“Twenty years ago, a group of students each wrote themselves a letter – Dear Future Me – confiding their deepest dreams and their very darkest secrets.

Now the letters, thought long discarded, have begun to drop through letterboxes. For some they will make them re-evaluate the decisions they’ve made, the person they could have been.

For others, the letters could be deadly . . .

A compulsively gripping thriller of regret, hidden secrets and the deepest betrayal, Dear Future Me is the unmissable new book from the lauded author of The Dangerous Kind and The Captive.”

Hello and welcome to damppebbles. Today I am delighted to share my review of Dear Future Me by Deborah O’Connor. Dear Future Me is published by Bonnier Books today (that’s Thursday 12th June 2025) and is available in paperback, audio and digital formats. I chose to read a free eARC of Dear Future Me but that has in no way influenced my review. My grateful thanks to Tracy at Compulsive Readers Blog Tours for inviting me to join the tour and for sending me a digital copy of the book.

Twenty years ago a group of teens wrote a letter to their future selves as a class project. In the present day the letters, long forgotten, suddenly start dropping through letterboxes. The letters receive a mixed reception. Some recipients enjoy the nostalgia. Some are reminded of a time they would much rather forget. Miranda, Audrey’s best friend, is found later that same day at the bottom of the cliff. Audrey is devastated. She remembers the time twenty years ago well, when the class were asked to write these letters. How they started writing them the day before the class trip to the Lake District. How dreadful and upsetting that weekend trip became. But it doesn’t help explain what has happened to Miranda. Audrey decides to take matters into her own hands and starts to investigate why Miranda’s letter had the effect on her it did.

Dear Future Me is a slow-burn mystery, full to the brim with emotion and intrigue. I really liked Audrey. She had so much promise at school. Everyone knew she was destined for great things and had her hopes set on a place at Cambridge. When that didn’t quite materialise as she expected, she decided to steer her life in a very different direction, as the sole carer for her much younger brother. There are so many ‘could have beens’ and ‘what ifs’ that I couldn’t help but warm to her. Audrey sets out to talk to her former classmates still living in the area to see if she can fathom why Miranda was so upset with her letter and stormed out of the house that fateful morning.

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. Dear Future Me is another gripping, character-driven, suspense packed thriller from Deborah O’Connor. I love the concept of this book. How different are we now from our seventeen-year-old selves? Very different, in my case! I loved the nostalgia, the looking back to the past, and seeing the characters then and now. The North Yorkshire setting was vivid and dramatic. O’Connor really invokes a sense of place in the novel. I enjoyed the small-town vibe; the fact that so many of Audrey’s classmates had stayed in the same area for so long really helped that feeling of community. There is a fairly large cast of characters, but I was able to keep track of who everyone was and the relationships they had. The reader gets to experience a number of the ‘dear future me’ letters, allowing us to see what made these people tick. What their hopes and dreams were. Where they were in their young lives at that particular point in time. Some were uplifting and inspirational. Others were heartbreaking. All in all, I very much enjoyed Dear Future Me. It’s a beautifully written tale of grief, secrets and regret. Full of heart and with plenty of intrigue. An intelligent, suspense-laden read. Recommended.

I chose to read and review a free eARC of Dear Future Me. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

Dear Future Me by Deborah O’Connor was published in the UK by Bonnier Books on 12th June 2025 and is available in paperback, audio and digital formats (please note, the following links are affiliate links which means I receive a small percentage of the purchase price at no extra cost to you): | amazon.co.uk | Waterstones | bookshop.org | Goodreads | damppebbles bookshop.org shop | damppebbles amazon.co.uk shop | damppebbles amazon.com shop |

Deborah O’Connor is a writer and TV producer. Born and bred in the North-East of England, she lives there with her husband and two children.