Dearest Josephine

Love arrives at the most unexpected time . . . 1821: Elias Roch has ghastly luck with women. He met Josephine De Clare once and penned dozens of letters hoping to find her again. 2021: Josie De Clare has questionable taste in boyfriends. The last one nearly ruined her friendship with her best friend. Now, in the wake of her father's death, Josie finds Elias's letters. Suddenly she's falling in love with a guy who lived two hundred years ago. And star-crossed doesn't even begin to cover it . . . “Dearest Josephine is the type of story that becomes your own. The characters’ heartaches worked their way into my own chest until I hurt with them, hoped with them, and dared to dream with them. This book is teeming with swoon-worthy prose, adorable humor, and an expert delivery of ‘Will they end up together?’ I guarantee you’ll be burning the midnight candle to a stub to get answers. Step aside Pride and Prejudice, there’s a new romance on the English moors.” —Nadine Brandes, author of Romanov “Caroline George infuses an epistolary love story with a romance and charm that crosses centuries. Touching and inventive, it bursts with wit, warmth, and a blending of classic and contemporary that goes together like scones and clotted cream. Dearest Josephine is a delight.” —Emily Bain Murphy, author of The Disappearances “Dearest Josephine is more than an immersive read. It is a book lover’s dream experience. Josie’s residence in a gothic English manor and her deeply romantic connection to Elias, who lived years in the past, is as chillingly atmospheric as Rochester calling across the moors. This story is George’s treatise on the power of books and character to creep across centuries, to pull us close and invite us to live in a fantasy where we find love—literally—in the kinship of ink and binding. But it also acknowledges the dangers of letting ourselves fall too deeply when sometimes an equally powerful connection is waiting next door. This love letter to books, and the readers who exist in and for them, is a wondrously singular escape.” —Rachel McMillan, author of The London Restoration and The Mozart Code Romantic and evocative read in both contemporary and historical time periods Stand-alone novel Book length: 86,000 words Includes discussion questions for book clubs Caroline George sweeps readers up into two different time periods with an unexpected love story that prompts us to reimagine what it means to be present with the people we love. 2020: Chocolate and Earl Grey tea cant fix Josie De Clares horrible year. She mourned the death of her father and suffered a teen-life crisis, which delayed her university plans. But when her fathers will reveals a family-owned property in Northern England, Josie leaves London to find clarity at the secluded manor house. While exploring the estate, she discovers two-hundred-year-old love letters written by an elusive novelist, all addressed to someone named Josephine. And then she discovers a novel in which it seems like shes the heroine 1820: Novelist Elias Roch loves a woman he can never be with. Born the bastard son to a nobleman and cast out from society, Elias seeks refuge in his mind with the quirky heroine who draws him into a fantasy world of scandal, betrayal, and unconditional love. Convinced shes his soulmate, Elias writes letters to her, all of which divulge the tragedy and trials of his personal life. As fiction blurs into reality, Josie and Elias must decide: How does one live if love cant wait? Separated by two hundred years, they fight against time to find each other in a story of her, him, and the novel written by the man who loves her. 1821: Elias Roch met Josephine De Clare once and penned dozens of letters hoping to find her again. 2021: In the wake of her father's death Josie De Clare finds Elias's letters-- and falls in love with a guy who lived two hundred years ago. Star-crossed doesn't even begin to cover it! Separated by two hundred years, Josie and Elias fight against time to find each other in a story of her, him, and the novel written by the man who loves her