Book Review for The Letters We Keep by Nisha Sharma

Cover of The Letters We Keep, featuring two figures in front of a stained glass window at the end of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves

About the Book

Title: The Letters We Keep

Author:

Nisha Sharma

Published: 2024

Genres:

Swoonworthy Scale: 8

Voices:

Cover Story: Accurate
BFF Charms: Roger Murtaugh x 2
Talky Talk: Meta
Bonus Factor: Not-So-Mean Girl
Anti-Bonus Factor: What Letters?
Relationship Status: Blind Date

Cover Story: Accurate

The stained glass window in the library is a recurring image in the story.

The Deal:

Scholarship student Jessie Ahuja and billionaire’s son Ravi Kumar fight over the same study room in their campus library, pretending they’re not attracted to each other. When they find a cache of secret letters in the library, written by a pair of legendary star-crossed lovers from 1972 who may or may not have run away together, it sparks something between them. The more Jessie and Ravi research the story, the more they realize how much they have in common with the older couple, and with each other. But can their relationship stand up to class differences, family pressure, and their own insecurities?

BFF Charm: Roger Murtaugh x 2

BFF charm with Roger Murtagh from Lethal Weapon's face.

The first time Ravi and Jessie meet, he blows smoke from a vape pen at her and calls her self-righteous (a “‘pick me’ girl”) because she’s had enough of a frat party and wants to leave. Then they spend half a semester competing over who gets to use one particular study room, when there’s a whole floor of identical ones available. I know the room is supposed to be a metaphor for class conflict, but still — pick your battles, kids.

Swoonworthy Scale: 8

Their first time having sex is fairly explicit. Consent and protection are given, which is good, but the whole thing comes across as jarring to me given the young tone of the novel.

Talky Talk: Meta

Sharma never lets you forget that this is genre fiction, which means she points it out every time a trope is either used or subverted. Jessie calls Ravi a “walking cliché” for wanting to write novels instead of joining his family’s tech company. When Ravi’s father forbids this plan, Jessie thinks of him as “the Indian father she’d been lucky to only hear stories about.” When they’re reading the 1972 love letters, Ravi can’t help making fun of them: “sappy as hell (…) I just threw up in my mouth.” Some readers might find this funny, but the escapist appeal of a romance novel was altogether spoiled for me.

Bonus Factor: Not So Mean Girl

Karen, Gretchen, and Regina at the mall (Mean Girls)

The one subverted trope I actually enjoyed was the character of Sadhna, makeup influencer and Ravi’s hookup-turned-friend. “I don’t play mean-girl games,” she says early on, and she doesn’t. Her only problem with the main couple’s relationship is that Jessie’s insecurity hurts Ravi. Sadhna’s advice for the other girl is to either “put him out of his misery” or fully commit, which makes her the most sensible character in the book.

Anti-Bonus Factor: What Letters?

A handwritten note from Stephanie, who is mad at Kyle for not answering her calls

I love a dual-timeline novel, especially one that’s partly or wholly told in letters. Unfortunately, this isn’t one of them. The love letters that fascinate Jessie and Ravi so much get cut off after three or four lines. I never got a sense of who these people were, or what campus life in 1972 was actually like for them. And without being able to relate to them, I couldn’t relate to Jessie and Ravi’s investment in their story either.

Relationship Status: Blind Date

Sorry, Book. You look good on paper, but there’s not much chemistry in person.