I really enjoyed this book! At first, I was a bit skeptical, and thought that it was going to be a bit cheesy, but I really got into it!

I liked the friendship between Sasha and Raquel a lot. It was nice to see a once in a lifetime friendship like that! inspiring!

I also thought that the parents were present enough and provided good role models in the book. This is also very important to me as so many parents in books either set bad examples or are missing altogether.

Sure, this book was fictional - and some things seemed too perfect, but for me it worked. and I enjoyed this story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kids Can Press for an advance copy of this book.

The Last Wish of Sasha Cade was such a fantastic book! If I were only able to use one word to describe my feelings during this book, I’d use 'crying'. While these were a mixture of both happy and sad tears, I felt like I was on the verge of tears just about every other chapter. Now the book itself and its plot aren’t entirely sad; it’s what Sasha Cade, the girl who died of cancer does. Knowing that she was going to die, she and her best friend, Rocki, spend their high school year planning for the funeral. Once she dies, it is revealed that Sasha has set up an adventure for Rocki. It is legitimately the sweetest thing ever, and the letters that Sasha writes for the adventure are so bittersweet and always brought tears to my eyes.

I loved the plot of the book, the relationships between characters, and how really involved I felt in the story.

I touched on it before, but The Last Wish of Sasha Cade takes place after Rocky’s best friend, Sasha dies of lymphoma. They had known it would happen for a while and with that knowledge, Sasha enlisted Rocki to help her plan her funeral. Rather morbid? Yes, but also rather nice. When Sasha dies, she is buried as she wanted and Rocki reads the eulogy that they wrote together. At the Rocki is handed a letter to read aloud, it’s from Sasha. At the bottom of the message, Sasha writes that she will be sending Rocki a sign. This sign ends up being an adventure that Sasha has put together!

The adventure that Sasha sends Rocki on is done so so so well. I love how sometimes the adventure reveals something more about Sasha and her thoughts, while some bring back fond memories of their childhood together. In this way, I feel drawn into the story, and I feel like I’m experiencing the adventure as it happens. There are some flashbacks in this story but nothing too big. There are flashbacks to funeral planning or an inside joke, but it isn’t overdone. The flashbacks get fewer as the story goes along which, to me, shows how Rocki is slowly recovering.

The relationships in this book are incredible. I enjoyed how this was first about the friendship between Rocki and Sasha and then about romance, which still wasn’t super prominent. I also love how close the two families are. Mrs. Cade is so kind and is always thinking of Rocki, inviting her to lunch with her and her husband.

There was only one part of the book that bothered me. That part was just generally whenever Rocki was over at the Cade's home. Almost everytime, Rocki would comment that the dish was Sasha’s favorite or Sasha’s favorite activity. I understand that now that Sasha is gone, little things are constant reminders, but I got that point by the second mention. It just got a bit too repetitive and the book could have done without it.

To conclude, this book was so fantastic! It was the perfect summer contemporary. While it had a sad start to the story, the story itself was so heartwarming and beautiful. I got all the feels! I loved how friendship was the foundation of this book. The girl dying of cancer plans one last adventure for her best friend, can it get any sweeter than that? I had one baby problem with a bit of repetition, but it didn’t affect the book at all. This book was well written, and I highly recommend it.

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. It did not take long for this book to have me in tears. I have lost family to cancer so I know that feeling of loss that Requel. I have always loved a great scavenger hunt, but this was kind of sad and powerful and emotional. I don't want to say too much about this book for I don't want ruin a moment of it. I finished this book a couple of days go and come back to write the review and there are tears in my eyes even now. That is powerful stuff right there.

I received a copy of this book for free and voluntarily chose to review. This is an amazing and heartbreaking story. You'll definitely need a bunch of tissues. It's beautifully written and takes you on a journey through pain and loss, that ends in healing and love. A must read for fans of Lurlene McDaniel.

Apparently I didn't read the same book that everyone else did. I went into this assuming it would be some fluffy romance with a dash of sadness, but it was pure illogical romance. The entire book could be summarized by saying it's unrealistic.

I've always been bitter about insta-love, but it made me cringe extra during this book, especially when Raquel says this new boy, who she's known for maybe a month tops, is the love of her life and her best friend. But the only reason she knows about him is because of her actual best friend - and I'm not saying you can only have one of those in your lifetime, but it threw away the importance of Sasha's character in the blink of an eye. Raquel is never truly sad about her friend's death, because she's more excited about a guy who is a total stranger to her. She pours her entire soul into bending over backward for a boy she doesn't know, and it's supposed to be deemed as romantic.

