This was a fairly decent little book. I have it four stars because I feel it was better than three but it wasn't five star worthy for me. I agree with other reviews that said the format of the letters didn't change from person to person and that would have been nice since there were a few letters Laurel would make a reference to the specific reipient but I had forgotten who it was addressed to so many pages in. Also, there didn't seem to be a pattern to whom she wrote it apart from they were celebrities who died young. Kurt Cobain was an easy connection to May as was Amelia Earheart because flying. But the others seemed to be ones her new friends found interesting and she just seemed to latch onto that. I also don't think these were "love" letters. These were more like conversational ones or even pen-pal style.

I disagree with the idea that Laurel wasn't mourning May throughout the book. I feel she was because everything cycled back to May, including who she picked for the writing assignment. Ialso feel she was coming to terms with her anger over May for leaving her and not protecting her like she felt a big sister should do. Despite the title and premise this was a pretty heavy book, and while I wouldn't call it my favorite this year or say I will re-read it, it also served as an emotional release that I needed and helped to get that out.

This book took me a bit to get through because it did drag in some parts and there were many references to something that could have happened to Laurel. And while it is relatively easy to guess what it was I feel the build up took too long and a lot of things that were left unresolved could have had more of one. If you go into this with regular expectations rather than high ones you will likely enjoy it but if you have high or unrealsitic ones you will end up disappointed.