A heart breaking love story about grief and loss and how it affects people and those who care about them. This is such a moving story and learning about how Anna and Brody lean on each other to move through their emotional journey was extremely heartwarming.

A joyous book to read yet it starts with a death so how can it be joyous.
Well Anna loses her husband when he nips out to the corner shop and drink driver knocks him down, she is devastated, totally. They had just started talking about starting a family and cutting back to spend time with any children. Anna was distraught but still forced herself to attend fortnightly family meetings at spencers parents home with his brother and her wife
After 3 years Anna had had enough of everything she used to ring Spencer’s phone and leave messages for him but this night she rang it and a man answered it she was shocked she Kew it couldn’t be spencer but talked to him like he was then realised couldn’t do that so asked had he ever lost someone important to him he replied yes and so a conversation began
And from it ideas grew for Anna to develop an app with Spencer’s previous co workers who were delighted to se Anna back in the real world
Everyone was apart from Gayle Spencer’s mum who didn’t think Anna should be talking to anyone or doing anything how could Anna make her understand when someone dies you don’t you eventually have to carry on anyway you can

This is my romance of the year!
Anna's husband has died several years ago and he was the love of her life. She is finding it hard to move on even with encouragement from her friends. Then one night she calls his phone to hear his answerphone message and someone else answers.
Brodie lives in the middle of nowhere, suffering from panic attacks. He has lost someone too. Having bought a mobile phone, he is surprised when someone calls it. No-one knows his number. It is Anna.
The story is their journey supporting each other. Mixed in is her friend, Gabi, her husband's family, and her husband's work partners.
I laughed and cried as the tale unfurled. This is my romance for the year. Don't miss this one.

This book is absolutely amazing! Without spoiling it, I can’t express how truly, truly brilliant it is! I just fell in love with every single character. They are all true to life and you can imagine/ sympathise with each character in great detail. I adored Anna and I’m glad that she stuck up for herself in the end. This is one of those books that gives you a ‘book hangover’ when you have finished it!

The Last Goodbye follows Anna, a young widow, who is grieving the unexpected death of her husband Spencer. She doesn’t see how she will ever be able to move on even with the help of friends trying to force her into trying new hobbies etc. Missing him terribly and desperate to hear his voice, Anna tries to call his phone to hear his voice on the voicemail but to her surprise another man, Brody, picks up. The story unfolds as she starts making frequent calls to Brody just for someone to speak to but ends up opening up and confessing her deepest thoughts. Overtime, they develop a very strong friendship and help each other get through the losses they have experienced. They finally decide to meet on New Years Eve but are both unsure on exactly how they feel…

I did enjoy this book, it was such a lovely story and an easy read but unfortunately, not one that I’m definitely going to remember. I really wanted to LOVE it but something wasn’t quite there, I wasn’t fully gripped and I found the start just a tad slow. I’m still very much interested in more of Fiona Lucas’ work in the future as I really enjoyed the writing style and base of the story was great.

I’m a sucker for a love story and the whole story and connection between Anna & Brody really did make me smile! How the ending connected up with the start of their relationship was fab too! (If you’ve read it you’ll know what I mean).

The main topic in this book is grief, it was beautifully written and dealt with compassionately showing that there is no wrong or right way on how to cope with grief and is down to each individual. Brody’s struggles with anxiety is heavily featured and this was also written really well.

Lastly, I must say the cover of the book is absolutely stunning and I’m kind of sad that I’ve not got a physical copy for my shelf haha

Thank you so much NetGalley, HQ Stories & Fiona Lucas for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book is out 20th Dec!

This is a lovely read, both sad and hopeful, as we are swept along on a rollercoaster of emotions.

We follow Anna as she tries to come to terms with the tragic death of her beloved husband, Spencer, which is heart-breaking. You feel as though the author really knows how this feels and the story is told in a sympathetic way.

Gradually time passes and Anna slowly starts to learn to re-build her life, with the help of friends both old and new.

Don't want to give too much away, but keep reading until the end.

*Disclaimer, I was permitted to read a ARC of this book through the NetGalley service!*

The blurb on the back of this book really caught my attention. It is the story of Anna whose Husband Spencer died a few years previously. She ends up forming something g of a relationship with Brody, who is now the owner of her deceased husbands phone number.

I enjoyed the story as a whole and felt the author was very good at exploring the subject of spousal grief and the relationships and friendships of the ones that are left behind.

I did however struggle to read on in places as I felt it was a bit long winded and felt it lacked anything that gave substance to the overall plot.

