This book spoke to me right from the start, or should I say Bea did, the lists, anxiety , I could see so many little details it was scarily funny. It’s lovely to watch her grow, become more spontaneous, it’s so touching and emotional at points. This is a real heartwarming read, full of realistic characters. Well written, the author has such a way with words that really bring the story and characters to life. Highly recommended

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Bea Smyth works for a local newspaper writing adverts, even though she really wants to write something more important. She lives in a house that she shares with her two best friends, Emma and Priya. She lives her days according to lists and plans, which, of course, leaves little room for anything new and spontaneous. While Emma and Priya have interesting social lives that they share with girlfriend and boyfriend, Bea is quite the opposite - rather withdrawn and happy on her own but constantly worrying that she's not good enough and feeling that it's much easier just to agree with everyone than to put herself above others' needs. One day a letter addressed to "B" arrives. Even though it's not directed to her, Bea replies that she never intends to sent but it's somehow posted to Nathan - and so Bea's double life begins, life that is going to push her into uncomfortable situations but also brings her joy and new people.

I absolutely adored the way the author has written Bea. She felt so real and true to life, with all her angst and uncertainty, and seeing her being pushed out of her comfort zones made me want to give her a standing ovation. She simply feels like a real person, sitting next to you, chatting with you and it's impossible not to like her. She is quite timid and hates confrontations, but it sounds quite well - known, no? And I wasn't blaming Bea for being the way she was, because I could see where she was coming from, I was blaming people surrounding her for being so pushy and taking advantage of her. I couldn't stand Priya who was supposed to be a friend but was so self - absorbed and selfish, expecting Bea to drop everything to be there for her when she needed her but not giving a second thought for Bea's needs.

The unexpected letter was for Bea like a lifebelt. I really liked that she followed her instincts, and I admired her for this, knowing how much it must have cost her. The characters she has met forced life into her and, a bit unintentionally, showed her there is world outside, that there is much more to life. She almost immediately fell in love with the nursing home and the three remaining people there, Nina, Gus and Sylvie, and the carer Jakub. Why only three people, I hear you asking. Well, because the home was supposed to be closing in the New Year and other residents have already found different accommodations. At first Bea only sensed a story that she could sell to her boss Duncan but it quickly turned into a real friendship, into much more for Bea, into a thing that she started to care about so much.

I only had the feeling that the "accidental love letters" were, I don't know, an afterthought? I was thinking they're going to be a prominent part of the book, and I thought this part of the story is going to probably be light - hearted and funny, while it turned out that actually they added much more seriousness to the story. They were poignant and actually this what arose from those letters was much more serious in tone. Nevertheless, I was hoping for more when it comes to the letters, and for something different, but it doesn't mean that I didn't like them, oh no. And it wouldn't be possible for Bea to change, to find herself without them, so it's a win - win situation.

There was quite a number of threads to follow but they were all so very well written and they kept me alerted all the time. I also adored the way the author has captured Bea's feelings and emotions, her anxiety, getting straight to the core of it, putting into words for us how it really feels. The scenes where Bea was calling her mum, leaving a message and asking to call her back soon made me realised what has happened and broke my heart. She was so lost, felt so alone, her roommates wanted to move out and on and now she was also supposed to lose the new friends from nursing home, where she felt needed, comfortable.

Altogether, it was a fairly light and warm read with a deeper side to it. An uplifting, funny and moving story, very well written, bringing the characters to life, a gentle, charming tale about life altogether, relationships, hope and coming out of your shell. Truly recommended!

Let me start by saying that I loved the protagonist of the novel. Bea Smyth is altruistic, authentic, and so sweet… I just wanted to hug her and tell her that everything is going to be okay. She is a young woman who lives with her three best friend, she works as an assistant for the local newspaper, and she has a neighbour that collects her mail and one day she gives her a love letter mistakenly address it to her. Opening the letter will change her life as she finds herself volunteering at the local nursing home and befriending and taking care of engaging and witty residents.

The story is beautiful and well-written. The author brings the characters to life and you can’t help but like them (although there were also a few I found irritating). As I mentioned, the protagonist is adorable. She is a bit reclusive and introvert, but she doesn’t back down when it comes to helping others. Her character is slowly revealed, giving her a bit of a mysterious air, but the more I read the more I came to understand her and like her and I loved how she grows throughout the story.

