#Review: One Last Gift by Emily Stone @EmStoneWrites @headlinepg @RandomTTours #blogtour #competition #TreasureHunt #newrelease #romance

It’s a real pleasure today to be joining the blog tour and sharing my review for One Last Gift by Emily Stone. The author’s second novel, it is published in paperback tomorrow (13th October) by Headline Review, and is also available as an ebook and audiobook. My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the invitation and support, and to everyone involved in providing my advance reading e-copy. You may already know that there’s an exciting competition – a treasure hunt – taking place in tandem with this blog tour, and you’ll find more details AND my clue following my review below.

You might just remember that I was a little late in starting my run-in to Christmas last year – so many books I wanted to read, time running out to get to them. But the book that first leapt to the top of my “must read” list was Emily’s Always, in December – I’d read so many wonderful reviews that I really didn’t want to miss out. You’ll find my review here, and you’ll see that the book turned out to be everything I wanted it to be – a year in the lives of Josie and Max that constantly delighted me, but was also a particularly raw emotional experience. Beautifully written too – so accomplished that it was difficult to believe that it was the author’s debut, and I knew there would be even better to come. So – let’s take a look at her new one…

Take a heartwrenching and uplifting romantic journey, from London to the Hamptons to the south of France and the Welsh mountains, with the author of Always, in December.

 

For as long as Cassie can remember, it had been the three of them: Cassie, her big brother Tom, and Tom’s annoying best friend Sam.

 

Now, Tom is sorted, Sam is flying high, and Cassie thinks she’s figured it all out. Then tragedy happens and three becomes two.

 

For Cassie picking herself up seems unimaginable. Until she finds an envelope addressed to her, asking her to follow the trail to one last gift…

 

And suddenly what seems like an ending leads Cassie to something unexpected, beautiful and new…

It’s always a particular challenge writing a review when the cover description deliberately – and quite rightly – tells very little of the story. And I’m going to follow that example – when I read the book, I knew the key characters’ names, that there’s a tragedy when “three becomes two”, and that the story doesn’t end there – and focus instead on how this book made me feel. And that really is rather difficult, because this is a book filled with “moments” – ones that entirely break your heart, others that make you despair of any possibility of a happy ending, some that fill your heart with joy and love and hope – and I can’t help really wanting to share every single one. But the one thing I’ll tell you is that this book was most definitely everything I hoped it would be – the same intense and immersive experience as her first wonderful book, and that really special touch with the emotional content.

There’s a really strong focus on family. Sometimes the one you have falls short – after the loss of their parents, Tom and Cassie are brought up by their aunt, who provides them with a home but none of the love they might have hoped for, and they’re sustained by the exceptional closeness of their sibling relationship along with the affectionate care of Linda who runs the local pub. And they have strong friendships – Cassie has Hazel, always there in the background, and Tom has Sam. Sam has his family issues too – a loving mother, but a father who dips in and out of his life – and becomes an ever present third person in Tom and Cassie’s lives. At times, Cassie resents his presence – she feels he comes between her and her brother at times – but things change as they grow to adulthood and more complicated emotions come into play. On a skiing trip together, Cassie bravely tackles both the slopes and her growing feelings for Sam, but the latter backfires in spectacular fashion.

After the tragedy, the book – at first – becomes the most painful portrait of grief and loss, superbly captured and conveyed, with the strongest of emotions that you feel at your core having grown to know so well the individuals at the story’s centre. But then Cassie discovers the first envelope, with its letter and clue – a Christmas treasure hunt had become an eagerly anticipated tradition, and following it to the gift at its end gives her something to live for. And it certainly takes her on a journey – to some wonderful locations (and the settings are beautifully drawn), but also to the point where she’s able to face up to the challenges of her future and the possibility of future happiness.

The whole structure of the book was something I really enjoyed – the author takes time developing her characters until they’re nicely nestled in your heart, until you feel what they feel and really understand the complexities of the various relationships. The emotional authenticity is stunning, there are many tears between the pages, and at times it’s intensely moving – I certainly needed to put it down at times – but there’s humour and lightness too, and that glimmer of hope and happiness at the end of the tunnel that shines ever more brightly. I really loved it – very highly recommended.

Competition 

If you’ve spotted any of the other posts on this blog tour – it’s the tenth day today – you’ll already know about the treasure hunt (beautifully linked with the book’s plot!), but let me tell you more. Each day, there’s a clue to solve – and that clue leads to a word. There are 11 words in total, for the 11 days of the blog tour – so at the end, everyone who’s figured it out will have an 11-word sentence. Because there are several bloggers on each day of the tour, the daily clues are split between them – so you will need to visit ALL the posts to get the whole clue.

The prize really is well worth the effort – a dinner, bed and breakfast voucher for 2 people at Gravetye Manor, a 4 star luxury country hotel in Sussex with a Michelin starred restaurant. It’s actually the hotel that features in One Last Gift, and provides a key moment in the main characters’ journey.

To enter, once you’ve got the sentence from all the clues at the end of the blog tour, you’ll need to email publicity@headline.co.uk with the subject header ONE LAST GIFT TREASURE HUNT and with the answer in the body of your email. The deadline to enter is the end of October – the winner will be chosen at random, and the voucher will be sent out by email. And if there are enough entries, two runners up will get a signed finished copy of One Last Gift, and a box of chocolates.

So, here’s my clue:

DAY TEN, CLUE ONE:
We use this word to claim possession,
Sometimes it’s also a sign of obsession…

And here’s the blog tour poster, so you can start tracking down all the other clues. Best of luck everyone!

About the author

Emily Stone lives and works in Chepstow and wrote Always, in December in an old Victorian manor house with an impressive literary heritage. Her debut novel was partly inspired by the death of her mother, when Emily was seven, and wanting to write something that reflected the fact that you carry this grief into adulthood, long after you supposedly move on from the event itself. One Last Gift is her second novel.

For more information, follow Emily on Twitter.