a love story or a long lost love story rather, was just wonderful.

The book does deal with slightly heavier themes at times but the book never made me feel like it was dwelling on them and those things never at any point took over the story.

Here is the blurb...
“Two teens find their way back to each other in a bookstore full of secrets and crushes, grief and hope - and letters hidden between the pages.

Years ago, Rachel had a crush on Henry Jones. The day before she moved away, she tucked a love letter into his favourite book in his family's bookshop. She waited. But Henry never came.

Now Rachel has returned to the city - and to the bookshop - to work alongside the boy she'd rather not see, if at all possible, for the rest of her life. But Rachel needs the distraction. Her brother drowned months ago, and she can't feel anything anymore.

As Henry and Rachel work side by side - surrounded by books, watching love stories unfold, exchanging letters between the pages - they find hope in each other. Because life may be uncontrollable, even unbearable sometimes. But it's possible that words, and love, and second chances are enough.” A really lovely story that is just perfect for every bookstore lover (aren’t we all one of those!) out there. A coming of age romance mixed with family drama and a heavy dose of book talk!✨ Copy from NetGalley✨

I really enjoyed this book. This book features Henry and Rachel. Rachel is in love with Henry and now works at Henrys dad shop but Henry already has a girlfriend. It is Rachels works in the letter library which is part of the bookshop where people communicate by leaving notes in books, I really liked this aspect, i thought it was really cute and i liked how we got to see notes that were left in the books. There was definitley some angst between the characters which mean a love triangle formed. It was also sad becuase of rachels brother. i liked seeing how different characters linked it thought that was interesting.

Another one I was lucky enough to snag from Hatchette Children’s on Netgalley (and another one I somehow managed to lose the review file and bought a finished paperback for).

I think this is a case of I liked the concept of this book, I loved the supporting characters, but I completely hated the main characters for most of the book. The book is an Australian based YA, telling the story of two main characters, Rachel and Henry.

Henry’s family own a popular second hand book stop, and have this wonderful thing called a Letter Library, a section of the bookshop stuffed with books that aren’t for sale, but where customers can put letters in the books where anyone can pick them and read them, and maybe write back. This was such a wonderful concept, there’s something about writing a letter where you can express yourself in words that you would never be able to say to someone’s face. Rachel and Henry were best friends, but Rachel has been crushing on Henry for years and never told him. When her family has to move, Rachel leaves a letter for Henry in his favourite book in the Letter Library telling him how she feels.

By this time Henry has a girlfriend, the beautiful Amy, who Rachel doesn’t really like much or get along with that brilliantly. Henry never finds the letter. Fast forward to school being over, Rachel is suffering from a family tragedy and struggling to cope, she hasn’t told any of her friends about what happened and is keeping everything bottled up inside. I found Rachel aloof, cold and rude. Yes, I get she’s going through something terrible and I could certainly empathise with her, but I really did not like her as a character at all. Her attitude grated on my nerves.

Rachel comes back to her former home town to move in with an aunt. She finds a job at Henry’s family’s bookshop. She hasn’t spoken to Henry since she left and he never found her letter. Henry meanwhile, is moping over a broken heart. His beloved girlfriend Amy has broken up with him, just weeks before they were scheduled to go on a round the world trip together. Henry can’t get over it, he can’t figure our or understand why Amy had ended the relationship.

Out of the two characters, Henry was marginally more likeable than Rachel. He was friendly and approachable, though he spent most of the novel pining over Amy and basically acting like a love sick moron. It got very annoying very quickly.

One thing I really loved about the novel was the supporting characters. Henry had a wonderful family, his mom and dad were active characters, as was his sister George. Rachel’s aunt was also wonderful. The two of them had the same friends, and some additional characters came in, and I loved them all. I just didn’t like Rachel and Henry (or Amy and her douchebag new boyfriend).

The more time they spend together the more Henry realises he might have feelings for Rachel, and Rachel finally finds herself dealing with some of the stuff she’s been going through and talking about it, and therefore finally able to get to a place where she can be comfortable with herself and move on.

It was well written, and very easy to picture what was going on. As I said, I just did not like the two main characters at all. There were some lovely emotional parts towards the end, but it wasn’t really enough to give this book a wow factor for me. It was just okay.

This one totally took me by surprise, as all the best stories should. It takes what should be a fairly straightforward boy and girl love story, elevating it with a quality of writing and clever plotting into a really memorable book, one which stays with you long after reading.