Family, love, friendship, loss are all themes the author addresses creating emotional and uplifting moments. This is my first novel by Olivia Beirne, but it certainly won’t be the last, and if you are looking for a feel-good and enjoyable novel that I highly recommend you pick The Accidental Love Letter!

This book was an unexpected pleasure. For the first few chapters it didn’t grab me. I couldn’t relate to Bea and her lists. I find regimented and overly organised people very difficult to be around. Then I seemed to settle into it and by the end I was quite fond of her.
Bea works at a local newspaper, lives with her two friends Emma and Priya and struggles with anxiety. To cope with her anxiety she makes schedules. She has a set routine every morning and knows what will happen in the office to the second - like office time waster Faye who always stops by Bea’s desk at 11.15am. Bea finds her workmates difficult to socialise with and as the book opens she is pitching s story idea to her boss which is sending her anxiety off the scale ( especially since Faye has managed to wander in to the meeting too). Bea feels that Duncan doesn’t take her seriously as a reporter and he intimidates her. Faye is always on the phone, pretty and popular, and constantly Instagram ready. Bea is jealous of how easy Faye finds it to chat and make friends; when she puts a picture on social media she has 137 likes in ten minutes!

At home Bea spends a lot of her time alone. She splits her evening between cooking, eating and getting ready for the next day around certain tv programmes. Emma is often at her girlfriend Margot’s place and Priya is always with her boyfriend, Josh. Bea can’t remember the last time they spent a night at home together having fun. One morning, her elderly neighbour Joy gives her the post and in it is a letter addressed to ‘B’. It can’t be her. But it might be. Bea is caught in a dilemma but concludes that if she opens the wrong mail it did have her name on the front. The letter is from a young man called Nathan who is on remand in prison. Bea reads his letter, which is an outpouring of love. She feels better, and even though she rationally knows the letter is not for her, she gets caught up in the fantasy that this person needs and wants her. So she picks up a pen and starts to right back. Bea and Nathan correspond well and she starts to look forward to his replies. Then he asks her a favour.

Nathan asks Bea to visit his elderly relative Nina who resides in a local nursing home. Even though she has to take two buses to get there and the carer, Jakub, isn’t exactly welcoming, Bea loves the company of Nina and the home’s only other two residents Gus and Sylvie. There are only three residents left because the home is closing in the New Year and placements need to be found by then. Bea senses a story she can sell to Duncan at last, something she truly cares about, However, she also loves visiting the residents, doesn’t want Gus and Sylvie to be parted, and can’t imagine that everything is being taken away from her again - just as it was when her mother died. Will homes ever be found for the residents and what will happen to Jakub?

As soon as the nursing home section started I began to understand where Bea was coming from. She is lost without her Mum, her roommates want to move out with partners and now she is going to lose the nursing home where she feels comfortable and her new friends. She starts to be endearing at this point and I found myself rooting for her to have a happy ending, As the book goes on we see Bea start to drop the lists and schedules to become more spontaneous and live in the moment. It happens sub-consciously and the reader doesn’t really notice at first which is very clever. A warm and funny story that you’ll enjoy devouring.

Not what I was expecting, given the title I was expecting a bit of a love story unfolding & some romance along the way but this story is more about life, relationships (of all kinds) and overcoming adversity. Not my normal type of story choice, but have to say I did quite enjoy reading it. The author’s writing style is very easy to read and her characters are very believable, not sugar-coated and rather funny at times.
After receiving a letter addressed to ‘B’, Bea’s life takes an unexpected turn. After feeling very alone and experiencing crippling anxiety the path the letter sets her on means she meets people who fill her life and help her find joy through friendship and companionship ... and perhaps a small hint of some romance (whereas I prefer a large dollop of love & romance, this was more of a very light dusting as there were more important things going on in the book).
One of the best things about this book is the author’s descriptions of Bea’s anxiety, her wording is so vivid and gets to the core of how anxiety can feel. I work in mental health (hence why this wouldn’t have been my choice of reading material for my down-time), and having anxiety written about in such a sensitive and real way in a fiction book is great to see.

