A heart previously broken, a life not going the way it was planned, when an opportunity lands in Avery's lap to push through the bad luck and make a name of her photography business, will she take it? Even if it let's in the man who was once her best friend and all the feelings they had shared before. A slow burn, friend to lovers, second chance romance.

I liked the book and felt that there was a lot of potential. The second chance romance was great but I would have liked to have more of a slow burn. The characters got together too quickly and it did not feel genuine. Overall, a great story but needed something else,

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This contemporary romance by debut author Elodie Colliard was a sweet read. The story focuses on Avery, a talented photographer who, though suffering from anxiety and a lack of self-confidence, has been able to build up her own business. Between her family and her best friend Brooke, life is looking up for the first time in a while. Then her former best friend Josh shows up and she has to somehow forgive him and reconcile her old burgeoning feelings for him when he deserted her with the new and very adult ones she is having for him now.

I liked the development of these characters and how they overcome internal struggles whilst staying true to themselves. The characters are relatable and I really enjoyed most of this book. I sometimes felt the conversations could have flowed better and there were some moments when I felt distracted small inconsistencies with the plot - but overall it was a lovely, light read.

For a debut novel this one stoodout and gave me the warm and fuzzies but as far as romances go Id say it followed the typical romance plot. Id recommend this for my friend who likes the occasional romance novel but if its your main genre I don't think its all that impressive.

A fun romance! I enjoyed reading this as a nice easy read. Thank you to the publishers for the e-galley!

I will confess that I started this book because the author has the same name as me ahahah I ended up loving this novel and getting a huge urge to read more books by the author! A gripping and addictive story with characters that I loved! A book I devoured in less than a week!

The Last Encore is a beautiful read with characters that are so well developed and have so much depth you feel they are sat next to you,telling you their story.

A regular reader of this genre will not find much fault with this book. We have an enterprising main character who is trying to make her business work but finds the going tough. The reason for her underlying anxiety issues is discussed later in life. She is faced with a face from her past when she runs into our male protagonist, the latter hoping to run into her. They start to talk and bond, but Avery is apprehensive.
Their history is shown in parts as well - although nothing was mentioned upfront, there is the hope of a relationship between them. Trust was broken, but a lot of time has passed since their last contact.
What follows is a gradual building up of the story and their relationship. It was a reasonably quick read, and the author's note does add a layer of seriousness to the entire work.
This is the author's debut, and it is a good one at that. It is a simple plot with some serious undertones to flesh out the characters and gives them purpose and issues to resolve. I would recommend it to readers of the genre.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

Slowburn romance
Childhood friends to lovers
second chance

This was well written, and that cover! But it was both emotional, and light. Meaning it was dealing with emotional things but it felt a little skimmed over.

4ish stars

I quite enjoyed this romcom. I loved that it was set in Toronto; there’s always something fun and special about contemporary stories that reference recognizable locations. I liked the balance of heavy and light content in the book, and the writer did a good job developing the relationship between the protagonist and her love interest. I also appreciated her note/content warnings at the beginning of the text. All in all, it was a good one, and I’m interested in seeing what the author comes out with next.

For me, this book was just average. There were certain aspects done well: the trigger warning for the on-page sexual assault scene was clearly noted and appreciated, because of that, there was lots of enthusiastic consent in all subsequent sex scenes, there was great mental health representation, and there was a really ambitious, career-oriented female MC.
That being said, this book needed to show more than it told. We were beaten over the head being told that MC's Josh and Avery were in love with each other in high school and then lost touch when Josh moved away. But we only got one actual flashback scene. It would have made more sense to intertwine flashbacks with present day to flesh out that story line. Also, there are recurring side characters, but they get absolutely no development. Also, the timeline overall felt rushed to me. Even if they knew each other a decade ago, the portion of the story where they should have spent time getting reacquainted was just kind of skipped over.
This is the author's debut novel and there were aspects to the story that I enjoyed, so I would definitely read her next book. I'm just not sure that I would recommend this one to many others.

I absolutely loved Colliard's debut novel, The Last Encore. It had everything I look for in a romance, including real life issues where everything is not always sunshine and rainbows.

I particularly enjoyed the Toronto setting, with so many places I recognized from growing up in the area.

I'm looking forward to the next book in the series coming out later this year!

Really enjoyed reading this book. It was so deep. I was also glad the author put trigger warnings before the book started. And Avery and Josh had so much chemistry.

This was sadly sweet.

~Avery needs a well-deserved break. Between her anxiety, failing photography business, family drama, and her ex best friend reentering her life after 10 years.. She’s not even sure which way is up. She wants to let Josh in but after he broke the only promise he ever made her, she’s not sure she can go through that again.~

No question about these two. They’re meant for each other.

Honestly, my heart broke for their younger selves. Especially now knowing what Josh was feeling. Literally the epitome of “right person wrong time.”

*I received an ARC of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review with my honest opinion.*

This book was very promising because it had a few of my favorite tropes, second chance romance and childhood friends to lovers. However, the writing was quite a struggle for me to get through sometimes and it did not feel like completed, well thought out novel. It did not leave me satisfied at the end, and its not something I would recommend to anyone.

This one sadly wasn’t for me. It was sweet and the writing was fine but I needed a little more emotional depth to grip me

This is a steamy romantic debut novel by fellow Bookstagrammer Elodie! She put her heart and soul into these characters and made me feel the angst and romance between them! And can we discuss the cover? It's so beautiful. I can't wait for her next book!

To me it felt like the target audience for this book was younger than me. A lot of the writing was very simplistic and cheesy. It’s set up as a second chance romance but the main characters never really dated, they were just friends as teens. The story seemed to move too quickly, like we got to the ending before we learned enough about the characters to really appreciate the ending. Overall, I think it would be better suited for younger audiences.

I enjoyed the realistic pacing and the well-developed characters, particularly Josh, who was patient and assertive.
"The Last Encore" seems like a heartwarming and emotional friends-to-lovers romance novel that explores the complexity of human relationships and the challenges of moving on.
Overall, if you enjoy character-driven romance novels with a slow-burn romance and themes of self-discovery, "The Last Encore" could be an enjoyable read.

There was a lovely author note at the start of the book and I appreciate the trigger warning. I love the second chance romance trope and the cover, however it was a bit too instalove despite the aforementioned trope. Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the eARC. This in no way impacts my rating.