The Last Charm by Ella Allbright.

Thank you to netgalley and the author for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

About the book: When Leila loses her precious charm bracelet and a stranger finds it, she has to tell the story of how she got the charms to prove she’s the owner. Each and every one is a precious memory of her life with Jake. So Leila starts at the beginning, recounting the charms and experiences that have led her to the present. A present she never could have expected when she met Jake nearly twenty years ago…

My thoughts:

I feel incredibly privileged to have been able to read this book as I completely fell in love with it and it is a story that has stayed with me constantly since I finished it. I felt every emotion whilst reading it, some quite overwhelmingly at times and I am not afraid to say that at certain moments I sobbed. But that just shows what a powerful story Ella Allbright has written, and it definitely surprised me with the depth of emotion I felt towards characters and situations. I have discovered lately that I really enjoy reading books where the characters challenge me, particularly those I don’t always immediately warm too. It’s as if they have to work even harder to get into my affections, and the two main characters certainly managed that by the end…..Leila more so as I felt she went on an even bigger journey of self-discovery than Jake. I always got the feeling that even though we meet the two characters when they are just children, Jake was always going to turn out alright, whereas Leila needed to find more awareness of herself and those around her.

I loved the way that the story followed the two main characters as they are growing up, meaning it had to span over such a pivotal time in anyone’s life, moving from childhood to adolescence, and into the rigours of adulthood. Ella Allbright very effectively encapsulated all the emotions that everybody goes through growing up.

I would easily give this story 5 stars – particularly so for the last quarter of the book. It was such a stunning read, with plenty of twists that I didn’t see coming, times when I just wanted to shake the characters to see what we as readers could see, and for the depth of emotion it evoked in me.

I would also like to say that having spoken to the author on Twitter as well she is just a thoroughly nice person, and I can’t wait to read more of her work.

The Last Charm will be published on 18th August 2020 but I would highly recommend you preorder it now.