PEN PAL by author  J. T. Geissinger was first published in 2022. I'd never come across it before and when I saw it for the first time it appealed to me, categorised as a Dark Romance. I thought it sounded great, I loved it and the pages flew. 

We follow Kayla Reece who has been recently widowed. She lives in a big, old house. She experiences the house malfunctioning with electrics, weird sounds like creaking floors...the whole shebang. She chalks it all up to grief and some of it to illusions and calls in repairmen to see what can be fixed. 

While dealing with grief, Kayla starts receiving letters from the Washington prison and curiosity gets the better of her. She starts communicating with the prisoner like a good old pen pal. She also falls for and starts dating Aidan, the guy she called in for her roof repairs. Things get pretty serious between Kayla and Aidan and they are enjoying each other very much. 

However, when the time comes to commit, Kayla hesitates and soon Aidan asks her to make up her mind and gives her space. While apart she realises what is happening with the home and her life. It all comes as a surprise to her. She soon sorts it all with help and finds her way back to Aidan. 

What I enjoyed-

• Let me tell you something funny. I never knew till after completing the book that this was a re-issue and a Paranormal Romance. I went into it without any prior research on the title or the author, thinking it was a Dark Romance. 
• Boy, was I surprised when I realised this is a Paranormal romance, but I had so much fun reading this story. The fact that the characters never got what they wanted while alive but did after they weren't was a bit weird. It was a pretty spicy, intense love story. 
• The chemistry and emotional scenes between Aidan and Lucy were such a vibe - beautiful, playful, hot, intense and sweet at times. 
• The ending is a heartbreaking moment and made me wanna scream at the unfairness of it all. However, the last scene in the prison more than made up for the disappointment. 
• I believe this is the best way actually, to find yourself reading something totally unexpected and enjoying it. I read a genre I haven't before and wasn't put off. 

Pen Pal is a tragically beautiful love story of two people who after going through the wringer of life, find each other and never let go even after death.