Pack Up The Moon by Kristan Higgins was an emotional stand alone novel. The story follows a wonderful young newly married couple, Joshua and Lauren, who are very much in love. Lauren begins to have issues with possible asthma attacks, causing breathing problems; but soon she is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Joshua is a genius in designing medical devices, and tries to find one that will help his wife. Lauren does everything she can to fight this illness, figuring she has years, since she was only in her late twenties; but when pneumonia sets in and the breathing worsens, she realizes that she has little time left.

When Lauren passes, Joshua is grief stricken, unable to handle the loss of his true love. It was very emotional to see him and the rest of the family that grieved with him; Jen (Lauren’s sister), Sarah (her best friend), Lauren and Joshua’s mothers, Jen’s husband and two children, and Pebbles, the dog, as they all bonded together to get through this tragedy. I thought the characters that Higgins created were wonderful, and did get a kick out of Joshua’s new gay friend he meets later, Radley.

The POV’s follow both Lauren (in past) and Joshua (present time), grieving the loss of his wife. In Lauren’s POV, she goes back to when she first met and fell in love with Joshua, as well as writing notes to her deceased dad. Knowing that she will die soon, Lauren decides to write 12 letters to Joshua (one for each month) that she left to her friend Sarah to hold and give to him each month for one year, after her death. At first the letters, make Joshua grieve, but feesl she is still with him, but as they come each month, Lauren, who was wonderful, has given him different instructions to help him cope and move on. Some of things were to get out of the house and go grocery shopping, have all his family over for dinner, buy new clothes, get rid of some furniture, and closer to the end find a new love, especially since he was still very young. I did love this concept.

Pack Up the Moon was a heartbreaking, tragic and very emotional story, that at times was depressing, but also had some funny moments later in. I loved both Lauren and Joshua, as well as their family. Pack Up the Moon was so very well written by Kristan Higgins.

Heartbreaking and beautiful every character in this story has depth and personality. The story is alternates between hopeful and incredibly sad so that it isn't a complete downer. Including the wife's POV made it so much more interesting than if it had only been her letters and his POV. Overall, a great cathartic story for those who enjoy "sad" fiction.

Drivel. I will never read another one of her books ever. I can't make my review over 100 characters because none of it would be nice.

I don't think there is much this author couldn't write! She successfully has written is so many different genre's and troupes! I've read and enjoyed other books by this author.

This was a very well written book, but warning- it was a very heavy, emotional read!

I look forward to more from this author!

I. Am. Sobbing. I haven't cried this hard during a book and I know it will stay with me.

To have a type of love like that just touched me. Their love was so passionate, consuming and so wonderful. I can't imagine the grief. It was so hard to read (because I kept picturing my relationship with my boyfriend), but it was an experience I will cherish.

I think following these two with alternating time periods added so much to the story.

Now I'm off to go sob some more and love this book forever.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group!

4.5 STARS

Joshua and Lauren seem to be on top of the world: perfect couple, beautiful marriage, amazing careers until everything comes crashing down when Lauren is diagnosed with a terminal illness. They have barely been married a year; young people are not supposed to get sick and die. As Lauren becomes sicker while trying to eek out every moment of life left to her, Josh tries to be every bit of supportive while coming to terms with losing the love of his life. He desperately tries to find a cure for her disease and since he is in the medical field, not being able to help Lauren is doubly crushing.

Lauren knows that Josh will be lost without her and so in a selfless and loving way, she uses the last days of her life to write Josh a series of letters for each month of the first year after she is gone. They are love letters with instructions for Josh to help him not only through the grief, pain, and the devastation of her loss; but to help him reenter the world. Lauren knows with Josh’s autism that he struggles with relating and engaging with people under normal circumstances. She gives him a series of jobs and goals to perform pushing Josh way out of his comfort zone.

