Thank You to Berkley Publishing Group for providing me with an advanced copy of Lisa Beazley's Novel, Keep Me Posted, in exchange for an honest review.
PLOT - Close as children, sisters, Cassie and Sid have grown apart as adults. Cassie lives in New York with her young twins and husband. She is struggling with her floundering marriage and wondering if she is cut out to be a mother. Sid's husband's job has taken the family to Singapore. On the surface, it looks like Sid is living the life in luxury in a fabulous apartment with live in help, but in reality, her marriage is also on the rocks.
At a family gathering during Christmas, the sisters hatch a plan to reconnect through snail-mail letter writing. The sisters soon find themselves not only reconnecting, but also sharing secrets that they may not have had the guts to reveal in person. This is wonderful, until a mistake causes their letters and very personal thoughts, to be shared with strangers.
LIKE- When I was in high school and college, email was around, but not widely used, I wrote letters to everyone. I still have a plastic box filled with letters that I received from friends and family. Keep Me Posted reminded me of the joys of letter writing. E-mail really isn't the same. I loved Beazley's concept of having these two sisters reconnect via letters. I'm in the same age group as Cassie and Sid, so this idea very much spoke to me and my experience.
I don't want to give away any details, but there is shift mid-way through the book that took me by surprise. It actually had me talking aloud to the characters- "oh no", "stop, don't do that." This gut level reaction made me realize that I was invested in the characters.
Beazley has done a great job at creating realistic and relatable characters. These women, especially Cassie, are not perfect. They make mistakes and their lives feel very real. Beazley writes in a way that makes me feel like these characters are people that I know, like I'm hearing the story from a friend. I admire her ability to write with such a natural ease. It's easy to imagine myself in similar situations as Cassie and Sid, even the cringe-worthy moments.
DISLIKE- Truthfully, I liked the book very much until the end. The very end of the story was satisfying, but the twenty-thirty pages leading up to the very, where Cassie's situation is unresolved, didn't work for me. The situation gets dragged out too long and feels unnatural.
RECOMMEND- Yes. Keep Me Posted is a quick- paced, enjoyable read. Beazley has created characters that are engaging and relatable. I wouldn't label this story as light-hearted, but it does strike a good balance between life's deep and sweet moments. It's a rollercoaster ride.
