MED. LIT | THE LOVE NOTE BY JOANNA DAVIDSON POLITANO

 

LOVE NOTE

Focused on a career in medicine and not on romance, Willa Duvall is thrown slightly off course during the summer of 1865 when she discovers a never-opened love letter in a crack of her old writing desk. Compelled to find the passionate soul who penned it and the person who never received it, she takes a job as a nurse at the seaside estate of Crestwicke Manor. Everyone at Crestwicke has feelings--mostly negative ones--about the man who wrote the letter, but he seems to have disappeared. With plenty of enticing clues but few answers, Willa's search becomes even more complicated when she misplaces the letter and it passes from person to person in the house, each finding a thrilling or disheartening message in its words. Laced with mysteries large and small, this romantic Victorian-era tale of love lost, love deferred, and love found is sure to delight.

★★★★1/2

In the summer of 1865, medical student Willa Duvall, of Brighton, England, discovers an unopened letter that had been lost in the dark recesses of her writing desk. What starts out as a curiosity about the contents and the author of the note ends up being a fateful find, when combined with a wager she makes with her father. Willa wants to attend medical school, but her father, Dr. Phineas Duvall, feels she'd be better off putting her energy into finding a suitable husband and settling down to a nice domestic life. Too bad she has no interest in marrying anyone and has turned down every potential suitor who has cared to knock on her door thus far. So her father makes a deal with her: if she can find a nursing position and succeed at it (as in, the patient shows noticeable improvement), he'll support her decision to attend medical school to further pursue her MD. But if her patient shows no noticeable change, then Willa is to return home and marry a man of her father's choosing.

As luck would have it, Willa finds a position not all that far from home, at Crestwicke Manor. This seaside estate of Golda Gresham happens to be the home of Willa's childhood friend, Gabe Gresham, the youngest son of Golda. The Gresham family also originally owned Willa's writing desk (the one holding the mysterious note), before it was gifted to Willa's father as a thank-you for all his medical service to the family over the years. Willa used to accompany her father on house calls to Crestwicke Manor, which is how she got to know Gabe.

Now, all these years later, as Willa establishes herself as the medical staff in residence, she brings along the letter to try to sniff out the answers to the question of author and inspiration of the contents. Unfortunately, the letter quickly gets out of her possession and into the hands of various members of the Crestwicke household, each new reader taking something different to heart that will ultimately alter the way they view themselves, love, even life in general. But each time, the same question comes back around: who were such loving words originally intended for?

"You needn't be afraid of your words, Miss Duvall. Only careful. They're as easy to gather as rocks, and just as easy to throw about, but don't underestimate them. I've never happened upon a neutral word." ~~ Aunt Maisie

Politano's characters are wonderfully full of life and wit, particularly Gabe Gresham and the elderly spinster Aunt Maisie. Even the characters who lean closer towards "bad guy" end of the spectrum are complex enough that you remain curious about them even if you don't particularly love them as people. Burke Gresham (Gabe's older brother) was one of the most difficult for me to root for, though there are glimpses of a softer side to him in the stories of how he wooed his young artist wife, but so much of the story in "present" time (that is, anything not in flashback memories, as this is already historical romance) seems to place him in a persistently grumpy or surly mood. I thought I was really going to dislike Dr. Tillman the whole way through, so it was nice to see him get some redeeming qualities closer to the end of the story. But that's the thing with Politano's "bad guys", the way she has you questioning whether they're honestly bad, or just misunderstood.

The tone / setting was, to me, reminiscent of some of my favorite stories in a similar vein, such as Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca or Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale. The novel features surprise after surprise right up to the very end, but not in any sort of ridiculous, obnoxiously overdone sort of way. There's also some fun nods to the actual history of the time period -- the early days of medical professionals discovering the invaluable benefits of regular handwashing (not just in environments of illness or infection, but as an everyday practice as well) and --- through Golda's daughter, Celeste --- the progression of England's suffragist movement.

The moral of the story: By all means, pursue love and marriage if you so desire, but refuse to settle for someone who undervalues your uniqueness. Hitch your wagon to someone who embraces all of you ---that means gifts, quirks, character flaws, everything --- rather than someone who pushes to mold you into a different kind of person entirely. I loved the relationship metaphor that came from Gabe working with the wild horse, "She'd given up her freedom but she had someone to go after her in a storm."

FTC Disclaimer: Revell Books kindly provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions above are entirely my own.