The Last Letter By Rebecca Yarros

The tragedy in this story is overkill. I expected it to be emotional and even upsetting. Her brother, a special ops soldier, had just died during his assignment, she grew up without her parents - they'd died when she was a toddler, her grandmother has passed away only a short time ago. Then another strike - she learned that her daughter had cancer. This all in itself is a lot to deal with for a single mom. And I would have been fine with Ella dealing with her lot.
But: in the last ten percent she had to deal with another loss, one that totally blindsided the reader - it came completely out of no-where and added nothing to the story or the character growth. And that made me so freaking mad, I can't even. This last tragedy was added only for tragedy's sake, for it to become a sobfest and I really think it was a cheap shot only for the benefit to make more money.

I also didn't think it was realistic. I know nothing in life is guaranteed but this really went overboard with tragic themes. Did Rebecca Yarros have a list she could check off the tragedies?

I know there will be people who will enjoy The Last Letter but I wasn't one of them.

This book should come with a trigger warning. There are mothers out there who have to deal with the loss of a child or whose children are battling cancer. They shouldn't go into this book without knowing what to expect.

The Last Letter This book slayed the hell out of me.

A couple of things you should know about me and reading:
1. I do most of my reading on a treadmill or just before I go to sleep.
2. I cry at pretty much every Disney movie. I also cried all the way through the movie Wonder.

As someone who writes primarily romantic comedy I enjoy a good angsty read that makes me tear up. That being said, I cried through a good 50% of this book, which as you might have guessed, makes running and reading nearly impossible and also slightly dangerous. Also, crying in public as an adult is embarrassing.

Hence the reason I had to stop reading on the treadmill. Instead I found myself staying up way too late, trying to silent-cry beside my blissfully oblivious and happily snoring husband so I could finish the heartbreakingly gorgeous story.

I’ve tried to talk to no fewer than half a dozen people about this book and I’ve choked up every time and done that flaily hand thing where I wave it in front of my face as if that’s going to help keep my emotions from leaking out of my eyes.

The Last Letter isn’t just a romance, although there are certainly all the romantic elements that get your heart racing, starting with Beckett Gentry who is absolutely gorgeous and also absolutely broken. He’s the most swoon worthy hero in the history of Alpha(ish) heroes.

But beyond the hero you will most definitely fall in love with, is a story that is so heartbreaking I often had to read a chapter and set the book down so I could just . . . breathe for a minute. Ella, our heroine is just as broken as our hero, she’s lost her entire family, her brother and as if she hasn’t been through enough already, she’s dealt yet another blow that could devastate her entire world.

I don’t think I’ve read a story with so many threads crossing over each other, such an intricate series of lives and events that have brought these two lost souls to each other. I’ve never been so gutted, so heart wrenchingly devastated and just so mesmerized by the incredible storytelling, and the emotional knife that I was balanced on so precariously throughout the entire story.

The Last Letter is so much more than a romance. It’s a testament to the strength of bonds forged from trauma and loyalty. It’s an exploration of motherhood and the importance of family. But above all, it’s a story of survival, forgiveness, and the healing power of unconditional love.

It's been nearly a month since I finished reading The Last Letter and I still tear up when I think about it. I'm forever changed by this story. Arm yourself with tissues and some chocolate and I'll hold your hand through the experience. The Last Letter 4.5 stars

Wear waterproof mascara while reading this book. Seriously, waterproof mascara and tissues. If you need a good cry, read this book. Anyone remember seeing Tammy Taye Bakker cry with mascara running down her face on TV? That was pretty much me while reading this book. Cry-a-rama occurred at my house today.

So yeah, I bawled. I also really enjoyed this book that ripped my heart out. Plus, this was a romance book folks. Geeze Louise is all I can say. This one had heart and soul. The long and short of it is that Ryan and Chaos (Beckett) are best friends serving in the military. Ryan decided to have Beckett write to his sister Ella (and vice versa) as Beckett did not have any family and received no letters. So, a pen pal relationship began. Beckett is used to being alone but loves receiving the letters as he learns that being connected to another person is not a bad thing. That it is possible to connect with someone he has never met.

Ella is a single mother to twins who is devastated when her daughter is diagnosed with Cancer. She is trying to hold it all together, take care of her children, fight with insurance, run a business and write to Chaos (Beckett). She is used to doing everything on her own, but maybe this time, she might need someone to hold her up and lessen her burden.

WOWZA! Is all I can say. This book is told in the present and each chapter also has a letter either written to Chaos from Ella or to Ella from Chaos. When Beckett shows up at her door, the reader knows he is Chaos, but Ella does not. As I stated this is a romance, but it is also so much more.

