Kristan Higgins' Pack Up the Moon was a real tear-jerker. Sweet story but extremely emotional. Very sad. Would recommend it for readers that are in a good place.

This is a gut wrenching story about a husband who is not comfortable in the world and has relied deeply on his wife to make his way through most social interactions. He loves her deeply and when she dies after a long illness, he not only feels her loss, but loss of living in the world itself. She was his rudder.

She made a plan before she died, knowing him as she does. Once a month a letter is delivered to him for the first year after her death. In the letter is a chore or task, something to pull the husband out of his hiding from the world shell.

This book has a lot of emotion in it and I might shy away from it if there was a recent loss. If you dive in to enjoy a really rich story, expect the tears.

Joshua and Lauren are the perfect couple. Happy and in love, they're devastated when Lauren is diagnosed with a terminal illness. After Lauren's death, Joshua starts receiving the letters that Lauren wrote for him in some of her last moments. In those letters, one for every month in the year after her death, Lauren hopes to guide Joshua through his grief and pain.

I loved this book! I thought the characters were so well developed, including the side characters. No one was presented as perfect, just real. Joshua's grief felt very realistic, and his pain was palpable. I could really feel the emotions that the characters were experiencing; the author really did a great job with that. I thought I knew the direction this story was going in, but I was pleasantly surprised. I really liked the letter format from Lauren, too.

This was a wonderfully heartfelt story that touched my heart. One minute I was smiling or laughing and the next I am ugly crying. Lauren and Josh’s love was portrayed authentically and beautifully. Lauren’s letters and stories allowed me to understand and empathize with her and Josh’s experience. I especially loved the family Josh formed and the life her built through her guidance through her letters.

Thank you for allowing me to read this advanced copy.

I received an ARC of this book for an honest review. I am a big fan of Kristan Higgins and have really enjoyed all of her books-starting back when she was considered more of a romance writer. I've happily followed along with her more contemporary fiction path and I often recommend her books to library patrons looking for a story with real characters that isn't depressing. That said, I am not sure what to do with this book. I loved the story-the characters were so well-drawn with such believable lives. I am not sure I could recommend this book to people because it's just so depressing-I am sure many can see the beauty and focus on that, and Kristan Higgins certainly does work to keep the story focused on the joy and love, however-it was depressing as hell for me to read. I cried multiple times. As a librarian, I would have to really know what someone wanted before I could ever suggest this title, thankfully I have her back list to suggest.

This is a lovely and poignant tale about a marriage cut short by death, but with an ingenious way of helping a spouse with grief and moving on to find happiness.

This goes back and forth from the present to the past following the life of Josh after the death of his wife Lauren. There are times when you will have a hard time holding back tears. It is a happy sad story about grief and moving on in life. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

Where to start? So hard to review because it’s such an amazing story with so many layers. I like how the book goes from Josh’s current time frame and then Lauren’s which starts with the current to her past, not her end. Oh I just love all these people! And cute little unexpected funny parts. Josh’s wonderful extended family (you don’t have to be blood to be family). Lauren’s relationship with her sister and her deceased dad. The letters that help Josh get back to the real world. How he meets new friends (Radley!) and lives a sometimes lonely but lovely life while on the spectrum. The author got everything right here. Just a pleasure to read! If you don’t alternate laughing and crying, your heart is made of stone!

I had read and enjoyed Kristan's books in the past and loved the way she deftly handles serious issues with humour and a lightness of touch. But nothing prepared me for the emotions I felt when I read this. To say I cried all the way through would be an understatement. I usually don't enjoy books about death/dying but I thought I would give this a go and I am so glad I did. Josh's emotional journey through grief was so well done and I was there with him every step of the way. I was dreading reading the scene of Lauren's death but Kristan cleverly put it right at the end of the book, so there was no way I could miss out on reading it as by then I had got to attached to both of the characters. I loved how the story of Josh's second wife was cleverly planted throughout, right from the beginning, with tiny little clues, too, and I found the ending very satisfying. A lovely read.

This book was spectacular. So raw and poignantly written. The characters were extremely relatable. Would give this book a million stars if possible. Thank you!

Another heartwarming read from one of my favourite authors, Kristan Higgins. I laughed, I cried, I couldn't put the book down until I knew what happened next. Kristan's writing always tugs at the heart strings, and this book was no exception. I really enjoyed the two points of view, going back and forth between Lauren and Josh. My dad recently passed and I thought it might be too hard to read about a death, but honestly I think it helped me. Reading Lauren's point of view from her letter's after she's passed were amazing. It made me wish everyone could experience that with a loved one. And I really wanted a bigger epilogue, I wanted to read more about Josh's happy ending.

{Thank you to Berkley Publishing for my gifted copy}

Pack Up the Moon is one of those books that's going to stick with me for a long time. It pulled me right in with its perfect balance of sadness and heartwarming moments. This plotline of moving through the journey of grief and written with Higgins' unique storytelling flair, made this one engrossing from the start.

What I found most unique and captivating was the differing timelines between the two main characters. As the reader, we follow Josh moving forward, as he navigates his newly widowed life, led by monthly letters left written by his wife. Simultaneously, we follow Lauren, moving backward in time, from the time of her death to before she met Josh.