Bea is a journalist, she lives with hwer 2 best friends Priya and Emma, both her friends are dating and Bea feels alone.
Joy is their next door neighbour, whos a little nosey but shes lonely too.
When a letter arrives for someone just called B, Bea decideds to open it even though shes not supposed to, she replys but never wanted to send the reply, but Emma accidently posts it.
Bea suffers from anxiety so every day she tries to stick to a schedual that will stop her being so anxious.
When Nathan writes back and asks Bea to visit his nan in the home shes at , things start to happen and for the 1st time in a long time Bea feels warm and wanted and not so alone.
This was a great read, the bit about the beaver had me in stitches,
will read more from this author now, it was fun and realistic,

I really did enjoy the premise of this book. Olivia Beirne did a brilliant job at bringing her characters together utilising the theme of ‘family’. Whilst a lot of people associate relatives with who they are blood related to, there are a lot of people who include people who aren’t related to them. Sometimes they find themselves closer to the family members that they chose themselves as opposed to the ones that they were given.

Throughout the storyline, the focus on relationships and loneliness is incredibly rife. Bea didn’t seem to think much of herself, and her confidence both in her professional life and personal life, really held her back in terms of just ‘going for it’. Even though her personality was endearing, I did feel as though the author missed a trick as we didn’t really know much about her, only where she worked, who she lived with, what she was afraid of and her mum. There wasnt much of a backstory given about her and I felt that I was unable to connect with her as well as I would have liked, meaning that, even near the end of the story, Bea still felt like a stranger.

Like I said at the beginning, the premise of the book was enjoyable, and there were many strong elements to it which the author executed brilliantly, namely the care home. I wasnt too convinced that Bea’s flatmate issues had a necessary part in the story as they didn’t seem to fit with the overall consensus of the book. That said, I loved the warmth of the storyline and the journey it took in the latter half of the book – Olivia Beirne’s talents really shone through for me then.

‘The Accidental Love Letter’ is a heartwarming and hopeful novel, one that I wasnt putting down until the very end.

Bea seems to be struggling with her life, she is afraid to do anything outside the line and keeps her life in order thanks to lists. But everything will change when she receives a letter, everything will change… maybe it’s time for her to open again, don’t you think?
Bea is a sad character, she is living with her two friends but doesn’t seem to connect to either of them or her job co-workers, she lives locked up in herself. The story will change when she will open a letter which is not really for her, but she seems to be attracted by what she reads inside. The change in her will not be from one day to the other, but thanks to the letter she will start to act differently and will try to connect with other people and feel valued, that is what she really needs.
I’ll have to say that in the beginning it was a little bit strange reading how Bea was living her life, checking the time with lists or expecting that everyone would think the worst of her. I suppose in some situations I felt a little bit reflected on the character, I don’t have a lot of confidence and always expect that people would hate me. That’s possibly why I felt so connected with Bea, she is a reflection of a fear we all have inside and we need something to make us change, in this case the mysterious letter.
Yes, I know that I am not talking at all about the letter, but it’s because anything that I could say it would be too much, it’s better to keep the mystery until you read the book, I don’t want to make any spoilers!
If you are searching for a sweet and delicate story, with love and special characters, this one is for you, The Accidental Love Letter has love for all of us, I can assure you.

Bea is such a type A character. I'm often caught between feeling sorry for her and having a lot of sympathy, and her getting on my last nerves one time too many. I loved seeing her thrown out of her comfort zone on several occasions.

Bea's friends also seem not to be quite the best friends they should be. I particularly took a dislike to Priya.

I wasn't always a fan of them. I loved Joy, and I really felt my heart break in her storyline. Elder people feeling rather lonely is all too common in the world at the moment.

A fantastic sophomore novel. I can't wait to see where Olivia goes next, but with two such strong books in her arsenal already I have high hopes.

This is the first time I've read anything by Ms Beirne, and at first I wondered whether I was going to enjoy this book. There are a lot of timetables in the opening chapter, but I soon realised that this was to underline one of Bea's character traits, and then I was hooked.

Bea Smyth works for a local newspaper. She lives in a house which once belonged to her mother, and now shares it with her two best friends, Priya and Emma. They are both confident individuals, and have active social lives. Bea is quite the reverse. She is withdrawn and feels lonely. Bea worries constantly that she is not good enough; will be late; will not be liked... In fact, she worries about everything.

One day a letter arrives addressed to 'B' which she eventually reads - in case it is for her. It is not. However, she decides to reply to the writer, Nathan, a young man who is currently in prison. She does not want her friends to find out for fear they'd think she was insane.