Having said that this is the first book I have read by this author and I would read a book by her again.

I was a little apprehensive when I delved into this, after recently having lost my sister. I will admit, the descriptions of Anna's grief was so true, honest and poignant, I wouldn't be surprised to learn Lucas is grieving too. They were extremely painful to read, but also gave me strength that someone understood some of what I'm feeling. The guilt and regret are sometimes as strong as the pain of loss.
The characters were wonderful, and I was so moved by their stories that this will stay with me long after finishing. I honestly think I feel stronger mentally because of it.
A strong novel with a powerful message that I won't forget.
Thank you, Fiona Lucas.

Sometimes I simply need to have a good, long cry. It’s healthy, right? Flushes out all the toxins and bad stuff in one go. I often reach for beautiful heartbreaking ‘women’s’ fiction in times like this and I was thoroughly moved by this one.

Anna lost her husband Spencer two years ago but her life has been on hold ever since. On NYE in a weak moment, she dials Spencer’s old number just to hear his voicemail but a man answers. Brody has inherited Spencer’s old number and he too is paralysed in time because of a horrific accident nine years ago. Isolated in a rural cottage with his dog Lewis, the frequent phone calls from Anna telling him her life story, grow to be the highlight -and great comfort- of his life.

Anna has learned to build up a wall around potential boyfriends because they’re simply ‘not Spencer’. I can’t even begin to understand the heartbreak that comes with losing the love of your life so suddenly and my heart fully went out to Anna. I was desperate for some kind of barrier breakage to happen during the course of the novel.

She really lacks someone who fully understands her and how she needs to express herself. She has a very strained relationship with Spencer’s mother Gayle, who I grew pretty frustrated with at several points in the novel. However, her presence and controlling behaviour really depicted the different ways that people deal with grief. The multitude of seemingly strange, painful ways that humans deal with deep emotional pain was fascinating to read.

Brody suffers from severe anxiety and panic attacks, born from his trauma. It was very refreshing to watch a man go through something like this because it’s so often female characters who are ‘the anxious ones’. As someone who suffers with these things on occasion, I felt it was handled really well. Brody was a character who I only wanted good things for and I think I was slowly falling in love with him as Anna was.

Watching this friendship with romantic undertones develop -through phone calls of all things!- made for such a thrilling ride. Although they’d never even seen photos of each other at this point, I absolutely loved seeing them learn each other through nothing but their voices. It’s not a method of relationship building that I’ve ever read before and I suppose it’s not something that happens very often now. It gave their connection a touch of ‘time gone by’ about it and something about that made it quite lovely.

When Brody finally realises his feelings for Anna, it acts as a mighty release for him. The imagery where he's standing on the mountain and declaring his love for her in the direction of London is so lyrically beautiful and it almost feels like something that could only come from Brody’s wonderful imagination. This is a pretty cinematic moment and one of pure joy that is the perfect nod to a happy ending.

Anna has been afraid of falling in love again due to feelings of disloyalty to Spencer but also because she doesn’t want to risk a crushing heartbreak like Spencer’s death again. This is something I can completely relate to and probably something that holds so many people back from living their lives to the fullest. If anything, Anna’s story tells us that our lost loved ones would want us to be happy, just as they did when they were alive. We’re almost doing them a disservice by not honouring their deepest, unspoken wishes.

The Last Goodbye is a heartrending read but it’s also wonderfully uplifting. The romance is incredibly slow-burning because both characters have been through so much and their walls are sky-high. But if they can find it in themselves to take a chance on love again, then can’t anyone?

This gave me vibes of PS I Love You. It was so bittersweet and poignant. I cannot imagine the pain Anna was feeling when she lost her one true love. No one can understand the pain she was going through and then Brody came along and understood how she was feeling. The connection between them made my heart smile.

This was a beautiful read, thank you Fiona and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC!

Anna and Brody are both bereaved and finding their loss very difficult to cope with. They talk by chance when Anna rings her dead husband's phone after the number has been re allocated to Brody , their talks become more frequent, will they be able to help each other cope with their grief? A wonderful story, told with much understanding. of the process of grief.

