The Last Kiss by Anna Bloom
by Anna Bloom
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My life began when I found out it was ending.
One Frenchman. One night. No questions. No names.
The perfect antidote for a stolen future.
Fate though has other plans and keeps throwing us together. Thing is, this doesn’t feel like a one-night stand, it feels like soulmates for a lifetime.
Whatever this is, it can’t be enough because I think we’re falling in love.
It has to be enough, because how do you tell someone it’s the end when all you want is for it to be the beginning?
Can you learn to live and love, knowing it might never last?
- File Name:the-last-kiss-by-anna-bloom.epub
- Original Title:The Last Kiss: A Standalone Romance Novel (The Notting Hill Sisterhood Book 1)
- Creator:Anna Bloom
- Language:en
- Identifier:MOBI-ASIN:B093LJ78ZZ
- Date:2021-05-27T16:00:00+00:00
- File Size:326.917 KB
Table of Content
- 1. Title Page
- 2. Contents
- 3. Dedication
- 4. Epigraph
- 5. 1. The End
- 6. 2. Blind Side
- 7. 3. A Shrug in French Means Anything
- 8. 4. One Night
- 9. 5. Things that go Bump
- 10. 6. Sisters
- 11. 7. French Red
- 12. 8. Notting Hill Health Foods
- 13. 9. Reality Wears Dark Clouds
- 14. 10. B Negative
- 15. 11. Moonlight
- 16. 12. Valentines for those with an Actual Broken Heart
- 17. 13. Fate is a mean mistress
- 18. 14. Barney’s Best Friend
- 19. 15. Lover
- 20. 16. Rain
- 21. 17. What’s at the end of the rainbow?
- 22. 18. The Sun is a many splendored thing
- 23. 19. Chocolate
- 24. 20. Cheese Dynasties
- 25. 21. Féroce Mama Bear
- 26. 22. Wards in the morning
- 27. 23. Pancakes
- 28. 24. How long does it take to start the day?
- 29. 25. Truths by candlelight
- 30. 26. Irresistible
- 31. 27. This is really going to hurt
- 32. 28. Different shades of white
- 33. 29. London Calling
- 34. 30. For whom the bell tolls
- 35. 31. The price of life
- 36. Epilogue
- 37. Coming Soon
- 38. Sign up for an exclusive Julia and Henri cut scene here
- 39. Acknowledgments
Anna Bloom
Book author Anna Bloom15fans
The Last Kiss (AKA The Last Kiss We Shared), Book 1 of the Notting Hill Sisterhood series (and the Last Ever series), was about 29-year-old Julianna Brown, and 42-year-old Henri Carre.
Side Note: The prologue and all 32 chapters were told from Julianna's POV. The only time the reader was able to get any insight into Henri's POV was in the epilogue. That made for an uneasy time reading because the reader never knew what he was thinking or feeling at any point in the story, thus giving the impression that Henri was nothing but a cold fish who was more self-centered and void of emotion.
Julianna learned that, after two years of dealing with heart issues, she had only a year (at most) to live if she didn't get a heart transplant. Not wanting to face reality, or her sister, she went to a bar to "contemplate life". While there she met a handsome Frenchman, had dinner with him, then returned to his hotel for a one-night-no-names-stand, to which they both agreed. When she woke in the middle of the night, she dressed and left while he was still sleeping.
The following day, she showed up at her sister's home, told her the news, then went home, where she had "an episode", a moment when her heart raced and she couldn't breathe. Once she was able to breathe again and her heartbeat was back to normal, she cataloged the moment in her heart diary, as required by her doctor.
Julianna and Henri met again by accident a month later, and once again had a one-night stand. During their time together, she asked whether or not he had a girlfriend. Although he said no to having a girlfriend, he omitted telling her he was married. This time, he noticed a scar on her chest, but when he asked about it, she lied and said it was from an accident. She also reiterated they weren't to exchange names. The next morning when things got interrupted, Henri made her a deal. If they were to meet by chance a third time, then they would exchange names. Six weeks passed before they met again, and Henri was the first to tell her his name.
They spent a weekend together, and then another six weeks passed with them only ever speaking over the phone after he returned to France. When Julianna got more bad news from the doctor, she decided it was time to travel to his home to see him one last time. However, when she found him, he was with another woman, whom he introduced as "a family friend". What he didn't say was that she was his wife. Henri made one very brief, yet very lame attempt to tell her about his wife. He was a coward. While this book was full of angst and drama, it left much to be desired in the way of continuity and reprieve. The emotional rollercoaster had too many twists and turns to the point of being nauseating, and not in a good way. The push/pull between the two main characters was childish and unrelenting, and the conflict in the book was ill-fitting. It made no sense how the author worked some of the secondary characters in almost at the last moment just to make the plot make sense.
Both main characters had his or her own set of secrets that they didn't reveal to the other. For almost the entire book the MMC and the FMC danced around the major issues but never came clean with the other. His being married and her planning her end-of-life goals built huge walls between them. The FMC said it all when she stated, "We've spent more time kissing than we have talking.". This wasn't about love as much as it was about the s*x. Neither of them was very mature for their ages, and they had no time for any growth to be portrayed.
I have to admit I struggled with this book for more than three days, which is an oddity for me as I can usually read a book in under two hours. But this? O.M.G., it was full of information that wasn't pertinent to the storyline, it had too much introspection, and the fact that the prologue was written in the present instead of the past, and 99% of the book was written in the past instead of the present. It was not your usual type of romance novel. I mean, an author who writes stuff like, "The door kicks open..." and "The door clicks closed". Do readers seriously need a play-by-play of what the characters are doing?
By Chapter 14, I was ready to pull a Did Not Finish maneuver because this was so very boring. I wasn't expecting that since I had been anticipating reading the book for several months. The book had way too many grammatical and punctuation errors that detracted from the flow of the story. They weren't minor errors either because some of them were glaringly wrong. But then the last 2-3 chapters had OTT drama and angst that was annoying...and the way the storyline seemed to be heading was appalling. It wasn't until the very last moment of the book that the reader understood what was going on for certain.
I could only give this a three-star rating due to all of the errors that detracted from the flow of the story and the way the two main characters were less mature than they should have been. It just didn't earn anything higher.
good