Some of the characters are not even named, Foley does have a good reason for this which becomes clear, but it meant I had no clue who they were, built no connection with them and quite frankly I got confused as to who each of them were. Maybe it’s partly my own fault for expecting something of a romance but I also don’t think the book was marketed accurately. Those of Nur, a local evicted from her family home and now living with her mother and grandmother in a far less desirable district; the young boy who has been taken in by Nur; George, the army doctor, whose hospital occupies Nur’s former home; and two unnamed characters in the Traveller and the Prisoner. But at some point, it seemed, he was content to let her grandmother and mother's plans for her take over. Lucy Foley blends a rich history, haunting secrets and a timeless love story' Santa Montefiore, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Deverill series.

REVIEW: LAST LETTER FROM ISTANBUL by Lucy Foley - Jan Bowles REVIEW: LAST LETTER FROM ISTANBUL by Lucy Foley - Jan Bowles

And as Nur weaves through the streets carrying the embroideries that have become her livelihood, Constantinople swarms with Allied soldiers a reminder of how far she and her city have fallen. We meet Nur, a young woman living in Constantinople- her beloved Istanbul- a city brutally overtaken by the Allied Forces. Ultimately, the lengthy descriptions overpowered what little command the story itself held rather than complementing it. One further issue that I had is the writing style - each chapter is written from the point of view of one of the main characters which makes it very disjointed and difficult to get your teeth into.Once the pace had picked up and I had got to know the characters and had an awareness of what was going on, I enjoyed reading this book. Constantinople in 1921 is a confusing, often frightening place to be, in the first few pages, two reports from 1918, perfectly sum up the two opposing sides, each report almost interchangeable.

Last Letter from Istanbul by Lucy Foley | Goodreads

It follows the lives of four of the people as they live through this traumatic time and the book is split into bit-sized chunks as each person tells their tale.The ending in particular I found quite poignant and the book itself left me feeling quite melancholy and pondering about what I’d just read.