The characters of Henry and Rachel and explored through dual first-person narration, often overlapping scenes from each perspective, losing none of the intrigue in doing so. Rachel is the logical, scientific mind, while Henry of the family who runs the bookshop is the romantic dreamer, so romantic that he’s blinded by a residual infatuation with another girl, Amy.

The most interesting passages in Words in Deep Blue come in the form beautiful, flowing prose in describing scenes such as Cal and Rachel’s discussion of sea creatures, the author’s description of the sea, and more abstract concepts like what happens to a person’s soul after they die.

Added to this are several other layers. Henry’s sister’s narrative is particularly poignant as it unfolds, sometimes in the back ground but in and out of Henry and Rachel’s scenes.

The foundation or the backdrop for all of this is Howling Books, the bookshop that Henry’s family work and live in. The lives of all the characters are inherently linked to books and the bookshop, even those on the periphery of the story, such as Frederick, a regular customer, whose own seemingly innocuous tale becomes very affecting.

Above all, Words in Deep Blue is concerned with concepts such as the law of attraction. Characters write their thoughts and yearnings and dreams in the margins of books in one section of the bookshop, in the hopes that their messages will find someone and mean something. This theme rings true as the story outside the bookshop unfolds.

Words in Deep Blue is a really eloquently written story, and deserves all the praise it gets.

Actual Rating: 4.4/5

I HAVE BEEN MEANING TO READ THIS FOR SO LONG! I've seen it floating around booktube and the blogosphere ever since this book was released, but I've never gotten around to it. But when I saw that it was up for grabs on Netgalley in May, I seized the chance and requested it. A few hours later, I had been accepted. But, well... I didn't start reading it until I was on holiday in Malta... in August...

This is a love story.
It's the story of Howling Books, where readers write letters to strangers, to lovers, to poets.
It's the story of Henry Jones and Rachel Sweetie. They were best friends once before Rachel moved to the sea.
Now, she's back, working at the bookstore, grieving for her brother Cal and looking for the future in the books people love, and the words they leave behind.

OH. MY. GOD. This book is brilliant. It's absolutely brilliant. I think one of the best things about this book is that it's about books. I LOVE BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS or even books where the characters read. It makes me so happy, and I think it's a brilliant way for authors to get their readers engaged. Words in the Deep Blue is pretty much set in a second-hand bookshop called Howling Books, and outside of the bookshop, there are references to books, conversations about books and just ugggghhhhh... It's amazing. I just want to re-read it right now, but I can't. Because well... the TBR is collapsing. I wish that there was a shop like Howling Books by me. I have a Waterstones, but it's not really the same thing, is it? I can't exactly leave notes for other readers in the books, or highlight my favourite passages and leave it for other readers. Not that I would highlight the books anyway, because that would break my heart.



“We are the books we read and the things we love.”

― Cath Crowley, Words in Deep Blue




I really do love the idea of writing in books and leaving messages for people in them, but just the thought of writing it books hurts my soul. I'm one of those readers who likes their books in pristine condition, and the only time I annotate and highlight books are academic books for when I'm studying the subject for university.

I think that the only thing that - not annoyed me but - got to me was that all of the books and the references were about classic books. I do love a good classic novel, and I definitely appreciate them, but it just seems like all references in bookish books are about the classics... Where are the references to Rainbow Rowell, or Cassandra Clare? I don't know. But I do think that the redeeming quality about there being loads of classic books was that the characters weren't snobs about them. They were just like 'oh yeah, I like this book. It's pretty cool. Check it out.'



“There should be a disconnect button you can push when someone leaves: you’ve fucked me over; therefore I no longer love you. I’m not asking for the button to be connected to an ejector seat that removes them from the universe, just one small button that removes them from your heart.”

― Cath Crowley, Words in Deep Blue




But enough about the bookish elements of the book. The characters were well fleshed out. I felt so attached to them because they were so three dimensional. They felt real, and those are the type of characters that I love the most. There is a sort of love triangle; it's between Henry, Rachel and Henry's ex-girlfriend, Amy. But it wasn't the kind of love triangle that really got on your nerves, and was at the forefront of the novel. It was a big part of the novel about halfway through, but it still felt like it was in the background, and that the platonic relationships between the characters were the most important element.

The story is told from the perspectives of both Henry and Rachel, and I connected with both of them so much. I got so emotional with Rachel about the death of her brother, and with Henry, I just understood the mess that he was in.