Josh has some family, mostly Lauren’s, who are grieving too, but not many friends. He only wanted Lauren, his love and best friend, and so pushing himself to complete Lauren’s appointed tasks seems nearly impossible. Although he wants to do anything but connect with people, Josh is determined to follow Lauren’s instructions because he loved her so very much. Just because Lauren is gone, that love has not died nor diminished. Like most people who lose a beloved spouse, Josh cannot conceive that the world goes on while he is feeling so lost and disconnected because Lauren is no longer with him.

Josh and Lauren’s stories are told in tandem with Lauren’s thoughts and experiences going mostly backward in time, and Josh moving through life without Lauren interspersed with his memories of their all too brief life together. They had so much love and joy in their super nova time together. Ms. Higgins takes her readers on quite an emotional journey that will leave no one untouched. People who already have one foot in heaven understand the urgency in living life to the fullest and that every moment is precious. The light shines in the darkness reminding readers what matters most in this world is our relationships to those we love, blood family and found family.

This book wrecked me. I am not sure what prompted this story but the thing that got me the most was the depth of love. Yes, we read about love in many forms and fashion in books today. This one though, this is all consuming. Powerful, emotional, and soul wrenching.

I loved it and hated it too. I was afraid to read it because I knew it was going to be a tough story to get through. I cannot imagine trying to even write something like this.

I can go on and on with my thoughts on this book. It truly touched my soul and one of my thoughts as I closed the book was “Oh, to have a love like that!” But the more I thought about it, I do have a love like that… one that I need to get back to again. What an amazing reminder to find and rekindle that early love and remember why we fell in the first place. We just need to nurture it more, like they did.

Higgans crafted not a novel, but an amazing experience. One I will not forget. Keep a new box of tissues with you while reading this one.

Procured via: Netgalley
Book Title and Author: “Pack Up the Moon” by Kristin Higgins
______________________________________________________________________________
RELEASE DATE: June 8, 2021

RATING: 5 Stars *****

GENRE: Contemporary Romance/Family

AUDIENCE: Fans of Susan Donovan, Jennifer Cruise, Sarah Addison Allen will enjoy this book.

REVIEW: I’ve read everything Kristan Higgins has written and am a huge fan of her writing style. She’s never hesitated to move me in any of her previous novels. Even knowing this ahead of time, I was woefully unprepared for the heart wrenching emotions that carried me from page one to the very end of this story. This is one of those books I’m nervous writing about, because there’s no way to convey how deeply this story touched me.

First things first, when readers sits down to dig into this book, grab a box of tissue. Plan to be alone for at least a half hour. Dear Reader will be sobbing, and we don’t want to frighten the kiddies, spouses, friends, or co-workers that may come upon us as they are wont to do. I’m not going to lie to you, because I’m good like that, Dear Reader will want the Kleenex at all times throughout this novel. It’s that moving.

The novel starts with Josh and Lauren. They are the couple everyone envies because they are so.darn.happy. Just married and meant for each other, like, written in the stars in love. Lauren loves how Josh needs her to navigate this crazy world, and the people in it. Josh is on the autism spectrum but is also genius-level smart. He’s also kind and good-natured. Josh loves how Lauren loves him, her family, and her life with her whole heart. She’s everything he’s ever needed in a partner. However…

The floor has dropped from under Josh because Lauren has died. Dear Reader, don’t freak out and snark at me about spoilers. We go into this knowing that Lauren is gone. Simmer down.

Josh and Lauren have had some time with the knowledge that she’s dying. Of course, there’s never enough time to accept that, but they have opportunities to make the best of things before she’s gone. Time is spent with her family, time is spent together talking about the end. Josh and Lauren try to fit as much as they can into the time she has left. One thing Lauren fits into her last months is a series of letters for Josh, one a month for the first year she’s gone. HEARTBREAKING!!!

With Lauren gone, Josh is struggling. The best part of his life is gone, and he is devastated. He is blessed with family and friends that try to support him, but it’s Lauren’s letters that help him move through the many firsts he must face without her by his side.

