My letter “L” pick for this year’s A to Z Reading Challenge was THE LAST LETTER by Rebecca Yarros. This author is of course, the writer of the wildly popular Fourth Wing series, but she’s every bit as adept in contemporary romance.

Beckett (code name Chaos) is part of a special ops force and works in Afghanistan as a handler for an explosives sniffing dog named Havoc. When his best buddy, Ryan suggests Chaos become pen pals with his little sister, Ella (who happens to be in her twenties, a single mom to five year old twins Cole and Maisie, and really cute), they begin a relationship of letters that is told slowly through the book in flashbacks. Then heartbreak strikes. Ella shares that Maisie has cancer, stage four, and it’s not looking good. That tragedy is followed by yet another—Ryan is killed in action. Beckett feels partially responsible as Ryan was taking his spot on the mission due to some unforeseen circumstances, and out of shame he ghosts Ella at a time in her life when she really needed a friend most. As a tradition in Beckett’s unit, Ryan prepared a “Last letter” to be delivered to someone in case of his death, and that someone is Beckett. The letter contains a plea—take care of Ella. She needs somebody.

Beckett then gets out of the service, and along with Havoc, he moves to Colorado where he settles into one of the guest cottages at the struggling resort property Ella owns and runs. Ella only knows her pen pal by his code name and has never seen a picture, so she has no idea Beckett is the one she fell in love with through the mail. When Beckett arrives and tells her Ryan’s last request was for him to help her, she assumes he’s just another member of the unit and has also assumed over these last months that “Chaos” died alongside Ryan, since he stopped writing back. Beckett is too much of a coward to tell her the truth. Ella initially balks at taking any help from Beckett due to her pride (even though she’s exhausted and financially strained due to Maisie’s medical bills), but he wins her over through his warm interactions with the twins, his excellent handyman skills, and his steadfast dependability. Of course, he’s hot, so that helps.

All in all, it’s a heartwarming slow burn romance, and Ella and Beckett have plenty of sizzling chemistry that won’t be denied even after she learns who he really is and that he’s been deceiving her. There are a few good plot twists, but I have to take away a star because one of them was, in my opinion, unnecessary and took away from the book. There’s plenty of emotion to be found in these pages, and one twist just seemed excessive and heavy-handed to me. Still a very good four-star read.