Pen Pal (Standard Edition)

Synopsis: After the death of her husband, Kayla’s world begins to unravel. Grief consumes her, and the once-familiar walls of her home start to feel strange—almost sinister. When Aidan, a roofer she hires, offers an unexpected sense of comfort, she finds herself drawn to him in ways she can’t explain.
But as her memory begins to slip and the atmosphere in her house grows more unsettling, Kayla starts to question what’s real. Is Aidan helping her heal—or hiding something far more dangerous?

Review: I’m honestly speechless after finishing this book—it took me on a journey I didn’t expect. I really enjoyed it, though I will say the title feels a bit misleading. Still, it’s a beautifully crafted blend of mystery, romance, show more and horror that’s both captivating and haunting, especially as the tension ramps up in the second half.
The atmosphere strikes a perfect balance—eerie, yet strangely comforting. It captures the weight of grief and loneliness in a way that felt deeply relatable. And the twist? Completely unexpected—I loved it. The ending wrapped everything up with such emotional clarity, giving me a sense of closure I didn’t even realize I needed.
If you’re into ghostly mysteries with a touch of romance, this is a must-read. Just be sure to check the trigger warnings beforehand. show less

Mind Blown.

I don't even know where to start with this review or how to process what I just finished reading. I live for books that step outside the conventional and make me think long after the book is over. This is most definitely going to live in my head rent-free. I am a huge fan of this author but nothing prepared me for the journey that she took me on with this story. I have seen several social media posts about this book with many readers upset about how they felt that this was not a romance because it didn't have the typical happily ever after. While that is true in many aspects, in my opinion, it doesn't hold true because there most definitely is a romance here. If anything, this book gave me hope that love can truly transcend show more any barrier and there is beauty in that.

From the moment that I started this story, until the very last page, I was so engrossed that I am surprised that I even remembered to breathe. The mystery, suspense, and storyline were riveting and had me guessing the whole time. Even having had a slight idea of what was to come because a slight spoiler had been brought to my attention, it still did not ruin the story. Even knowing, I wouldn't have seen how the pieces all fit together. It was the Ocean's Eleven type of moment where the author showed all the moments that should have been so obvious but weren't until that perfect moment when she showed all the pieces and how they fit together.

The steamy times and connection between these characters were top-of-the-line extraordinary. However, what really stood out was how these characters were so intuned with each other. Was this ending non-traditional? Absolutely. However, love doesn't always fit into a box the way that people expect it. For these characters, to be able to reconnect the way they did, in my opinion, shows how epic and poignant their love is. Did the cover throw me off because I was expecting something else? Again, yes. Was it a traditional romance? No. Yet, again, it was a romance as much as a suspense-filled thriller.

For people to say that this is not a true love story is a shame. It would be like saying that Romeo and Juliet is not a love story because of how it ended, despite the fact that it is oftentimes used as a standard of showing how true and steadfast love is that one would be willing to die for their love rather than not having it.

My advice to anyone on the fence is to read this and make your own opinion. I, myself, would have missed out on an extraordinary book if I had listened to people who were mad at how this ended. I enjoyed it so much that I stayed up until 4 am and then texted two of my friends, with zero concern that I would wake them up, in order to make them read this book as soon as possible. I don't do that for books that haven't affected me. In my opinion, this book is hands down the best that this author has written. I thank her for giving me a book that made me feel a maelstrom of emotions. I would say that this is the best of 2022 and would be included in my all-time favorites vault. show less

