A Perfect Day for Love Letters

    (Del Rey, 2005)
™ and © 2005 George Asakura

It’s kind of hard imagining love letters being able to capture the imagination of today’s teens who are more used to cell phones and text messaging than communicating by passing notes in class. Still, old-fashioned romance seems to be the point of this solid collection of short stories. And that includes the cover, which depicts a wide-eyed, red-hooded heroine who looks like she’s stepped out of an old Regency romance paperback novel, clutching a missive.

Most of the traditional tropes and types of the romance genre are on display, all variations on mistaken identities and secret admirers. A bookish girl finds a tender note in a library, bad boys show soft hearts, a bad girl tries to escape her past. You even have a story where a doomed lover dies beautifully and tragically—you just don’t see that sort of thing these days. While it’s nothing spectacular, it’s always a pleasure watching a creator bring to life something usually considered trite.

— S. A. Bennett
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