Through the letters are experiences she encourages him to face when she’s gone. She has asked her best friend Sarah to dole them out monthly, and it seems as though Lauren is almost prescient in some of the requests she makes. Through the letters readers understand how clearly she knew him and how much she loved him.

I’m not going to detail the letters, because that would be a spoiler, but with Lauren’s help from the Great Beyond, Josh manages to move from being a very broken man to one who can see that maybe there is a future beyond his loss. Some of her assignments are practical, some are funny, and some will make Dear Reader sob. Tissues, tissues, tissues.

There was a LOT of emotion packed within the pages of this book, and with the heartbreak there was also love, laughter, and acceptance. I ugly cried, laughed, and then ugly cried some more. There was a lot to this book, and by the end I was so grateful to have shared their story, fictional as it is.

*Tremendous thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an ARC.

FYI: Readers can learn more about Kristan Higgins and discover her previous works at: Kristan Higgins | New York Times Bestselling Author

Joshua and Lauren are the perfect couple. Newly married, they're wildly in love, each on a successful and rewarding career path. Then Lauren is diagnosed with a terminal illness.

As Lauren's disease progresses, Joshua struggles to make the most of the time he has left with his wife and to come to terms with his future--a future without the only woman he's ever loved. He's so consumed with finding a way to avoid the inevitable ending that he never imagines his life after Lauren.

 But Lauren has a plan to keep her husband moving forward. A plan hidden in the letters she leaves him. In those letters, one for every month in the year after her death, Lauren leads Joshua on a journey through pain, anger, and denial. It's a journey that will take Joshua from his attempt at a dinner party for family and friends to getting rid of their bed...from a visit with a psychic medium to a kiss with a woman who isn't Lauren. As his grief makes room for laughter and new relationships, Joshua learns Lauren's most valuable lesson: The path to happiness doesn't follow a straight line.

Dabney and Maggie read Kristan Higgins' Pack Up the Moon, then (virtually) got together to discuss the novel and are here to share their thoughts.

MB: According to my quick, possibly flawed research, AAR has reviewed all of Ms. Higgins’ books – some of them twice! I’ve read most of her older works but haven’t really picked her up since her (mediocre to me) Blue Heron series. My favorite book by her is Just One of the Guys, which made me laugh out loud in quite a few of the scenes. What is your history with this author?

DG: I’ve read all of Higgins’ books, interviewed her three times, and am, overall, a huge fan of her work. Several books in the Blue Heron series are DIKS for me - Anything for You and The Best Man, and I can’t lavish enough praise on several of her women’s fiction title - If You Only Knew and On Second Thought are my faves. I think, especially in her women’s fiction, she presents emotional issues with nuance and affection better than many of her peers.

MB:  This book certainly deals with a deeply emotional issue – the death of a spouse. It would be easy for such a novel to be a complete tearjerker, but that isn’t the case here. It’s sweet, funny, and optimistic without ever minimizing the pain of Josh’s loss. I cried – but I laughed a lot, too. Was that your experience as well?

DG: Well… this book wasn’t quite for me. Perhaps it’s because I read it months ago at the height of the pandemic, but I found the subject matter depressing and the humor off. I spent much of my time reading it shaking my head and thinking “nope.”

MB: What about it had you saying "nope"? The depiction of dying, the humor fell flat (if so, why?), the responses of grief? What gave you pause?

DG: To begin with, I found the illness Lauren was dying from to be so brutal. She's literally slowly choking to death. Higgins does a phenomenal job of really showing the reader what this illness does to its victims and how, though there's no cure, medicine treats it. She does such a good job that I felt mired in the tragedy that is idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and, amid COVID, that wasn't what I was looking for. That horror was wedged into Lauren's voice, and letters which were so chipper and cutesy (most, but not all, of the time) that I felt whipsawed.

