This was a sweet read and a quick one at that. Great for a long weekend at home, on the beach or when you get to ditch quarantine and head on a vacation.

I really enjoyed this story and would recommend.

The Last Charm is a well written book. I enjoy Ella Allbright's writing style. But for some reason, I just kept losing interest in this one. I enjoy the time jumps. I can't put my finger on what I didn't love.

A brilliant debut that I really enjoyed - such a clever concept that kept me hooked. I loved it. Looking forward to reading more by this author in the future.

ONE WORD DESCRIPTION: heartwarming

SYNOPSIS: Two POV (her POV is first person and his POV is third person) romance/general fiction. Leila loses her charm bracelet and a stranger finds it. To prove the bracelet is hers, she tells her story spanning two decades; describing each memory that has earned a charm on her wrist.

LIKED:
This was such a charming story and the reader knew the “twist” and we were just along for the ride until the “big moment.”
It was such a beautiful story of the ebbs and flows of life and love and friendship and family.

DISLIKED:
Each chapter was the same story just different details. I wanted some change to the plot instead of the same back and forth.
Time was hard to keep track of from chapter to chapter for some reason.

SIMILAR TO: One Day In December in that it spans several decades and is a back and forth ‘remembering’ of life’s moments.

Right, this book had some amazing parts and some that just weren't working for me. I liked the book, most parts of it. Jake being such a likeable character but Leila, I just coudlnt get on with her. Lashing out constantly at him, didn't feel very believable to me that someone would put up with so much over the years, no matter how much love they had for someone.

Conclusion with Leila's mum also felt little bit flat for me, I thought her being the main reason Leila was the way she was, there would be little more heartfelt conclusion at the end.

Ending left me crushed. It took me days to get my head back together. I don't feel this book deserved this kind of ending.

Overall I finished this book very quickly and I enjoyed it. It was a real page turner but it lost a star from 5 stars towards the end

I have a totally book hangover from this book. I am not even sure if my thoughts are organized enough to write this review but here goes.

The author really sucks you in right from the beginning and the pace of the story is great. She makes you fall in love with some of the characters, keeps you intrigued, you just keep reading because you want to know what track their story will take. She makes you dislike other characters, some immensely, some just a little, you want them to make better decisions so you can like them just a bit.
I found myself really drawn into the characters and their decisions in this book. They really drew out some strong emotions from me which surprised me.

The whole idea about the charm bracelet is great and reading each story behind each charm was something I really enjoyed!

I really enjoyed this book and the ending wrecked me. I recommend it and hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Beautiful but utterly heartbreaking story, be warned tissues will definitely be needed! Loved the way the charm bracelet links the love story together and the different family relationships portrayed.

The Last Charm is a love story told through the medium of Leila's charm bracelet, as each piece tells something about her relationship with Jake and marks the important events in her life.
Leila and Jake met when Leila was 11 and Jake 13 - Jake has just moved into the house where Leila used to live. From them on they meet irregularly, and each meeting is marked by the gift of a charm, which Leila thinks are from her absent mother.
Sadly, although the book had much promise I did not much take to the character of Leila, whom I found selfish and immature. Jake, by contrast is extraordinarily kind and caring and seems to get dumped on at every turn.
The story unfolds slowly with little relief from the main characters as the reader is not invested in the subplots of Leila's mother or Jake's father, and I remained detached from the characters until the ending which packed more punch.
With thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the chance to read and review this book.

I did not want this book to end, absolutely loved it from start to finish. A good book is one which makes me stop doing everything else so that I can read it, this is such a book. I laughed and cried and did not want it to end.

I do think that this book was beautifully written and overall was a good story of love and loss, but I just found the main character too irritating to really connect with her. She just spent the whole time whinging and whining and I found myself not wanting to pick up the book to continue it. I do like a ‘will they won’t they’ storyline, however when they constantly keep bickering and falling out, it starts to get a little tiresome.

Honest, raw and achingly romantic, I loved this story of loss, love and life. A real page turner with truth, heart and believable character journeys. Beautifully told.

When neighbors Leila and Jake meet when they’re 11, they make for an unlikely pair. She, the daughter of a loving father yet abandoned by her mother who mysteriously sends her charm bracelet charms every year. He, the son of an abusive father and causes trouble wherever he goes yet is trying to find himself. Most of the time they drive each other crazy, but as they weave in and out of each other’s lives over the years, their feisty friendship blossoms into something much deeper until they realize it may be something way more than just neighbors.

