Pure joy! I really enjoyed this book, whilst I had an idea of where this book was going, it was just a joyful read. Somewhat sad in places I found the style of writing and the character development fantastic. The story follows Evelyn, wife of Henry as the live out their days on a cruise ship, with Evelyn spending her time searching for her husband Henry. Definitely an author to follow if you aren’t already.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review. I am a fan of books in this genre, so I was very much looking forward to reading this one. I was not dissapointed and both the plot and characters gripped me from the start. I will definitley aim to read another by this author. Highly reccomended!

What a book. How the author captured dementia and how strange and confusing it must be for the person with it was amazingly heartbreaking & also funny at times. The relationship between Mr & Mrs Henry Parker was so beautiful & I just loved Evelyn, she was such a great lady bursting with character. It was such a treat to be following her on her last voyage on a cruise ship & to listen to her stories of a life a sea. Like nothing I’ve ever read before and one I will be recommending to everyone.

Oh how I enjoyed my insomnia last night. I adore Evelyn. I am sure that I know her. And Nola. And Frank. I see some of myself in Evelyn, as will most people facing their twilight years.

I love the way she has of linking words to find the right one. How I used to (silently) laugh at my mother when she would run through all our names before plucking out the correct one/s.

Joanna Nell has a wonderful understanding of the vagaries of ageing and has treated her subject with both empathy and humour. She has written a wonderfully touching story of a woman who has become lost in the familiar, and her attempts to navigate her way through her changing lifescape. I only hope that I can face the future with Evelyn's courage and fortitude.

The Last Voyage of Mrs Henry Parker is a book that had me smiling, crying and laughing out loud. Repeatedly. I read this in one sitting. Absolutely delightful. And inspiring.

Telling the story of Evelyn, an elderly woman with dementia, this book is both sensitive and compassionate. It is an insightful account of dementia depicted with a touch of humour which prevents the sad subject from being too depressing.

This book was so fun! This was the first book I've read from this author and I really enjoyed it. The story was different from anything I've read recently and really captured my attention. It was so well written and the characters were fantastic.

A very laugh out loud funny book. A moving and scandalous book all rolled into one. Bring on the next one.

I was so looking forward to reading The Last Voyage of Mrs Henry Parker as I thoroughly enjoyed Joanna Neil's previous book, and I must say right away it is beautifully written and a lovely romantic story. However, for me, it was just so sad that I wouldn't unreservedly recommend it.

I was given a copy of The Last voyage of Mrs Henry Parker in exchange for an honest review. The book is told by Mrs Henry Parker whongas lived on cruise ships all her life with her husband Henry the ships doctor. When Evelyn looks for her husband she looks all over the ship. It soon becomes clear Evelyn has dementia as she remembers events from the past. This was a lovely story, well written with some great characters along the way well worth a read.

I wanted to read this book because I absolutely loved the author's previous book, The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village. It was funny, heartfelt and touching, with such loveable characters. That's what I hoped for this book too, and I was in luck. That's exactly what I got.

Mrs Henry Parker is the wife of a ship's surgeon. She spends the book looking for her missing husband and recounting tales of their long life together, aboard the luxury cruise liner where they made their home.

I don't have much more to say about this book really. It's beautifully written, and Mrs Parker is an absolute gem. It's equally lighthearted and gut-wrenchingly bittersweet. I smiled and was sad. And I was with Mrs Parker all the way. I didn't want to put the book down, and at the end I didn't want to say goodbye to Mrs Parker.

This is women's fiction for sure, and probably for the more mature audience because the youngsters might not be able to relate quite as well (I'm 35 but I know what it's like to want comfy shoes and have sore knees). Basically if you like a nice gentle story full of feels good and not so good, you will enjoy this.

The Last Voyage of Mrs Henry Parker is a beautifully written tale of an elderly lady, Evelyn, who has spent her married life travelling at sea with her husband Henry, the ship's doctor. On this particular voyage though, Henry is nowhere to be found and while we follow Evelyn during her attempts to find him we are introduced to all her idiosyncrasies as well as her past life. She is friendly but obstreperous, kind but also rude and oh-so-forgetful. Her descent into dementia is easily recognisable but the ending is still heartwarming.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the opportunity to read and review The Last Voyage of Mrs Henry Parker.

What a delightful story about a woman losing her memory, and her husband, while reliving old memories on the ship where she lived most of her adult life. We work out pretty quickly that Henry is not there, but exactly how is and where is kept a nice mystery. Her old story of how she came to be there is told nicely to new friends, and her compassion is shown with her cabin steward, who she forgets every morning. A quirky tale, very well told

Evelyn left England at the tender age of 20 to start a new life as a nurse in Australia and boarded her first cruise ship to her new life. On board she meets the young Doctor Henry Parker who manages to sweep her off her feet.

The story begins many years later with Evelyn now as an elderly lady who has spent her entire life on board cruise ships travelling around the world, but this trip is different. She seems to have lost her husband Henry and spends most of the trip searching for him, and making new friends. As her memory starts to rapidly fail, she flits between her past and present and starts getting them confused.
She soon learns that this is her last journey and will be starting a new life on solid ground but she can't leave until she finds her beloved Henry.

A sad tale of a lonely woman suffering from Dementia and struggles to remember anything that is happening around her but such a lovely twist that makes it a heartwarming ending.

A delicious silver romance. Compellingly readable and a lot of fun. If you're a fan of the Golden Girls, grab this one!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Evelyn Parker was married to a ship's doctor. When he retired, they lived on cruise ships until they were nearing the end of their lives. During her last voyage, she spends her days looking for Henry and making new friends.

