An enjoyable mystery that starts with a group of adults receiving letters they wrote to their future selves as adukts. The premise was unusual and the theme of the road not taken was interesting.

this was a bit like what you do when you think of those old timeline posts that sometimes pop up to say hello on social media. ugh. total cringe, was i ever that age that wrote stuff like that? except this was so much worse for the characters in this book. the letters this group once wrote to each other lead to more that embarrassment. and now could they lead to death? one friend makes it her job to find out what happened back then, and more importantly what goes on to happen as a ripple effect of re-opening old letters and older wounds. because some things definitely have not healed over.

I really liked the idea of the letters, however I found the writing style not engaging enough. I skipped some parts to get to the end. I think it would’ve been more gripping if it was written in 1st pov. Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

In Saltburn, North Yorkshire, 2023, a group of former students receive letters they wrote to their future selves 20 years ago. What was meant to be a nostalgic look back soon turns dark when Miranda Brevart reads her letter, abruptly leaves her home, and is later found dead on the beach. Her best friend Audrey can’t accept the suicide verdict—especially after finding a mysterious note in her own letter from Benjamin Spellman, a classmate who died during a school trip.

As Audrey begins reconnecting with old classmates, she uncovers secrets that have been buried for two decades. Determined to find out what really happened to Miranda, she starts to reclaim the strength and ambition she once had, before life derailed her dreams.

This novel starts slowly but quickly becomes gripping. The past letters gradually reveal personal truths, regrets, and hidden connections. Audrey’s transformation is inspiring, and the twists will keep you guessing to the end. A well-crafted, emotional mystery about the power of the past and the choices that define us.

Thank you to #netgalley and @bonnierbooks @ZaffreBooks for an eARC of this book all thoughts and opinions are my own and have not been influenced in any way.

I loved the sound of this book. However when I started reading it, I struggled to connect with the characters, and the pace of the book was too slow for me .Unfortunately ,it wasn't a good read for me.

I thought the premise of this book was really intriguing. A class of students write themselves a letter, containing a message to their older selves, their hopes and dreams. Their teacher collects the letters and promises to send them out to the students at some time in the future. Now, some twenty years later, the letters begin to arrive through the students’ letterboxes. The recipients of the letters start to examine their lives and what has become of them in the interim years.
The write up of this book made it sound very interesting, but unfortunately, I found it a little lacking. For me, there were too many characters introduced to the plot to keep track of them and their particular stories. I felt the plot was ok, but too drawn out with not much happening in places and not especially gripping.

I chose to take part in this blog tour as I found the premise of Dear Future Me really intriguing. I thought about what I might have written as a teenager in a letter to my future self, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to read it now, in my thirties. I wasn't surprised that reading the letters stirred a lot of difficult memories, but the secrets and lies made the novel really interesting and I was compelled to see what had happened, both in the past and the present.

Dear Future Me is set in Saltburn and I loved Deborah O'Connor's detailed descriptions of the location. I have family members who live in the area so I'm slightly familiar with it and the writing took me right to the action. Saltburn is the perfect setting for this novel, as the strong community feel of the town means that many of the characters have stayed in the area into adulthood or returned after being away for work or university. In many cases, they are still on contact with their former classmates and this creates extra jeopardy as the secrets start to unravel.

Through the letters, Deborah O'Connor gives the reader valuable insight into the characters she has developed so well and I loved getting to know them. The characters are not always likeable, but they each had their own demons that shaped the way they behaved, so I did feel sympathy for some of them, even if they had acted badly.

The ending of the novel is full of tension and a sense of danger and I was holding my breath as everything unravelled.

I've loved the author's previous work and Dear Future Me was no different. I'm excited to see what she does next!

This book gripped me from the first chapter and absolutely refused to let me go until I was completely wrung out by the time I read the last word.

I think most of us have looked back on what we were doing 20 odd years ago and wonder what our past selves would make of the people we’ve become - Deborah O’Connor has nailed every possible feeling that someone could have had.

Characters that felt real and honest make the book both a delight and a stress to read (in a good way) - you want everyone to succeed but know that life doesn’t work out that way.

I loved the sound of this book. Teenagers writing themselves dear future me letters to receive 20 years later. Now as adults receiving the letters turns deadly. Overall I thought the book was OK, I think it sounded better than it actually was. Thank you to Netgalley and Bonnier Books for ARC.

