Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Last Love Note

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Last Love Note by Emma Grey

51 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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bookphenomena_micky's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

Headlines:
Sad
Witty
Hopeful

I devoured The Last Love Note in 24 hours on audio thanks to some commutes and a deep desire to know what was in store for Kate, the protagonist. The book appealed to me on the blurb but once I'd dipped my toe in, I could not put this book down.

There was a hilarious start to this book with lots of excellent and witty banter-ish dialogue that set the tone for things to come in the book. Kate was endearing, relatable and loving. There was however, a sad story within, one that made me cry and choke up on a few occasions but the author gently led the reader to those difficult bits in a manageable way.

The characters beyond Kate were wonderful and compelling, especially Charlie, Cameron, Hugh and Kate's mum. It didn't take long for me to adore both Cameron and Hugh. I don't want to spoil a thing but Hugh was all the things to Kate in terms of friendship and loyalty; he wore a cape in a realistic way.

The story felt somewhat roller coaster-ish but that was its appeal; the ups and downs and then the hopes that crept in. It's a story of loving deeply but the hurt that can come with it.

This debut was fantastic. Emma Grey's writing reminded me of Katherine Center's whilst still being all her own signature. I will be following this author to look for future releases and I recommend to all my contemporary romance loving friends.

The narration was excellent and the narrator embodied Kate so well. Dialogue was good and I just slipped into this drama as it played out.

Thank you LibroFM for the review copy.

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