The Last Goodbye by Fiona Lucas. The story of Anna and Brody and how they met, their relationship, tragdies, and their growth. I really liked the characters. They seemed very real, human and believable. It was nice to see Anna and Brody's relationship develop through talking. The MIL was written perfectly. It was a serious story, but has some light-hearted moments. It kept me reading to find out more about Brody and his secret. I'm so glad to see him work out his panic attacks/anxiety with professional help. I didn't expect what to happen at the NYE meeting, but I'm so glad they got together. I'm not sure why there was a part 1 and part 2. There wasn't a break in the storyline. I will recommend!

TW: grief, anxiety

This story was so moving. Anna's husband died almost three years ago, and she knows precisely when to the number of days. Her friends and family want her to move on, but she doesn't expect to. On a particularly low evening, she tries to call his phone number.

Brody is more of a mystery. It's clear he has also experienced loss and grief, and he is there for Anna in a way that others in her life haven't been able to be.

The book handled grief in such a real way, showing how deeply individual it can be and how many emotions it can contain. It's not an easy book to read. For me, it was an important one that touched me.

I enjoyed this story. I got the sense of mixture of You've Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle and Lake House. I was totally enthralled with this story. It had me laughing out loud and crying the "ugly tears". I just wish the ending was a little better but overall this story is worth your time.

The Last Goodbye by Fiona Luca is an emotional story about overcoming grief.

Three years after Anna’s husband and the love of her life died she is finally trying to move on. Anna’s mother in law is making things difficult for her. Anna feels guilty about dating but doesn’t want to be alone all forever. Anna doesn’t have anyone she can talk to that understands until one day she calls her late husband’s cell to listen to his voicemail and Brody answers. An unlikely friendship develops. How will this friendship change Anna and Brody and impact their lives? Will Anna move on with her life and find happiness?

I really enjoyed The Last Goodbye. The story is very interesting and kept me invested the whole time. I was invested in Anna’s life from the beginning. It is tragic that Anna lost her husband, but I enjoyed how she is working to figure out how to move on and be happy without forgetting him. She is trying not to hurt anyone’s feelings or lose anyone in her life. Anna is struggling with what to do and doesn’t feel like her friends and family understands. When Brody answers Spencer’s old number, Anna now has someone that understands her. Brody has experienced a loss in his life but also has secrets. I enjoyed Anna and Brody’s friendship developing even when they didn’t know each other’s last names or what they looked like. Brody is a very interesting character, so I enjoyed learning about his life too. The Last Goodbye is emotional and a great story.

I recommend The Last Goodbye for fans of Jojo Moyes and Josie Silver.

Thank you William Morrow and NetGalley for The Last Goodbye.

THE LAST GOODBYE by Fiona Lucas is a heart-wrenching and emotional story of grief, loss and a second chance at love that I won’t soon forget. Three years ago, Anna lost her beloved husband, Spencer, in a tragic accident. He was her everything and she is finding it hard to move on without him. Despite her best friend, Gabi, gently urging her back into the dating world, Anna knows she is just not ready. On a particularly trying New Year’s Eve, Anna calls Spencer’s mobile number just to hear his voice if only on his voicemail greeting. She is stunned when a man picks up and talks to her. Brody now has Spencer’s phone number. The story unfolds as the conversations between Anna and Brody become more frequent and personal. Brody seems to understand her grief like no one else but he never shares what loss he has experienced. As they become more and more dependent on one another, will Brody’s secrets come between them? Both heartbreaking and hopeful, this story showed how everyone deals differently with loss and bereavement and there is no one way to grieve. I could completely relate to these characters and their journey toward new beginnings. I loved this beautiful and poignant book and highly recommend it. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read any early copy.

I loved this book. In the story of Anna and Brody, they navigated thru loss and grief and the resulting anxiety and being stuck in it, while also finding friendship and love in the process.

Thru a bit of an accident, they “meet” each other via phone call and become the support and empathy each other has been missing but truly needs to move forward. The author did an amazing job wading thru what grief really looks like, the raw honesty and vulnerability of it, with Brody and Anna, along with the difficult back and forth that happens with grief and trauma and the risk you have to take when you try to grow and move forward. She highlights how much people really need each other even tho it’s easier to stay isolated and hide what you feel.

Obviously the theme of loss and grief is a heavy one not everyone is going to love but it was so well written in this love story and it resonated so much with me and my experiences, and those of people I know, that I thought it was excellent.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to hug this book when I had finished reading it.

Thank you, author Fiona Lucas, for a hopeful, well-written romantic story of loss and moving on, where the reader finds themselves both liking and rooting for the characters.