There's one part in particular about their "relationship" that bothered me, which was when Raquel tells Elijah he needs to get out of his job immediately. When he takes her advice, he swaps his motorcycle for a car and starts living out of that, because losing his job made him homeless. Instead of helping him, Raquel gets furious and basically says, "That's not what I meant," and then doesn't talk to him until he figures out a new plan. It's one thing to demand someone you hardly know to quit their job and find a new place to live (of course, claiming you did it out of love), but it's another to stomp away from that person when they did what you asked, just because it put them in a new predicament that you also don't approve of.

The ending of the book is eye-roll inducing, as everything pans out absolutely perfectly. There is exactly one hardship in the entire book, and naturally, everyone works together to solve the problem in the blink of an eye so everything can go back to being happy and perfect. Again, considering Sasha's parents' behavior and actions in the beginning of the book, it was unrealistic to watch them completely 180. The epilogue should have never been written.

The Last Wish of Sasha Cade is the epitome of YA. Someone dies, there are adventures, there is a level of angst, and there is a love connection--what more could you want? Sasha dies of cancer and has orchestrated a series of emails and letters to bring her best friend and brother together after she’s gone. It’s fun and adventurous while tinged with grief as Raquel and Elijah carry out Sasha’s last wish. While the main plot of the book is unique and I really liked it, I felt that a lot of the details were cheesy or trying too hard.

Of course Sasha was from a very wealthy family and their monstrous mansion has a perfect view of a lake and dozens of deer and of course Sasha was strong and beautiful and amazing. Those things are very cliche and the descriptions seemed over the top and forced. Parts of this ended up playing into the major plot so at least there’s that.

The budding relationship between Raquel and Elijah is expected as part of classic YA, but the actual romance isn’t believable. One second, their relationship is ridiculously awkward and the next it’s something out of a serious romance novel.

The level of cheesiness almost made me stop reading because it’s not like I haven’t read all this before. But I had to make it through the book to find out the next adventure and to see what will happen when Raquel inevitably has to break Sasha’s rule that her parents can never find out about Elijah.

Ahhhhhh omg this book gave me all the feels! I loved reading this, it was sad and fun and happy at the same time! I hope everyone reads this when it comes out! My only bad thing is the ending seemed kind of rushed. Also, what was the last adventure?! Omg I’m dying to know! I loved all the characters so much too! Sasha and Raquel are total best friend goals :) I loved how Sasha fav movies are mine too😂
Thank you to the publisher for giving me a copy!

Louden Nelson was a slave who came to California and was able to buy his freedom by working in the gold fields. From there, he went to Santa Cruz, where he was one of only two black men in the entire city. He was very concerned about education, and when he found that the local school had closed, because of lack of funds, he left his entire estate, all $372, to the school board to make sure it reopened. The school was named after him, is now a community center.

That is local history, to where I live. Kids are taught state history and local history in school to give them a connection, to know what came before.

Local history, is important to world building. We often only think about world building with fantasy stories, not contemporary stories, but in this book, <em>The Last Wish of Sasha Cade</em>, the author has taken a real town that was founded by a former slave, Peyton Roberts, and taken it from being a ghost town, which it now is, to being a town with residences and shops, such as Izzy's Flowers, where Raquel, the main character, ends up working.

She also brings in a real church, Mount Horeb Baptist Church, a church that is the center of this now ghost town, a church that ends up being important in the story.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-706" src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/thelast-wish.jpg" alt="The Last wish" />
(I created the image above, for Instagram, because I thought the book deserved novel aesthetics.

This is a story of two children, siblings, separated, not at birth, but when they were very young. This is also the story of first love, and this is also the story of death.

When I originally read what this book was about, I rolled my eyes.  I don't usually like love stories, and it sounded sort of hocky that Sasha would make Raquel do her last wishes, after she died.

But, the book hooked me, pulled me in, made me morn Sasha, and made me feel what Raquel was feeling, both for the death of her friend, as well as for the brother that Sasha never got to meet.

It is a journey, sort of story, the kind I don't usually like, but the journey was of memories. Sasha wanted to have her bother Elijah, know everything there was to know about her, and so, she has them go on missions, to recreate Sasha's childhood.

