The Tin Box may have seemed like a really promising novel but it turns out to be a bit underwhelming. William Lyon is working on his dissertation and took a job as a caretaker of a unused old asylum in the small town of Jelly Valley. With the divorce from his wife being finalized, William is still in the process of coming out of the closet and his very repressive past. While checking out the asylum, he discovered a tin box containing letters from a patient whose plight so clearly reflects his own. Then he meets flamboyant and outgoing Colby Anderson who works at the general store and is very openly gay. Through Colby, William learned to let go and decided to live his life the way he wanted to. With their budding friendship turning into romance, William also needs to prove to Colby that he's ready to take what they have into the next level and make the owner of those letters from the tin box proud. 
 There was a really good concept here that somehow failed to materialized. Those letters inside the tin box tore me into pieces and they would have been a great starter for the story to follow a different and more involved romance between William and Colby. It's just too bad that as the story goes on, it went downhill and became a snoozefest. I feel that there should've been more to it in connection with the letters. Sadly, that was not realised at all. 
 Rating: 2 out of 5 stars