Review: Dear Mr Knightley - Katherine Reay

Review: Dear Mr Knightley - Katherine Reay - November 2013

As a fan of Austen renditions, when I saw the title of this book I knew I just had to read it and once I started, I could not put it down. 
Dear Mr Knightley is a book that in a way doesn't read like your average novel but in fact like you might your diary as you flip back years later.  The narrator Samantha Moore has been given an opportunity of a lifetime - a grant set up by Mr Knightley as he wishes to be called to go and study a Masters in Journalism . The grant will pay for her tuition and whatever other things that she needs to succeed. The grant only comes with one stipulation, she must write letters to the grant giver and the conversation will be only one-sided as he will not respond back and that she shall call him Mr. Knightley. So, begins the correspondence and letter writing relationship between Sam and Mr. Knightley in which she will in pages reveal her deep darkest secrets, her past and childhood and her current feelings about school, friends, boys and of course her strong love of classics in which we discover Sam used these as an escape mechanism. As the story progresses we see Sam introduced to a variety of characters, some will be fleeting moments and others will end up having a long-lasting effect on her and cause her to open up and share about herself. 
Dear Mr. Knightley is one of those books which you can sit back and enjoy and imagine that it is your thoughts you are reading and a book that will by the end of it have you feeling a strong connection with Sam. This is definitely a read that I recommend all to have on their reading lists as you will not be able to put it down and right through the whole book till the last chapter have you thinking - Who is Mr Knightley ?