This book is SO GOOD! I loved it from the first page to the last. This author’s voice is so clear and present throughout this novel. I loved her characterization and found this book very well developed. She’s now an auto buy author for me!

🦇 The Last Love Song Book Review 🦇

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

❓ #QOTD What's your favorite love song?❓

🦇 After graduating, Mia Peters is given a letter from her late mother, country music star Tori Rose — the woman who left the small town of Sunset Cove to pursue her dream. That first letter sends her on a scavenger hunt across town to find more, each one like a puzzle piece, adding to the hazy image Mia has of the woman behind hit albums and fame. Each letter brings Mia closer to her mother, but further away from her best friend and sort-of-girlfriend Britt, who is leaving in a few days to pursue the same dream. Can Mia unravel her mother's past, face her present, and decide on a future outside of Sunset Cove? Or will the truth leave her disappointed and trapped in the small town her mother left behind?

💜 Kalie Holford does a stunning job at sparking vivacious life into Tori Rose through letters and journal entries. You experience the magnetism everyone in Sunset Cove once did, and understand why the entire town reveres her. Readers are bound to connect and empathize with both Tori and her daughter Mia in this dual POV/dual timeline story. Reading it, I was instantly tugged back to 2005, at the memory of reading Maureen Johnson's 13 Little Blue Envelopes. There's such exquisite balance between the past and present in this story, Tori's puzzle-pieced past simultaneously soothing Mia's concerns about leaving Sunset Cove while adding to them — a reminder that your choices and mistakes MUST be your own.

💜 That beautiful balance creates parallels between Mia's story and her mother's. We even see parallels between Mia and her unknown father. Both run away, fear being brave or taking a risk, and it holds them back from their true potential. Mia is so eager NOT to repeat her mother's history that she second-guesses herself constantly, afraid to make her own mistakes. Mia not only learns from her mother's journal entries, but also the lives she touched — proving the domino effect we can have on another person's lives. At the end, though...it's also a story about regret. We aren't our mistakes, but what we learn from them. It's a story about growth after the fact.

💜 "I will never regret chasing my dream. I regret the people I hurt. I regret the bridges I burned. I regret losing who I was in an attempt to find someone else in everyone else and within me."

💜 The lyrics from Mia's music AND her mothers add an extra layer to this story. For the record, I did cry (reading the story's literal Last Long Song), so if you're sappy like me, have tissues at the ready.

💙 Holford beautifully encapsulates that pivitol "coming-of-age" moment that empowers any YA story. The best friends to lovers aspect is messy, realistic, and pure; a series of stolen, secret kisses, failed relationships with others in between, the fear of either ruining or losing an unspoken love story. You'll root for Mia and Britt, cry at Mia's side, and feel full of hope by the end of it all. Also, Mia's grandmothers? They are everything.

🦇 This is a powerful, atmospheric debut that's bursting with heart and soul. Recommended for fans of Sadie, 13 Little Blue Envelopes, and Mama Mia. And, beyond a doubt, all you Swifties.

✨ The Vibes ✨
🎵 Bisexual FMC
🎶 Sapphic Romance / Best Friends to Lovers
🎵 Lyrics
🎶 Mother/Daughter
🎵 Dual POV
🎶 Dual Timeline
🎵 Grief & Self-Discovery
🎶 Contemporary YA
🎵 Debut

🦇 Major thanks to the author @kalieholford and publisher @blackstonepublishing for providing an ARC of this book via Netgalley. 🥰 This does not affect my opinion regarding the book. #OneLastWord

💬 Quotes
❝ All my life I’ve collected pieces of Tori Rose like breadcrumbs, lyrics like talismans, stories like safety nets. ❞
❝ "Really think about it without the fear and the lies and the telling yourself you can’t have it.” ❞
❝ “You’re going to be a star, you know that, right?” She shakes her head. “Stars burn out. I want to be my own goddamn galaxy.” ❞
❝ She’s the personification of a love song, and I can’t get her out of my head. ❞
❝ The world raises girls to be competitors not constellations. ❞
❝ We burst and we break. We are dichotomies and paradoxes and lies and happily never afters. We are an ending that wants to be a beginning and a beginning that never got to start quite right. We are everything and she is everything and only I know that I truly wish I could go with her. ❞

A story of reconciliation, The Last Love Song follows Mia as she figures out what she truly wants for herself. After she is left a scavenger hunt by her late mother as a graduation gift, Mia and Britt, her best friend, follows the trail of clues to uncover Mia’s past and family history.

