Review: Future Letters by H.R. Willaston

Title: Future Letters
Author: H.R. Willaston
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Self-published
Publish Date: June 20, 2012
Source: I received a copy of the book from the author; however, this did not affect my review.

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You're a fiction fan.
• You like going off the beaten path.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Three best friends.
Morgan's name is synonymous with what's hot in the world of fashion as she models for the world's best and most well known designers.
Invincible Rising is touring the globe with their multi-platinum selling album while lead singer Alaia uses her solo projects to experience music beyond rock.
While her friends travel around the world, Lilianna creates worlds of her own in her bestselling novels. Touring is fun, but she's much happier being beside of her talented photographer and art gallery owner husband, Dylan.

They love their Dream-Come-True lives...... Ten years from now.

Right now they're in high school. Morgan is fighting to be cheer captain and juggling boyfriends. Alaia is competing for choir solos and wants a bad boy that won't break her heart. Lilianna wishes that her long time crush Dylan would see her as more than a friend and is bored - searching for a more creative writing outlet than the school's newspaper.
She finds that outlet through writing letters as if they were ten years into the future, encouraging her friends to do the same. Comparing their teen written letters to their adult lives, the girls discover that futures don't always turn out as you plan and your entire world can change in a heartbeat."

My Two Cents:

This book definitely has an interesting premise. Three high school friends write letters to each other about 10 years in the future. Lil becomes a famous author, Morgan becomes a model, and Alaia becomes a rockstar. The letter writing part totally reminds me of something that I would have done with my friends with high school. The three friends find out that you can't always plan out your future with any certainty.

The story was told through emails, chat room chats, and texts, which was very interesting. On one hand, these mediums are how people communicate these days (maybe not so much chat rooms anymore but...). That being said, these mediums are also things done between friends and since the readers aren't actually in the book, it sometimes feels like the reader is on the outside looking in.

Because this book takes place over about 10 years, you do get to know the characters pretty well. I really liked Lil. She is a really cool character that probably learns the lesson of not being able to plan everything most of all out of the three friends.

I'm a little torn on this book. On the one hand, I really liked the characters and really, really liked the sort of lesson in the book. There were a couple things I didn't like:

There wasn't a good sense of time: all of the correspondence doesn't have a good sense of time. I wish that there would have been a more definitive line as to when things were taking place.

This book covers about 10 years but the characters don't change really: 10 years between being a teenager and an adult is a big difference

The technology in the book does not change: Here's the hard thing about including technology in your book. Technology, especially communication technology changes rapidly. It's hard not to have dated technology in a book.

Bottom line: issues aside, this is still a good story with an interesting premise.