This was so sad!! Totally broke my heart but it was also uplifting in a way too. Definitely makes you reevaluate your own life

I have mixed results with emotional fiction titles. I was hoping Photos of You would be a hit for me, but unfortunately when I tried to read it last year I could not get into it. And once the pandemic hit I couldn’t handle any sad topics like this. I’m hoping one day I can try again, I’ve heard a lot of rave reviews about this book. DNF

I really enjoyed this book. I felt like it had a very solid story line and the pacing was perfect. It definitely is not a happy story; however, I enjoy when a book can legitimately make me weepy over the situation that the characters are facing. I believe this story will be very appealing for those readers who enjoy women's fiction.

This book will let you have a good soul cleaning cry. The story was so good I sobbed through most of it. This is a heart-wrenching story, so beautifully written, it is moving and I loved it from start to finish. Thank you for such a beautiful story

5 stars!!

What a phenomenal read.. and I feel a book hangover coming on now. This book was such an emotional, guy wrenching read, but it was woven with such raw realness and I adored it.

This delivered such a strong, inspirational story as Ava Green discovers that the cancer she thought she beat has returned once again with a vengeance.

Highly recommend!

Thanks to Netgalley and Forever for the free copy. All opinions are my own

Knowing loved ones who have fought the battle with cancer, I knew this would be a sad read, but was interested in giving it a shot. I’m happy I did. It was a great tear jerker. You’ve been warned! Lol

I really enjoyed this book, it was sad but was a satisfying romance in the end. Ava Green was diagnosed with terminal cancer but still wants to have a wedding before she goes. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a groom, but that doesn't stop her from planning the wedding.
It's a well-written romance with realistic characters that left me in tears in places. I definitely recommend this book.

Thanks to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I knew going into this book that it would be a sad one ultimately but I was hoping that there would be enough happy to somehow offset the sad. And having cancer a couple of years ago myself I knew it would mean something different to me now then it would have had it been written and had I read it 3 years ago. While it was sad, it was also happy, heartwarming, funny and joyful. The characters had real depth, the book moved right along and kept me reading until I finished it. But most importantly it reinforces that life is short and that you have to life it to the fullest as you don't know how long you have.

I don’t even know where to start on this one. First of all thank you @readforeverpub for my free copy. This book was sad and heartbreaking and took me a bit to get through. The writing was amazing and the story was so touching. I could have sat down and read this in one day, but with everything going on I had to sit the book down and take breaks. I would definitely recommend this to everyone, but maybe wait until the world isn’t so hectic!

Thank you NetGalley and Forever for a complimentary copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Photos Of You
By: Tammy Robinson

REVIEW ☆☆☆☆
Photos Of You is not a put a smile on your face kind of book. I'll tell you truly that it is sad, like depressing sadness. The story is good. Ava, age 28, has terminal cancer, but she has a dream to fulfill before she dies. Ava decides to have a wedding, even though she doesn't have a groom. Her story garners national attention, and that brings a few surprises to Ava. At times, it's a bit overdramatic and hard to believe. Still, overall, the idea of the story is good and touching and will hold great appeal among readers of women's fiction. I'm not a big fan of sad stories, so it's a matter of taste.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. This title was unfortunately too sad for me & I couldn't get through it. Thank you for the opportunity to be an early reader.

If you love the series Chasing Life, you'll love Photos of You. A great, tear-jerker of a read!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

This is 100% not a romance, but it does have a romantic arc. I knew going in this would not have an HEA but I wanted to give it a try.
CW: death, dying, main character with breast cancer.

The main protagonist, Ava, discovers her cancer has not only returned but it is aggressively terminal. She wants the rest of her life to be on her terms and decides to have a wedding before she dies. It was a journey that had some brutal moments as Ava talked about her declining health. It was at times hard to read.

As Ava plans this wedding with the help of her friends and parents, her plan for a wedding goes viral on the internet. A lifestyle magazine picks up the story and follows Ava’s journey. Ava develops a relationship with the photographer from the magazine. She also writes letters to the magazine readers that were her take on dying. The letters were a lot. At times they felt a little saccharin and over the top.

I didn’t love this book. It felt a little superficial at times and was lacking depth. Maybe the letters were supposed to build that. But it fell short for me.

If you are looking for a read that has the potential to be emotional with no HEA, you may enjoy this book.

Before you open the cover and read the first word, make sure you have a box ... or two boxes ... of tissues close by! There are no words to describe how deeply this story touched me emotionally.

This book is a journey through sadness, pain, hope, love, loss, relationships (family, friends, romantic), emotional healing, and grief and even amidst the painful moments, there is still laughter. The author brings the characters to life. They are richly developed and you will respond to them strongly. Their support for each other is amazingly compassionate.

When you are given a number of days left to live, how will you spend that time? What will become important to you? What kind of person will you be.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever and Grand Central Publishing for an ARC of this beautifully crafted and heartwrenching story that I hope will make you examine yourself and realize how precious life and relationships are. All comments are honest and freely shared. This is a book that needs to go the top of you to-be-read list!