Mia’s POV captures the same drama and whimsy of Mamma Mia while Tori Rose’s POV gives off Daisy Jones and the Six vibes. I loved the dual timelines and how it paralleled Mia and Tori’s dilemmas and decisions. We witness Mia reconcile with her mother (albeit through the scavenger hunt) and her past, as well as her relationship with Britt and her love for music and songwriting.

I do feel like this would have been fleshed out more if it was just a bit longer, but I’m quite satisfied with the way things turned out. So heartfelt and (literally) lyrical.

Thank you to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC! :>

This book is absolutely perfection!!! Insta favorite of this year!!! And I can't wait to reread it again!

It's summertime in Sunset Cove, and Mia Peters is facing a major case of the post-graduation blues. She's saying goodbye to everything she's ever known, including her kind-of-sort-of girlfriend, Britt. But Mia's not ready to let go of her small-town life or follow in her mom's footsteps as a country music star. Like, can you blame her? Who wants to be abandoned like that, right?

But then, out of nowhere, Mia starts getting these mysterious letters from her mom's past, and suddenly, she's on this epic scavenger hunt through Sunset Cove, discovering secrets she never knew existed. And let me tell you, the feels are REAL, people! Like, I was legit on the edge of my seat, dying to know what Mia would uncover next.

And the romance? UGH, don't even get me started! Mia and Britt's relationship had me swooning so hard, I thought I might pass out. It's like, you can feel the chemistry jumping off the page, and you just KNOW these two are meant to be together. Plus, the way Kalie Holford writes about love is seriously magical. I mean, I'm still thinking about it days later!

But what really got me was how relatable Mia's journey was. Like, who hasn't struggled with their identity or felt the pressure to live up to family expectations? Mia's story is all about finding yourself and chasing your dreams, no matter how scary it might seem. And TBH, I think we could all use a little inspo like that in our lives.

So, if you're looking for a book that's equal parts heartwarming, swoon-worthy, and totally addictive, "The Last Love Song" is where it's at, my friends. Trust me, you won't regret diving into this beautiful world of love, family, and self-discovery. It's the kind of story that'll stay with you long after you've turned the last page! Highly, highly recommend!!!

{3,5}

This was such a sweet read! I almost finished it in one-sitting thanks to the simple writing style and ideas. I was really intrigued by the whole story, and it caught my attention until the very end.

I loved how unique the storytelling was. We have the POV of a daughter for most chapters, but then we also have the POV of a mother. However, I didn't really get the Mamma Mia vibes. Sure, the whole "Who's my dad?" thing was part of it, but other than that, there wasn't anything else that would indicate any Mamma Mia vibes.

I felt for Mia, and I really did like seeing her start to understand herself and her mother. I also really liked the way music was used in this book. The lyrics of all the songs embedded tell vivid stories. Plus, I was glad the mother's POV was actually hers, not just Mia reading was her mother was going through. I thought that added a nice touch to the characters and everything.

Apart from that, I liked the idea of the hunt Mia's Mother prepared for her. However, sometimes it felt extremely random or hard, like there was no way Mia could have figured them out.

I would recommend this to book to everyone who loves music. Or their mothers :)<3

Thank you so much to NetGalley and also North Star Edition for giving me the opportunity to read this great book in advance!

thank you so much netgalley for the ARC!!

I literally loved this book so much. I don’t usually get emotional when reading but I found myself wiping tears at the end. This is a sapphic YA mix of Mamma Mia & Daisy Jones and the Six and I ate it UP! I cannot recommend it enough. Seriously so beautifully written and such a fun story to follow.

This book gives all the vibes!! I felt like it was a mix of Mamma Mia and Paper Towns. Mia goes on a scavenger hunt to get to know her mother, a country music star who passed in Mia's youth. Throughout this, she looks for a sign of what to do, who she is, and what choices to make. But her mom can't choose those for her and she must decide her own fate. This book made me sob, fall in love, and learn more about myself. This is everything a young adult book should be and have and wow oh wow was it so so good. Especially for a debut novel, Kalie did an amazing job and I cannot wait to see this book take over booktok.

