3.53 AVERAGE


This was an entertaining examination of a "great" woman and family dynamics around legacy and expectations. The rich in this book are looked at with a very kind eye.

I really like how personal and emotional the book was, my only gripe is the prose felt pretty "millenial" at times but otherwise I think this book is pretty fire
funny reflective sad fast-paced
emotional funny inspiring sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
challenging dark emotional hopeful lighthearted sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

What would you do if you knew you were going to die soon?

In Dava Shastri’s Last Day, billionaire philanthropist Dava has recently found out she is going to die from a brain tumor, so she takes control of the situation. She calls her children to spend the holidays at her private island, and leaks the news of her death early - so she can read the obituaries and spend her last days with her family in peace. What she doesn’t expect is for her biggest secrets to come out.

I LOVED this book. What an interesting perspective on legacy, forgiveness and love. The complexities of her family and her death really got me thinking. I loved getting the perspectives of so many characters and different time periods. Dava herself was a very unique character. She has so many layers to her and it made for a very compelling read.

I was thankful to have both a physical copy and an audiobook because I did not want to put this down and flew through it in a day. Both formats were phenomenal, but I especially loved the song at the end of the audiobook.

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and Hachette Audio for the gifted copies.

4/7. Truly so neutral on this one! I think I went in with very high expectations (the concept! the cover!), but just wasn't blown away by it. I can see this really clicking with other readers, but it just didn't hit home in the way I was expecting. A fine read.

I’ve seen great reviews for this, but I could not get into it. I kept waiting for it to get good and pick up, and when I was 85% of the way through, I realized it wouldn’t. Would’ve been a DNF had I not been so far along already.

I wanted to like this book but it never clicked for me. Too much time spent narrating past events.