“Words do matter. They’re not pointless. If they were pointless then they couldn’t start revolutions and they wouldn’t change history and they wouldn’t be the things that you think about every night before you go to sleep. If they were just words we wouldn’t listen to songs.”

― Cath Crowley, Words in Deep Blue




Also, just as a quick mention, I loved George so much. I loved her relationship with her pen-pal, and I thought that (even though she was a secondary character) she was such a well-built character and I really really want a spin-off about her because I just love her so much.

Overall, this is an amazing book and I thoroughly urge EVERYONE to read it. I just love this so much and I do really really really want to re-read it. My little sister read it (and she doesn't read that much) and she loved it as well, and I'm trying to bribe her into writing her own little review for this book. For more information on this bribe, read this post! So yes, everyone! Read this book! And I promise you that you will fall in love with it, just like I did!

Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

As soon as I heard about Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley, I knew I had to read it. I loved her novel A Little Wanting Song, and Words in Deep Blue sounded right up my street. And I was more right than I could have known. This book is so incredibly beautiful.

Rachel's brother, Cal, died ten months ago, and Rachel hasn't been the same since. She failed Year 12, she's lost interest in swimming, and she's lost interest in life. Rachel doesn't know how to keep living her life without her brother in it. As she's not planning on retaking Year 12 right now, her aunt, Rose, has sorted out a job for her back in her old town, until she's feeling ok enough to make decisions about her life.
Henry works in his family's second hand bookshop, Howling Books. He loves it there; the customers, the books, the Letter Library, where books can't be purchased, but people can leave letters to other people, or write notes in the margins, or highlight phrases that speak to them. But the bookshop is failing - his mum wants to sell, his dad doesn't, and it's future is uncertain. As is his; he was meant to go on a round-the-world trip with his girlfriend, Amy, in a few weeks, but she's just dumped him. He's heartbroken, and desperately wants her back, but Amy seems more interested in herself than anything else.
Henry and Rachel used to be best friends. Just before her family moved, Rachel left a letter for Henry in the Letter Library, telling him she was in love with him, but he ignored the letter when he wrote to her, as it had never happened, so eventually she ignored him, too. Now Rachel is back, and the job Rose has lined up for her is in Howling Books, cataloguing the Letter Library. Rachel doesn't want to face Henry again, after how he hurt her. Henry doesn't really know if he wants Rachel around himself, after she just stopped writing to him out of nowhere. Who does that to their best friend? But there are things neither of them know or realise, and their meeting again, and their time together in Howling Books will change everything.

This book is just wonderful. It's so, so gorgeous. Yes, it's predictable, and you know exactly how this book is going to end before you even start it, but sometimes predictability can be a good thing when it's cute and lovely. Even if Rachel and Henry - especially Henry - can be idiots who can't see what's obvious, and are fools for other people. And not everything about the story is predictable. And as much as it's a romance, it's so much more.

It's also about grief, and what a gaping chasm the absence of a loved one can leave in your life. How, sometimes, you can't see beyond the loss and you don't know which way is up, nor how to get out of this hollow emptiness you find yourself in. Rachel's grief was palpable, and heartbreaking, but I felt her depression was so well written. I've never experience depression, so I can't speak for the representation, but it felt true to me. And Cal! He's not in the book in person, but he lives in the pages of books, and he was just so pure and so good, and oh my god, I loved him, but he's dead. And that's so earth-shattering, for so many people.

Words in Deep Blue is also about books, and is full of passion for books. So many authors and titles are mentioned throughout this book, and so many of the characters have a deep abiding love for books, words, and reading. It's also about people who are affected by books, and the memories linked to books, and the letters and notes left in books, and the phrases highlighted in books, and the stories of those people, and how the books are part of their stories. And about a second hand bookshop that is a home and refuge of memories and love and words. A bookshop that isn’t doing so well and may or may not close. A bookshop I definitely wish I could visit. This book has made me look at books in a completely different way, and has me wanting to scour second hand bookshops and read the words other people have written in them. I used to think writing in books was sacrilege, but now I think it's quite possibly one of the most beautiful things ever.

Words in Deep Blue is, itself, written so beautifully, and I wanted to highlight so many passages about books, and words, and love, and life, and death, and people. So many. So many, in fact, I'll definitely be buying my own copy, and defacing it to my heart's content. This book is a precious, precious gem of a read, and I want to shout from the rooftops about just how bloody awesome it is, and press it into everyone's hands. I loved it. I loved it so much I could cry. It was just perfect. Do, please, read it.

