The Last Love Note

Grief is a fickle thing. Often described as coming in waves, after you lose someone, you never know when it will hit. If one thing can keep you sane throughout it all, it’s the feeling that you aren’t alone. The Last Love Note is an ode to clinging to hope and humor through pain, and of finding love again after it’s been lost.

We meet our protagonist Kate two years after she lost her husband, struggling to cope with work, single parenting, and her grief. While she is surrounded by people who love her, including a well-meaning but suffocating mother and a best friend determined to get her back out into the dating world, Kate feels like she’s constantly coming up short. After a series of mishaps leaves Kate and her boss stranded on a work trip, they are forced to share more time together than they had bargained for. As she works through her feelings away from her family, Kate discovers that she might just be strong enough to move on after all.

Emma Grey beautifully captures how time becomes something amorphous and nonlinear to those in mourning. Kate’s rocky journey to new love is filled with heartbreak and vulnerability (and plenty of jokes). If you are looking for a book that will have you feeling every single one of your feelings and leave you full of hope, The Last Love Note is the perfect read for you.

Kate is a bit of a mess. Two years after losing her young husband Cameron, she’s grieving, solo parenting, working like mad at her university fundraising job, always dropping the balls—and yet clinging to her sense of humor.

Lurching from one comedic crisis to the next, she also navigates an overbearing mom and a Tinder-obsessed best friend who’s determined to matchmake Kate with her hot new neighbor.

When an in-flight problem leaves Kate and her boss, Hugh, stranded for a weekend on the east coast of Australia, she finally has a chance, away from her son, to really process her grief and see what’s right in front of her. Can she let go of the love of her life and risk her heart a second time?

When it becomes clear that Hugh is hiding a secret, Kate turns to the trail of scribbled notes she once used to hold her life together. The first note captured her heart. Will the last note set it free?