The incredible kindness of paper A novel

Review by Booklist Review

Chloe Quinn has seen better days. Her neighbors are fearing eviction, she has just been laid off, and New York City is seeming more hostile by the day. Chloe copes by writing hopeful and encouraging messages on origami paper that she folds into roses and leaves around the city. Suddenly, New Yorkers are finding yellow roses everywhere, and, in a wonderful twist, the messages inside seem to be tailored to each reader. Oliver Jones, on the other hand, is irritated by the roses he keeps noticing. A financial analyst, Oliver has rebuilt his life into organized practicalities after a painful childhood. Oliver and Chloe were childhood pen pals, then best friends. When fate--and origami roses--intervene, Chloe and Oliver are thrust back together. As Chloe's origami-rose movement takes off in cities around the world, she and Oliver reconnect despite their traumatic pasts. Skye's latest (after One Year Ago in Spain, 2024) is a cozy, uplifting tale that is as romantic as it is sincere. The Incredible Kindness of Paper celebrates human connection and hope, all with a touch of enchantment.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In the delightful latest from Skye (The Hundred Loves of Juliet), two childhood sweethearts find each other again after a forced separation years earlier. Growing up in Lawrence, Kans., Chloe Hanako Quinn seems to have a perfect childhood. Her loving parents own a popular ice cream shop and her sunny disposition allows her to see the best in everyone. But when her best friend Oliver Jones and his family disappear the day after Oliver and Chloe's first kiss, she's crushed and not sure what to believe. Years later, both Oliver and Chloe--unbeknownst to either--are living in New York City, Oliver as a banker and Chloe as a high school counselor. After Chloe is laid off, she takes to making origami flowers, into which she places positive notes like "chin up, buttercup." She scatters the flowers around town and they coincidentally reach the right people at just the right time. When cynical Oliver receives one of the flowers, he dismisses its message as meaningless fluff--until it manages to draw him back to Chloe, a reunion that gives them a chance to shed light on the past. Skye ties it all together with perfect pacing and the characters' undeniable chemistry. Readers are in for a treat. Agent: Thao Le, Sandra Dijkstra Agency. (Aug.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

Love, magic, and kindness blend beautifully in Skye's (The Hundred Loves of Juliet) uplifting novel. Childhood pen pals Chloe and Oliver form a deep bond, earning the shared nickname "Clover" as they grow inseparable, even across distance. Their epistolary connection begins to blossom into something more as they become teenagers--until Oliver and his family mysteriously vanish without warning, leaving Chloe heartbroken. Years later, they are reunited by a chance encounter in New York City, where they both now live. Recently laid off from her job as a school counselor, Chloe begins leaving yellow origami roses with inspirational messages around the city, an extension of a practice she once shared with her students. The roses quickly go viral, spreading hope far and wide. One special rose reaches Oliver, but he responds with skepticism, scribbling a note and trashing it--only for it to return to Chloe. An anonymous exchange begins, and the old pen pals unknowingly reconnect through these magical messages. As secrets are revealed and past wounds are healed, Chloe and Oliver find their way back to each other while her roses begin to capture hearts all over the world. VERDICT A heartfelt, feel-good novel full of warmth, wonder, and romance. Perfect for anyone in need of a little hope.--Stacy Alesi

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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1. Chloe Chloe The first time Chloe Hanako Quinn whispered into a piece of paper, she was just shy of seven years old. She had already drawn a picture--Mrs. Williams's first-grade class was "writing" their introductory letters to their new pen pals--but Chloe wanted to tell her soon-to-be friend so much more than could be conveyed in a crayon self-portrait, which, to be honest, looked nothing like her. For example, she wanted to tell her pen pal that on summer nights, she liked to crawl out her bedroom window on the second story and lie down on the little roof above the porch so that the crickets could sing to her until she was drowsy. That her favorite day of the year was when the college students returned to the University of Kansas campus in the autumn and, after they dropped off their suitcases, how they'd stream into her parents' ice cream shop in the historic downtown and she could greet each one of their smiling faces as they walked in for their first cones of the school year. Chloe wanted to know what holidays her pen pal celebrated, and she wanted to tell him how, every December, her relatives from Missouri and Iowa would all come and gather at her grandma's house for "Kansas Gingerbread Christmas," where the kids built sugar-gemmed villages, and then on New Year's, they'd all wake up to mochi and "good luck" ozoni soup, celebrating the Japanese side of the family. She wanted to ask if her pen pal had a lot of relatives, too, and if, like her, he loved them so much, he didn't even mind when aunts and uncles and older cousins patted him on the head and said, "My, haven't you grown tall in the past year?" But since Chloe couldn't draw or write very well yet, she leaned over and whispered everything into her paper instead. She told her pen pal about the black cat down the street who'd had orange kittens. About the time she was walking home from the park in the rain, and a bolt of lightning came straight down toward her, but then suddenly veered off and hit the lightning rod at the top of the church across the street instead. And even about the dam of twigs she'd built last weekend in the little creek next to her garage, which ended up flooding it. But Chloe's biggest secret was that she was lonely, and she wished she could have had someone with her when all those interesting things had happened to her. "I hope we'll be friends forever," Chloe murmured into the paper. " Best friends." When she was done, she folded the paper, slid it into an envelope, and sealed it with a kiss, just like she'd seen in a movie. Mrs. Williams sent the letters off the next day, and they traveled to another elementary school on the other side of Lawrence, Kansas. A boy named Oliver picked Chloe's envelope, and when he opened it, he grinned before he even unfolded the paper, before he even saw her self-portrait. He didn't need to. Because Oliver could already hear everything Chloe wanted him to know. Excerpted from The Incredible Kindness of Paper: A Novel by Evelyn Skye All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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