No, Dear Mr Knightley isn’t the book I was struggling to read the other day. After reading over half of that one, I finally gave up. Instead, I moved on to Katherine Reay’s epistolary novel, Dear Mr. Knightley, a contemporary update to Jean Webster’s Daddy-Long-Legs. I always loved that earlier book, read it twice, and saw the musical production twice. Dear Mr. Knightley was one of those books that I read and dragged out the ending because I didn’t want it to be over.

At twenty-three, Samantha Moore is struggling with life. For years, the orphan struggled to hide her feelings, escaping into the world of classics written by Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. She can quote Elizabeth Bennet, but can’t express herself. It’s finally time for her to leave Grace House, but she failed at her first job and fled back to the orphanage. Now, a mysterious benefactor is sending her to grad school. She’s disappointed she won’t be studying English. Instead her sponsor will pay her way to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. There’s one provision. Sam has to periodically write letters to “Mr. Knightlley”.

Sam has never had a close friend to be honest with. As she writes to Mr. Knightley, she finds herself opening up about school, her past in the foster system, and her struggles to connect with people. When an angry fourteen-year-old boy, Kyle, ends up at Grace House, she discovers how much the two have in common. For the first time, she realizes she needs to be honest with someone. As she writes to Mr. Knightley, she discusses her fears, her longing for connection, and her crush on a bestselling author named Alex Powell. When she meets Alex at Northwestern, she’s eager to discover his story, but she doesn’t want to reveal herself.

I loved Daddy-Long-Legs. While I could certainly see the resemblance with Reay’s debut novel, she made it her own. Sam has more anger, more problems, and more people in her life than Jerusha Adams from the earlier book. Even so, anyone who read the earlier book will see where this one is going. Reay adds religious overtones that are not in the earlier book. Mr. Knightley is not as hands-on as Daddy-Long-Legs. But, one hundred years later Reay also introduces a scrappy young woman fighting for her place in the world as she looks for someone to love.

Katherine Reay’s website is https://katherinereay.com/

Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay. Thomas Nelson, 2013. 328p.

FTC Full Disclosure – Library book