Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - The Last Love Note

Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

The Last Love Note by Emma Grey

29 reviews

greatestheights's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a book for grievers written by a griever. Regardless of your loss, you will feel seen by this gentle, beautiful book, which handles the aftershocks of grief, loss, and moving forward so well. I cried a lot.

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nerdygnome's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was a tough read emotionally. There's something about the theme of spousal death that is extra hard for me — not from personal experience, I just prefer to deny that it's a possible reality. That said, this book got me in all the right places. The way grief is portrayed is so genuine that it hurts, and I wasn't at all surprised to hear Emma Grey share her personal experience with spousal grief in her author's notes.

Two years after the loss of her husband Cam, Kate is still deep in her grief processing and not sure she can ever love another man. Keeping herself busy and distracted with her young son and demanding job, it isn't until she's stranded by a diverted airline flight that she truly lets her grief in, with her boss Hugh getting a center-row seat to the implosion.

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astoriareader's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

SYNOPSIS:

Kate is a widow & a single mom. Her husband, Cam, passed away, and she’s understandably struggling.
She has a great support system. Her mother, her best friend, Grace, and her boss, Hugh, are her inner circle.
She works at a university fundraising job, and she is traveling with Hugh for work. Due to some in flight issues, Hugh and Kate end up having a weekend on the east coast of Australia when the plane reroutes. With this weekend, she finally has some time to figure out what she wants in her life.

MY THOUGHTS

Full disclosure: this isn’t my usual genre, so I do think avid readers of romance genre will enjoy this more than I did.
I give the author major kudos for writing a story that is so personal to her own journey. In the acknowledgement section of the book, she mentioned she is a widow herself.
The book covers some tough topics, like being a widow, grief, and learning to love again.
The writing was okay, but overall, the story felt predictable & had a lot of cliches. I didn’t feel like there was a whole lot of character development, and they felt very one-dimensional.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️decent read. not my usual genre. predictable with lots of cliches.

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beatyjulia's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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fink1129's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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thebookishmama's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

Oh my heart. It is both shattered and swelling at the the same time. This is exactly my type of book. It’s a beautifully written story of life, real and raw, relatable and emotional. I went into this blind with only the expectation of there being a bit of a sad storyline. It’s there, oh boy is it there. And while it’s a central part to the book there is so much more as well. There is friendship, motherhood, identity, and finding yourself. And of course there is a love story, and a beautifully painful one at that. Kate and Cam have the type of love you long for and once you find you hold on tight and appreciate every single moment. Grief is a central point to this story and while I haven’t experienced what the fmc does (and hope I never have to) Grey wrote it so well that it felt personal to me and made me feel all the emotions. There is apart of this story that I really identified with, and as painful as it was to read, it also helped me to handle my own pain and grief. The ending was so beautiful. I want to say exactly why but I don’t want to take that journey away from those that haven’t read it so I’ll just say that I really appreciate what Grey did. Okay, I’m gonna cry just thinking about this book again so I’ll wrap it up here but if you enjoy emotional love stories or relatable life stories, this one may be for you!

*triggers*

-terminal illness, miscarriage, death of a loved one

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