We meet the main character, Anna, hiding under her duvet cover, and learn that she is mourning the loss of her husband, Spencer, from three years earlier. While she is working and "surviving", Anna is overwhelmed with grief. Enter Gabi, Anna's perky best friend who tries to get Anna to "move on" by creating opportunities for her to take salsa dancing lessons, meet other people, etc. Yet, Anna is reluctant to move on. One thing Anna does for comfort occasionally when she is alone is to call Spencer's phone number to hear his voicemail.

Except one time she calls and there is a voice, not a voicemail, at the other end of the line.
She calls again and this stranger becomes a comfort, a life-saver, someone who listens, has experienced loss, and offers a kind of understanding Anna has been longing for. She calls back, again and again, and begins to develop a bond with Brody, the voice on the other end of the line.

Brody has experienced his own loss and is less willing to share about his own journey, living a life of seclusion because of it. However, he becomes increasingly important to Anna and vice versa. Will he stop holding back? What will happen when his truth comes out?

I appreciate the hopefulness of this story, despite dealing with tough topics. I also appreciate that the characters do not do grief "perfectly". I love the purity of the relationship that develops as Brody and Anna talk over the phone but yet do not meet in person.

Give this book a read. Or a hug. Whichever.

*Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was a sweet story about two people with horrific tragedies that are trying to find their way through the grief. I felt connected to the characters. The story seemed to drag a bit about a third of the way through, but I kept reading and became more engaged in the story. I was also left wanting a little more at the end. I think an epilogue would've been great to give the reader a little more about what happens next.

The Last Goodbye by Fiona Lucas is a great fictional novel that tells a story of grief, loss, love, and trying to find oneself again.

I really enjoyed this slow narrative of two people, each dealing with their own internal and external conflicts and losses, brought together by fate and how they are able to help each other find hope and a second chance.

The slowly developing story and how Anna and Brody meet, work through their current lives, and find hope, love, and acceptance again was touching, heartfelt, bittersweet, and left the reader with a promising ending. I also enjoyed the full circle that the characters experienced from their first encounter to the last line of the book. Very creative.

4/5 stars

Thank you NG and William Morrow for this arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication.

Imagine losing the love of your life when your lives together were just beginning? You grab your phone one day to dial his number just to hear his voice and someone else answers the call! The Last Goodbye is a beautifully written story about love, loss, and hope. It will have you laughing and crying. I'm thankful for #netgalley for this advanced copy.

The Last Goodbye is a fabulous story about grief and the journey to healing, but I wouldn't classify it as much of a romance. Anna is still dealing with the tragic and unexpected loss of her husband, Spencer, three years after his death. She is spiraling and can't figure out a way to keep her head above water. One particularly lonely night she dials Spencer's old number and is surprised when another man answers. Brody is the new owner of Spencer's number and he and Anna strike up a friendship based on their shared grief experiences.

Fiona Lucas did an excellent job with character development and I felt she gave an accurate portrayal of grief. The ups and downs and relearning new routines, even reimagining the life you thought you'd have - those elements were all delicately and beautifully portrayed in The Last Goodbye. While I loved reading Anna's journey and seeing her growth, I didn't feel the connection between her and Brody. I thought they had a nice friendship and they were both integral parts of the other's growth, but the romantic "spark" was missing for me.
The Last Goodbye is a book about love, but also about grief. It's a heavy subject matter and Fiona Lucas writes it beautifully.

This is a beautiful story about grief, moving on, and overcoming fear. I loved both Anna and Brody as characters and they both brought unique perspectives to the book. My one complaint is that I wanted to see Anna and Brody together for more than just a moment, but overall a very sweet book.

*Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

A very emotionally gripping story!

One emotional night had Anna making split decision that would take her life down a path that in the end just might save her! After a terrible loss Anna is stuck between moving forward or simply surviving. One random phone call has her leaving on stranger when an unconventional friendship strikes up Anna will have saved more than just herself!

This story is a beautiful tale of two souls learning to forgive and allowing love to guide them!

Grief in an accessible, if awkward way.

Rating: 3.5/5

"The Last Goodbye" by Fiona Lucas was not what I'd been expecting, and was infinitely more than I'd hoped it would be. I had a rocky start, having been given access to the e-copy ahead of the audiobook, when I couldn't get past the first two chapters. The audiobook and I faired better, and I was able to finish the book - which I am so glad that I did!

Following Anna and Brody as they overcame their own grief, and the relationships in their lives that made that both possible and impossible, was a treat. Having lost my fair share of people, and having read a lot of books dealing with grief, I found Lucas' take on the whole business of grieving and moving on refreshing. That her characters were able to stew in it - but also able to overcome it. It provides a lot of hope for the future, for days that are better, and even for the ones that are worse.