Several letters are exchanged, and Nathan asks 'B' to visit his grandmother, Nina, who lives in a care home. Bea duly visits Sunfields Care Home, under the pretext of wanting to volunteer there. Sunfields will be closing after Christmas, and most of the residents have already been rehomed. Three remain, including Nathan's grandmother. Originally, Bea was going to check on Nina, and never go back to the home, but the residents stir something in her, and she finds she enjoys her visits there. She is now determined to help them, and in doing so has to overcome her own fears of inadequacy.

I loved this story. The Accidental Love Letter is well-written, and the characters really came alive. I immediately liked Nina, Sylvia and Gus, and there was obviously more to Yacub the carer than his initial gruff exterior. I was less inclined to like Priya, who I thought was quite self-absorbed and selfish, wanting Bea to drop everything for her, when she needed Bea, but who for months had not given Bea a second thought, all the time she was seeing her boyfriend Josh.

There are a number of threads to follow, which kept me alert throughout. I felt such great sympathy for Bea as she struggled to overcome her overwhelming feelings of inadequacy, and was so glad there was a happy ending for Bea.

It is a heart-warming read which was sad in part, but also had some great comical unspoken retorts.

I so wanted to like this book however to struggled to invest in the story line. Although well written the plot line didn’t engage me enough and I found myself skipping parts to get to the end more quickly.

This was a real curl up on my sofa with a nice glass of something read as it warmed my insides, made me giggle and brought tears to my eyes. Bea lives by routines and schedules, set days for doing set things but it leaves little room to fit anything new into it, especially people. Her two friends that she house shares with have boyfriends, but not Bea, she is quite happy on her own. Life is so much easier just to agree with everyone than say what she feels and wants. Bea calls in on their neighbour Joy who had been a friend of her mum. If anything bothers Bea she calls her mum but always has to leave a message for her to get back to her.
When an unexpected letter arrives, with B on it she knows it isn't for her but curiosity gets the better of her. Bea writes a reply but when one of her housemates sees it she posts it and so begins a double life for Bea as she is pushed into uncomfortable situations that bring new people into her life.
Bea is quite timid, accepting what others want rather than confronting them, it isn't that the people she knows are horrid, she has simply become a pushover. When Bea gets a letter back to her unintentional reply she grasps it like a lifeline, I mean what harm could it do? I loved the world that opened up to Bea and the situations that she forced herself into. Life was no longer just about her. The characters she meets felt so very real with moments that made me chuckle till I cried followed by moments where I cried because I knew how she felt. A beautifully written story that made me glow just loved it.
I wish to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly.

A lovely read.

Bea likes to keep her life in order, with a timetable for the day. All that changes when she accidently replies to a letter that arrives at her house for B. This changes her life completely, and hopefully for the better. An emotional read with some great characters. I would liked there to have been more about Jakob though.

A lighthearted book but with a deeper meaning running through the pages
I was so happy to read this book as I loved the authors previous book.
I loved the characters in the book.

Bea lives in a flat with two other girls. She likes things to be on a schedule with strict time frames and lives a quiet life.
One day a letter is delivered that has B on the envelope. Bea knows that it's not for her but is opens it anyway. Now she is scared that this decision will get her into trouble.
Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

I got major Elenor Oliphant meets shopaholic vibes from this story!
Bea likes her life scheduled and neat - (she’s a little too much in love with lists! ) she likes knowing what she’s doing when and feels anxious and very uncertain around her friends and work colleagues. She lives with 2 of her best friends and feel completely alone.
A letter arrives addressed to B. It’s not for her but she answers anyway and her life is plunged into change.
Sad in some places and funny in others it was an enjoyable read and I loved the ending 😁

Having read and loved The List That Changed My Life by the author, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her latest book and read it. It was everything I had envisioned and more.

Bea is a character who I just wanted to constantly give a big hug. Even though she has her two friends who house share with her as well as neighbour Joy, she feels very much alone. Her life seems to be going nowhere and you can feel her becoming more withdrawn until a love letter turns up and changes her life.

Who would have thought a letter could have an impact on your life, especially when it isn’t actually addressed to you. It does to Bea though and she finds herself being pushed into situations of which she would normally run a mile from.

I really enjoyed seeing Bea being pushed out of her comfort zone and it really makes for a heart warming read. She is a wonderful character who felt like an old friend by the end. In fact there are quite a few characters I really enjoyed.

The Accidental Love Letter is such an endearing read. Whilst overall it is a fairly light hearted read, as with the authors last book, this is another story that has a deeper meaning at the heart of it. This is definitely an uplifting read that leaves you on a high. Really can’t recommend highly enough.