MB: That "whipsawing" actually felt real to me. I work in the mental health industry and in personal health care, where we see a lot of suffering. I am really familiar with the sentiment (if not the phrasing) of Lauren and Josh and their motto of "Get busy living or get busy dying" which they called Shawshanking (since the original line comes from the film The Shawshank Redemption). In fact, one of the things I really liked about this book was that Lauren and Josh handled the illness in a way that felt so typical - starting with tracking down all the possible cures available through Western Medicine, then alternative medicine, diet changes etc. I thought Lauren and Josh worked together beautifully as a couple. He was methodical, organized, proactive, and focused, and she reminded him of the importance of having a life by enjoying friends and family and fun times through the dying process rather than just letting the disease be their life 24/7. Her joie de vivre and how she brought that out in him as well was fantastic and one of the things that sold me on their romance. What did you think of them as a couple?

DG: I thought both were far more stereotypes than I'd expected from a writer of Higgins' caliber. I also thought—and again, this is MY trigger—that Lauren and Josh were written in a way I can only call instructive. Their personas seemed crafted to show how to be a really good person in the middle of a really bad thing. I don’t mind that in and of itself. But here, I felt that moral modeling made the leads seem less believable.

But, to go back to what you just said, I do think Higgins is on the money in the way she had Josh and Lauren pursue cures and come to terms with Lauren's illness. I'm involved with Compassion and Choices, a national nonprofit advocating for patient rights and individual choice at the end of life, and I give full marks to how Higgins showed both the hope and the crushing devastation that comes when facing death and dying. But for me, that realness juxtaposed against the lightness of their love story kept distracting from both.

I wasn't wild about either Josh or Lauren although I liked him better than I did her. Lauren was both overly chipper and overly - at times - bratty. Josh's stoicism and grief made him hard for me to really get a grip on.

MB: Our reactions here are the exact opposite. I liked Lauren and know a lot of women like her but Josh was a problem for me. I've met hundreds of people on the spectrum, and he isn't an accurate portrayal of the disorder. I get tired of the only slightly off center – and always in a way that benefits them – Asperger’s/Autism novelized individual because such characterizations often make it hard to get the funding these clients need to live full lives in the real world. Additionally, those moments when Josh sees red and essentially loses control of his temper were also an issue for me.  Some of those encounters are violent and involve him actually laying his hands on people. One stereotype that we are constantly fighting against in the mental health industry is that the neuro-different are dangerous and violent. None of the research supports that.

I found Josh’s stoicism realistic but not the fact he combined it with being such a great caregiver. I'm often with the families for years and the guys tend to be strong emotionally but leave the work of physical care giving to others. Josh combining the two felt off, but I understood the author was trying to convince me how perfect he was :-)

Moving on, the secondary characters here are wonderful. I loved almost all of them – Josh’s friend Radley, Lauren’s friend Sarah, the family members. They were exquisitely detailed and articulated. They were also not filler but an integral part of the story; each of them showed us a different aspect of the grieving process and how to be a friend to someone in need.

DG: I always like those who people Higgins' books. They're multifaceted and often funny. I loved Lauren's family especially. I didn't love Sarah. The relationship that she, Lauren, and Josh shared made me sad for her. I didn't want her to have her life shaped by Lauren but I did want her to find joy which, shoehorned in at the end, I think she did.

MB: I am probably biased toward Sarah because I work with lots of social workers and love them all!  I’ve read several novels with letters the deceased left for the living as a theme. It would have been easy for this to be an overly cutesy trope, but I thought the notes showcased how well Lauren knew Josh and also how well she knew the role she played in his life. As he performed the short list of challenges she left behind, it seemed to help him grow and mature in a lot of ways. What did you think of the missives and their errands?

DG: While I love the idea of the letters - I know someone who did this beautifully - Lauren's clear wish to literally pick Josh's second wife discomfited me. I’m not bothered by that trope in and of itself; one of my favorite historical romances is Lorraine Heath’s Waking Up with The Duke. But in Pack Up the Moon, Lauren’s letters seemed manipulative in a way that rubbed me the wrong way.