This book was just okay for me. Maybe it's morbid, but I can't help being drawn to end-of-life books. I actually went into this book completely blind and I don’t think I was in the right mind set to read it. Though I thought the writing was great, character development was great, it just wasn’t for me.

Poignant
Heartbreaking
Hopeful

If this was to be your last birthday ever, what would you wish for. For Ava Green, all she dreamed of was to one day be able to get married. The cancer Ava thought she beat three years ago is now back, and back with a vengeance. Her whole community and family rally around the chance to give Ava the wedding of her dreams and Lucas Gable may be the one to be able to make her wish come true.

I absolutely loved this book. I felt that the story line was solid and any book that leaves me in a sloppy mess, is one heck of a book for this woman with a hear of steel. It takes a lot for me to get weepy and this one opened the flood gates for me. I loved that! Robinson is truly a talented writer that could write with such passion, dialogue and a realistic and well written characters that you will absolutely fall in love with.

Overall, this was an amazing book that tugged at the heartstrings, delivered with a strong message and yet left he reader with a satisfaction that only a true gem of a read can deliver.

On her 28th birthday, Ava Green learns that the cancer she thought she'd beaten is back, and that this time it's terminal. With less than a year to live, she decides to fulfill a long-cherished childhood dream: to get married. She may not have a groom, but she can still wear a white dress, invite her family and friends, and celebrate herself. Then a national magazine decides to do a series of articles about the wedding, and the handsome photographer assigned to the story turns out to be someone she could very easily fall in love with.

Photos of You is a moving, emotional novel that does exactly what it promises it will. There's no last-minute miracle cure, no surprising reveal about a medical error. Ava Green will die, but she will fulfill her dream of having a wedding before she does. The love story reminds me a bit of Nicholas Sparks, especially A Walk to Remember, except it's told from the perspective of the character with a terminal illness, which means, thankfully, that cancer is never reduced to a plot twist designed to shock and evoke tears. Rather, like Ava, we need to carry that knowledge with us for the entire book, infusing even the happiest of scenes with an incredibly complex mix of emotions.


I absolutely love that Ava decides to have a wedding even without a groom. It's such a badass response to cancer, and a glorious celebration of life. I love how Ava's dream of having a wedding can still come true even if she's single, how she can still choose to enjoy dressing up in a beautiful white gown, and having a massive celebration with her loved ones. Ava's decision to have a wedding is a determination to make her happily ever after come true, and I absolutely love that about this story.

Having said that, I also absolutely love that Ava does find love in the photographer, Lucas. Their relationship does feel a bit insta-love, but Robinson sets their story up in such a way that you want to suspend your disbelief.  You want to fully buy into their love story. Just as much as the wedding itself is a badass act of happily ever after, Ava's relationship with Lucas is a promise that, no matter how bleak circumstances can feel, fate can still come through and surprise you with a taste of the happily ever after you no longer thought possible. It's a romance that's doomed to tragedy from the start, and you can't help but root for Ava and Lucas to take every little bit of happiness together that they can.

Photos of You is a beautiful story. Odd as it may be to say about a story where the main character will die, Photos of You is also a hopeful, feel-good story. Yes, we know that Ava will die, and we know that she and Lucas will have a few months together at most. But we also know that love happens, and we also know that a lifelong dream will come true. And that's beautiful.


+

Thank you to Forever for an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This review will go live on my blog on March 4, 2020, 8 AM ET.

I didn't NOT like this book. I loved the message of this book but I just didn't love the execution of it. I love when authors try and make a character endure something so painful but also have them try their best to make the most of what they can and the author did a great job at doing that with Ava but I don't know. I just wasn't that invested in the story as a whole. I think I am just forever a sucker of Me Before You when it comes to this type of story-line though. That kind of love and the story I read in that book just trumps everything for me. 

I wasn't a fan of the "romance" in Photos of You and it certainly didn't evoke any type of emotional attachments for me. If I was attached to anything in this story, it was the secondary characters. They were the stars of this show and when you have such a powerful story-line and message that you are wanting to send out to readers, I feel like you can't let that happen. I connected more with them than I did the main character herself. That's an issue. 

The family dynamics and the friendship relationships in Photos of You is really what sealed this deal for me and made the book as a whole enjoyable. It wasn't the cancer or what Ava was going through-- it was her relationships and the relationships around her. How they functioned and how they all got along and how they were all banding together to be there for Ava. She truly wasn't ever ALONE. Not in my eyes.  

My biggest issue was James and Ava. I really didn't like anything about their relationship. In fact-- the author could have done away with that completely and I think it would have been a solid four star read for me. I don't know why, it just felt very forced to me. The chemistry just wasn't there, and it felt like to me that the author just wanted Ava to have a ROMANTIC relationship and well, James was just the best option for that. They had no chemistry, there was no build up, no love, it all felt very forced and flat to me.

My heart is in pieces after this book!!!! So sad and yet so uplifting. I swear- I am still recovering!!!

A definite tear-jerker, make sure you have a box of tissues handy when you start reading. Not for everyone, but it results in a good cry