RETURN TO SENDER By Lauren Draper

Dani Young 

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

RETURN TO SENDER By Lauren DraperReturn to Sender by Lauren Draper
Published by HarperTeen on 8/13/24
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Young Adult
Pages: 413
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Brodie McKellon didn’t leave town in handcuffs, not exactly. But all the same, in only one night, she lost her best friends and her home. And that same night, the town of Warwick lost the Adder Stone, a supposedly magical ring of local legend.

The events, Brodie maintains, were not related.

Four years later, Brodie’s returned to Warwick to identify the real thief and get back everything she lost. She can clear her name, win back her friends Elliott and Levi, and save Gran’s house from the bank.

But as Brodie starts investigating, she gets pulled into a different mystery, of three friends and their “dead letters”—mail that’s been lost over the years. And soon she finds that there are times when the things you find aren’t the things you even knew you had lost. A house becomes a home. Some friends become family. And other friends, well, they might become something more. As long as Brodie can be brave enough to find herself.

Short and Sweet Review

Four years ago Brodie left Warwick and she lost her best friends and she was accused of stealing the Adder Stone. Now Brodie is back and she wants to make things right with Levi and Elliott, find the Adder Stone, and keep her Grans house from getting foreclosed. Brodie is also going to try to solve the mystery of the dead letters.

Return to Sender was a good book, when I think of words to describe it I would say coming of age, cozy, and small town vibes. Brodie was a fun character, she seems like someone who would rather stay in instead of going out and most times she has to be convinced to hang out with people her age. When Brodie gets back to town she reconnects with Elliott pretty fast but with Levi she wants to put distance between them and it turns out they have feelings for each other. This romance between them was cute, mainly because they’ve been friends for a long time and things mainly soured around the time she left, so it was nice to see Levi try to pick things back up. Elliott and Levi help Brodie try to find out what happened to the Adder Stone and who wrote the dead letters. The dead letters were letters exchanged by three friends that got lost and for some reason Brodie can’t find anything about the three friends from people who have lived in town or even the town records. I thought the letters were interesting because we got to see them and take a peek into the lives of June, Winnie, and August. I did like the ending when it was revealed what was going on with the letters it was different than what I was expecting.

Overall, this book is written beautifully and I liked seeing Brodie get acclimated back in town. The secondary characters all bring something to the book and it was nice to see how they supported Brodie. Return to Sender has elements of found family and its a heartwarming book, I would recommend it to anyone looking for a coming of age contemporary.

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