I inhaled this book and I am so glad I did not mull over too many reviews before reading this. The reviews are mixed, and I get it. This is an emotional book which leaves the reader wondering, just how much more can one person take? The main characters in this book are extremely like-able and I rooted for every single one. Which is what pulls on the heartstrings during this book. Their actions and reactions felt real and believable. Ella and Beckett are both good people, the kids are adorable and Havoc, the retired Military dog could warm anyone's heart. Yarros knows how to write characters that will steal the readers heart, right before she rips it out, then places it back in your chest.

The writing was also wonderful and pulled me into this story and deposited me in Telluride next to the lake. So, I mentioned the crying, but it's not all sad. There are happy moments and fun moments. Moments I wanted to cheer with the characters and moments I was happy that good things were finally happening. But this book is about the good times and the love that can come out of heartache. It is about loss, family, love, falling in love, responsibility, grief, heartache and hope. The Author tackles may heavy subjects in this book with grace. This is a gritty, soft, warm, emotional, devastating, sad, hopeful, heartbreaking, sweet and riveting book. I could not put this book down.

Loved this book. I have a feeling I will be thinking about this book for some time. Romance/women's fiction/cry fest...call it what you want. I thought it was fantastic and boy did it pull at my heartstrings.

Thank you to Entangled Publishing, LLC and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own. The Last Letter


”You don’t really value something until you’ve lost it.”


OH MY WOW!!! OH MY FEELS! Oh my tears! So many tissues from tears of the heart, tears from ugly crying, tears from Rebecca Yarros’ THE LAST LETTER. Tears still fresh and still real from one of the realest stories I’ve met. A story that still dances in my dreams. The best and most moving military romance I’ve ever met. A heartbreaker in the best of ways. The Last Letter took me on the biggest emotional journey, bringing words like honor, sacrifice, duty, and courage—the creed of my soldier and all soldiers—to life. I LOVED this romance and emotional journey so much!




As both a military wife and mama, I felt a deep and indescribable connection to these characters and this story, a military romance with one of the best heroes and heroines ever written. A story where I fell hard in love with the hero, Beckett, and heroine, Ella. A story of a hero and heroine saving each other. A story so raw and real. A story that stripped me bare where I was broken and bleeding, nearly brought me to my knees.

”I would take on armies for her, kill for her, or die for her.”


My heart was ripped out of my chest—yet my soul swooned in a romance that touched every part of me. The pain became almost unbearable to read at times, feeling all too real, but that pain brought immeasurable pleasure too. I caught myself smiling through the tears, and holding my breath again and again. I was DESTROYED ... DECIMATED! I cried my way through this book as my heart both shattered and soared. I felt every word. I FELT EVERYTHING!




He used both hands to hold my head and kissed me until I couldn’t remember my own name—only that I belonged to him.


The writing? It’s off-the-charts powerful. I was so in awe with this author’s superb storytelling. Rebecca Yarros has set the bar so high for military romance that you’d be hard-pressed to find another writer who gives you a bird’s eye view of the battlefield, the aftermath of war, the employment of courage and sacrifice, the fragility of friends and family, and what it truly means to love a soldier. Yarros pulls out all the emotional stops—delivering big time in a DEVASTATINGLY BEAUTIFUL BOOK that shows the bravery among the broken.

”In case no one ever told you—you’re worthy. Of love. Of family. Of home.”


ACHINGLY EMOTIONAL and EXQUISITELY RAW, The Last Letter is a rip-open-your-heart roller coaster of a romance with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. An epic story of love and loss with substance and soul. TRULY EXTRAORDINARY. Unequivocally beautiful. Unparalleled. Unforgettable. Unlike anything I’ve ever read. I’ve never met a more stunning and soulful military romance.

”Just be my happy, and let me be yours.”


There aren’t enough stars in the universe for this heartfelt and soul-striking story. Prepare to be blown away by this tear-jerker of a tale told in passionate and poignant love letters. The Last Letter is THE best military romance and Rebecca Yarros’ best book yet!!! A heartbreakingly beautiful book that I will forever feel. I just want to read it and feel it again and again.

A must-read, top 2019, and lifetime romance!!!

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 soul-striking stars but worth all the stars in the universe

▶️ https://amzn.to/2Xh13yB




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*******SPOILERS DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW******************



Sorry. I can't do it. DNF at 9% That's right 9%. Why you ask at only 9% would I quit on a book. Well let me tell you. I signed up for a heart melting and maybe a little breaking book about two army friends and one dying and the other taking care of the dead one's sister. I knew going into this the brother would die. But 7% into it and I could already see where this book was going and I didn't like it. Still I held out hope. At 9% when the drs tell Ella that her 5 year old daughter has a very aggressive and advanced cancer, I stopped reading and headed to goodreads for some spoilers. Because I knew, I just KNEW that a child was gonna die. Sure enough Three spoiler reviews later and I knew I could not finish this book. NOPE! I can read dark, dark books. I can handle rape, torture, murder, death, sadness you name it but I can't do children's deaths. I just can't it's a hard red line for me. I don't want to read a book that makes me depressed.