Thank you to Hodder Children's Books via NetGalley for the eProof.

Words in Deep Blue is a cute romance story however it is very cheesy and predictable. Henry annoyed me the most when he kept going back to his old girlfriend even though she treated him badly when Rachel was there for him

Serendipity meets Charlie Saint Cloud! It’s a bittersweet romance that deals with some deep emotions.
Lovely book for anyone’s TBR pile.

3.5 stars

Rachel and Henry used to be best friends. The night before Rachel moved away, she left a letter for Henry in a book. In the letter, Rachel declared her love for Henry. When Henry never mentioned the letter, Rachel figured that he must not feel the same way, so she tried to move on.
Then Rachel's brother, Cal, drowned in the ocean.
After failing Year 12, Rachel returns to her old town to find that her aunt has gotten her a job at Howling Books, a second-hand bookshop owned by Henry's parents.
Can Rachel and Henry resume their friendship?
Can Rachel open herself up again after Cal's death?

Who doesn't love a novel that's mostly set in a bookshop?
I really liked the idea of the Letter Library - a collection of books that customers can write in. It was a nice touch to include some of the letters throughout the novel.
Rachel and Henry were both relatable and believable characters. I felt sorry for them both for different reasons, and I wanted them to be friends again. I liked Lola and George. I really disliked Amy.
The plot was interesting and held my attention, but nothing happened that shocked me.
I really enjoyed the writing style - it was easy to follow.

Overall this was an enjoyable read.

I really enjoyed this read, it's fabulous. Slightly sad but with the extra fun of writing notes in books, this will leave a smile on anyone's face. And we all love it when characters finally get together :)

A gorgeous young adult book about friendship, love, music, the importance of words, marginalia and most importantly, how books can carry messages through time...

Beautiful, bitter-sweet and life affirming all at once, this is one of the best YA books i've read this year so far.

WARNING: Weeping while reading in public is a genuine possibility!


#WordsInDeepBlue #NetGalley

This book is many things, and I put off reading it for many reasons. The key one being I knew it would be sad as a central part of the story is Rachel dealing with the death of her brother, and with it being so soon after losing my nan I wasn’t sure sadness and loss was appropriate reading. Grief and loss is a central part of the story, and it is dealt with heroically, but it’s also about love, friendship, life, and family. I couldn’t see that at first, but once I started the book I was amazed at how I had missed out on such a good read when it was sat waiting for me on my Kindle.

As I said, this book is about grief. It was sad, Rachel’s brother, Henry, drowned and she is not ok. It has taken away her love for the sea and taken away her passion for life. That’s isn’t exactly the set up for something bright and cheery. But it wasn’t the overwhelmingly sad book I thought it might be. It does have moments which will make you tear up because it is an emotional read, but I spent far more time smiling along with this book than anything else. It’s about Rachel’s grief, but also about a bunch of other people’s grief. And it’s about growth and self-discovery, and friendship and so much more. I’m just sorry I let the prospect of some real emotions, like sadness, put me off reading this ARC.

I immediately liked Rachel. She is broken by the loss of a brother she was so close to and she is not coping with that loss. Returning back to a place when she will have continual reminders of her brother doesn’t seem like the best plan but it’s the only plan really. Then when she’s stuck working with her old best friend who she was in love with you can see how it was easy to like her. She has enough on her plate and didn’t want to revisit the past, especially not when it brings up memories of her brother. She slowly learns that remembering isn’t a bad thing, it’s bittersweet. Grieving and loss involve remembering, and Rachel gradually learns this and comes to turn with both her past and what her future holds.

Henry was a little different. I didn’t actually like him at first (any guy who can be in love with such a shallow girl and be blind to things around him comes across as a bit of a dick). He came across so self-centred, he just couldn’t see beyond the end of his nose, but that’s what made this book so satisfying to read. Rachel’s growth is in regards to grief and her own needs. Henry’s is in his attitudes and perceptions of those around him and what he holds as important. He discovers that his own aims were changed and in fact what he actually wants is far closer to home. He realises the importance of family and also about letting things go.

Sorry to be so vague about things, I don’t want to spoil this book because it’s not a fast-paced read but a slower journey of discovery and people and that you don’t know as much as you think about those you love and even when it comes to yourself. It’s about grief and family and the meaning of home. It’s lots of things and I adored it.