All the other reviews are correct and say exactly what I wanted to say . It was very moving, there were tears! Five stars from me

I knew this book would make me cry and so I was somewhat nervous of how upset it would make me feel all the while knowing I wanted to read it and feel whatever sadness it threw at me.
This book is a slow burner with an adrenaline pumping near-to-the-end development. Not adrenaline inducing in terms of twists or reveals as this is not a mystery, crime or thriller book, but a beautiful and poignant love story that made me feel as if my heart had stopped whilst I was reading. Its quiet power and devastatingly accurate sense of loss and grief held me spellbound as I met and journeyed with Anna, bereft and heartbroken that her husband Spencer died and left her alone.
The 1990 pop song by Sinead O'Connor, Nothing Compares 2 U, came into my head as I was reading The Last Goodbye as Anna keeps a tally of years, months and days since Spencer has been gone in the same way the song talks about it being 7 hours and 15 days 'since you took your love away'. The song and the book share the same melancholy and the achingly torturous daily reminder of how life is so different without the person you love by your side.
Anna is an amazing character that I felt privileged to meet as she moved from hiding under the duvet to being dragged to salsa classes by friend Gabi, and standing up to her domineering and possessive mother-in-law Gayle.
Love and loss and how bereavement affects us in different ways is explored through Gayle's loss as a mother, Anna's loss as a wife and Gabi's loss of a relationship that just isn't going anywhere. It is raw and real, deeply sad but also life affirming as Anna begins to find courage and comes to terms with moving on.
She is helped enormously by the unseen Brody, caught in his own personal torment, and who just happens to have acquired a phone number that used to belong to Spencer. Anna, at her lowest ebb has rung the number before just to hear her dead husband's voice, but this time on New Year's Eve, it is a stranger's voice who answers, Brody.
I want to wax lyrical about every chapter of this book but can't spoil the story for would-be readers. There was just so much of Brody's fear that I could relate to and understand and this is why, in places, the tears kept falling.
An extremely thoughtful and compassionate novel, this book made me cry but also sows plenty of seeds of hope. If I could award it 10 stars I would because not only is this a love story it is also about the freedom we give ourselves if we can only face up to our fears and learn to let go.
Anna and Brody will stay in my heart as fictional role models for being brave, honest and prepared to face each day, no matter how hard that is.
And just in case you are worried about the book only being able to make you cry, it does make you smile too.
Thank you to Fiona Lucas, the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this inspiring and heartfelt story, in exchange for this, my honest review.
Read it!

I thought I would venture out of my comfort zone, and usual genres, and try this book. I have to be honest and say it wasn't my favourite book, I found it a bit dull and slow. I feel like it is my fault because I usually read thrillers ,Sci Fi and dystopian type books and urban fantasy, so I have tried to venture into a brand new world and for me it has not worked. I almost feel like I shouldn't be writing a review, and I am sure that other readers may well enjoy this story more than I did., I hope so.

The Last Goodbye by Fiona Lucas a five-star read that would make a perfect movie. I am going to keep this short and sweet as nothing I can say can convey how emotionally gripping this story is, be prepared with tissues and wine at the end, not because of the story line, but because the story is over. What a great example of friendship, love and grief portrayed on the page and brought to life as you read. If you only pick up one book this year, make sure it’s this one.

Anna and her husband Spencer were happily married when tragedy struck,. Nipping to the shop for milk, Spencer is knocked down by a drunk driver and killed.. The Last Goodbye is a story of grief, loneliness, hope and survival.
For 3 years Anna has struggled to come to terms with her husband Spencer’s death, often phoning his phone just to hear his voice on voicemail. Until one New Year’s Eve the call is answered.
What follows is a wonderfully written story which had me crying, laughing and hoping for a happy ending. I absolutely loved it and would highly recommend.
This is the first book I’ve read from this author and most definitely will not be my last
Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read

OMG this book will make you laugh and cry and break your heart over and over again. It is a beautiful story about Anna who’s husband was tragically killed and as she struggles to move on after his death she calls his phone number to hear his message again but instead of her husbands voice someone else answers and as she tells them she loves them a strange and wonderful friendship with a stranger that develops and helps each one of them in ways they never thought possible. Sometimes a chance encounter can change your whole life.

A beautiful story, so well written that the emotion within this tale are so true you feel every single one of them, the sorrow and heartbreak, the joy, excitement and hope all in the course of Anna’s experience of loss and her journey out of the hollowness. Brady too is experiencing his own despair and Anna spurs him on to live again. The drama seems so real there are no unrealistic ridiculous romantic story moments but this is not just a love story this is a two great loves story.

A wonderful emotional read. I loved this story. It is about love, loss, heartache and new beginnings. It is beautifully written and I went through a whole mix of emotions whilst reading it.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

A wonderful story of loss and heartache and finding yourself again. I really enjoyed this book and found it incredibly moving.