This is a well crafted story. I feel like I was on the cruise ship maki g a new friend in Evelyn. I warmed to her instantly. Shes a woman with a lot of interesting stories and she will tell them regardless to whether you want to hear them or not. At times this story is funny, other times it's sad. It will remind you just how precious our memories are. The author covers dementia sensitively. A truly lovely read.

I would like to thank NetGalley,Hodder & Stoughton and the author Joanna Nell for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A wonderful story that I enjoyed reading to the end. It had me both laughing and craying at times , it is a well written story around dementia.

The Last Voyage Of Mrs Henry Parker is a heartwarming though poignant glimpse of sea travel in years gone by and a beautiful love story.

The wonderful descriptions of life on board a ship were really interesting and I enjoyed seeing how they changed over the years. There is a lot more to do then I thought there was, with something suitable for everyone which was nice to see. The visits to the different countries in such a short time must be fascinating. It was great fun to live precariously through the characters and visit the sights through them. I’d definitely like to go on a cruise now at some point as it seem like great fun!

The main character Evelyn was brilliant. I warmed to her instantly and so enjoyed following her on her last voyage. She is the type of person that I wish I knew in real life as she has lots of fascinating stories to tell, whether you want her to or not. Some of her observations and mishaps in her search for Henry had me laughing out loud as they were very funny. There is a slightly poignant side to her story as it’s obvious that her memory isn’t what it used to be and it’s heartbreaking to see how confused she gets at time. I wished I could climb into the book and give her a big hug.

At the heart of this story ist wonderful, heartwarming love story between Henry and Evelyn which was truly beautiful to read about. They have certainly had their ups and down on their journeys across the ocean, seeing many different things that I found very interesting to read about. I enjoyed being a spectator to their relationship and watching it change and develop throughout the years. It was very sad to see how lost Eveyln seems without Henry as they had come to rely on each other so much.

Overall I thought this was a beautiful, absorbing story that I loved curling up with after a hard day. I could happily get lost in Eveyln’s world and all her adventures on the seas. I did guess some parts of the story but I think I was meant to as the story is less about the mystery of Henry but more about Evelyn’s life and their love together. It didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book as I was so enjoying the story and learning more about Eveyln. I thought this book was similar to The unexpected Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry so if you liked that book I think you will enjoy this one too.

Huge thanks to Hodder Books for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

I really enjoyed the first book by this author, so I was looking forward to reading this one and it didn't disappoint. The only thing I would say is that at times I did find it incredibly sad.

Mrs Henry Parker as she likes to be known hails from the days when women always used their husbands name and not their own. She lives on a cruise ship with her husband who is Doctor for the ship, except she just can't seem to find him anywhere on board, no matter where she looks.

Very early on we realise that Evelyn has dementia and it was so realistic that I wasn't sure I wanted to carry on reading. Having met all too many real life Evelyn's, her words and actions were very familiar to me and it was just sad. Yet again as with her previous book, the author's GP background makes the narrative spot on and true to life.

I did stick with the book, and I was rewarded with Evelyn's tales of her life, beginning with when she was just 21 years old. These parts of the book I absolutely loved, only to be brought back to the present day and Evelyn's confused mind. All through the book Evelyn continues to look for her husband, crossing off on the map of the ship everywhere she has looked for him.

Why I wondered did they continue to let her stay on the ship? When she is obviously becoming more and more confused. I really thought at this point that I knew what was going to happen. The ending when it came was surprising with a hint melancholy yet also so satisfying.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley for the ARC to review.

What if you are imprisoned in the numbing fog of dementia?

What if your brain cells have degenerated; your memory is wasting away – and the one person who can bring clarity in the confusion keeps eluding you?

When Mrs Henry Parker wakes, her eyes search the cabin and the clutter that seems to mirror her state of mind. A lifetime of memorabilia litters the surfaces. The photographs on the wall tell her story, but somehow, she cannot make sense of it all. She needs to find Henry. Ignoring the tower of unopened envelopes on her dressing table, she opens a box and finds a pair of white shoes, soft shoes with laces. Mrs Parker has no idea who put them there, but she dubs them her ‘finding Henry shoes’ and taking her handbag she steps into the narrow passage outside her cabin on the Golden Sunset.

Mrs Henry Parker is on her last voyage – her last voyage on a ship that has been her home for the most part of her life. She was there six-hundred-and-sixty-two cruises ago when an opera singer released a bottle of champagne christening the Golden Sunset. Henry was ever-present even though his hours in the ship’s hospital ward were long. They had their tea-time on deck and dinner in the spot that caught the sunset at just the right time. Now she cannot find him, and she must contend with furtive glances from the staff. Their exaggerated benevolence and impatient patience agitate her to a point of madness.

Armed with her handbag (which increasingly starts bulging as she collects items from her past) and a map of the ship, Mrs Parker goes in search of Henry. He could not have gone far. Although the ship has a myriad of passages and several decks, she has always known it like the back of her hand. At least she has Florence Nightingale and the Ancient Mariner as her guides. She strikes-off place by place. But when she arrives for breakfast in her evening gown, tiara askew, and she can no longer find the cocktail lounge, she must wonder if Henry is on the ship at all.

This novel deserves a ‘hats-off’ to Joanna Nell for her depiction of the confused state of a dementia sufferer. While following Mrs Henry Parker’s search, I could feel the frustration of this character as her past merged with the present in her attempt to make sense out of a lifetime of memories and to find the love of her life. The novel made me aware of how valuable the gift of health and well-being would be in old age.

Ange

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

What a beautifully written book about a lady who's losing her memory. Living on a cruise ship is the only life she's ever known and on this particular voyage she can't find her husband Henry, (who had been the ship's surgeon) and searches all over the ship.
I believe so many people can relate to the character of Evelyn and have watched loved ones go through this process. It's a sad situation but it's reality.