2.5

I have mixed feelings about this book. I found the first half of it really boring and so very nearly DNFed it, but I decided to keep going and read it all anyways, with it being quite a short book.

In the first half, I was feeling like it would be a 1/2 star rating, but the second half managed to pull it up to around 2.5/3.

I just found the characters quite boring and a little flat for most of the book, and only started to feel like they were developed half way through

The concept is wonderful, and I loved the letter aspects of the book, but I found the supporting characters way more interesting than the main characters, and i think it probably would've been a better book if it was more centered around them haha

I utterly adore this book! Words in Deep Blue is a stunning love letter to books, the written word and readers... it will make you laugh and cry and it will fill you with bookish joy. Words in Deep Blue is one of my all-time favourite YA books!

Words in Deep Blue follow a girl who moves back to where she grew up, after being gone for three years. In that time her brother passed away and she’s really struggling to deal with his passing. Before moving, she had a crush on her best friend and when she moves back, she gets a job working in his families bookstore.
Something I loved was the bookstore. I absolutely love this setting as bookshops (especially second hand ones) are really magical to me. I also loved the Letter Library- a shelf of books in the bookshop, you can’t buy, but can add your own notes to. This has made me want to actually start annotating my books (shock horror), as it felt so special in this. Also, how gorgeous is that cover?
I’m afraid everything else I have to say about this is negative.
I found the characters very average; I found nothing unique nor likeable about them, and as this is a character based book, it made me so bored throughout as I didn’t care about them at all. I could easily see from the first few pages what was going to happen and how things were going to resolve, so found it so boring to get there. If I’m honest, if this wasn’t a review book I definitely would have DNF’d it.
I also hated how the parental characters were never in the book, especially as they were so relevant in the story. The main characters mum (whom I’ve already forgotten the name of despite finishing the book less than five minutes ago) had less than ten lines, and it would have been really impactful to see her try and come to terms with her sons death as well.
Something I found difficult was the writing style, as it felt so thought out that it didn’t flow. I felt as though the author thought about every single word to make it as poetic as possible, which is great but ended up feeling so forced and disjointed. I think this is part of why I didn’t like the romance as it felt forced and I didn’t feel the chemistry between them. It would have been better if they just had a platonic relationship. A frustrating thing I felt about the writing style was that there were two POV’s and a lot of the time the same thing would happen in both, making it really repetitive and the other persons POV didn’t add anything to the story.
Overall this just didn’t work for me, though that being said this has great reviews so maybe I’m just missing something here. Not a book for me.

“You’ll just have to get over it. You want to hide. You want to be miserable, but that’s not happening. You’re taking to job at Howling Books. You’re not spending even one day lying on your bed staring at the ceiling.” She looks over at me and then back to the road. “You have to start living again sometime.”

I am in love with this book. IN LOVE. It is beautiful and heartfelt and terribly sad and frustrating and hopeful. It is about life and death and love and the power of words, the magic of writing. It is possibly one of the most important books I will ever read, just because of the way it's made me feel. My heart is full, I am crying, it is wonderful, and any hopes for a coherent review have gone out the window. Crowley has done such an amazing job of portraying the realities of loss and grief, and the effect it can have on how a person deals with the rest of the world, how it can impact on both your mental and physical well-being, without creating a story that is overly sad. As with most things, time heals and tomorrow is usually better.

‘The memories are in the words. And from that the strange thought comes that my memories are trapped in all the copies of this poem, and so everyone who’s reading it, no matter what copy, has my memories without knowing it.’

Although on the surface it could be considered a love story, there are so many depths within it. The story is really about loss and grief, and how we can pull ourselves back together when everything feels like it’s falling apart. At the beginning of the novel Rachel is depressed and listless – her brother, Cal, has drowned, and she just doesn’t know how to get through life anymore. She can’t face the sea she used to love so much, she can’t face being somewhere Cal has died, so moves back to the city. The city, however, is not without challenges, as Rachel faces her best friend, Henry, who she hasn’t seen for three years. They both think the other forgot about them and didn’t care enough to keep in contact. The love story picks up here, full of anger and miscommunication, and Crowley handles it so well alongside the feelings of grief and how difficult it can be to cope with, and not only in terms of losing a loved one.

