Griffin Quinn was my childhood pen pal, the British boy who couldn’t have been more different from me. Over the years, through hundreds of letters, we became best friends, sharing our deepest, darkest secrets and forming a connection I never thought could break.

Until one day it did.

Then, out of the blue, a new letter arrived. A scathing one—one with eight years of pent-up anger. I had no choice but to finally come clean as to why I stopped writing.

Griffin forgave me, and somehow we were able to rekindle our childhood connection. Only now we were adults, and that connection had grown to a spark. Our letters quickly went from fun to flirty to downright dirty, revealing our wildest fantasies. So it only made sense that we would take our relationship to the next level and see each other in person.

Only Griff didn’t want to meet. He asked that I trust him and said it was for the best. But I wanted more—more Griff, in the flesh—so I took a big chance and went looking for him. People have done crazier things for love.

But what I found could change everything.

I have no idea honestly where to start on my thoughts about “Dirty Letters” by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward but it will come to me as always once I start.

Maybe with the words – I am still trying to recover from reading it – trying to sort my emotions.

Wow. . .

There was so much in there that spoke to me and not only on one but many different and very personal levels

The main subject for the female in the book is not mentioned in the blurb so it is difficult for me to skirt around it – but it is a subject I can relate to as on a smaller scale I share some points with the female lead so everything in there from the opening words to the plot hit home full force …. So full it hurt – Vi and Penelope did a wonderful job bringing this subject to the readers. In all details, it was easy to understand and relate and I hope that even people that have not yet been confronted with this should be able to understand everything that goes along with being in this situation.

The next thing was that when I was about 18 years for some reason I told a friend he should write his girlfriend something romantic and he responded saying he had no idea how and I asked him if he ever listened to a song in the radio closely. He said – he never did … at that time (and yes I AM THAT OLD) – ABBA was one of my favorites and I knew ALL OF THEIR SONGS by heart so I pointed out a specific song text to him and he noticed for the first time that songs actually had meaning. I was astonished I thought people knew so I asked around only to learn that due to the fact that I was bilingual and the others were not – English was for me normal but they never made the effort to translate the texts. I was shocked to see what they were missing. Years later I noticed that I almost all the songs I loved were songs that had text which transferred real meanings. And that I always told people what I felt the meaning was when they said they shared my feelings for that song. Thinking back to when it started I came to that moment with that ABBA song. Where am I going with this you ask ? Letters and Song texts have a lot in common and you will understand where I am going with this when you read the book.

Again Vi … Penelope … you hit close to home …. Wow…

Then there is the male lead – many of my best friends are only in my life because of a real life person like him. I am sorry to be vague again as the plot is not mentioning it – I will not be the one to spoil the beans. There is really not much more I can say except that this is again a hit close to home. And if there is a person out there that is not in love with Griffin after reading his story I would love to read the explanation for that because I feel that it is simply impossible not to fall in love with him.

So with all of this you might imagine that the whole plot is leaving my emotions all over the place , crying, laughing basically the whole range that is to be expected.

The books by this writing duo have a dynamic that is one of my absolute favorites and their writing together will be a one-click without even taking a closer look at the plot at any day.

I will never ever be able to look at a furby again without smiling. And I probably can point out every other person looking at a furby that read this novel just be looking at them. ….

Let me close with the words I borrowed from Benny Goran Andersson & Bjoern K. Ulvaeus

They passed me by, all of those great romances
You were, I felt, robbing me of my rightful chances
My picture clear, everything seemed so easy
And so I dealt you the blow
One of us had to go
Now it’s different, I want you to know

One of us is crying
One of us is lying
In her lonely bed
Staring at the ceiling
Wishing she was somewhere else instead
One of us is lonely
One of us is only
Waiting for a call
Sorry for herself, feeling stupid feeling small
Wishing she had never left at all

I saw myself as a concealed attraction
I felt you kept me away from the heat and the action
Just like a child, stubborn and misconceiving
That’s how I started the show
One of us had to go
Now I’ve changed and I want you to know

One of us is crying
One of us is lying
In her lonely bed
Staring at the ceiling
Wishing she was somewhere else instead
One of us is lonely
One of us is only
Waiting for a call
Sorry for herself, feeling stupid feeling small
Wishing she had never left at all
Never left at all

Staring at the ceiling
Wishing she was somewhere else instead
One of us is lonely
One of us is only
Waiting for a call