A really enjoyable premise, when you're 17 and about to finish your exams, the students in English all write a letter to their future selves. 20years later, the letters begin to arrive to the inhabitants of Saltburn by the Sea, North Yorkshire and have a profound effect on their present lives.

Miranda is cooking pancakes for breakfast whilst her two children are outside playing with the dog. Upon reading her letter she promptly jumps into her car, still in her PJs, drives to the cliffs and jumps off.

Audrey was Miranda's best friend at school and had dreams of going to Cambridge University. Unfortunately she wasn't accepted and when her mum died was left to care for her young brother and began cleaning to earn their keep.

We follow Audrey as she meets up with her old school colleagues to discuss the letters, and find out why Miranda jumped off the cliff.

She discovers a mystery that's ties to the death of Miranda's old boyfriend 20 years earlier whilst they were on a school trip.

This is a real slow burner but a worthwhile read. We get flashbacks to 20years earlier when they were writing the letters, as well as flashbacks to the letters being opened on that fateful morning for Miranda.

The plot is really interesting and makes you realise how we change so much after leaving school but our true character largely remains the same. Talking of characters, there are quite a few to keep track of and many fall by the wayside.

An enjoyable story that probably dragged on a little too long.

I would like to convey my thanks to Netgalley and Bonnier Books UK, Zaffre Publishers for providing the opportunity to review this novel. All opinions are my own.

Dear Future Me is due to be released on 12th June 2025.

I love the idea of this. Kids coming to the end of secondary school, writing letters to their future selves and not receiving them until years later. It made me think about what I would've wrote myself. More than that, I wish I could write back to my 16yr old self...
Sadly other than the idea of this book, I didn't enjoy it too much. The characters, adults and kids were pretty much all awful people, which makes a tough read. One of my biggest issues would be the shear volume of characters we are introduced to, it got quite confusing and I believe that at least 2 didn't even have a relevant part in the plot.
I did enjoy the idea and felt for Audrey as life never does turn out like what we hoped, or maybe it does exactly that and it doesn't live up to past expectations.
For Audrey and the idea, I will give 3 stars, many thanks to #NetGalley for the advanced copy

i feel it started off well and had me wanting to read more however the more it went on i got a bit lost and some of the characters i just did not likr i understand that not everyone is a likeable character and with a concept like this you arent going to like everyone you meet but unfortunately it just wasnt for me...

3.5* Kind of horrifying in how evil a couple of 18yos were, and what they've turned into.

I so wanted to smack at least 3 of the characters in this book. Their actions as barely-adults, 20 years ago, and now, were quite despicable. Lies, deceipt, cheating, optics, evil, entitlement, murder, looking down at others - you name it. These were friends? Who needs enemies when you have friends like this?

I loved how Audrey pursued the truth, how she valued herself despite not seeing herself as good as the others because of not going to uni. I loved how the truth got outed and how the baddie's world got wiped out from under them, after starting to unravel yonks before, because it was built on lies. I loved seeing her in the place she'd dreamed of, better late than never, not having changed from the very decent person she was. It's sad that another's life was ruined through lies, too, but that it's unlikely there'd be justice for him, although personal happiness seemed like it might finally be theirs.

A slight criticism would be that there were a few too many characters in this, so it was a tad hard keeping track of all, especially as none were likable, but overall, it was a decent read.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Bonnier for my reading pleasure.

I’ve always loved this authors books and find her writing to be incredibly engaging as she brings her characters and their stories to life. Dear Future Me doesn’t sound like the psychological thriller that is behind the cover as it doesn’t convey the sheer depth of emotions that the letters unleash in their authors once delivered back to them. The reactions of the characters varied from person to person with a very extreme level of response from Miranda and one that shocks her friend Audrey into seeking out the truth behind the facts revealed. Audrey is a wonderful character creation, one who hasn’t lived up to the expectations she had as a young adult but I found her story to be relatable and inspiring and her determination shone through every decision she made.
I adored this book and it totally lived up to expectations for me (which were probably unrealistically high in the first place) so I can highly recommend it to new readers of Deborah O’Connor as well as fans of her previous books.

