Library Loans - The Five Star Edition

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The Last Love Note by Emma Grey
Published by Zibby Books on November 28, 2023
Age/Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Fiction

Goodreads

You may never stop loving the one you lost. But you can still find love again.

Kate is a bit of a mess. Two years after losing her young husband Cameron, she’s grieving, solo parenting, working like mad at her university fundraising job, always dropping the ball—and yet clinging to her sense of humor.

Lurching from one comedic crisis to the next, she also navigates an overbearing mom and a Tinder-obsessed best friend who's determined to matchmake Kate with her hot new neighbor.

When an in-flight problem leaves Kate and her boss, Hugh, stranded for a weekend on the east coast of Australia, she finally has a chance, away from her son, to really process her grief and see what’s right in front of her. Can she let go of the love of her life and risk her heart a second time?

When it becomes clear that Hugh is hiding a secret, Kate turns to the trail of scribbled notes she once used to hold her life together. The first note captured her heart. Will the last note set it free?

The Last Love Note will make listeners laugh, cry, and renew their faith in the resilience of the human heart—and in love itself.

Those who know me will not be surprised to see this book a hit. I always adore a story of grief, loss, and healing, and I got that plus a whole lot more with The Last Love Note.

Let's talk about the painful parts first. The story opened following the untimely death of Kate's husband. He was her first love, her soulmate, and Kate was trying to figure out how to live without him. The story flipped between present day and important points in the past. Some of those past moments highlighted joyful times while many focused on Cam's illness, deterioration, and death. So. Many. Tears.

It had not been an easy four years for Kate, that's for sure. She suffered several losses, but was lucky enough to a wonderful team to support her. Her best friend and mother were always there to lend a hand, but it was her boss, Hugh, who would always be there in her time of need. Hugh was a rock. I loved him from their first meeting which would have been a meet-cute had Kate not been married.

The Last Love Note was definitely a story of grief, the pain of loss, and picking up the pieces, but I would also call it a love story. In fact, there are two love stories that emerge. It was a treat to learn about Cam and Kate's love story, and it was beautiful to see that the fire still burned so brightly between them. I think that's why it was so devastating for me when Cam got his diagnosis. I didn't want them to lose each other. They seemed to belong to one another.

Kate had quite a journey ahead of her. It was filled with many ups and downs and difficult decisions. In the end, I loved how it all worked out. Overall, this was a painfully beautiful story that had me laughing and crying in equal measures. My heart ached, my heart broke, but it was put back together by the end.

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The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons
Published by William Morrow on September 8, 2020
Age/Genres: Adult, Fiction

Goodreads

It's never too late to start living.

Infused with the emotional power of Me Before You and the irresistible charm of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and Be Frank with Me, a moving and joyous novel about an elderly woman ready to embrace death and the little girl who reminds her what it means to live.

Eudora Honeysett is done with this noisy, moronic world—all of it. She has witnessed the indignities and suffering of old age and has lived a full life. At eighty-five, she isn’t going to leave things to chance. Her end will be on her terms. With one call to a clinic in Switzerland, a plan is set in motion.

Then she meets ten-year-old Rose Trewidney, a whirling, pint-sized rainbow of color and sparkling cheer. All Eudora wants is to be left alone to set her affairs in order. Instead, she finds herself embarking on a series of adventures with the irrepressible Rose and their affable neighbor, the recently widowed Stanley—afternoon tea, shopping sprees, trips to the beach, birthday celebrations, pizza parties.

While the trio of unlikely BFFs grow closer and anxiously await the arrival of Rose’s new baby sister, Eudora is reminded of her own childhood—of losing her father during World War II and the devastating impact it had on her entire family. In reflecting on her past, Eudora realizes she must come to terms with what lies ahead.

But now that her joy for life has been rekindled, how can she possibly say goodbye?

After being alive for eighty five years, Eudora had made the decision to end her life on her own terms, but it seemed the universe had different plans for her when it inserted a precocious ten-year-old and a jovial widower in life.

When I first heard about this book, I got A Man Called Ove vibes, and I was totally right. Like Backman, Lyons did a beautiful job exploring the beauty and pain of human connection. Eudora's past was riddled with suffering, loss, betrayal, sacrifice, and missed opportunities. My heart ached for her as her chances at happiness slipped through her fingers or were yanked away. Like many of us, she was sometimes faced with difficult choices which vastly altered the trajectory of her life, and now she was faced with another big choice with respect to ending her life.

Learning about Eudora's past via flashbacks was painful, but it was why I was so happy that Rose, Stanley, and their families became part of Eudora's life. Rose was an especially wonderful character. She was so full of color and life. Maybe kids her own age didn't quite appreciate Rose, but she was true to herself, fiercely loyal, and left a trail of joy in her wake.

Overall, this was a beautiful and touching story of love and connection that made me smile and cry and long for a loving "family" who will care for me when my end comes.

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