MB: I thought Lauren offered a solution that would assure her husband and another person significant to her were happy without her. It felt less manipulative and more wish fulfillment to me. What did bother me was when Josh introduced his own contender in this arena who is the anti-Lauren – a complete mess of a human being who was incompetent in a low powered career where Lauren had been so brilliant and capable in a high powered one, a person who irritated those around her while Lauren had been so charming strangers loved her, a person who couldn’t cope with setbacks while Lauren grew from them – and that left me thinking that Josh wanted someone around who had no chance of ever being anything more than second best.

DG: Yep. When Josh does pick his own choice for his next love, she’s such the anti-Lauren that his choice challenges—and not in a good way—the reader’s sense that he’ll be happy.

MB: I agree. What did you think of the overall structure of the novel? The book essentially starts with Lauren’s funeral and tells the love story through flashbacks and letters.  I thought the flashbacks were terrific and loved learning who Josh was as Lauren’s husband while simultaneously seeing who he was becoming without her. How did you feel about the non-linear style of the story?

DG: I liked the structure of the novel. Beginning with Lauren’s death and then going backward in time made it much easier to slowly take in how awful what happened to her and to Josh is. Again, I think Higgins is a hugely gifted author. Here, her skill at using the style of the story to peel back the facets of her characters works brilliantly.

MB: I thought the ending was a bit too long and detracted a bit from the overall narrative. I would have preferred for the novel to end after the jesa ceremony and the touching moment at the end of that chapter. The last few pages and the epilogue felt tacked on and almost like the start to another book. What did you think of the ending?

DG: Well, after all the trauma Josh went through, I was happy to see he was so happy and that he had found love and a way to live with joy. So, it worked for me.

MB: I’ve made a few complaints but overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Pack Up the Moon and my grade for it is an A-. What about you?

DG: It’s B/B- for me. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I read the book now, its sadness wouldn’t wallop me in the same way. I’ve loved so many of Higgins’ books and this one does have, on the surface, so much I’d normally have enjoyed. So, I’ll play it safe and fair and go with a B!

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent retailer
Visit our Amazon Storefront

This book absolutely wrecked me in the best possible way. I wept through most of it even though it used a trope (time hopping) that I usually do not enjoy. It was just a little too woo for me and that brought it down but it was overall a highly enjoyable read. Higgins is usually a romance writer and, while I wouldn't put this book firmly in that category, regular readers won't be disappointed.
Joshua is on the autism spectrum and he knows that he will never find anyone who understands him as well as his wife Lauren. But Lauren is now dead having passed away from an incurable disease that slowly robbed her of her ability to breathe. It was a drawn-out process that hurt them both but also left Lauren enough time to leave Joshua a series of letters to be delivered roughly monthly. She knew that he would have time adapting and she wanted to make sure he had a life after her death. Some of the tasks are small, some are larger, but she hopes that they will help him recognize that there is life after death and that his next great love might have been in front of him all along.

Four stars
This book come out June 8th
ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Here is one interesting plot for a novel- about a lady who leaves her husband letters for every day of the month for a year, when she finds out she is dying. Interesting indeed isn’t it? But that is the sort of punch Kristin Higgins is bringing into her new fiction titled Pack up the Moon.

The Plot
Just married, Joshua and Lauren are madly in love with each other. They head on to their bliss-filled journey of life together, until Lauren is diagnosed with a terminal illness. As her disease progresses, Joshua needs to make the most of his time with her. Not to mention he also needs to come to terms with the fact that he would be living future years without the woman that he has loved. Lauren understanding the plight of her dear husband decides to take matters into her own hands. She decides to leave him letters- one for every month in the year after her death. Through her letters, Joshua tackles pain, denial, anger and is able to tackle his grief. And through her letters, Joshua learns Lauren’s most valuable lesson: The path to happiness doesn’t follow a straight line. An uplifting novel in every way, Kristan Higgins brings to light life’s greatest joys that we so often miss out on.

