The Noel Letters by Richard Paul Evans

 

Title:  The Noel Letters

Author: Richard Paul Evans

Read by:  Helene Maksqud

Publisher: Simon & Shuster Audio

Length: Approximately 7 hours and 17 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Shuster Audio.  Thank-you! 

 It’s not Christmas without a Richard Paul Evans audiobook.  The Noel Letters is the fourth book in the Noel Collection, but it is a standalone novel.  I look forward to listening to the new Evans Christmas book every year.

 Noel Post arrives in Salt Lake City to visit her dying father, but discovers she is too late.  She has been estranged with her father Robert since her mother’s death. Noel is at a low point in life with her job and her husband leaving her.  She is at a crossroads and is trying to determine what to do with her life.  As she tries to wrap up her father’s affairs, she works in his bookstore, Bob Books and learns more about her father.  Was her past what she thought it was?  How can she move on to a better future?

 I liked how Noel was able to grow in the book and come to terms with her past.  It allowed her to move on to a more fulfilling future.  I loved the details of her work as an editor in New York City and with authors.  I also loved bookstore details as well.  It’s my dream to own or work in a bookstore.  My only negative with this book is that I felt that Noel’s father Robert was made out to be a saint when he maybe shouldn’t have been.  Everyone said he was wonderful and the perfect person, but the decisions he made in the past in regard to Noel and his wife seemed suspect.  As a parent, I was annoyed that he never talked to Noel honestly about the past or tried to connect with her.  As a teenager, she could have been told the truth.  It’s nice that he thought about how to connect with her through letters after he died, but I wish he would have tried while he was alive.  I do agree though that sometimes in death you find out things about loved ones that you didn’t know before.  For my grandparents it was stories about their youths or things they did as an adult that I didn’t know about.  It made me see them in a new light when I heard these stories at their funerals.

 Helene Maksqud is a good narrator.  I especially loved the music that the audiobook in the intro and conclusion of the book.

 Overall, The Noel Letters was a good Christmas audiobook about forgiveness.