Tropes:
-seaside small town
-queer
-finding yourself / coming of age
-dual timeline
-mother / daughter relationship focus
-scavenger hunt
-childhood best friends to lovers
-country music w/ original lyrics
-young adult

i went into this book blindly and i thought it's about britt and mia entirely but man i was wrong, this was a whole 'nother story centered about mia and her mother (with a side of britt i love her) i couldn't help but to be deeply immersed in the story and how the rest unfolded. the songs are insanely good & THE PLOT was interesting alone even if it solely focused on mia and her mother without the love interest, but of course, an added love interest is always a good idea!

thank you katie holford and the publisher for allowing me to read this book this early, i was totally moved by this book and gods i wish i could read this for the first time again <3 kudos, author!

✨4.5 but rounded up to 5✨
yall this book 😭😭😭 this book was so cute and everything i wanted and more. this book follows mia’s story as she goes on a hunt to learn more about her mom’s story. this book was SO well written and i loved how different this dual POV was compared to others i have read! overall this was such a cute and fun read.
thank you to netgalley and the author for the arc in exchange for an honest review❣️

Let me just say that The Last Love Song is an absolute masterpiece! From the moment I started reading, I was completely captivated by the story and the characters. It's one of those books that grabs hold of your heart and doesn't let go until the very last page. It’s such a cute romance book and the songs are so so good, I loved reading the lyrics.

The way the author weaves together romance, emotion, and a touch of mystery is truly remarkable. The characters feel so real and relatable, and their journey of love, heartbreak, and self-discovery is both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. You'll find yourself rooting for them and celebrating their triumphs. It’s literally so damn cute, it’s a queer romance and I LOVEDDD it.

The writing style is absolutely beautiful. The descriptions are so vivid and evocative, transporting you right into the heart of the story. The way she crafts the dialogue is also spot-on, making you feel like you're right there in the middle of the conversations, experiencing every emotion alongside the characters.

It's a rollercoaster of emotions, and you won't be able to put the book down until you find out how it all unfolds.

Overall, The Last Love Song is a must-read for anyone who enjoys a beautifully written, emotionally charged love story. It will make you laugh, tear up and feel all the feels. Trust me, you won't be disappointed! You HAVE to get this on release day.

*Will be posted on March 23rd*
Well, that was just not the book for me.
I'm going to keep it short, before I had to DFN this book at the end of the day. I really struggled to read this book. I found myself not getting into the story. I really felt like not much was happening, despite the fact that the pacing was still fast.
And I'll be honest, I couldn't connect with Mia or Tori, so I wasn't able to turn myself to that aspect of the story to keep me reading.
Honestly, I think many readers will love it. We can already see it in the rating on Goodreads and the reviews I've read. Still, I thing I might not have been the best audience for this book. Maybe I'm too old now to find myself in this kind of book. I still think that the premise was quite interesting, but it was missing something for me to really find myself enjoying this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Trust me when I say the reason I am giving this 2.5 stars is purely because of me, not because this was poorly written or a bad book. I just didn’t really connect to the story. I could see this being for a younger audience, if I was in high school or younger I may have enjoyed this more.

Part of why I had a hard time with this was because it’s hard to convince me that a warm beachy beautiful town is somewhere you’d want to run away from. I know to each their own, but I would love to live where these characters do, so any time a character was desperate to leave, I couldn’t relate to it. Also, music was their life, and while I do love listening to music, I didn’t relate to any of the character’s dreams of performing live.

It’s clear from the summary and the title that this is a book about music. So if you don’t like fake songs and lyrics in books, this would not be for you. I am mixed on it, but honestly I thought the lyrics were pretty good in this!

The overall tone in reference to the movie “Mamma Mia” was very fun!

I loved learning about Tori! I could have read a whole book just on her life with David and Patrick. I wish that was what this whole book was about. I liked Tori and her relationships much more than I cared for Mia. Reading about Tori going between David and Patrick, and the dynamic between Patrick and the band was so interesting to me and we barely got any of that! It would have been a much more compelling book to me if that was the case.

