Matalina “Mattie” Redgrave, an introverted freelance writer, is forced to quarantine for 14 days in an Aotearoa, New Zealand, hotel during the height of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. However, Mattie, calling herself “M,” has fun corresponding via letters with another hotel guest who signs his missives “R.” Soon R is revealed to be the film star Raphael “Raph” Callan. Desperately evading an ex-girlfriend and a repulsive book (That Scarlet, Beating Heart) slated for film adaptation, Raph’s frayed nerves are soothed by M’s correspondence. The budding relationship develops rapidly, encouraged on Mattie’s side by Daphne and friend Rin Butcher, and on Raph’s by his “best mate” Luke Maston. After the quarantine ends and Mattie and Raph test negative for Covid, they can finally meet in a way in person. But crises loom: Mattie is guilted into attending her brother’s wedding as a bridesmaid, paired to a groomsman who bullied her in school, while Raph’s former lover Edie Everette thinks that lies will win him back. Can the mischief-making team of Daphne, Rin, and Mattie again pave the way for love? Spears deftly uses letters, emails, and texts, ranging in tone from witty to wise, to illuminate various facets of the characters. In a group chat, Rin teases, “Mattie’s so thirsty she’s ready to fall in bed SORRY I meant in love after four letters…” But later, Rin and Daphne fiercely contradict Mattie’s self-deprecating texts. Letter-writing levels the playing field between Mattie and Raph, enabling them to find similarities, such as insecurity about their own bodies. Spears promises in an author’s note that “there will be kissing,” and she delivers, but the usual graphic sex for the genre is humorously subverted; Mattie, garbed in “Victorian widow” clothes, has so many layers on that Raph can’t even feel her skin at first. The intriguing New Zealand setting, though, is neutralized by its timeframe, as Covid-related lockdowns are strongly enforced in the country.