I'm a mom of a child who has lots of health issues. I remember sitting in the hospital waiting as my son at one years old, got MRIs CAT scans to see if a brain tumor was causing his seizures and it was one of the worst time of my life. Thank the Lord he didn't have a tumor, but he still has PVL, epilepsy, and mild CP. I don't want to be reminded of that time in my life when I sat around wondering what was wrong with my baby. Doing the what ifs. I don't want to live that kind of sadness. Also I want to just add a small note to all authors. I understand that no one wants to give away spoilers in their books, and I am not a reader that thinks everything should have a trigger warning but when it comes to child death I think there should be a small warning on the synopsis. I don't know how it can be worded so that it doesn't give away major plot lines, but as a reader I felt blindsided by this book. I have to say that if I had read the whole book I would have been mad. If I had known there was a child's death in this book I would never had requested it from netgalley. I hate DNFing books, but I just can't with this subject!

The Last Letter

Beckett,

If you’re reading this, well, you know the last-letter drill. You made it. I didn’t. Get off the guilt train, because I know if there was any chance you could have saved me, you would have.

I need one thing from you: get out of the army and get to Telluride.

My little sister Ella’s raising the twins alone. She’s too independent and won’t accept help easily, but she has lost our grandmother, our parents, and now me. It’s too much for anyone to endure. It’s not fair.

And here’s the kicker: there’s something else you don’t know that’s tearing her family apart. She’s going to need help.

So if I’m gone, that means I can’t be there for Ella. I can’t help them through this. But you can. So I’m begging you, as my best friend, go take care of my sister, my family.

Please don’t make her go through it alone.

Ryan The Last Letter

THE LAST LETTER: Is a full length romance novel by new to me author Rebecca Yarros. Spoken in ‘Dual POV’s.
MY REVIEW: can also be found on my blog:
➽ KITTY KATS CRAZY ABOUT BOOKS Chaos is a special ops with his trusty Labrador retriever Havoc by his side, being abandoned by his mother he bounced from foster home to foster home most of his life, until he was of age to enlist, having no family of his own his best friend Ryan also serving time in the military convinces his younger sister Ella to write deployment letters to Chaos since he receives no letters from the outside world.

Ella MacKenzie is a twenty-four year old single mother of two five year old twins (a girl Maisie and Colt a boy One soul split between two bodies), and owner of a quaint B&B with fifteen secluded cabins on a vast two hundred acre property called Solitude in Telluride Colorado, which she took over when her Grandmother died.



It was via these letters that these two connected, by words alone they became each others confidante, which Ella needed more than anything in the on coming months when things get turned upside down as she confesses all her highs and lows to a man she has never even seen a photo of and only given his call name Chaos.

Somewhere between letter number one and letter number twenty-four, I'd fallen in love with her. Fallen for her words, her strength, her insight and kindness, her grace under impossible circumstances, her love for her children, and her determination to stand on her own.

As the synopsis divulges, Ryan is killed in active duty where he leaves his last letter to his best friend Beckett pleading that he look after Ella and the kids which sees Beckett staying in one of Ella's cabins for the next seven months where he slowly infiltrates himself in Ella's and the kids lives. Beckett is a godsend, he steps in and becomes her pillar of strength during a time of need, because she's going to have to lean on him to get through what life has thrown at her.

I’m a sucker for military reads, they always tend to hit the heart hard. This book was one of my most highly anticipated books of February, from a new to me author. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Once I started, I couldn’t put it down, I devoured it, inhaled it, gobbled it up like I’d not eaten for years, loving the words this author shared with us.

Reading through this I knew that I was going to be in a world of pain, and then just when I thought we'd put all that behind us I was hit with a whammy, the pain that shot through my heart was unbearable, it made for hard reading, the tears came quickly, my heart broke in half, how much could one character endure because this book was brutal, it took no prisoners, just loved ones. It definitely put me through my paces, threw everything it could at me, all the feels and heartbreak walked hand in hand as it brought me to my knees, nothing prepared me for this book.

I cried, I sighed, I swooned, I raged, I loved..

This is just the beginning for me when it comes to this author, I can’t wait to read more by her.

* Teaser is off the authors facebook page *


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The Last Letter *I'm still having such a hard time with this book, weeks later. I originally wasn't going to give this a star rating, or post my review on any retail sites, but that honestly goes against everything I'm always preaching about when it comes to reviews. I think it's unfair to other readers if all they see is glowing praise. And yes, everyone will relate and react to a book in different ways, but that's exactly why we shouldn't be afraid to post our thoughts, even if they are the complete opposite of everyone else. Just because someone adored a story doesn't negate the fact that I, or other readers, will have the complete opposite reaction. While I will not be posting what's under my spoiler tag on any of the other sites, I will be sharing some of my thoughts and feelings, and that this book was a journey I wish I had never taken.