The relationship between Britt and Mia was cute, but I’ve never been a friends to lovers kind of girl, so her and Britt didn’t really appeal to me. I think I would have liked it more if it didn’t feel so much like a tell and not a show. We kept being told that they kissed and they really cared about each other, but I didn’t really feel it. It was a pretty cheesy love story, so if you like overly sweet fluff, this would be the book for you.

I know I just said that I don’t like friends to lovers, but there are some exceptions, and this relationship was one of them. I loved David. He was always there for Tori no matter what. I liked him way better than Patrick. He was the perfect match for her, and the chemistry was there. Patrick again seemed more of a forced tell and not show kind of love. I won’t say how it ends because that is part of the mystery, but I have lots of thoughts about it.

I thought Mia’s journey of trying to discover who her mom was, was very sweet and touching, but for me I just wasn’t very invested in her as a main character. It was a very quick read, so if the love of music plot sounds appealing to you, give it a chance!

Thank you netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so beautifully written. The emotion, the yearning, the wanderlust, the fear, all of it was so raw and heartfelt.

Mia kind of frustrated me as a main character at times, but everything she did, everything she felt, made perfect sense given everything she’d grown up with.

Britt was such a beautiful, supportive love interest. But I was honestly so happy when she finally said enough, said she was done waiting for something that may never come.

These two made so much SENSE together and I was so glad Mia finally got her shit together and made the right choice.

I didn’t really care for Tori’s story though. It felt as though it was there purely to prompt Mia, to manipulate her journey and choices without holding any substance of its own. The love triangle stuff and the “who is my father” plot also did absolutely nothing for me.

But all in all, a lovely YA romance. Definitely recommend.

The Last Love Song was an emotional rollercoaster, in the best way possible.

Mia Peters was a character that felt fully fleshed out, even in the parts of the story where I didn't always agree with her actions. Mia was a deeply thought out character but she wasn't my favorite character - the real star of the story (in my opinion) was Tori Rose.

The condensed timeline that Mia was faced at the height of the story, the whirlwind of a week, was a great way to make the reader feel like every step that Mia took really mattered. And it did, every step forward that Mia took revealed a deeper part of the overall story that really sucked me in.

The relationship between Britt and Mia felt real, slightly juvenile for sure, but they felt like real people in a real friendship. I loved the two of them working together to figure out the Big Thing that Mia was hunting for.

The story pace felt great in the beginning and middle but it did feel slightly rushed toward the end, all the loose ends were trying to be tied up in a very short window of time and I could feel that rush. That's not to say it was bad, the ending was just as heart wrenching as the middle, but I feel that it could have been built out more - even an extra twenty pages (I feel) would have felt less rushed toward the end.

This was a solid 4 star read, if only because it felt like every 30 pages I was being brought to tears by the emotion in the The Last Love Song.

I really enjoyed this book! I loved Mia's scavenger hunt and how she and Britt tackled each clue. It's a really sweet book and I enjoyed it a lot!

Fast-paced, emotional, and full of life THE LAST LOVE SONG follows Mia on her quest to find out more about her mother, her father, and figure out what she wants on the way.

I loved the characters in this book. Mia and Brett had a great relationship, and I loved how queer normative the narrative was. I would have loved to see more tension between Mia and living up to the standards of her mum, but it was still done very well. I also felt that, while cute, Mia and Brett didn’t have a lot of tension.

The plot was simple yet engaging. I loved how the different narratives intersected, and paralleled each other. I would have loved to see more of a contrast between Tori and Mia though.

Overall, a great book! A queer Mamma Mia is just what the world has been missing!

this was such a lovely and emotional story. the writting was really nice, and the charactors felt so alive.
it even gave me teary eyes

"The Last Love Song" by Kalie is a poignant exploration of identity, family, and the pursuit of dreams. Set in the small town of Sunset Cove, Mia Peters grapples with the looming departure of her girlfriend Britt, her struggles with her late mother's legacy, and her own aspirations as a songwriter. Kalie skillfully weaves a tale of self-discovery as Mia embarks on a scavenger hunt through her mother's past, uncovering buried truths and confronting her own fears along the way. With lyrical prose and heartfelt emotion, "The Last Love Song" captures the essence of young adulthood and the complexities of following one's heart. Fans of Taylor Swift's storytelling and soulful narratives will find themselves enraptured by Kalie's debut novel.