“Words matter, in fact. They’re not pointless, as you’ve suggested. If they were pointless, then they couldn’t start revolutions and they wouldn’t change history. If they were just words, we wouldn’t write songs or listen to them. We wouldn’t beg to be read to as kids. If they were just words, then stories wouldn’t have been around since before we could write.”

I really can’t praise this book enough; it is outstanding in every way. The characters are complex and realistic – I didn’t always like Rachel and Henry, but I understood them and why they acted they way they did, and I always loved them. I was so invested in every single character in this novel (yes, I am including Howling Books as a character) and I enjoyed every single minute I spent reading it. Do yourself a favour: buy this book, devour it, love it.

Submerged in Words in Deep Blue

Oh. My. God. This. Book. Was. So. Good. Really, I’ve been struggling to find the words to review it ever since I read it. From the outset, Words in Deep Blue set off my waterworks and broke my heart over and over again. I spent most of this book crying, because this is such an authentic portrayal of grief. The main character, Rachel, has lost her brother a year earlier and the agony of that falls in waves upon the reader throughout the narrative. Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a simple story of loss however- it is a haunting portrayal of all the little heartbreaks that come with being parted from a loved one and at the same time is a life affirming reflection on the impact an individual can have on the world.

crying orangutan

Me, the whole way through this book

Exploring the subject of transmigration with some striking plotting, the book is more than a little profound. Crowley set up the theory subtly from the start and by the end circles back to the idea. It is incredibly well thought out: the subject is reflected in every facet of the book and seeing the full picture at the end gave me tingles. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I could not get over how cleverly the book plays with time, returning to the beginning at the novel’s conclusion in a way that can only be described as a stroke of genius. And WOW- those last few lines summarised how I felt about the whole book.

The writing is, in no uncertain terms, wonderful. I very much enjoyed having the words wash over me. A lot of this took place in a bookshop and not only did the setting allow for some interesting visitors into the story, I also appreciated the connection this created with wider literature. There were some cool interlocking moments to other books and great references. Plus, this added to the already significant message of inter-connectivity.

That, in turn, made the dual perspectives work particularly well here. The overlap between the two narratives blended together beautifully and helped enhance the romantic elements. Of course, the miscommunication between the characters also made me pretty emotional (I did say I spent most of the book crying 😉 ) and I was crazy invested in their relationship. The characters were so brilliantly drawn that I easily connected with each of their voices. Rachel was tremendously empathetic and on the other end of the spectrum Henry provided some much needed laugh out loud comic relief at times. Plus, it wasn’t just about the main characters here- the side characters were equally vivid. I became just as invested in the character arc for Henry’s sister. In fact, it added layers to the trauma of the narrative, even though I knew where it was going all along.

Overall, this was a gorgeous, worthwhile read. I had some idea from Kat’s *fantastic* review (which prompted me to request it) that this was going to be something special… and yet I still couldn’t have predicted how much this would touch me. If you have ever experienced grief, you must read it. If you ever expect to go through something like this, you must read it. So that’s everyone: YOU MUST READ IT.

Rating: 5/5 bananas

small bananasmall bananasmall bananasmall bananasmall banana

So have you read this? What did you think of it? And do you plan to read it? Let me know in the comments!

Crowley always has had a magical way with words, I've been in awe of her writing ever since I read Graffiti Moon a few years ago and I'm glad to say that once again she didn't disappoint with Words in Deep Blue. I loved the entire set up of this book, how it was based around Howling Books and a lot of people's lives centred around the words and pages within books of The Letter library and the history and time spent within the store. Rachel and Henry's story was one that had to be told, they'd had a solid friendship until Rachel's family moved away, Rachel had left a letter for Henry in one of the books declaring her feelings for him, it had been a long time coming, but of course things didn't go entirely to plan and eventually Rachel stopped writing back to Henry until she had to move back to town, where she no longer could avoid him. I could understand Rachel's current feelings towards Henry, there she had gone and put her heart on the line and he couldn't even respond? And with everything that had happened with Rachel's brother Cal, it had already been a tough for Rachel, so having to move back home where she had lots of memories could take time adjusting. Crowley truly did a magnificent job with Words in Deep Blue, her raw honesty with her words, made the feelings of loss and love really come through. I also loved the stories that we were able to learn about through The Letter Library. Crowley takes us upon an eventful journey with Henry and Rachel's lives and I'm hugely grateful that I got to be a part of it, with this beautiful book.