Nope, nope, nope.
I'm about to go drink a big bottle of wine to try and block this book from my memory.



Days later and I'm still so angry about this book. I wish I could delete it from my memory as easily as it was deleted from my Kindle. The Last Letter ★ 3 STARS ★

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“I didn’t know how to trust the appearance of sunshine after living in a perpetual hurricane.”




MY GOD!
It's been a long time since I've cried so much.

Livros envolvendo militares são os que eu mais gosto de ler! Eu estava à espera deste há meses, por isso assim que pude, comecei a leitura.

Ella e Beckett foram personagens da qual senti simpatia logo de início. Embora entre os dois, o meu preferido tenha sido ele. Personagem maravilhoso, que mesmo com seus defeitos, falhas e culpas, ainda assim ao meu ver de modo geral, foi perfeito.

Não que eu não tenha gostado da mocinha, pelo contrário, como mãe, foi impossível não me colocar em seu lugar ou sentir suas dores, seus medos e suas lutas. E mesmo me conectando com ela, em alguns momentos senti uma breve irritação pelos seus atos e o modo como lidou com alguns acontecimentos.

Eu gostei bastante de como o relacionamento deles iniciou e como foi progredindo ao decorrer da trama. Especialmente em acompanhar a interação do Beckett com os gêmeos.

Apesar de eu ter curtido muito a história de maneira geral, ficou difícil de ignorar os pontos que me incomodaram. A escrita e narrativa em si são boas e livro tem um ritmo razoavelmente bom. Entretanto, pra mim, houve uma certa repetição, por exemplo, muitos pensamentos internos repetitivos e isso acabou tornando a leitura um pouco cansativa.

E eu não sei se é exatamente por esse motivo que achei que a história se arrastou demais em partes relativamente desnecessárias, enquanto que nas que eram e seriam realmente importantes quase não há muita elaboração.

Eu gosto de um bom drama, mas aqui eu tive a sensação de que um drama foi se empilhando em cima do outro. Sabe quando estrapola e fica exagerado?

Mesmo depois de muitas lágrimas, inúmeros soluços e mais lágrimas. Mesmo após meu coração ter ficado estraçalhado e em mil pedaços, ainda assim, não concordo e aceito o motivo que me fez sentir tamanha dor.

Pra mim não houve lógica ou coerência. Não era necessário. Claro que a autora teve seus motivos e nem todo livro é de fato do jeito que esperamos ou queremos, porém até agora eu não consigo digerir isso.

Se esse livro foi especial? Não sei ao certo dizer até que ponto ou o quanto foi. Foi uma leitura que ao finalizar não me deixou aquele sentimento feliz, sabe? Me deixou em conflito e dividida... Não detestei, porém não amei tanto quanto imaginei que iria.

A única certeza que tenho é que alguns personagens se tornaram preciosos e ganharam um espaço enorme no meu coração. The Last Letter The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros is as much a heartbreaking as it is heartwarming contemporary romance. For anyone not familiar what the title, The Last Letter, is referring to the book is about a soldier who was killed in duty leaving a letter to be read after his death.

Beckett and Ryan were best friends serving together in the military with both men not having much in the way of family. Ryan did have his sister back home though and seeing Beckett with no one to communicate with he set up Ella and Beckett as pen pals. When Ryan was killed in active duty he left his last letter to his best friend asking him to take care of Ella.

Ella is a single mother to twins, a boy and a girl that she lives her life for and would do anything to protect. Having been left alone and pregnant and her only family left in her brother that joined the military Ella has had to fight to get where she is in life. Now Ella is also fighting for her daughter’s life when she’s diagnosed with cancer.

The story in this one actually begins with briefly showing Beckett and Ryan serving and the letters to Ella beginning but then heads to Beckett’s arrival in Telluride in the present time. As the chapters begin happening in the present readers still get to read the letters written in the past between the chapters to get the backstory of how Beckett, Ryan and Ella all came to know one another.

The title alone hints of this being an emotional story but even with that hint I wasn’t prepared for just how emotional it really was. Needless to say a box of tissues needs to be on hand while reading this book and each time you think the roller coaster of emotions is going to end it heads back up the hill to come crashing down yet again. I was hooked on every single page of this one and would highly recommend buckling up for the emotional ride.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/ The Last Letter Rating Pending...

93 percent of the book was AMAZING - 5 Star read - favorite shelf. Then the last 7 percent happened and I didn’t like the turn of events and I’m on the fence what to rate and quite honestly I’m left with the why’s of why the author would do this and why would her Betas would give a green light on it. The Last Letter

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