How does one review/rate a story that wasn’t even put into the right genre?!
Literally it feels as though the romance groups were deeeeeply preyed on.
Cause let’s face it there was smut in this fair enough but it is the most cringe awkward bits I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading (I started skimming the sex scenes so don’t quote me on most of the middle to end of them cause I am NOT about the bunny prey lion sexy time no thank you 🥹)
Now there are triggers/content warning however you wanna label it and ones that should be disclosed before you go in, SOOO if you do not like spoilers this is the time your little eyeballs should go elsewhere. Shoo you’ve been warned so don’t cry in the comments if you kept reading.
⚠️ if show more you’re still here welcome to the content/trigger warning zone ⚠️
🛑 domestic violence- mostly mentioned and not major story line but once you’re in the 25 % left you really get the feeling the entire story was a shit show illusion
🛑 murder- apparently this story isn’t a pen pal prison boy love story
🛑 miscarriage- again this is one a lot of readers especially given how highly this happens to a lot of women it can be super hard for them to read and it’s bullshit not to at least have this in the fucking blurb. Be respectful to readers mental health.
-in my opinion how this happens to the character is played off like a huge joke it was tasteless and played off joking as the husbands mental disorder made it a laughing stalk of broccoli alien impregnated not going any further in detail but it’s cringe and I’m not happy about this.
🛑 consensual “non consensual” idk it’s a game of cat and mouse a lot of oh please no don’t do it , oh I’m gonna do it wether you like it or not spank spank. Now you know why I skimmed most of the sex scenes. If that’s you’re jam you do you boo but uh that’s literally almost alllll of their sex scenes can say they have 1 MAYYYYBEEE 2 where it’s like they wanted it from the get go and romantic
🛑 death/grieving/depression
🛑 cheating
🛑 not a happily ever after/ but is a happily ever after
Read at your own risk. If this was sold as paranormal thriller mystery I’d have zero problems with the legitimate storyline. BUT it was sold as a prison love note romance story.
⚠️ also another random tid bit that’s another spoiler zone so stop reading if you’re only here for the content spoilers.
The husband… while I was already guessing bu the first couple chapters him not to be dead or maybe he’s the ghost by the end you find out he’s literally off his rocker with schizophrenia… and I felt this whole thing was umm not reaaally handled well. It’s like oh my big bad at the end surprise he’s off his meds and killed them all cackles in the corner. Literally that’s the story we got. And while it’s a plausible story yes it sorta villianized an entire group with this mental illness that sheds a nasty light that I wasn’t totally ok with during the reading of this.
I know many are highly praising this book but I just 100% cannot rate or plug or recommend. It goes against a lot of moral things for me so this is my thoughts and feelings.
Before I get a billion ladies and gents screaming in comments or inbox that “you just don’t understand it’s fiction, it’s romance, the author can do what they want blah blah blah” while all this may be true then reread yalls statement take a good look at this and remember it SOMEONE CAN HAVE A OPINION THAT IS NOT THE SAME AS YOU AND YOU DONT HAVE TO FORCE THEM TO SHARE YOURS. Have a wonderful day ladies and gents 🥰
Till next time! show less

I had the basis of this ending figured out just opposite of what I thought and man I was like omfg!! I loved that bc not what I full on thought. It was an smooth read and it definitely jumped to my top 5 reads of the year.
The spice was okay but sometimes cringy for my taste but I know many that would enjoy this. Highly recommend. So glad I have the sprayed edges edition.

This was a mindfuck and a half!!!

For some reason, I thought this was a dark mafia romance. Don't know why or what gave me that impression... Maybe the book cover.

So naturally at a certain point in the story I was confused by the mention of certain words of a spooky vibe. It was not until about 50% into the book that I developed my theory about how the plot will end.

And although my guess was right, I was still happy to see a few nice surprises I did not forsee.

The writing is incredible and the vibes are adequately spooky and mysterious. A very enjoyable read.

4.25 🌟

Full transparency, this was on my TBR because the cover model ended up on my FYP referencing why he wasn't currently modeling. Objectively attractive man, and when you consider the rest of my booktok FYP I figured it was worth checking out, maybe some morally grey spice based on the vibes...why not give it a shot?

When I finally got around to this one, I actually didn't remember how it got added to my TBR and looked up a few reviews to jog my memory. It didn't help and actually worried me a bit with the passionate 1 star reviews about this book being incorrectly promoted, but I trudged on.

Like I said, I had been expecting something in the morally grey mid level spice category, not necessarily heavy on plot, but ultimately a good show more diversion. What I got was an intriguing mystery with paranormal overtones. The spice was a bit gratuitous and, I really got icked out by the use of 'Master' in this book (not generally an ick for me). I also chose to listen to the audiobook version and the female narrator was really good and I suspect I may have inflated my response to the book based on her performance, so for those 3 reasons it's a 4-star, not a 5.

Is this reminiscent of a certain 1999 film? Yes. Did it have me reevaluating my suspicions at several points throughout the story? Also yes. Am I glad I didn't reshelve this based on some passionately written 1-star reviews? Definitely yes. show less

Kayla receives a letter in the mail from the local prison. She doesn't know the sender and responds asking what he wants. The response is brief. "You." So begins a tangled tale of erotic tension and recovery from past trauma.
I enjoyed it a lot. It was well written although I was irritated with the reveal in the end. Very sexy and the issue of consent was handled well.