Anna was an incredibly likeable main character. I cried when she cried, laughed with her, and found myself rooting for her the entire time - for her to find herself again and to finally be at piece. Lucas did a fantastic job for Anna, for her grief, for her moving on, for her future. I would love for the story to be continued, for a sequel to see what the next stage of life after loss would look like for her. For now, I'll be satisfied in knowing that Anna is the kind of grieving character I can get behind, and the kind that I'm glad is going to be in print for people in the future who have faced loss. And I really despised Gale, even though I can sympathize.

Brody and I aren't on the best of terms. I felt like there could have been more exploration with him, and his story, but Luis and I can be friends any day. At times, Brody's arc did make the book a little hard for me to follow, not in an emotional sense but in a sense as I didn't enjoy the character as much.

I did have a few difficulties with the audiobook, which made listening to the story less enjoyable. I keep having to close out the app and reopen it after a couple of chapters because the book would randomly stop, which ruined the flow. It was also a little disconcerting listening to the narrator sometimes - it felt like the audio quality hadn't been edited, some chapters were read in a higher voice than others which can be a little annoying.

My biggest problem, overall, with "The Last Goodbye" was that I had a hard time getting in to the print book. The first couple of chapters feel slow, and a little boggish, and I really relied on the audiobook to get through. My other big complaint with the book is the arc of Anna vs. Gale. Their interactions made me extremely uncomfortable, not in a way that I felt really thickened the plot, and the scene at Teresa's party didn't need to get as awful as it was. On the bright side, Gabby getting her happily-ever-after (or so it seems) made me extremely happy. She was my favorite character in the book.

Thank you to Fiona Lucas and NetGalley for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

I absolutely loved this book! It was beautifully written and the character development was excellent. I look forward to recommending this title to our library patrons this summer!

This book is about life after a loss and self discovering in move forward. Anna is still grieving almost three years after the sudden loss of her husband. Its New Years Eve and she dials his cell to hear his voice message and hears another voice. A few weeks later she calls again and meets Brody someone who she identifies with instantly. I was very hesitant to read any sad or emotional books but I'm glad I took a chance because this book was so worth it (hard to put down and bring tissues). Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books for allowing me to read and review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

CW: death of a loved one, agoraphobia

This is one that I would firmly call a women's fiction due to the lack of the HEA. While the writing was beautiful, it was very heavy. 3 years after the death of her husband, Anna is still deep in grief, Still desperate to hear his voice she calls his voicemail, but Brody is on the other line. What is a great premise for a book and interesting I expected more from their conversations.

This book summarized a lot of their conversations providing a lot more tell than show. Anna's relationship with her MIL was also very frustrating, she was constantly being bullied. I also struggled with the dark moment. Brody never really opened up to Anna leaving himself in a lot of mystery, then when Anna needed a moment to realize her feelings he got very upset with her. I just didn't feel the romantic connection, and that really lost the trust for me.

A story about moving on from grief, this one was very heavy and the romance, unfortunately, didn't pull me in.

Rating: 2.5

I absolutely fell in love with these characters. This is a well-paced story of coming to terms with loss. It shows, with brutal honesty, how a loved one's death not only impacts you but those around you. When Anna lost her husband, Spencer, her life was changed forever. Even though she is going through the motions of daily life, she isn't really moving forward. She's most definitely stuck. In trying to deal with her grief, she calls Spencer's cell number one night just to hear his voice and tell him things she wished she'd said the night he died. But instead of hearing his voicemail message on the other end, it's a different male voice that greets her. Anna eventually learns who the voice on the phone is (at least she learns his first name) and they form a strange friendship. He listens to her work through her grief and doesn't judge her. She believes he has also experienced the loss of a spouse and looks to him for wisdom on how to move on. The relationship that develops between them is special because it was formed with knowledge and understanding from shared conversations with a "stranger."

It's such a beautifully written book that demonstrates how people deal with grief and loss. In my opinion, it's quite a realistic depiction. This book shows how differently people handle it as well. There isn't any one thing that works for every person. I was very invested in seeing how the story wrapped up and needed a satisfying resolution. I wasn't disappointed in the least.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a digital ARC!

How can you move on if you can't say goodbye?

This pretty much sums up the whole book. After the death of a loved one its hard too move on, even 2 years later you could be still be grieving. Anna's friends all think she should move on after Spencer's death. Anna doesn't think she'll ever be ready. A wonderfully told story of dealing with shared grief and figuring out if you can move on.

{DNF}
There are too many books on my Netgalley shelf and I did not have time to write a proper review