It is a real, and true and delightful journey. I loved that Sasha and Raquel's favorite movies were also some of mine, Ever After, The Princess Bride, Mean Girls, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

This is a solid 5 star, but I have one little quibble, which is also a spoiler .<spoiler>I feel that Elijah should have turned states evidence against his old boss</spoiler>

#LastWishOfSashaCade,The #NetGalley

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

What a beautiful, tough book. It was hard to read, but likely even harder to write. I initially went into this assuming it was going to be a YA version of that sappy book "PS I Love You," but it's much more than that. This is the story of best friends, and how friendship can stretch over not just years but space, between moments in time. If you have ever had a BFFFL (BFF For Life), you'll need to read this book. Oof.

The Last Wish of Sash Cade was an emotionally fantastic story. I could not put this book down and couldn't wait to find out what the next adventure Sash was going to send Elijah and Raquel on. How could you not root for these two to end up together. Such a great storyteller Cheyanne Young is and I can't wait to read what she writes next. GREAT GREAT BOOK!!! Make sure to have a box a tissue near by while reading this one.

I really enjoyed this book - the writing was great and the plot was definitely unique. I found Young's development of the characters great and their relationships were fascinating, however, some of the characters felt a little fake and unrealistic.

Thanks to Kids Can Press for the arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.
I loved this story, I cried, I laughed had lumps in my throat through most of it.
Such a well written book about death and friendship,
But dam, that ending!! I want to know what the last one was!!😆

Rating: 3,5 stars

The Last Wish of Sasha Cade is kind of really adorable, but it’s also a bit hard to believe imo. I know, the adorable part should be totally weird, because it’s about losing your best friend to cancer and yet I stand by what I said. The thing is, it’s not just about Raquel grieving for her bestest friend in the world. It’s mostly about going on an adventure and falling in love and it’s all planned by your dead best friend.

It was heartwarming, honestly. This was Sasha’s way to push Raquel out of her comfort zone even in her death, as she’d always done, and make sure she actually lives. This is basically the whole concept of the book, and like I said, adorable but I’m not sure if I buy it? I think it’s just me though. Also, the romance was really cute, but I felt like the love interest’s character background information could’ve been more elaborate? His problems, how they came to be, et cetera? It was all a bit vague.

In short though, this book was full of cuteness of friendship and love (both romantic and family!).

“Each new memory brings forth a tidal wave of tears and a pain in my chest that feels as though the grim reaper has shoved his staff right in to me and is dragging it down, breaking each rib just for the thrill of it.”

I went to bed last night thinking I’d read a few pages before I fell asleep, but fast forward to 3am and I’ve finished this truly amazing novel and my eyes are swollen from crying so much.

Everything about this book was written with so much love and soul, heartbreaking but so damn worth the pain. I just wanted to hug Raquel & Elijah.

I’ll definitely be buying a finished copy when it releases in October, the cover is stunning and it’s a story that will stay with me.

Thank you to netgalley & the publisher for letting me review this novel for my honest opinion.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy THE LAST WISH OF SASHA CADE by Cheyanne Young in exchange for my honest review.***

4.5 STARS

After succumbing to cancer, Raquel’s best friend Sasha leaves behind a series of adventures to be completed with Elijah, the biological brother Sasha met through an adoption website, but never in person.

THE LAST WISH IF SASHA CADE is an engaging story of love, loss, family, friendship and romance. While not entirely realistic given the typical trajectory of the health decline of terminal cancer, having lost friends to cancer having adventures orchestrated by friends after they’ve died would have been wonderful. I cried for the last twenty percent of the story.

I loved the characters Raquel and Elijah, even when I wanted to throttle her and say, “Talk to an adult.” I know what making promises to dying friends feels like, and the dilemma one feels when needing to make a conscious decision to break an oath that probably shouldn’t have been made in the first place. But I’m an adult with the benefit of more life experiences and Raquel is a teenager grieving, so I get it.

#TheLastWishOfSashaCade will appeal to most contemporary YA fiction fans with enough drama, angst and romance to satisfy everyone.

This is a wonderful novel about the friendship between two girls and how, after the death of one, the friendship grows and builds. When Sasha dies, Raquel tries to keep living. Through her sadness light appears when she begins getting messages from Sasha. Raquel goes on adventures and falls in love in this wonderful book about death and life afterwards. I am thankful to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to be an early reader in exchange for my fair and honest review.