Review
The characters were well developed- not perfect, just plain realistic. Joshua’s grief is felt throughout the narrative and his ability to overcome it through the letters warms the heart. I could really feel the emotions that the characters were experiencing. A tad predictable for I knew the direction this story was going in.

Verdict
Not too much of a tear-jerker, a bit humorous as well. A thumbs up for those seeking simple Saturday afternoon reads. Go for it!

PSA: Make sure tissues are handy before you crack open the covers of Pack Up the Moon, it’s a tearjerker!

I definitely shed more than “a few” tears while reading Pack Up the Moon, just like I did with P.S. I Love You (both the book and the movie). This is a story about love, death, grief, and family – in all its forms. Joshua and Lauren are young and happily married, looking forward to their life together. Then Lauren is diagnosed with a terminal disease, and Josh goes into a tailspin. And Pack Up the Moon captures all the emotions and feelings when death is on the horizon.

I loved how Lauren leaves letters for her on-the-spectrum husband to help with his grief. Her tasks, her voice, her obvious love for him shines in Higgins’ writing. And Josh’s attempts at fulfilling Lauren’s request are filled with laughter (the catastrophe that is his first dinner “party” post-Lauren), charm (5-year-olds giving him the stink-eye at karate class), and humor (meeting his new BFF while shopping for new clothes). You’ll laugh as much as you cry reading Pack Up the Moon.

Pack Up the Moon is trademark Higgins, and you won’t regret adding it to your summer reading pile. (But seriously, get those tissues ready…)

drey’s rating: Excellent!

I don't usually like to read books centered around death but I knew two things: 1) Kristan Higgins is my favorite author and I'd read anything she wrote and 2) if anyone could sprinkle humor, light, and charm in a book centered around death, it was Kristan Higgins. And she did. OMG, PACK UP THE MOON was absolutely beautiful. I cried so much, but I also laughed. I'm still crying now. Josh and Lauren, their dog Pepper, and their families and friends stole my heart as Higgins' characters always do. I didn't want the book to end yet I had trouble putting it down. I loved it.

All the feels and all the stars for Kristan Higgins' latest tearjerker, Pack Up the Moon!

When Joshua becomes a widower in his 30s, it's safe to say his life is not going to look quite as he anticipated. When he ends up discovering that his late wife, Lauren, has left him a series of letters for moving on with his life, the letters may have the opposite effect. As Higgins takes us along on Joshua's journey of grief, we meet quite a cast of wonderful characters and their stories made me laugh, cry and hope alongside them.

This book is a bit of a departure from some of Higgins more rom-com ish books but equally as wonderful and further cements my decision that I would read this woman's grocery list!

Pack Up the Moon was an emotional ride that reminded me of books like Forever Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The story follows Lauren and Josh, a young couple who at first live a happy life together. But sadly, Lauren is diagnosed with a rare lung disease and passes away at age 30. The year following her death, Lauren leaves Josh 12 letters, each with a task for him to complete every month. Josh steps out of his comfort zone by trying new things and learns how to be happy again despite the loss of his wife.

Told in alternating timelines between Lauren’s letters and her life before death and Josh in the present day, Pack Up the Moon was a beautiful story that really captures the complexities of grief. I teared up many times and was sad for Josh and what he went through, but I also found myself smiling at how he was able to find himself again after such a terrible loss. I absolutely loved it ❤️

I've read and enjoyed other books by this author. While this book was well written, it was a very heavy, emotional read, and with all that has gone on in the world over the past year, it was a bit too much to take in.

The characters are engaging, but tragedy hits, and grief dominates a large part of the story, though there are a few humorous parts. I enjoyed the monthly letters that Lauren utilized with Josh. the story has multiple POVs and timelines, and the transitions were a bit confusing at times. I really liked Radley and his relationship with Josh.