I also enjoyed learning more about both IBP (the disease that ultimately takes Lauren's life), and Josh's experiences as someone who is on the autism spectrum. While this was most definitely a sad book, it had many moments that made me smile and even laugh aloud.

Kristan Higgins is one of those unique contemporary fiction authors that are able to write a lighter read that still have multifaceted characters and storylines within. I'm going to be thinking about Josh and Lauren for a long time and I highly recommend this wonderful read!

My full review will be posted on genthebookworm.com closer to the June 8th, 2021 publication date.

Lauren is 28, married 3 years, and terminally ill. She has written her husband Joshua letters, which she instructs her best friend to give him every month for a year after she passes. Each one gives him something to do: the early ones are just to go grocery shopping, and they evolve to her suggesting he find someone to love. The plot reminded me of Cecelia Ahern's 2004 novel, P.S. I Love You. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Love, love. love this book! Higgins has done it again with a wonderful love story that will make you laugh and cry at the same time! The characters were very relatable and down-to-earth in this emotional story of a marriage that was strong enough to endure the hardships.

I really like this author a lot, and eagerly requested this ARC. I was quite surprised by the storyline. This tale of newlyweds, one dying (Lauren) and leaving letters to the survivor (Josh) to carry on living after them has been done before & dare I say better - most notably in "P.S. I Love You", which I had just read a month or so ago... also not the best timing for the subject matter, at all. It has some updating for our times, but it is just not what I would have expected from the author - who's previous works I have loved so very much - sadly unoriginal and derivative. Two and 1/2 stars is all I can give. My sincere thanks for the ARC to the publisher and Net Galley.

I loved this story with all my heart. It broke my heart reading about this illness I had never heard of and watching how it affected not only the character who had it but everyone who loved her most especially her husband who is the center of the story. The journey from being married to a terminally ill wife he loved to recovery is long and
complicated and also a bit of wonderful and uplifting. I'm a longtime fan of this author and this is the best yet.

Was I a literal inconsolable sobbing wreck after I read this? 100%
TW: Loss of a romantic partner

Picture this: Your wife has just died after a 3 year battle with IPF. You're absolutely grief-stricken and don’t know how you'll grow through life without her. Fortunately, being the amazing all-knowing wife that she was, Lauren had the foresight to write you 12 letters for the first year to help him grieve and move on with his life.

My favorite thing about this book was how we’re following our two main characters in two different timelines. So in the present, we’re following Joshua as he’s trying to grief through the first year of Lauren’s death. BUT we also get to follow Lauren and slowly make our way back to how she and Joshua first met and the beginning of her diagnosis with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

If you want a book that will leave you a puddle of tears, ta-da!! Look no further! I am not joking when I say that this book had me in tears from the very beginning. There was a knot stuck in my throat the whole time I was reading this.

I don’t know what it is about me, but I LOVE books where we follow a character grieving the loss of a romantic partner. Like I don’t get why I love these types of stories so much but I do.

That being said, I am very fortunate that I’ve never had to deal with the loss of a romantic partner because fuck, if I cry this much for fictional characters, I don’t ever want to know what I would turn into for the real deal.

I honestly don’t know who I loved more, Josh or Lauren. I’ll be diplomatic and say I loved both equally because I truly can’t choose. Josh had this really dark, quirky sense of humor as he tried to navigate his first year as a widower. And Lauren was so lovable that she’s the type of character you wish were real so you could be best friends with, which made it even more heartbreaking to read because the whole way through, you know she’s dead! Agh!

This book was filled with love, grief, dark quirky humor, and most of all hope… that sounds really cheesy but it’s true!

Read if you liked: FOREVER INTERRUPTED, PS I LOVE YOU, THE LAST LOVE SONG

Thank you to Berkley for my ARC

This is Kristan's BEST book ever! I just don't know how she does it better every single time. "Pack Up the Moon" was tragic, beautiful, hopeful, funny, and had such depth of emotion in every interaction that I cried so many times my husband had to get me a new box of tissues. I loved Lauren and Joshua but, in Kristan's usual way, I loved almost all of the characters for different reasons. The love between the couple, the friends, the family was just so palpable. Other than the true tragedy of Lauren's illness and early death, I just wanted to be in their lives.

Kristan's descriptions of Lauren's decision to live and Joshua's support of that was so lovely. I'm also in awe of her ability to show the imperfections of people and the fact that they are still (as they say in Bridgerton :) worthy of love. I feel hope for the future of humanity for the first time in a long time - it was that powerful to me.

This was my first time trying a book by Kristan Higgins. I had really high hopes for Pack Up the Moon but unfortunately this book was not for me. After last year I really struggle with overly emotional stories, and this book is so emotional and so heavy. I hope it would feel more heartwarming by the end, but I could not get through it and opted to DNF at 30%

I really wanted to like this book but I have to admit that I stopped at 52%. The topic and the way it is written caught my interest but the subject matter and the way it is written will not appeal to all. I just didn’t enjoy the language used in the conversations etc. and decided to give it up. Sorry, I am sure there are some readers who will love it but it is just not for me. A#PackUpTheMoon #KristanHiggins #NetGalley