Despite being deeply concerned for her brother Forest, who left months ago to fight in a war between the gods and hasn't been heard from since, Iris places her focus firmly on her mother, who is not well, and on earning a promotion at the local newspaper ahead of her competition, Roman Kitt. As a form of catharsis, she types letters to Forest, leaving them in her closet. Oddly, the letters disappear, which offers hope that Forest is receiving them, but eventually a reply — most assuredly not from Forest — appears.

This was a book I dearly hoped to love, based on its description, what I'd heard about it and its gorgeous cover art. The premise — two people exchanging anonymous, magical letters — was so full of promise! Unfortunately, my interest lasted through only the first 3/4, at which point the whole thing just petered out. The worldbuilding ultimately failed for me before reaching a crescendo. The insertion of baseball, of all things, felt wildly incongruous. The weirdly abrupt/forced proposal and wedding made my purity culture spidey sense tingle, à la Stephenie Meyer's The Host. Sorry to say I'm not really interested in the sequel. ( )

Entertaining and well-paced, this fun first series installment has some predictable “You’ve Got Mail” vibes but those tropes are well-worn for a reason. Engaging, fun and I look forward to reading more! ( )

The drama really did have me drawn in. I loved the banter between Roman and Iris. The pacing was really good and the cliffhanger would have been unbearable if I didn’t already have the sequel queued up. ( )

The relationship is so cute and precious. I loved the letters back and forth to each other and even though the relationship/feeling development was fast, I feel it was appropriate for the world they lived in and their communication style. It is easy to fall in love if you are open and vulnerable. It's really the key part of falling in love: to show someone your fears, hopes, and dreams - to have someone see you and love you despite your flaws. So the pace of the romance was accelerated, but easily understood as they were writing to each other and fell in love this way first. The realization of how short life is in the face of war and wanting to hold someone close and have love also explained the fast pace for the romance portion. I liked the fantasy aspects as well. Overall, a nice romance and I can understand why this won so many people's hearts. ( )

I felt kind of bad Roman that has a control freak of a father to have arranged marriage with someone Roman doesn't even know anything about and the girl doesn't know a thing about him they should have a least dated first and getting to know each other before they get married maybe their feelings for each other are different from what their parents want.

At least Roman was being caring and thoughtful and making sure Iris was all right if someone in my family that has died I won't want to be alone I would want someone to be around to talk to and have meals with and especially at night since it going to be my first time being alone without a family member around. Does Iris even own a alarm clock since she is always sleeping thru the day where she is suppose to be a work and I am surprised that she wasn't fired on how many times she has been late to work everyday. Least Roman told Zeb the truth about Iris what is going on in her life of losing her mother I don't know why she couldn't have said anything about it once before how can her boss know what is going on if she doesn't say anything to them. I really don't like Elinor and her father seem like no good people if they are building bombs and all three of them should gotten in trouble and Roman should have went to the police for what his father, Elinor and her father are planning on doing.

Iris doesn't or Roman doesn't even think they know they were writing to each other and I hope when they do find out about it I hope they aren't going to be mad about it and Roman don't marry that girl his father wants him to marry thank god I don't have those kind of parents. I felt that Iris was little boring at times and I have to say I liked Roman more then Iris and I gave this a 4 stars. ( )