The Last Love Song is heartfelt debut from Kalie Holford. Part mystery, part self-discovery we are taken on the journey of Mia Peters as she graduates and goes on a hunt to discover more about her mother, famous singer Tori Rose, who passed away when she was young.

Mia, accompanied by her best friend/sort-of-girlfriend Britt, is led around her small town by letters her mother left her, each giving a clue to a location or person from her past Mia must find. At the same time she is worried about her future, about Britt and her band, which Mia has been song writing for, leaving in seven days to chase their professional music dreams. Mia is unsure if she wants to go with them, unsure who she is.

I liked the way this was told through alternating stories - Mia's present day and glimpses of her moms life in the 80s-90s. I also appreciated the queer rep - Mia is confidently bi and she lives with her sapphic Grandmothers (I would actually love more of their story, they seem so in love and more elder queer rep is needed in all genres).

As I was reading I really wanted to tell Mia - Be confident and go for your dreams!! It will be ok! She eventually figures out who she is and what she wants to be and I'm glad how the story ended up.

Something unique about this writing was the song lyrics added to scenes, storytelling through song is always impactful, I wish we could hear what they are written to sound like.

I see where the Mamma Mia similarities were but also think that this book also had tones of Daisy Jones and the Six with the musical history of Mia's mother. The characters watching Gilmore Girls made me smile (and made me think the character Jess in this book was a reference to Gilmore Girls Jess :) )

This was a good book, I did tear up a little at certain emotional parts, if you're looking for a short summer read about music, love and self-discovery then check this book out.

Thank you NetGalley for the e-ARC.

It's been a while since the last time I was wordless in front of a review, and I think it's worth mentioning it if we're discussing the emotional impact of this story.
Which is a lot, btw.

I'm very much conflicted because… well, it's complicated even explaining why I find it difficult to choose the right words.
Kalie Holford’s debut is significantly better than lots of books you'll read this year but, at the same time, I'm held back by so many aspects of this story that not only doesn't sit right with me, but I also can't properly understand.

Starting with the “Mamma Mia” similarities: there are none. I don't understand why the marketing department chose something so different from the truth, but here we are.
Mia only knows her father ran away before she was even one and doesn't know anything about him, but it's not like she really cares. Like, she says a couple of times that she’s never met him and doesn't even know who he could be, but that's it.
She's not interested in him, and the focus of the story is not on him.

This led us to the most obvious aspect of it all: Tori Rose is a slightly different version of Daisy Jones.
Expect the ‘60s vibes of her side of the story - it's supposed to be 1989 but nothing gives that away -, I loved the letters she left to her daughter to tell her what happened according to her but, at the same time, she kinda gives us nothing.
Again, loved it, but it's also very superficial and more of an introduction to characters we didn't know until that moment.

So, Mia grows up without her mother in a town entirely dedicated to her, and she spends the first 18 years of her life knowing absolutely nothing about her. She feels guilty even mentioning her name to her grandmas and doesn't let herself love the music.
Ignoring how big this town seems to be not to know some things, should I be convinced she had never had a phase where she wanted to know more? At least about her father, if she couldn't ask about her mom. How is that even possible?
Worst of all, they just lied to her. Her grandmas lied about how her mother died and she’s so desperate to know more about her and feels hopeless because she can't find her path… she doesn't even get angry? Not with her grandmas, not with her non-existent father, not with her mother’s real love - who knew about her but didn't show up not once in her entire lifetime.
Last but not least, she may not be the most selfless person in the world, but she's having a panic attack about her life and what her mother means to her, and her girlfriend is just sick of her being uncertain and afraid about the future. Girl, wtf?!

Why even bother, then? Well, even if Mia grew up without her mom, this is the least dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship you can find.
It's simply amazing getting to know Tori and her story at the same time as Mia does, the bond she develops with a mother she looks and sounds so much alike but doesn't know.
It's just one of those stories that make you cry so much that your only thought is to call your mom when you've finished it.

Thanks to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.