💭 This novel tugged at my heart so much as I was rooting for both characters. It is definitely a coming of age novel of two troubled teens each with their own set of setbacks trying to, well, grow up. Leila and Jake both had obstacles to overcome and I loved how the author portrayed each character dealing with all things teens do growing up. Although some of the parts were kinda cheesy, I think that went with the appeal of the novel and the ending will make you want to grab those tissues.

To know: coming of age, dual perspectives, parental relationships, hardship and grief, love and growing up, long timeline

“The only constant in life is change. You can’t control it. Nothing is ever certain. Nothing. And it’s only what we do when we’re faced with that fact that makes us who we are.”

Devastatingly stunning: the only way to describe this story of Jake and Leila.

Allbright masterfully develops the individual stories and plights of both characters and their circumstances; yet strategically interweaving and overlapping them, leaving the reader to question how feasible it would be to separate the two when Jake is Leila and Leila is Jake.

Structurally, I loved this book - the thoughtful, circular structure gauges, manipulates and evokes an emotional reaction, that even the reader didn’t know they were holding onto. I know that my reaction was perpetual and guttural, as I turned the last page of the story.

The dual narrative, written in first person, from the viewpoint of both Jake and Leila, allows the reader to feel and experience the hurt, the anger, the loss, the hope, the desire and the love that these characters battle as their story unfolds. The ‘will they won’t they’ question battling away in the reader’s mind leaves you bereft and frantic, devouring the pages and losing all sense of time, desperate to get the outcome you’ve dangerously envisaged.

I absolutely loved the characters of Jake and Leila. On a personal level, the book really hit home and knocked the wind out of me, due to how familiar the story felt and how uncanny some of the similarities were. It’s a book that left me thinking about the characters I’d left behind, as I closed the book, but also about a matter close to my own heart. I know this story will forever stay with me.

If you do one thing, after reading this review, if you haven’t already, buy the book; if you have it already - bump it to the tip of your list. Don’t waste any time leaving g it for later. Just be prepared to protect your heart, as you read, because there’s no going back once you’ve fallen in love with the characters and their story.

Author # Ella Allbright's novel #'The Last Charm' is a heartwarming love story. I love a novel that is honest. Leila loses her charm bracelet and a stranger finds it. To be able to claim it she has to tell the story of how she got the charms. Twenty years of love, hope, and loss. This is a wonderful romantic story.
Thank you,
#Netgalley, # Ella Allbright and Harper Collins for the advanced copy.

I did not like this book. I could not connect with the character; she felt too Eeyore-like to me. Everyone has bad things happen in their lives, but at some point they have to put their big girl pants on and figure out how to deal with it. I might not have enjoyed it because I do not like to listen to my friends throw a pity party for themselves, so I was not going to let the main character do the same.

Where to start with a review for a book like this one?! Wow. Jake and Leila's story is so powerful and so beautiful and I just fell in love. Wonderful book, a must read! I am keeping my review short as I dont want to give anything away and genuinely think everyone should just read it!

This was a readable book about a life long friendship that turns into romance. It is told as Leila has lost her charm bracelet and she describes the story of each of the charms on it in order to get it back from a person who finds it. I didn’t love the ending of this book because it isn’t a happy one! I did enjoy the story of Leila and Jake and their relationship.

Although I was enjoying this book, I found that it was quite heavy going. As a result of this, I have not finished it yet and I am not in the right headspace to carry on.

I like the author's writing style and I will definitely read more books by her, but at the minute this is not one for me and I've had to take a break from it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and OMC for providing me with an advanced copy.

A genuinely beautiful story of love, family, and nostalgia. It also comes with some quite difficult topics (abandonment, familial abuse, loss) which I didn't expect but was handled extremely well. Ella's research is clear and worthwhile.

It's a story full of emotion, love, friendship and hope. A must read to brighten up dreary November days.

An emotional read that follows two people as they leave and comeback into each other's lives over and over again. The choice by this author to tell the story by charm was unique and endearing, I was so unprepared for how this beautiful would make me feel, I know this will be one I keep on my shelves forever, and will recommend often!