The title here, Dear Future Me, felt rather soft for what turned out to be a gripping mystery. However, the typical suspense genre cover goes a long way to setting out what to expect.
It’s a premise I’ve come across only once before, in an Australian TV drama called Black Snow. On that occasion, the digging up of a time capsule at a school revealed previously hidden crimes and became the catalyst to new ones.
In the case of Dear Future Me, a class of sixth formers in the early 2000s is asked by their English teacher to write letters to their future selves, outlining their hopes for career and adult life. He collects in the assignment and tells them he'll return the letters at a future date.
Some twenty years later, when the letters finally land on doormats, they set in motion a chain of events that leads one recipient, Miranda, to drive out of the home she shares with her husband and children, park on a cliffside and fall to her death on the rocks below.
The story is told from the viewpoint of Audrey, Miranda’s long-time best friend.
Audrey's own letter reminds her of how far short of her aspirations her life has turned out to be. She’s always put this down to the unexpected and tragic turn her life took when she was eighteen. However, she now wonders if a lack of resilience and a fear of rejection have prevented her reaching her potential. Audrey is a likeable, tenacious and hardworking protagonist. (Personally, I think holding down a twenty-year career as a cleaner to pay off a mortgage and raise a child is a fine achievement and I also think there are plenty of exciting and worthwhile educational options besides Oxbridge, but I guess Audrey and I will have to agree to differ.)
Miranda always believed in Audrey and wanted the best for her. As a tribute to this unwavering support, Audrey decides to find out what caused Miranda to end her life. After she reads Miranda’s Future Me letter, she wonders if Miranda’s suicide could be linked to the death of another classmate years earlier on a school trip. Audrey sets about tracking down everyone who was on the trip to see whether something sinister happened to cause the accident and how that involved Miranda.
I liked the way the story was structured: we see the Future Me letter of each former student before we meet them. We then see how their lives have turned out.
I had an inkling which character was going to be the most significant and I spotted the clues the author set, although I didn’t know at the time what that person was guilty of and I was delighted by the unexpected thunderclap at the midpoint.
Weather plays an important part in the novel. The setting is a coastal town in the northeast of England, so there is plenty of atmospheric wind and rain coming off the sea. The author does a great job of describing the sights and smells of the seaside: the locals going about their daily business, the sightseeing tourists, the neglect of some buildings and the gentrification of others.
I really enjoyed this mystery and will seek out other books by the author.

With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an independent review.

On publication, I will post my review on my blog, Amazon and GoodReads.

Saltburn 2003
Audrey and her school mates are set an assignment in Mr Danler’s class is to write a letter to their future selves. Twenty years later these same letters are sent to the pupils of the class. Some of the letters are hiding secrets and regrets that is for Miranda is so bad that she commit suicide. Audrey decides to contact the other recipients of the letters to get some idea that might have causes Mirandas death.
I thank the publisher for a copy of Dear Future me by Deborah O’ Connor. I really like the premise of this story, and I was gripped from the first part. But I found it overwhelming with the number of characters and what was going on that I felt it just lost it way from the main objective of the storyline. I must add that this is not a bad book but, for me personally I found it too slow and with so much going on I lost interest 3 stars from me.

Audrey's life hasn't turned out quite how she expected when she wrote the letter to her future self but that doesn't mean she's unhappy about it. She loves the brother she raised after their parents died and has a great relationship with her best friend's young family. When her former classmates receive their letters though, it starts a chain of events and revelations that will change all of their lives forever.

I really enjoyed this book. It was pacy enough to keep me interested but not so quick that the characters and story couldn't develop. I liked the descriptions of living by the sea. There were some parts that are clearly not print-ready - some spelling mistakes and repeated sentences - but this didn't affect my enjoyment of the book.

DEAR FUTURE ME BY DEBORAH O'CONNOR.
Release date set for the 12th of June 2025.
This was a slow paced book for me personally.
However i did get into the story and thought it was an enjoyable read.
I did enjoy how the story all came together.

I enjoyed this it was a slow paced but one it started to get there I couldn’t put it down
The twists like what they were so unexpected blew my mind.
Loved the whole list of potential suspects I love trying to guess what’s gonna happen next I couldn’t guess a thing right
Loved it amazing thriller great characters unique story

20 years after writing them at school, former pupils receive letters they wrote to themselves, one classmate dies by suicide immediately after. Or was something else afoot?

This is a heady, clever, fast novel, that has both heart and mystery in equal amounts.

I enjoyed Audrey’s character, she has spent her whole life doing good and for very little in return and it’s beautiful the lengths she goes to, to make things right.

This book is perfectly suited for those who enjoy mystery, or thriller but be aware it’s not a fast paced thrills affair.

I really enjoyed this book.

I received this eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review which this is. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher.