Review - - Love Letters for Other People

Love Letters for Other People

by Shaylin Gandhi

Publisher: Canary Street Press

Release Date: December 9, 2025

Reviewed by PJ

When mathematician Aubrey MacLean’s career implodes, she has no choice but to return to her rural Indiana hometown, at least temporarily. But small towns have long memories, and so does she, especially when it comes to Nick Thacker, the boy who broke her heart.

Nick’s life is routine: long shifts at the steel mill, plus a side business writing love letters for other people. It’s enough to numb his regrets—until his first love returns, stirring up a past he thought he’d buried.

Aubrey is focused on rebuilding her career, until she falls for a man whose love letters feel achingly familiar. But as their connection deepens, so does her sense that she’s been here before. The similarities must be a coincidence, right? Because if not, Aubrey may have to choose between the life she’s built and the love she left behind…

PJ's Thoughts:

After reading Love Letters for Other People and When We Had Forever by Shaylin Gandhi, what I've come to expect from her books is beautiful writing, complicated relationships, deeply emotional stories, boy-howdy-I-did-not-see-that-coming twists, and layered characters who linger in my mind long after I turn the final page.  

Love Letters for Other People takes us to rural Indiana and a story that pulled me in and refused to let go. Gandhi expertly crafts a tale of heartache, betrayal, long-overdue reckoning, forgiveness, and second chances but nothing on this journey will be easy. There are so many twists in this book, some I sniffed out in advance while others took me by surprise. 

Many characters are layered, with flaws that I could understand even if I didn't agree with their actions. There's a Cyrano de Bergerac plotline that had me worried but works out without going too far (for me). While some of the secondary characters had me ready to do some cliff tossing, Nick and Aubrey (and Nick's daughter) are characters who won my affection and support. My heart hurt so hard for what they had been/were going through but celebrated the joy of their hard-won second-chance happiness. 

If you enjoy an emotional roller coaster ride with complex characters, a hard-won happy ending and a few surprises along the way, I recommend picking up a copy of Love Letters for Other People. It's another winner from one of my favorite new authors, Shaylin Gandhi. 

Review & Giveaway - - When We Had Forever

When We Had Forever

by Shaylin Gandhi

Publisher: Canary Street Press

Release Date: December 10, 2024

Reviewed by PJ

Six months after her husband died in a car crash, Mina Drake is still mired in a haze of grief. Reminders of her years with Michael are everywhere, but beneath her heartache lies an even more painful emotion. It’s a guilty suspicion she can hardly admit to anyone, even herself—that her marriage was over long before Michael’s accident.

They were good together once, she’s sure of it, sharing a connection so deep that Mina can’t understand how it unraveled. That is, until a chance discovery in her husband’s office—and the reappearance of Michael’s estranged brother, Grayson, a notorious bad-boy photographer—awakens her to possible answers.

More shocking still is the pull Mina feels to tattooed, scarred Grayson, who’s nothing at all like the man she married. But as feelings stir to life again, so do secrets, changing everything she thought she knew about her marriage, and about the risks and rewards of loving with no limits…

PJ's Thoughts:

I read this book three weeks ago. In one day. Turned the last page around 1:00 AM then was awake at least another hour thinking about these characters, their journey, the unexpected revelations. Fell asleep and dreamed about them. Woke up thinking about them. Six days later, was still so immersed in their story I hadn't been able to start reading a new book. That is the impact of Shaylin Gandhi's writing. 

I'm not going to say too much about this book because it deserves to unfurl for each reader at their own pace with no spoilers. I will say that it was one of my favorite reads of 2024 and I plan to read it again (more slowly) in 2025 just to appreciate all of the intricate nuances to be found within the pages. 

When We Had Forever is part women's fiction, part contemporary romance, part psychological thriller. It has placed Shaylin Gandhi firmly on my must-buy author list.

Do yourself a favor and buy this deeply emotional, beautifully written novel but be prepared to not be able to put it down. It's just that good.

Have you read Shaylin Gandhi or When We Had Forever?

Tell me about a new author you discovered last year who blew your reading socks off.

One randomly chosen person who posts a comment before 11:00 PM, January 16 will receive a print copy of When We Had Forever.

*U.S. only

*Must be 18