One Last Gift by Emily Stone

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...

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.

Review

‘One Last Gift’ tugs at the heartstrings, but is ultimately a lovely lighthearted romance! Plus who doesn't also love a treasure hunt and its set mainly during the festive period. Yeah, yeah I am already reading books set in Christmas but I just love them. Normally they involve murder but I couldn't resist the sound of this book! It is a lovely slow burn of a burn set over multiple years but it really does hit all the emotional spots, there was a tear in my eye at times as well enjoying the love story that is tangled through it. But its not just a love between two partners, but it's also about fraternal love, the love from a best friend and the love that strangers can provide in times of need.

I loved the idea of a treasure hunt - friends recently did one for my 40th birthday this year - so I was instantly enthralled by this part of the story. It's show the love between Cassie and her brother Tom that endures the move into adulthood. But it was also a good way to help Cassie get through her grief after Tom suddenly dies. I loved all the characters in this book but Cassie and Sam do take top billing. I was impressed by how the author handled the topic of grief and how it affects people in different ways. Not just when looking at Tom’s death but also at the people who were affected by Tom and Cassie’s parent's death as well. There was a lot of empathy and understanding shown by the author here, well done! It gave the book extra depth and made it all the better for it.

Let me know if you pick this one up! And scroll down for an opportunity for you to take part in a your own treasure hunt!

Treasure Hunt

Each day, there will be a clue to solve - that clue will lead to a word. So if you solve the clue on day one, you’ll end up with one word, day two, two words, etc. 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 multiple bloggers on each day, the clue will be split - so each of you will get two lines of the clue as a whole, so anyone reading will need to go to all of the posts to get the whole clue, and then be able to find the word. That should make sense once you see the clue, I hope, but if it doesn’t I can try to explain more! All the bloggers names can be found on the poster for the book tour above.
The prize is a dinner, bed and breakfast voucher for 2 people at Gravetye Manor -https://www.gravetyemanor.co.uk/. It’s a 4 star luxury country hotel in Sussex, and the restaurant is Michelin starred! It is the hotel which is featured in One Last Gift - I won’t say anything in case you haven’t read it, but if you have read it, hopefully you’ll know which hotel I mean - it’s a key moment for Cassie and Sam’s journey! If you could include mention of this prize and a link to the website (if possible) in the posts, that would be great - I hope it’s a lovely prize and lots of people will want to get it :). Gravetye Manor are also on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GravetyeManorso you can tag them if you are posting about the treasure hunt/the prize.
To enter, after you’ve got the sentence from all the clues at the end of the blog tour, people should email publicity@headline.co.uk with the subject header ONE LAST GIFT TREASURE HUNT and the answer to the clue (the sentence) in the body of the email. The deadline to enter is the end of October. The winner will be chosen at random, and have the voucher emailed to them. If you have space to include details on how to enter on the post, that would be great.
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 is my part of the clue;

DAY SIX, CLUE TWO:

The first word Is hidden here,

A word with two letters above - is it clear?