Pack Up the Moon follows the alternating stories of married couple Josh and Lauren. Lauren passes away in her twenties after a rare illness, leaving behind the socially awkward Josh with a mountain of grief. However, she also leaves letters of advice for Josh to open each month after her death, helping him cope with his new normal from beyond the grave. Lauren's POV tracks the "before" of their love story, while Josh's follows his life after losing Lauren.

Higgins' transition into women's fiction after publishing so many romance books hasn't really wowed me so far, and this book wasn't an exception. The first half focused very heavily on Josh's mourning to the point of feeling repetitive without much plot progression. The second half was more enjoyable and quick, but Higgins falls back on a very "tell-instead-of-show" writing style that just reads a little clunkily, and this awkwardness carries over into the dialogue sometimes. I'm also not sure Lauren's chapters were as strong as they could be - at one point, they just blended together in a sea of medical symptoms without providing much detail about her relationship with Josh.

Arriving when people are finally seeing the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, the timing of this book is very lucky. Some portions are very heavy and sad, and just a few months ago, I don't think many people could manage or feel drawn to this story. It does have its sweet and beautiful moments that are Higgins' trademark, but as other reviewers mentioned, it does feel a bit too much like a P.S. I Love You clone.

I’m a big fan of Ms. Higgins and have read probably every book she’s written. I really looked forward to this book and while Ms. Higgins is an excellent writer and can be so hilarious, I didn’t want to sob through the majority of a book. She writes engaging characters in Lauren and Josh and how wonderfully happy and in love they are until tragedy hits. Many times we see the grief from the female perspective and I think this was even more poignant with the male grieving.

The monthly letters were a great vehicle to force Josh to do something as Lauren knew him well – he would have just stayed at home and become a complete recluse. Josh really struggled with some of her requests and my heart just broke as he read her letters over and over, his grief just devastating him.

I did enjoy the past from Lauren’s POV although it would take me a minute to determine the timeline as it was continually going further back in time in various monthly increments.

I loved Radley’s character and how he and Josh became friends in unusual circumstances. Lauren had so many friends and helped Josh to meet others, so it was important to see him take this step on his own.

There were some funny parts to the story, but grief tended to dominate and was just overwhelmingly sad.

Josh struggled to find someone to love per Lauren’s instructions, but his consuming grief just kept me from thinking he would ever be able to move on. There was a sweet ending, but I wasn’t sure about the HEA as we don’t really know much about it.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this new work.

This is a precious fragile story of a young couple who face the wife being diagnosed with a terminal illness shortly after they are married. The book uses flashbacks to let the reader in on the backstory but begins with Lauren ( the wife) dying and how her husband deals with his grief.
Lauren has written him a letter for each month to be given to him by her best friend to help him get on with life. She knows that it is going to be incredibly hard for him to cope because of the wonderful relationship they had and because she know the socially challenged person he will be without her. Each month's letter has a different task for him to complete such as going out and buying groceries, getting a new wardrobe and replacing some furniture. Each of these tasks are hard for him because he feels like he is letting go of her. he both looks forward to her letters because it keeps her close to him but fears what she will ask him to do. He progresses in a very kind and gentle way thanks to her guidance. it is a very touching process (be sure you have a big box of tissues close while reading.
I chose this book because I was curious about her letters since I have recently lost my husband (but I am quite a bit older than this couple.) I found her suggestions in the letters quite accurate and needed. I had moved through many of her steps already. I highly recommend this book for those who have lost a spouse.
I would also recommend for any reader who loves a wonderful love story. This is a beautifully crafted book , touching and warm and good for several good cries.

I started this book not sure if I would enjoy it. But as I continued reading it, I realized while it is a sad topic it was very enjoyable. Josh receives a letter monthly from his deceased wife with one thing to accomplish in his life. It made me think about my own husband - would he be able to move on with life in the same way as Josh? By the time I finished this book I can honestly say I didn't want it to end. It hooked me and it was hard to put down but I did - that way I enjoyed it longer.